They went on then, and they were not gone far out from the town when Grania said:  “I am getting tired, indeed.”  “It is a good time to be tired,” said Diarmuid, “and go now back again to your own house.  For I swear by the word of a true champion,” he said, “I will never carry yourself or any other woman to the end of life and time.”  “That is not what you have to do,” said Grania, “for my father’s horses are in a grass field by themselves, and chariots with them; and turn back now, and bring two horses of them, and I will wait in this place till you come to me again.”

Diarmuid went back then for the horses, and we have no knowledge of their journey till they reached to the ford on the Sionnan, that is called now Ath-luain.

And Diarmuid said then to Grania:  “It is easier to Finn to follow our track, the horses being with us.”  “If that is so,” said Grania:  “leave the horses here, and I will go on foot from this out.”

Diarmuid went down to the river then, and he brought a horse with him over the ford, and left the other horse the far side of the river.  And he himself and Grania went a good way with the stream westward, and they went to land at the side of the province of Connacht.  And wherever they went, Diarmuid left unbroken bread after him, as a sign to Finn he had kept his faith with him.

And from that they went on to Doire-da-Bhoth, the Wood of the Two Huts.  And Diarmuid cut down the wood round about them, and he made a fence having seven doors of woven twigs, and he set out a bed of soft rushes and of the tops of the birch-tree for Grania in the very middle of the wood.

CHAPTER II.  THE PURSUIT

And as to Finn, son of Cumhal, I will tell out his story now.

All that were in Teamhair rose up early in the morning of the morrow, and they found Diarmuid and Grania were wanting from them, and there came a scorching jealousy and a weakness on Finn.  He sent out his trackers then on the plain, and bade them to follow Diarmuid and Grania.  And they followed the track as far as the ford on the Sionnan, and Finn and the Fianna followed after them, but they were not able to carry the track across the ford.  And Finn gave them his word that unless they would find the track again without delay, he would hang them on each side of the ford.

Then the sons of Neamhuin went up against the stream, and they found a horse on each side of it, and then they went on with the stream westward, and they found the track going along the side of the Province of Connacht, and Finn and the Fianna of Ireland followed it on.  And Finn said:  “I know well where we will find Diarmuid and Grania now; it is in Doire-da-Bhoth they are.”  Oisin and Osgar and Caoilte and Diorraing were listening when Finn said those words.  And Osgar spoke to the others, and it is what he said:  “There is danger they might be there, and it would be right for us to give them some warning; and look now, Osgar, where is Bran the hound, for Finn himself is no dearer to him than Diarmuid, and bid him go now with a warning to him.”