ht in his eye as he departed,
that he would rather taste of me than cat any woman he has met."

She looked carefully in every direction to see if one might discover
them in hiding; she looked closely and lingeringly at the shadows under
distant trees to see if these shadows moved; and she listened on every
wind to try if she could distinguish a yap or a yawn or a sneeze. But
she saw or heard nothing; and little by little tranquillity crept into
her mind, and she began to consider that a danger which is past is a
danger that may be neglected.

Yet ere she descended she looked again on the world of jet and silver
that dozed about her, and she spied a red glimmer among distant trees.

"There is no danger where there is light," she said, and she thereupon
came from the tree and ran in the direction that she had noted.

In a spot between three great oaks she came upon a man who was roasting
a wild boar over a fire. She saluted this youth and sat beside him. But
after the first glance and greeting he did not look at her again, nor
did he speak.

When the boar was cooked he ate of it and she had her share. Then he
arose from the fire and walked away among the trees. Becfola followed,
feeling ruefully that something new to her experience had arrived;
"for," she thought, "it is usual that young men should not speak to me
now that I am the mate of a king, but it is very unusual that young men
should not look at me."

But if the young man did not look at her she looked well at him, and
what she saw pleased her so much that she had no time for further
cogitation. For if Crimthann had been beautiful, this youth was ten
times more beautiful. The curls on Crimthann's head had been indeed as
a benediction to the queen's eye, so that she had eaten the better and
slept the sounder for seeing him. But the sight of this youth left her
without the desire to eat, and, as for sleep, she dreaded it, for if she
closed an eye she would be robbed of the one delight in time, which was
to look at this young man, and not to cease looking at him while her eye
could peer or her head could remain upright.

They came to an inlet of the sea all sweet and calm under the round,
silver-flooding moon, and the young man, with Becfola treading on his
heel, stepped into a boat and rowed to a high-jutting, pleasant island.
There they went inland towards a vast palace, in which there was no
person but themselves alone, and there the young man went to sleep