He took the gifts.
“Give me a feed of grain before we start,” said the mare. “No man has sat on me without being turned into froth and blown away, or else thrown and killed. This will not happen to you; still I must throw you three times: but I’ll take you to a soft place where you’ll not be killed.”
Shawn mounted her then, and she tossed him. She threw him very far the first time. He was badly shocked, but recovered. The second and third times it was easier. The fourth time he mounted for the journey. It was not long till he came to the seashore. On the third day he was in sight of land in the White Nation. The mare ran over the water and swiftly, without trouble; no bird ever went with such speed.
When Shawn came near the castle, he stopped before a house at the edge of the town, and asked a lodging of the owner, an old man.
“I’ll give you that,” said the old man, “and welcome, and a place for your horse.” After supper Shawn told his errand.
“I pity you,” said the man. “I am in dread you’ll lose your life; but I’ll do what I can for you. No man has ever been able to get one of those apples; and if a stranger is caught making up to them, the king takes his head without mercy or pardon. There is no kind of savage beast in the world but is guarding the apples; and there is not a minute in the night or the day when some of the beasts are not watching.”
“Do you know what virtue is in the apples?” asked Shawn.
“I do well,” said the old man; “and it’s I that would like to have one of them. If a man is sick, and eats even one bite of an apple, he’ll be well; if old, he’ll grow young again, and never know grief from that out; he will always be happy and healthy. I’ll give you a pigeon to let loose in the orchard; she will go flying from one tree to another till she goes to the last one. All the beasts will follow her; and while they are hunting the pigeon, you will take what you can of the apples: but I hope you will not think it too much to give one to me.”
“Never fear,” said Shawn, “if I get one apple, you’ll have the half of it; if two, you’ll have one of them.”
The old man was glad. Next morning at daybreak Shawn took the pigeon, mounted the mare, and away with him then to the orchard. When the pigeon flew in, and was going from tree to tree with a flutter, the beasts started after her. Shawn sprang in on the back of the mare, left her, and went to climb the first tree that he met for the apples; but the king’s men were at him before he could touch a single apple, or go back to the mare. They caught him, and took him to the king. The mare sprang over the wall, and ran to the house of the old man. Shawn told the king his whole story, said that his father was Breogan of Brandon, and his mother the Princess of Breasil in the Land of the Young.