de no better stand than a flock of frightened birds, till there
were hardly enough of them left to tell the story.

The High King spoke then, and it is what he said: "Who is it has done
this great slaughter of my people? And I never heard before," he said,
"any talk of the courage or of the doings of the men of Ireland either
at this time or in the old times. But from this out," he said, "I will
banish the Sons of the Gael for ever to the very ends of the earth."

But Finn and the King of Sorcha raised a green tent in view of the ships
of the Greeks.

The King of the Greeks called then for help against Finn and the King of
Sorcha, to get satisfaction for the shame that was put on his people.
And the sons of kings of the eastern and southern world came to his
help, but they could make no stand against Finn and Osgar and Oisin and
Goll, son of Morna. And at the last the King of Greece brought all his
people back home, the way no more of them would be put an end to.

And then Finn and the King of Sorcha called another great gathering. And
while it was going on, they saw coming towards them a great troop of
champions, bearing flags of many-coloured silk, and grey swords at
their sides and high spears reared up over their heads. And in the front
of them was Diarmuid, grandson of Duibhne.

When Finn saw him, he sent Fergus of the True Lips to ask news of him,
and they told one another all that had happened.

And it would take too long to tell, and it would tire the hearers, how
Finn made the Hard Servant bring home his fifteen men that he had
brought away. And when he had brought them back to Ireland, the whole of
the Fianna were watching to see him ride away again, himself and his
long-legged horse. But while they were watching him, he vanished from
them, and all they could see was a mist, and it stretching out towards
the sea.

And that is the story of the Hard Servant, and of Diarmuid's adventures
on the island Under-Wave.

CHAPTER V. THE HOUSE OF THE QUICKEN TREES

And it is often the Fianna would have been badly off without the help of
Diarmuid. It was he came to their help the time Miodac, the son of the
King of Lochlann, brought them into the enchanted House of the Quicken
Trees.

It was by treachery he brought them in, giving himself out to be a poet,
and making poems for Finn to make out the meaning of. A verse he made
about a great army that he saw riding over the plains to victory, and
robbing a