第61章 MONGAN'S FRENZY(9)

Mongan read away out of the book,for he found it interesting,and he did not want to talk to the charioteer,and mac an Da'v cried amen,amen,every time that Mongan took his breath.The people who were going with them said to one another that mac an Da'v was a queer kind of clerk,and that they had never seen any one who had such a mouthful of amens.

But in a while they came to the fortress,and they got into it without any trouble,for Kevin Cochlach,the king's charioteer,brought them in.Then they were led to the room where Duv Laca was,and as he went into that room Mongan shut his eyes,for he did not want to look at Duv Laca while other people might be looking at him.

"Let everybody leave this room,while I am talking to the queen,"said he;and all the attendants left the room,except one,and she wouldn't go,for she wouldn't leave her mistress.

Then Mongan opened his eyes and he saw Duv Laca,and he made a great bound to her and took her in his arms,and mac an Da'v made a savage and vicious and terrible jump at the attendant,and took her in his arms,and bit her ear and kissed her neck and wept down into her back.

"Go away,"said the girl,"unhand me,villain,"said she.

"I will not,"said mac an Da'v,"for I'm your own husband,I'm your own mac,your little mac,your macky-wac-wac."Then the attendant gave a little squeal,and she bit him on each ear and kissed his neck and wept down into his back,and said that it wasn't true and that it was.

CHAPTER XVII

But they were not alone,although they thought they were.The hag that guarded the jewels was in the room.She sat hunched up against the wail,and as she looked like a bundle of rags they did not notice her.She began to speak then.

"Terrible are the things I see,"said she."Terrible are the things I see."Mongan and his servant gave a jump of surprise,and their two wives jumped and squealed.Then Mongan puffed out his cheeks till his face looked like a bladder,and he blew a magic breath at the hag,so that she seemed to be surrounded by a fog,and when she looked through that breath everything seemed to be different to what she had thought.Then she began to beg everybody's pardon.

"I had an evil vision,"said she,"I saw crossways.How sad it is that I should begin to see the sort of things I thought I saw.""Sit in this chair,mother,"said Mongan,"and tell me what you thought you saw,"and he slipped a spike under her,and mac an Da'v pushed her into the seat,and she died on the spike.

Just then there came a knocking at the door.Mac an Da'v opened it,and there was Tibraid~standing outside,and twenty-nine of his men were with him,and they were all laughing.

"A mile was not half enough,"said mac an Da'v reproachfully.

The Chamberlain of the fortress pushed into the room and he stared from one Tibraide'to the other.

"This is a fine growing year,"said he."There never was a year when Tibraide''s were as plentiful as they are this year.There is a Tibraide'outside and a Tibraide'inside,and who knows but there are some more of them under the bed.The place is crawling with them,"said he.

Mongan pointed at Tibraide'.

"Don't you know who that is?"he cried.

"I know who he says he is,"said the Chamberlain.

"Well,he is Mongan,"said Mongan,"and these twenty-nine men are twenty-nine of his nobles from Ulster."At that news the men of the household picked up clubs and cudgels and every kind of thing that was near,and made a violent and woeful attack on Tibraide''s men The King of Leinster came in then,and when he was told Tibraide'was Mongan he attacked them as well,and it was with difficulty that Tibraide'got away to Cell Camain with nine of his men and they all wounded.

The King of Leinster came back then.He went to Duv Laca's room.

"Where is Tibraide'?"said he.

"It wasn't Tibraide'was here,"said the hag who was still sitting on the spike,and was not half dead,"it was Mongan.""Why did you let him near you?"said the king to Duv Laca.

"There is no one has a better right to be near me than Mongan has,"said Duv Laca,"he is my own husband,"said she.

And then the king cried out in dismay:"I have beaten Tibraide''s people."He rushed from the room.

"Send for Tibraide'till I apologise,"he cried."Tell him it was all a mistake.Tell him it was Mongan."

CHAPTER XVIII

Mongan and his servant went home,and (for what pleasure is greater than that of memory exercised in conversation?)for a time the feeling of an adventure well accomplished kept him in some contentment.But at the end of a time that pleasure was worn out,and Mongan grew at first dispirited and then sullen,and after that as ill as he had been on the previous occasion.For he could not forget Duv Laca of the White Hand,and he could not remember her without longing and despair.

It was in the illness which comes from longing and despair that he sat one day looking on a world that was black although the sun shone,and that was lean and unwholesome although autumn fruits were heavy on the earth and the joys of harvest were about him.

"Winter is in my heart,"quoth he,"and I am cold already."He thought too that some day he would die,and the thought was not unpleasant,for one half of his life was away in the territories of the King of Leinster,and the half that he kept in himself had no spice in it.

He was thinking in this way when mac an Da'v came towards him over the lawn,and he noticed that mac an Da'v was walking like an old man.

He took little slow steps,and he did not loosen his knees when he walked,so he went stiffly.One of his feet turned pitifully outwards,and the other turned lamentably in.His chest was pulled inwards,and his head was stuck outwards and hung down in the place where his chest should have been,and his arms were crooked in front of him with the hands turned wrongly,so that one palm was shown to the east of the world and the other one was turned to the west.

"How goes it,mac an Da'v?"said the king.

"Bad,"said mac an Da'v.

"Is that the sun I see shining,my friend?"the king asked.