Ossian Collection > Poems of Oisin, bard of Erin

260 THE BATTLE OF VENTRY HARBOUR.
and was provoked to think that any man in the
whole worhl should be able to cause his father to
be uneasy, whilst he himself was alive. He made
all possible speed to the relief of his father, mak-
ing an opening through the midst of his foes, so
that they were piled in heaps around him ; the
noise of his coming was as the noise of fifty
horses trampling on the strand. When the king
of France saw him coming in so deadly a manner
he reflected that there was no safety for himself ;
he stretched his body above the ground, and with
a fearful shriek he took flight through the air from
the sight of the people ; he w ent to a dark wood,
on the north of Ventry, which is called the
" Vale of the Wild People," where all insane
persons arrive within twenty-four hours of their
seizure.
When the Monarch of the World heard the
frightful end of the king of France he made bitter
lamentation for him ; but the Irish forces gave
vent to their feelings of joy on having parted with
a foe so formidable. Osgur and the tribe of
Baoisgne desisted not from the brittle till they
had cut their enemies to pieces; he then re-
turned with his father to the camp, covered with
blood, wounds, and glory.
Fionn inquired w^ho would watch the harbour
that night, as it w^as quite open to the enemy ?