So he bade them tell him what had chanced, and they said-- "Whilst thou, our father and lord, wert afar off smiting the foreigner, and Saba looking ever down the pass for thy return, we saw one day as it were the likeness of thee approaching, and Bran and Sceolaun at thy heels.

And we seemed also to hear the notes of the Fian hunting call blown on the wind.

Then Saba hastened to the great gate, and we could not stay her, so eager was she to rush to the phantom.

But when she came near, she halted and gave a loud and bitter cry, and the shape of thee smote her with a hazel wand, and lo, there was no woman there any more, but a deer.

Then those hounds chased it, and ever as it strove to reach again the gate of the Dun they turned it back.