A broken promise and a journey’s end.

But it were best forgot.

[DEIRDRE has been standing with the women about her. They have been helping her to put on her jewels and to put the pigment on her cheeks and arrange her hair. She has gradually grown attentive to what FERGUS is saying.

NAISI.

If the tale’s true,—

When it was plain that they had been betrayed,

They moved the men and waited for the end

As it were bedtime, and had so quiet minds

They hardly winked their eyes when the sword flashed.

FERGUS.