“Then give me something to kill me,” wailed Grainne. “I cannot live without my husband’s love.” At this point she burst into a violent sobbing. The heart of the Druid was touched by her pretended grief.
“But if I cannot make you more beautiful, there is something else I can do for you,” he said.
“What is that?” asked Grainne, drying her eyes.
“I can give you a liquid to pour into the drink of your husband. As long as the effect lasts, he will love you better than anything else in the world.”
“Give it to me at once,” said Grainne. “If I can but win back his love, I will keep his heart forever.”
So the Druid gave her the love charm, and Grainne administered it to Dermot in his food. Immediately he became wildly in love with her and yielded to her pleadings to marry her at once.
Finn’s pursuit had daily become less insistent. He had never been strongly in favor of marrying Grainne, and his anger against Dermot became less keen. When he heard that the two were married he abandoned the pursuit entirely. He sent word to Dermot that if he kept out of his way he would no longer seek to punish him, but that he had been expelled from the Fenians for disloyalty to his leader.
And so it happened that Finn lost his best friend and his companion in his adventures. The Fenians, also, lost their best fighter. This is the reason why, in the next story, which tells of the greatest battle the army ever engaged in, Dermot was not there to help.
THE BATTLE OF VENTRY STRAND
The years sped by with no sign of the attack by the High King of the World. One less wise than Finn would have decided that Donn had given up his revenge. But Finn was not fooled. He knew that the attack would come, and that each year of delay meant a greater force against him. He used the time to build up a stronger defense.