id Mongan.

"I will say it till Doom," cried his servant, "for my wife has gone
away with that pestilent king, and he has got the double of your bad
bargain."

Mongan and his servant then set out for Leinster.

When they neared that country they found a great crowd going on the road
with them, and they learned that the king was giving a feast in honour
of his marriage to Duv Laca, for the year of waiting was nearly out, and
the king had sworn he would delay no longer.

They went on, therefore, but in low spirits, and at last they saw the
walls of the king's castle towering before them, and a noble company
going to and fro on the lawn.

CHAPTER XIX

THEY sat in a place where they could watch the castle and compose
themselves after their journey.

"How are we going to get into the castle?" asked mac an Da'v.

For there were hatchetmen on guard in the big gateway, and there were
spearmen at short intervals around the walls, and men to throw hot
porridge off the roof were standing in the right places.

"If we cannot get in by hook, we will get in by crook," said Mongan.

"They are both good ways," said Mac an Da'v, "and whichever of them you
decide on I'll stick by."

Just then they saw the Hag of the Mill coming out of the mill which was
down the road a little.

Now the Hag of the Mill was a bony, thin pole of a hag with odd feet.
That is, she had one foot that was too big for her, so that when she
lifted it up it pulled her over; and she had one foot that was too small
for her, so that when she lifted it up she didn't know what to do with
it. She was so long that you thought you would never see the end of her,
and she was so thin that you thought you didn't see her at all. One of
her eyes was set where her nose should be and there was an ear in its
place, and her nose itself was hanging out of her chin, and she had
whiskers round it. She was dressed in a red rag that was really a hole
with a fringe on it, and she was singing "Oh, hush thee, my one love" to
a cat that was yelping on her shoulder.

She had a tall skinny dog behind her called Brotar. It hadn't a tooth in
its head except one, and it had the toothache in that tooth. Every few
steps it used to sit down on its hunkers and point its nose straight
upwards, and make a long, sad complaint about its tooth; and after that
it used to reach its hind leg round and try to scratch out its tooth;
and then it used to be pulled on again by the straw rope t