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for some three weeks the wind blew inshore or with too great violence; and the sailors stayed drinking and talking and playing cards; and costello stayed with them; sleeping upon a bench in the shebeen; and drinking and talking and playing more than any。 he soon lost what little money he had; and then his horse; which some one had brought from the mountain boreen; to a spaniard; who sold it to a farmer from the mountains; and then his long cloak and his spurs and his boots of soft leather。 at last a gentle wind blew towards spain; and the crew rowed out to their schooner; singing gaelic and spanish songs; and lifted the anchor; and in a little while the white sails had dropped under the horizon。 then costello turned homeward; his life gaping before him; and walked all day; ing in the early evening to the road that went from near lough gara to the southern edge of lough cay。 here he overtook a great crowd of peasants and farmers; who were walking very slowly after two priests and a group of well?dressed persons; certain of whom were carrying a coffin。 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; dermotts 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 worlds heart could pass away。 presently he stopped and asked again whose burying it was; and a man answered: we are carrying dermotts 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 ing 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。
when the procession had passed on; costello began to follow again; and saw from a distance the coffin laid upon a large boat; and those about it get into other boats; and the boats move slowly over the water to insula trinitatis; and after a time he saw the boats return and their passengers mingle with the crowd upon the bank; and all disperse by many roads and boreens。 it seemed to him that winny was somewhere on the island smiling gently as of old; and when all had gone he swam in the way the boats had been rowed and found the new? made grave beside the ruined abbey of the holy trinity; and threw himself upon it; calling to oona to e to him。 above him the square ivy leaves trembled; and all about him white moths moved over white flowers; and sweet odours drifted through the dim air。
he lay there all that night and through the day after; from time to time calling her to e to him; but when the third night came he had forgotten; worn out with hunger and sorrow; that her body lay in the earth beneath; but only knew she was somewhere near and would not e to him。
just before dawn; the hour when the peasants hear his ghostly voice crying out; his pride awoke and he called loudly: winny; daughter of dermott of the sheep; if you do not e to me i will go and never return to the island of the holy trinity; and before his voice had died away a cold and whirling wind had swept over the island and he saw many figures rushing past; women of the sidhe with crowns of silver and dim floating drapery; and then oona; but no longer smiling gently; for she passed him swiftly and angrily; and as she passed struck him upon the face crying: then go and never return。
he would have followed; and was calling out her name; when the whole glimmering pany rose up into the air; and; rushing together in the shape of a great silvery rose; faded into the ashen dawn。
costello got up from the grave; understanding nothing but that he had made his beloved angry and that she wished him to go; and wading out into the lake; began to swim。 he swam on and on; but his limbs were too weary to keep him afloat; and her anger was heavy about him; and when he had gone a little way he sank without a struggle; like a man passing into sleep and dreams。
the next day a poor fisherman found him among the reeds upon the lake shore; lying upon the white lake sand with his arms flung out as though he lay upon a rood; and carried him to his own house。 and the very poor lamented over him and sang the keen; and when the time had e; laid him in the abbey on insula trinitatis with only the ruined altar between him and dermotts daughter; and planted above them two ash?trees that in after days wove their branches together and mingled their trembling leaves。
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