And
Ethne their sister accompanied them, wailing and lamenting, but no
words of cheer had they now to say to her, for now they began to
comprehend that a mightier and a craftier mind had caught them in the
net of fate. And whereas they had deemed themselves heroes and victors
in the most glorious quest whereof the earth had record, they now knew
that they were but as arrows in the hands of a laughing archer, who
shoots one at a stag and one at the heart of a foe, and one, it may
be, in sheer wantonness, and to try his bow, over a cliff edge into
the sea.
[Illustration: "There dwelt the red-haired ocean-nymphs"]
However, they put forth in their magic boat, but in no wise could they
direct it to the Isle of Finchory, and a quarter of a year they
traversed the seaways and never could get tidings of that island. At
last Brian fashioned for himself by magic art a water-dress, with a
helmet of crystal, and into the depths of the sea he plunged. Here,
the story tells, he searched hither and thither for a fortnight, till
at last he found that island, which was an island indeed with the sea
over it and around it and beneath it. There dwelt the red-haired
ocean-nymphs in glittering palaces among the sea-flowers, and they
wrought fair embroidery with gold and jewels, and sang, as they
wrought, a fairy music like the chiming of silver bells.
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