Descend the hill now, for verily thither shalt thou fare, and
that whether thou art willing or unwilling."
Now, for the first time, his valour and his destructive wrath were
kindled in the soul of Dethcaen's nursling. Laeg saw the tokens of
it, and feared and obeyed. Unwillingly he came down the slopes of
Slieve Modurn, and unwillingly harnessed the horses and yoked the
chariot, and yoked the horses. Southwards, then, they fared
swiftly through the night, and the intervening nations heard them
as they went. When they arrived at the dun of the sons of Nectan
it was twilight and the dawning of the day. Before the dun there
was a green and spacious lawn in full view of the palace, and on
the lawn a pillar and on the pillar a huge disc of shining bronze.
Cuculain descended and examined the disc, and there was inscribed
on it in ogham a curse upon the man who should enter that lawn and
depart again without battle and single combat with the men of the
dun. Cuculain took the disc from its place and cast it from him
southwards. The brazen disc skimmed low across the plain and then
soared on high until it showed to those who looked a full, bright
face, like the moon's, after which, pausing one moment, it fell
sheer down and sank into the dark waters of the Boyne, without a
sound, or at all disturbing the tranquil surface of the great
stream, and was no more seen.
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