"
"I must consider the matter yet longer," said Eochy.
"Thou hast promised Etain's very self to me," said Midir; "that is
what hath come from thee." And when she heard that word Etain blushed
for shame.
"Blush not," said Midir, "for all the treasures of the Land of Youth
have not availed to win thee from Eochy, and it is not of thine own
will that thou art won, but because the time is come to return to thy
kin."
Then said Eochy, "I have not promised Etain's self to thee, but to
take her in thine arms and kiss her, and now do so if thou wilt."
[Illustration: "They rose up in the air"]
Then Midir took his weapons in his left hand and placed his right
around Etain, and when he did so they rose up in the air over the
heads of the host, and passed through a roof-window in the palace.
Then all rose up, tumultuous and angry, and rushed out of doors, but
nothing could they see save two white swans that circled high in air
around the Hill of Tara, and then flew southwards and away towards
the fairy mountain of Slievenamon. And thus Etain the immortal
rejoined the Immortals; but a daughter of Etain and of Eochy, who was
another Etain in name and in beauty, became in due time a wife, and
mother of kings.
CHAPTER VIII
How Ethne Quitted Fairyland
By the banks of the River Boyne, where rises the great Fairy Mound now
called Newgrange, there stood long ago the shining Palace of a prince
of the People of Dana, named Angus.
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