The Druidess: A Story for Boys and Others

“The barbarians drive us to the sea; the sea drives us back to the barbarians; between them we are exposed to two sorts of death; we are either slain or drowned.”

In the days when cells and churches sprang up like mushrooms throughout Hibernia, Saint Kevin had chosen as the site of one of his monasteries that point on the eastern shore of...

“Prate to me no longer of marriage and giving in marriage. We love each other--that’s enough! Perchance we’ll love others, and a many, ere we die. Marriage, forsooth! And this n...

The girl rose often and attended to the wants of her companions. Cormac’s eye fell on her and marked the difference between her and Ethne. The contrast was strong. The young Sax...

As a child, Ethne had been told she should be one of the wives of the rich and famous chieftain, Griffith Finnfuathairt--King Griffith of Erin he was called, though his kingdom...

He was once more her slave. At first he had said that he would part from her, would never look on her face again, if she belonged to that foul and horrible faith.

The cry was followed by a shout of victory as a Druid--the horse beneath him wet with sweat--leapt across the stream; his beard and garments streamed in the wind as he disappear...

He had not realised that the wild and terrible night would end in such a sacrifice. And it was only when it happened that the full horror of the festival burst upon him. Then--j...

They spent that night in the wattled cote of a wood-cutter. Tamed wolves and great hounds slept on the straw beside them, making the air so foul that they were glad to leave at...

Cormac wished to present himself to King Aedh at once; but this he found impossible as the great chieftain lay sleeping in his hall; wearied out with a skirmish of the previous...

The holy man had borne Cormac tenderly from the battlefield to the little wattled cote in which he preferred to live rather than in the great hall King Aedh had prepared for him...

More than a year had gone by since his flight from Damnonia when Cormac found himself once more in Britain. Following the advice of S. Columba, he landed in Northern Wales; and,...

Their eyes met, and there was a long silence; neither spoke; then Elgiva turned, blushing, and tried to smooth into order the long, tangled masses of her golden hair; she shook...

“I have lost her!” Ethne was saying. “I have searched everywhere and I cannot find her. Neither seer nor soothsayer can aid me--I have lost her whom I would not have lost for al...

Cutha was slain, the Saxons were defeated--these were the two first acts of the Black Horse--cried the followers of Cormac; the rest would follow, and Britain would soon be agai...

The day of the feast had dawned. Ethne had long left her bed, and was now surrounded by her women at her toilet-table. She slipped the bronze case from her mirror and looked at...

Cormac’s seat at the banquet had been placed at some distance from Ethne. This he thought strange, for Ethne, so anxious to identify herself with him, generally insisted on sitt...

The foster-brother and sister were imprisoned in one of the rooms of the Roman villa, in which the feast had been held. They were not fettered, but were carefully watched by a s...