“A victim—is that your word? I tell you if the ancient faith were as it should be, we should be selecting victims—not seeking them! What news have you in other quarters—are our people arming themselves?”
“Everywhere!”
“And the first attack is to be made at Druimceta?”
“Ay, and a fitting place, too, to strike at them—since it is there, instead of the ancient place at Tara, that King Aedh has chosen to assemble the princes.”
CHAPTER VI.
The Sacred Heart of Hibernia.
“To-morrow—at dawn!” said Ethne. “Be ready!”
Cormac was well and strong again; on the morrow he was setting forth to see the wild plains of Hibernia—and Ethne would be at his side.
He was once more her slave. At first he had said that he would part from her, would never look on her face again, if she belonged to that foul and horrible faith.
But it was in vain he strove against a boyish passion for a woman more than half-a-score of years his senior—the very fury of her outbursts fascinated him. So it came to pass that the old relations were established between them, and little reference made to the cause of their division.
Though he rose early on the following day, Ethne was before him; seated on a beautiful white horse and holding by the rein a magnificent black stallion.