On that occasion I swam round the bath holding two well-grown
boys in my right arm and two in my left, and there was a fifth
sitting on my shoulders with his hands clasped on my forehead, and
my back was not wetted by the Callan. Therefore dismiss thy fear
and answer thou their challenge with a strong voice and a cheerful
countenance."
Laeg did that and he answered their challenge with a voice that
rang, striking fear into the hearts of those who heard him.
Forthwith, then, Fenla, wearing sword and shield, sprang at a
bound over the rampart and foss, and his course thence to the
Boyne was like a flash of blue and white and he plunged into the
dark stream like a bright spear, and diving beneath the flood he
emerged a great way off, and cried aloud for his foe.
"I am here," cried Cuculain, at his side. "Cease thy shouting and
look to thyself, for it is not my custom to take advantage of any
man."
Marvellous and terrible was the battle which then ensued between
these champions. For the spray and the froth and the flying spume
of the convulsed and agitated waters around that warring twain,
rose in white clouds, and owing to the fierceness of the combat
and the displacement of the waters around them, the Boyne on
either hand beat her green margin with sudden and unusual billows,
for the divine river was taken with a great surprise on that
occasion.
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