As they sailed away Deirdre looked back at that eastern land of Alba, and said, ‘My love to you, O eastern land. Grieved am I to leave you; delightful are thy harbours and thy bays, and thy clear beauteous plains of soft grass, and thy cheerful green-sided hills; little did we think that we should leave you.’

And then she made her great song of Farewell to Alba (or Albyn), mentioning in it all the places she specially loved:

Glen Etive, O Glen Etive,
There I built my first houses,
Beautiful its woods on rising,
When the sun fell on Glen Etive.

or

Glendaruadh, O Glendaruadh,
I love each man of its inheritance,
Sweet the sound of the cuckoo on bended bough
On the bill above Glendaruadh.

So they went back to Erin, and from the moment they landed there things went wrong with them. Deirdre foresaw each treachery, but Naesi being a warrior would not see it, and in any case was not now disposed to turn his back. So at last they came to Emain Macha and Deirdre gave them a last sign: if they were asked to go to Conchobar’s own house, all would yet be well; if they were sent to the knightly Red Branch, all would be over. They went and knocked on Conchobar’s door, and they were sent to the Red Branch.

All this time the king was wondering about Deirdre’s beauty, for if she had lost it he would be sorry to sacrifice a good fighter like Naesi. So he sent Lebarcham to the Red Branch to find out. And Lebarcham went and greeted her darling, and told them, in tears, to barricade the windows. Then she returned to the king, sad that all Deirdre’s beauty was gone, including her shape, and lamented, blaming the rough life in Alba and the weather. Which pleased the king, until his jealousy made him doubt, and he sent a young man who had no reason to love Naesi. And this young man saw Deirdre, in beauty greater than she had been in Erin, before Naesi threw a chessman that smashed his prying eye. Then the Red Branch was surrounded and war was on.

There were such deeds performed that night, that Conchobar in the end had to call on the aid of the Druid, who put Naesi and his brothers under a delusion, so that they were captured. Then did Conchobar break also his word to the Druid and the three great sons of Uisneach were slain.

Moving distractedly about the bloody green of Emain, Deirdre met the hurrying Cuchulain face to face, and told him of the treachery and the tragedy of that night, and when they came to where the sons of Uisneach lay, Deirdre spread out her hair and drank Naesi’s blood, and made her great widow’s lament for the dead, and killed herself upon his body, and was buried with him.

In the fume of the old immortal tale, I arrived back at the boat, where I tried out a minnow, and was astonished at the behaviour of a swan which came towards me at great speed. Though full grown, she looked young and slim and was clearly very frightened, for she crossed over my line near at hand without apparently seeing me. Greatly wondering at this, I turned round and saw a male swan also coming towards me, but with his wings lifted to an Elizabethan ruff about a head curved back in angry dignity. He came also at great speed, but without permitting the strong slow alternate sweep of each paddle to degenerate into haste. His reptilian eye never even glanced at me, and when the female swan struck the shore, she turned away making now for the Point. My rowing course led me naturally to intercept her, but she feared the dignified terror far more than she feared me, and in her terrified haste almost paddled herself out of the water.