near? Whence comes he riding?
Dazzling in armour and white of brow?
Is it for me that he filleth the mountains with music?
Who waiteth?
Who cometh?

"'Tis a wild song, full of riddles," said I. "Maybe there is a song
somewhere which has the answers."

"I know it not," said she.

"Not yet," said I.

She looked up at me quickly as if she doubted my meaning. But I looked
out seaward and asked:

"Where in Ireland is your home, maiden? Is it near Ludar's castle on
the sea?"

"Hard by," said she. "The McDonnells and O'Neills are neighbours and
foes." And her brow clouded. "My father, Humphrey, is the bravest of
the O'Neills as Ludar's father is the bravest of the McDonnells."

"And does your father hold Dunluce?" asked I.

"I know not," said she. "I have never seen my father, Turlogh Luinech
O'Neill, though I love him as my life. At two years I was sent away to
England with my English mother, who was but a hand-fast bride to the
O'Neill."

"And what may that be?" I asked.

"'Tis a custom with us," said she, "for the chiefs to take wives who are
theirs only so long as a better does not present herself. My mother,
Alice Syngleton, the daughter of my father's English ally and preserver,
Captain Syngleton, was thus wedded, and when I was two years old--so my
old nurse tells me--he married the great Lady Cantire of the Isles.
Wherefore my mother was sent home to England with me, and there we lived
till she died three years ago; since when I have pined in a convent, and
am now, in obedience to my father's summons, on my way to my unknown
home. My father, being, as I understand, allied to the English, who
have dispossessed the McDonnells, I was to come over under the escort of
an English officer of Sir William Carleton's choosing, who was my
mother's kinsman. You know what peril that brought me to, and how,
thanks to you, I am now making a safer journey, and a happier.
Humphrey," said she, "till I met you and Sir Ludar, I had thought all
men base; 'twas the one lesson they taught us at the convent. I have
unlearned the lesson since."

"Pray Heaven you never have to relearn it," said I, groaning inwardly to
think how near I had been to giving her cause.

Thus we talked that morning. At every word, what little hope I had once
had of her love faded like the stars above our heads. Yet, instead of
it came the promise of an almost sisterly friendship, which at the time
seemed poor enough exchange