it was the first he redoubted.

Finnian loomed on him as a portent and a terror; but he had no fear of
Time. Indeed he was the foster-brother of Time, and so disdainful of the
bitter god that he did not even disdain him; he leaped over the scythe,
he dodged under it, and the sole occasions on which Time laughs is when
he chances on Tuan, the son of Cairill, the son of Muredac Red-neck.

CHAPTER II

Now Finnian could not abide that any person should resist both the
Gospel and himself, and he proceeded to force the stronghold by peaceful
but powerful methods. He fasted on the gentleman, and he did so to such
purpose that he was admitted to the house; for to an hospitable heart
the idea that a stranger may expire on your doorstep from sheer famine
cannot be tolerated. The gentleman, however, did not give in without a
struggle: he thought that when Finnian had grown sufficiently hungry he
would lift the siege and take himself off to some place where he might
get food. But he did not know Finnian. The great abbot sat down on a
spot just beyond the door, and composed himself to all that might follow
from his action. He bent his gaze on the ground between his feet,
and entered into a meditation from which he would Only be released by
admission or death.

The first day passed quietly.

Often the gentleman would send a servitor to spy if that deserter of the
gods was still before his door, and each time the servant replied that
he was still there.

"He will be gone in the morning," said the hopeful master.

On the morrow the state of siege continued, and through that day the
servants were sent many times to observe through spy-holes.

"Go," he would say, "and find out if the worshipper of new gods has
taken himself away."

But the servants returned each time with the same information.

"The new druid is still there," they said.

All through that day no one could leave the stronghold. And the enforced
seclusion wrought on the minds of the servants, while the cessation
of all work banded them together in small groups that whispered and
discussed and disputed. Then these groups would disperse to peep through
the spy-hole at the patient, immobile figure seated before the door,
wrapped in a meditation that was timeless and unconcerned. They
took fright at the spectacle, and once or twice a woman screamed
hysterically, and was bundled away with a companion's hand clapped on
her mouth, so that the ear of their master