He
stopped an old man and asked whose burying it was and whose people
they were, and the old man answered: 'It is the burying of Oona,
Dermott's daughter, and we are the Namaras and the Dermotts and their
following, and you are Tumaus Costello who murdered her.'
Costello went on towards the head of the procession, passing men who
looked at him with fierce eyes and only vaguely understanding what he
had heard, for now that he had lost the understanding that belongs to
good health, it seemed impossible that a gentleness and a beauty
which had been so long the world's heart could pass away. Presently
he stopped and asked again whose burying it was, and a man answered:
'We are carrying Dermott's daughter Winny whom you murdered, to be
buried in the island of the Holy Trinity,' and the man stooped and
picked up a stone and cast it at Costello, striking him on the cheek
and making the blood flow out over his face. Costello went on
scarcely feeling the blow, and coming to those about the coffin,
shouldered his way into the midst of them, and laying his hand upon
the coffin, asked in a loud voice: 'Who is in this coffin?'
The three Old Dermotts from the Ox Mountains caught up stones and bid
those about them do the same; and he was driven from the road,
covered with wounds, and but for the priests would surely have been
killed.
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