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"Except the High King and the kings I have authority in this land." "What man has authority over himself?" said Saeve. "Do you mean that I am the man you seek?" said Fionn. "It is to yourself I gave my love," she replied.
"He asked me in marriage," she continued, "but my mind was full of my own dear hero, and I refused the Dark Man." "That was your right, and I swear by my hand that if the man you desire is alive and unmarried he shall marry you or he will answer to me for the refusal." "He is not married," said Saeve, "and you have small control over him." The Chief frowned thoughtfully.
When he saw her he did not see the world, and when he saw the world without her it was as though he saw nothing, or as if he looked on a prospect that was bleak and depressing. The belling of a stag had been music to Fionn, but when Saeve spoke that was sound enough for him.
"This is good news," Fionn cried joyfully, "for the moment you came through the door I loved and desired you, and the thought that you wished for another man went into my heart like a sword." Indeed, Fionn loved Saeve as he had not loved a woman before and would never love one again. He loved her as he had never loved anything before. He could not bear to be away from her.
That finished, he left the victorious Fianna and returned swiftly to the plain of Allen, for he could not bear to be one unnecessary day parted from Saeve. "You are not leaving us!" exclaimed Goll mac Morna. "I must go," Fionn replied. "You will not desert the victory feast," Conan reproached him. "Stay with us, Chief," Caelte begged. "What is a feast without Fionn?" they complained.
But he knew that he would not have known if others were observing him, and that he would not have cared about it if he had known. And he knew that his Saeve would not have seen, and would not have cared for any eyes than his.
Whenever he hunted he brought only the hounds that he trusted, Bran and Sceo'lan, Lomaire, Brod, and Lomlu; for if a fawn was chased each of these five great dogs would know if that was a fawn to be killed or one to be protected, and so there was small danger to Saeve and a small hope of finding her.
The boy looked down on him, and in the noble trust and fearlessness of that regard Fionn's heart melted away. "My little fawn!" he said. And he remembered that other fawn. He set the boy between his knees and stared at him earnestly and long. "There is surely the same look," he said to his wakening heart; "that is the very eye of Saeve."
The grief flooded out of his heart as at a stroke, and joy foamed into it in one great tide. He marched back singing to the encampment, and men saw once more the merry Chief they had almost forgotten. Just as at one time he could not be parted from Saeve, so now he could not be separated from this boy.
"My name is Saeve, and I am a woman of Faery," she commenced. "In the Shi' many men gave me their love, but I gave my love to no man of my country." "That was not reasonable," the other chided with a blithe heart. "I was contented," she replied, "and what we do not want we do not lack. But if my love went anywhere it went to a mortal, a man of the men of Ireland."
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