False Tidings
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Ebbutt, M. I. (Maud Isabel)
“We saw a man Heavy with sickness in the Bog of Allen Whom you had bid buy cattle. Near Fair Head We saw your grain ships lying all becalmed In the dark night, and not less still than they Burned all their mirrored lanterns in the sea.”
When Cathleen heard of the failure of her messengers to bring food it seemed as if all hope were indeed over, and the demons smiled craftily upon her as she turned silently to go, and laughed joyously to each other when she had left their presence. Now they had good hope to win her for their master; but they knew that their time was short, since help was not far away.
“Last night, closed in the image of an owl, I hurried to the cliffs of Donegal, And saw, creeping on the uneasy surge, Those ships that bring the woman grain and meal; They are five days from us. I hurried east, A grey owl flitting, flitting in the dew, And saw nine hundred oxen toil through Meath, Driven on by goads of iron; they too, brother, Are full five days from us. Five days for traffic.”