hat."
With that she went out, and Diarmuid spoke to his people, and it is what
he said, "O Oisin, son of Finn, what must I do with these bonds that
are laid on me?" "You are not guilty if the bonds were laid on you,"
said Oisin; "and I tell you to follow Grania, and to keep yourself well
out of the hands of Finn." "Osgar, son of Oisin," he said then, "what
must I do with these bonds that are put on me?" "I tell you to follow
Grania," said Osgar, "for it is a pitiful man that would break his
bonds." "What advice do you give me, Caoilte?" said Diarmuid. "It is
what I say," said Caoilte, "that I myself have a fitting wife; and that
it would be better to me than all the riches of the world Grania to have
given me that love." "What advice do you give me, Diorraing?" "I tell
you to follow Grania," said Diorraing, "although you will get your death
by it, and that is bad to me." "Is that the advice you all give me?"
said Diarmuid. "It is," said Oisin, and all the rest with him. With that
Diarmuid stood up and stretched out his hand for his weapons, and he
said farewell to Oisin and the others, and every tear he shed was of the
size of a mountain berry. He went out then to the wall of the dun, and
he put the shafts of his two spears under him, and he rose with a light
leap and he came down on the grassy earth outside, and Grania met him
there. Then Diarmuid said: "It is a bad journey you are come on, Grania.
For it would be better for you to have Finn, son of Cumhal, as a lover
than myself, for I do not know any part or any western corner of Ireland
that will hide you. And if I do bring you with me," he said, "it is not
as a wife I will bring you, but I will keep my faith to Finn. And turn
back now to the town," he said, "and Finn will never get news of what
you are after doing." "It is certain I will not turn back," said Grania,
"and I will never part with you till death parts us." "If that is so,
let us go on, Grania," said Diarmuid.
They went on then, and they were not gone far out from the town when
Grania said: "I am getting tired, indeed." "It is a good time to be
tired," said Diarmuid, "and go now back again to your own house. For I
swear by the word of a true champion," he said, "I will never carry
yourself or any other woman to the end of life and time." "That is not
what you have to do," said Grania, "for my father's horses are in a
grass field by themselves, and chariots with them; and turn back now,
and bring two
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