The next instant she saw a wild hawk,
that was chasing the little bird and was coming straight through the
window after it. She put both her hands over her bosom, to save her
husband's life, but she was frightened and she gave one scream as the
hawk darted into the room, dashed itself against a table, and was
killed. Then she looked where the little bird had been, and it was
gone. She never saw Earl Gerald again.
"But Earl Gerald was not dead, and he is not dead, though all this was
hundreds of years ago. He is sleeping, down under the ground, just
beneath where his old castle used to stand. His warriors are there
with him. They are in a great hall. The Earl sits at the head of a
long table and the men sit down the sides. All rest their heads upon
the table and all are asleep. Against the wall there are rows of
stalls, and behind each man, in one of the stalls, is his horse.
"Once in every seven years Earl Gerald wakes at night. He rises and
mounts his horse. A door of the hall opens. He rides out into the free
air. He rides around the Curragh of Kildare and then back into the
cave, to sleep again for seven years.
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