Meantime, old Conchobar was at another lengthy feast (for they believed in making the happiest use of their time long ago). The musicians and poets did their best, and fine songs were sung, and all the people were merry and in the highest spirits. And then, like a great actor, Conchobar stilled the throng. ‘Young men and heroes of Ulster’, cried he, ‘is there here any fault or blemish or want?’

‘Not any, O king!’

‘I know of a great want,’ said the king: ‘the three torches of valour of the Gael, Naesi and his two brothers.’

Whereupon the joy of all rose to a pinnacle, for this very want had been in their thoughts, though they had been afraid to confess it.

‘I shall have messengers sent,’ said Conchobar.

But whom? For Naesi was under a geasa or vow not to return to Erin except in the company of Fergus, or Conell Cearnach, or Cuchulain.

So in due course Conchobar got hold of Conell privately, and flattered him, and suggested, ‘What would you do to me if I should send for the sons of Uisneach, and they should be destroyed for me—a thing I do not propose to do?’

‘I’d kill every Ulsterman I met—without exception.’

‘Now I understand that the sons of Uisneach are dearer to you than I am.’

And so he sent for Cuchulain and that warrior replied without hesitation:

‘I pledge my word that if you had that done, though you fled eastward to Western India, it would not save you from falling by my hand.’

Fergus, the third, said he might spare Conchobar himself, but no other Ulsterman.

So Fergus was sent, and we hear no more of him until he arrived in ‘the fastnesses of the sons of Uisneach, namely Loch Etive in Alba’.

At the time of his arrival, Deirdre and Naesi were playing chess.

‘That was the cry of a man of Erin,’ said Naesi.

‘Nonsense,’ said Deirdre.

‘There it is againl’

‘That’s the cry of a man of Alba,’ said Deirdre.

But when the cry came the third time, and Naesi’s brother went out to meet Fergus, Deirdre confessed she had known all along it was Fergus’s cry.

‘Why did you conceal it, then?’

‘I dreamt’, said Deirdre, ‘that three birds came from Emain Macha with three ships of honey; they left the ships of honey but took away three sips of our blood.’

‘And the meaning?’

‘Fergus has come to offer peace from Conchobar, who has a design against you; for sweeter than honey is the peace message of a false man.’

When Fergus and those with him came in, there were happy greetings, and Fergus said that he brought Conchobar’s peace and pledged himself upon it.

Deirdre argued against Fergus, but Fergus said, ‘The sight of one’s own country is better than vain fears, and what is prosperity to the exile?’ And Naesi heartily agreed with him.

Nor could Deirdre change her husband’s mind, for he had a man’s simple belief in goodness and brotherhood, particularly when his own desire led him that way. She forbade him to go but he could see no reason in her woman’s fears. For a little time the struggle went on between them. Then Deirdre saw that nothing would persuade her husband to stay, so she bowed to his will and prepared to go with him, though she knew they were going to their doom.