The same night Finn awoke and saw standing by his bed the fairest
woman his eyes had ever beheld.
"I am Saba, O Finn," she said, "and I was the fawn ye chased to-day.
Because I would not give my love to the Druid of the Fairy Folk, who
is named the Dark, he put that shape upon me by his sorceries, and I
have borne it these three years. But a slave of his, pitying me, once
revealed to me that if I could win to thy great Dun of Allen, O Finn,
I should be safe from all enchantments and my natural shape would come
to me again. But I feared to be torn in pieces by thy dogs, or wounded
by thy hunters, till at last I let myself be overtaken by thee alone
and by Bran and Sceolaun, who have the nature of man and would do me
no hurt." "Have no fear, maiden," said Finn, "we the Fianna, are free
and our guest-friends are free; there is none who shall put compulsion
on you here."
So Saba dwelt with Finn, and he made her his wife; and so deep was his
love for her that neither the battle nor the chase had any delight for
him, and for months he never left her side. She also loved him as
deeply, and their joy in each other was like that of the Immortals in
the Land of Youth. But at last word came to Finn that the warships of
the Northmen were in the bay of Dublin, and he summoned his heroes to
the fight, "for," said he to Saba, "the men of Erinn give us tribute
and hospitality to defend them from the foreigner, and it were shame
to take it from them and not to give that to which we, on our side,
are pledged.
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