Nuadhé, the celebrated poet, is remembered in history by a memorable
exercise of his malific power, and the punishment that fell on him in
consequence; for Heaven is just, and even a bard cannot escape the
penalty due for sin.
He was nephew to Caer, the king of Connaught, who reared him with all
kindness and gentleness as his own son. But by an evil fate the wife
of Caer the king loved the young man; and she gave him a silver apple
in proof of her love, and further promised him the kingdom and herself
if he could overthrow Caer and make the people depose him from the
sovranty.
“How can I do this?” answered Nuadhé, “for the king has ever been kind
to me.”
“Ask him for some gift,” said the queen, “that he will refuse, and
then put a blemish on him for punishment, that so he can be no longer
king;” for no one with a blemish was ever suffered to reign in Erin.
“But he refuses me nothing,” answered Nuadhé.
“Try him,” said the queen. “Ask of him the dagger he brought from Alba,
for he is under a vow never to part with it.”
So Nuadhé went to him, and asked for the dagger that came out of Alba
as a gift.
“Woe is me!” said the king. “This I cannot grant; for I am under a
solemn vow never to part with it, or give it to another.”
Then the poet by his power made a satire on him, and this was the form
of the imprecation—
“Evil death, and a short life
Be on Caer the king!
Let the spears of battle wound him,
Under earth, under ramparts, under stones,
Let the malediction be on him!”
And when Caer rose up in the morning he put his hand to his face and
found it was disfigured with three blisters, a white, a red, and a
green. And when he saw the blemish he fled away filled with fear that
any man should see him, and took refuge in a fort with one of his
faithful servants, and no one knew where he lay hid.
So Nuadhé took the kingdom and held it for a year, and had the queen to
wife. But then grievous to him was the fate of Caer, and he set forth
to search for him.
And he was seated in the king’s own royal chariot, with the king’s wife
beside him, and the king’s greyhound at his feet, and all the people
wondered at the beauty of the charioteer.
Now Caer was in the fort where he had found shelter, and when he saw
them coming he said—
“Who is this that is seated in my chariot in the place of the champion,
and driving my steeds?”
But when he saw that it was Nuadhé he fled away and hid himself for
shame.
Then Nuadhé drove into the fort in the king’s chariot, and loosed the
dogs to pursue Caer. And they found him hid under the flagstone behind
the rock even where the dogs tracked him. And Caer fell down dead
from shame on beholding Nuadhé, and the rock where he fell flamed up
and shivered into fragments, and a splinter leaped up high as a man,
and struck Nuadhé on the eyes, and blinded him for life. Such was the
punishment decreed, and just and right was the vengeance of God upon
the sin of the poet.