When her child was born he was made to
swear across her dead body that he would be
true to the daughter for whom she had given
up her life, that he would rear her in a holy
place, but away from Eire, and that he would
never set foot within that land again. This
was a bitter thing for Diighall Donn to do:
the more so as, before the King, and the
priests, and the people, he swore by the Wind,
and by the Moon, and by the Sun, that he
was guiltless of the thing of which he was
accused. There were many there who be-
lieved him because of that sacred oath : others,
too, forasmuch as that Morna the Princess
had herself sworn to the same effect. More-
over, there was Aodh of the Golden Hair, a
poet and seer, who avowed that Morna had
given birth to an immortal, whose name would
one day be as a moon among the stars for
i86



St Bride of the Isles

glory. But the King would not be appeased,
though he spared the life of his youngest son.
So it was that, by the advice of Aodh of the
Druids, Dughall Donn went northwards
through the realm of Clanadon and so to the
sea-loch that was then called Loc Feobal.
