He saw the trouble upon her, and bid me ride his
own horse to bring you the quicker.'
Then Costello turned towards the piper Duallach Daly, and taking him
about the waist lifted him out of the saddle and hurled him against a
grey rock that rose up out of the river, so that he fell lifeless
into the deep place, and the waters swept over the tongue which God
had made bitter, that there might be a story in men's ears in after
time. Then plunging his spurs into the horse, he rode away furiously
toward the north-west, along the edge of the river, and did not pause
until he came to another and smoother ford, and saw the rising moon
mirrored in the water. He paused for a moment irresolute, and then
rode into the ford and on over the Ox Mountains, and down towards the
sea; his eyes almost continually resting upon the moon which
glimmered in the dimness like a great white rose hung on the lattice
of some boundless and phantasmal world. But now his horse, long dark
with sweat and breathing hard, for he kept spurring it to an extreme
speed, fell heavily, hurling him into the grass at the roadside. He
tried to make it stand up, and failing in this, went on alone towards
the moonlight; and came to the sea and saw a schooner lying there at
anchor. Now that he could go no further because of the sea, he found
that he was very tired and the night very cold, and went into a
shebeen close to the shore and threw himself down upon a bench.
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