The Druid Path

1. I’ve heard the lark’s cry thrill the sky o’er the meadows of Lusk, And the first joyous gush of the thrush from Adare’s April wood, At thy lone music’s spell, Philomel, magic...

The feast of Samhain in that year was a time of wonder, for the yew branches on the old altar place of Cromm Cru were struck afire by the lightning, or so it was said. All the p...

And the holy man kept his word. He bore sacred symbols and a church bell, and sailed away with Phadraig to the west, and the chiefs on the shore were told it was a vow, and wait...

Thus it was that the golden tresses of Doirenn were covered by the white novice veil and she began life anew in the great school by the Sionan, famed for its learning from Gaul...

“Yes, I am good to my men,” agreed Ota. “They are strange children. They can be starved, and wounded, and beaten, but if they get their toys at the end of the raid their songs a...

“The warm milk is true as if in a wooden bowl instead of a golden chalice,” she said. “Two days it has been your food, and has served you fairly.”

“I followed, O Ruadan, lest he do you harm for your life as a man of sin. And I listened, O Ruadan, that your dagger might in truth drink deep if you made me his portion—and you...

But more quickly than Moria could follow, she sped to the enclosed garden where the red May rose bloomed against the south side of the wall, and close under her linen shift lay...

“I asked for an answer—and I am answered,” said Flann. “Fear not that you will be the one passed by! I will ask another question. Nealis, it is not the husband of Aevil who asks...

“You mean he comes to wake Cethair, spirit king of the forest, out of his winter’s sleep,” said Ardan. “Cethair but breathes over the fields, and all the snows melt, and all of...

“That was the _geis_ made binding by the priest-king in exile ere they cut out the tongue from him, and left him to rot when his clans heard of the maiming and sent no more gold...

“Diarmod!” and her voice was a whisper of wonder, but her face held liking, and swift joy, and hope. It was plain to see that cold sanctuary was none of her choosing. “Diarmod,...

“It may be that the waters on every side of Erinn will be the wall to keep that loss far from us forever,” said Mac Roigh, “but in the great foreign land there is neither wall n...

“With aid from you, and guided by the powers unseen, I have brought here in secret my vow offering,” said Dervail. “That is my pledge—a fair white pledge—not to go backward on t...

“Dervail, that dream has died with your Dark Comrade; such is my thought. Diarmod is no longer safety for you. His own life he may not be saving. Between you two, all Leinster a...

I assured him it was too weighty an affair for laughter, and that I was convinced that his head had the usual requisites for a head. He appeared to consider that statement thoug...

Only fragments of the music are left to her—death and exile were the penalties for giving shelter to a bard, or giving ear to his harping. An old man of Laherdane told me a huma...

The ball was a very gay one. I surprised Raymond by showing no shyness whatever among the ladies who thronged the rooms. He said the mask gave me boldness. He was trying to disc...

“And I knew you could not be,” he retorted in her own mood. “If you are again on this hill of Kerry, I will be telling you the tale of that Siod clan. There was a woman who came...

“How could you ask too much? You who taught a bird its song here in the Kerry hills,” she said, and the flush of pleasure mounted to the white thatch of his hair. She finished t...

Through the gray forest, darkening to green, she rode. And over the high moor the black horse sped like a night-bird skimming the earth. She was filled with a great exultation—t...