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But Deirdre looked behind her as the shore faded from sight and sang a mournful song: "O eastern land I leave, I loved you well, Home of my heart, I love and loved you well, I ne'er had left you had not Naisi left."* *Douglas Hyde And so they fared on their journey and came at last to Conor's palace.
And the story tells how the boding sorrow that Deirdre felt fulfilled itself, and how they were betrayed, and how the brothers fought and died, and how Deirdre mourned until "Her heart-strings snapt, And death had overmastered her. She fell Into the grave where Naisi lay and slept. There at his side the child of Felim fell, The fair-haired daughter of a hundred smiles.
Naisi was dark, with black locks hanging upon his shoulders and dark, gleaming eyes; and so strongly is unlike drawn to unlike that golden-haired Deirdré, seeing him in one of her wanderings, felt her heart go forth to him utterly. Falling into talk with him, they exchanged promises of enduring love.
"But however will we play it at all?" said Larry. "Listen, now," said Eileen. "I'll be Deirdre, of course. You can just be Naisi, Larry, and Dennis can be Conchubar, and he after us, and we running as fast as ever we can, to get away from him. You must give us a start, Dennis." Larry and Eileen took hold of hands, and began running as fast as they could.
Concobar was not even a name to her, and she knew nothing of his power or the stronghold of Emain, the armies of the Ulaid, or the tributes of gold and cattle and horses. Spears and swords and those who wielded them were not even dreams to her until the coming of Naisi, when his gloom blended with her sunshine.
Fergus looked long in admiration at the blue eyes and golden locks, the clear skin and gentle breast of Deirdré, nor wondered, as he looked, that Naisi had dared fate to possess her.
One of the three ever stayed behind with Deirdré, whether it was Naisi himself, or Alny, or Ardan, and the two thus remaining were like children playing together, whether gathering sticks and dry rushes and long spears of withered grass for their fire, or wandering by the white curling waves, or sending flat pebbles skipping over the wavelets; and the sound of their laughter many a time echoed along the Loch's green waters and up the hills, till the does peered and wondered from among the heather, and the heron, startled at his fishing, flew upwards croaking, with flapping wings.
The chieftains and provincial kings lived in state within their forts, with their loyal warriors around them, feasting and making merry, and the bards and heralds recited for their delight the great deeds of the men of old, their forefathers; the harpers charmed or saddened them with the world-old melodies that Deirdré had played for Naisi, that Meave had listened to, that Credé sang for her poet lover.
"The men of Conchubar pursued them up hill and down dale, and when they finally caught them, there was fighting that made the ground red with the blood spilled. "And when Naisi and his brothers were all caught together, and Conchubar was after killing them, sure, didn't Deirdre put an end to herself entirely, and the four of them were buried together in one grave."
But Conor never forgot his anger at the escape of Deirdre. He longed still to have her as his Queen, and at last he sent a messenger to lure the fair lady and the three brave brothers back to Ireland. "Naisi and Deirdre were seated together one day, and between them Conor's chess board, they playing upon it. "Naisi heard a cry and said, 'I hear the call of a man of Erin.
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