Dark it was and low, with mouldering arras on its walls, and foul and withered rushes on the floor, where dogs gnawed the bones thrown to them at the last meal, and spilt ale and hacked fragments of flesh littered the bare oaken table.

And here rose languidly to greet them a maiden bound with seven chains, to whom Niam spoke lovingly, saying that her champion was come and that her long captivity should end.

And the maiden looked upon Oisin, whose proud bearing and jewelled armour made the mean place seem meaner still, and a light of hope and of joy seemed to glimmer upon her brow.

So she gave them refreshment as she could, and afterwards they betook them once more to the courtyard, where the place of battle was set.
Here, at the further side, stood a huge man clad in rusty armour, who when he saw Oisin rushed upon him, silent and furious, and swinging a great battleaxe in his hand.

But doubt and langour weighed upon Oisin's heart, and it seemed to him as if he were in an evil dream, which he knew was but a dream, and would be less than nothing when the hour of awakening should come.