Matheson Collection > Deirdire; and, The lay of the children of Uisne

DEIRDIRE 19
of Colum Gruitire began to grow
heavy. And as she grew more heavy-
he grew more dolorous, and vexed
at himself that he did not make more
conversation with the soothsayer the
time he was talking to him. Colum
Cruitire was under pain by day and
care by night, that he himself was but
a man without sense, without know-
ledge, without trusted friend, without
back-support in the world, and should
this burden come upon him now, a
thing likely to come, and he himself so
much against it at first. He now be-
lieved that everything would come to
pass as the soothsayer saw in his
augury, and he was in sore distress and
in dismay. He did not know of one
way in the wide world that he would
do to ward off the spilling of blood from
the land, and it was the thought that
grew in his head that, should the Good
Being send this infant into the world —