“I am under sentence to bring the head of the Red Ox; and ’tis for it that I am going: but I never can bring it unless you assist me. Without you, I cannot lift from my head the sentence that is on it.”
“If it lay with me, I would go with you gladly; but I know that my wife will not let me leave her. But do as I tell you now. When you come to us to eat dinner, taste nothing, and when my wife asks you to eat, say that you will not eat till she grants a request: if she will not grant it, leave the house, and let all the Fenians follow; if she grants you a request, you are to ask that I go with you. I know that she will grant you any request, except to take me in your company; for she is in dread that I may meet Red Face.”
They went to the house; the wife welcomed Fin with the others, and prepared dinner. When meat was placed before Fin, he would not taste it.
“Why not eat, O King of the Fenians?”
“I have a request to make. If you grant it, I will eat; if not, neither I nor my men will taste food.”
“Any request in my power, I will grant,” said she, “except one.”
“What is that?” inquired Fin.
“If you want Ceadach to go with you, I’ll not grant that.”
“’Tis he that I want,” answered Fin.
“You’ll not get him.”