“If I am here that long, I must be going this minute,” said Breogan.
“Well,” said the woman, “if you are going, I must ask you one question. There will be a child in this castle; and as you are the father, ’tis you that should name it. Now what will the name be?”
“If ’tis a son, you’ll call him Shawn, the son of Breogan, from Brandon in Erin. You’ll rear him for seven years. At the end of that time give him your blessing and the means of making a journey to Erin. Tell him who I am; and if he is anything of a hero, he’ll not fail to make me out.”
Breogan left his blessing with the women, went to the gate, and found his horse standing there, tied in the same way that he left him. He untied the beast, mounted, and away through the air with him, leaving Breasil behind, and never stopped nor halted till he came down about a mile from his own house, near Brandon, exactly seven years from the day that he left it. Seeing on the strand a great number of people, he wondered why they were in it, and what brought them together. A large, fine-looking man was passing the way, and Breogan called out to him: “What are these people all doing that I see on the strand?” asked he.
“You must be a stranger,” said the man, “not to know what these people are here for.”
“I am no stranger,” said Breogan; “but I went out of the country a few years before this, and while I was gone there were changes.”
“If a man leaves his own country for a short time itself,” said the other, “he will find things changed when he comes again to it. I will tell you why these people are here. We had in this place a fine master, and it’s good and kind he was to us. He went out to the strand one day, walking, and found a little colt above the high tide. He took the colt home, reared and fed him three years. Then this man gathered the people to give them a feast, and to know could he find some one to ride the horse. When no one would venture, he mounted himself; and all saw how the horse rose in the air, made a leap over the harbor, and then away out of sight. We think that he fell, and was drowned in the sea; for neither Breogan nor the horse was seen ever after. We are sorry for the man, because he was kind to us; but ’tis equal what became of the horse. After waiting seven years, Breogan’s wife is to be married this evening to some great man from the North. We don’t know what kind is he. He may destroy us, or drive us out of our houses.”
Breogan thanked the man for his words, and hurried on toward his own house. The servants saw him coming, knew him, and cried, “Here comes the master!” and there was a great stir up and down in the house. Next minute the wife heard the news; and out she ran to meet her husband. Any man would think she was glad to see Breogan. “Why are all the people here to-day?” asked he of the wife.
“And was not it this day seven years that you put the country behind you, wherever you went? You left dinner here ready; and the dinner is in the same state it was the day you went away from me. I thought it better to send for the people again, and eat the dinner in memory of you that prepared it.”
The husband said nothing. The people ate the dinner; and every man, woman, and child went home satisfied.