SCENE.--_Hall in the house of_ COUNTESS CATHLEEN. _At the Left an
oratory with steps leading up to it. At the Right a tapestried wall,
more or less repeating the form of the oratory, and a great chair
with its back against the wall. In the Centre are two or more arches
through which one can see dimly the trees of the garden._ CATHLEEN
_is kneeling in front of the altar in the oratory; there is a hanging
lighted lamp over the altar_. ALEEL _enters_.
ALEEL. I have come to bid you leave this castle and fly
Out of these woods.
CATHLEEN. What evil is there here
That is not everywhere from this to the sea?
ALEEL. They who have sent me walk invisible.
CATHLEEN. So it is true what I have heard men say,
That you have seen and heard what others cannot.
ALEEL. I was asleep in my bed, and while I slept
My dreams became a fire; and in the fire
One walked and he had birds about his head.
CATHLEEN. I have heard that one of the old gods walked so.
ALEEL. It may be that he is angelical;
And, lady, he bids me call you from these woods.
And you must bring but your old foster-mother,
And some few serving men, and live in the hills,
Among the sounds of music and the light
Of waters, till the evil days are done.
For here some terrible death is waiting you,
Some unimagined evil, some great darkness
That fable has not dreamt of, nor sun nor moon
Scattered.
CATHLEEN. No, not angelical.
ALEEL. This house
You are to leave with some old trusty man,
And bid him shelter all that starve or wander
While there is food and house room.
CATHLEEN. He bids me go
Where none of mortal creatures but the swan
Dabbles, and there you would pluck the harp, when the trees
Had made a heavy shadow about our door,
And talk among the rustling of the reeds,
When night hunted the foolish sun away
With stillness and pale tapers. No--no--no!
I cannot. Although I weep, I do not weep
Because that life would be most happy and here
I find no way, no end. Nor do I weep
Because I had longed to look upon your face,
But that a night of prayer has made me weary.
ALEEL [_prostrating himself before her_]. Let Him that made mankind,
the angels and devils
And dearth and plenty, mend what He has made,
For when we labour in vain and eye still sees
Heart breaks in vain.
CATHLEEN. How would that quiet end?
ALEEL. How but in healing?
CATHLEEN. You have seen my tears
And I can see your hand shake on the floor.
ALEEL [_faltering_]. I thought but of healing.
He was angelical.
CATHLEEN [_turning away from him_]. No, not angelical, but of the
old gods,
Who wander about the world to awaken the heart----
The passionate, proud heart--that all the angels,
Leaving nine heavens empty, would rock to sleep.
[_She goes to chapel door_; ALEEL _holds his clasped hands
towards her for a moment hesitatingly, and then lets them fall
beside him_.
CATHLEEN. Do not hold out to me beseeching hands.
This heart shall never waken on earth. I have sworn,
By her whose heart the seven sorrows have pierced,
To pray before this altar until my heart
Has grown to Heaven like a tree, and there
Rustled its leaves, till Heaven has saved my people.
ALEEL [_who has risen_]. When one so great has spoken of love to one
So little as I, though to deny him love,
What can he but hold out beseeching hands,
Then let them fall beside him, knowing how greatly
They have overdared?
[_He goes towards the door of the hall. The_ COUNTESS CATHLEEN
_takes a few steps towards him_.
CATHLEEN. If the old tales are true,
Queens have wed shepherds and kings beggar-maids;
God’s procreant waters flowing about your mind
Have made you more than kings or queens; and not you
But I am the empty pitcher.
ALEEL. Being silent,
I have said all, yet let me stay beside you.
CATHLEEN. No, no, not while my heart is shaken. No.
But you shall hear wind cry and water cry,
And curlew cry, and have the peace I longed for.
ALEEL. Give me your hand to kiss.
CATHLEEN. I kiss your forehead.
And yet I send you from me. Do not speak;
There have been women that bid men to rob
Crowns from the Country-under-Wave or apples
Upon a dragon-guarded hill, and all
That they might sift men’s hearts and wills,
And trembled as they bid it, as I tremble
That lay a hard task on you, that you go,
And silently, and do not turn your head;
Good-bye; but do not turn your head and look;
Above all else, I would not have you look.
[ALEEL _goes_.
I never spoke to him of his wounded hand,
And now he is gone. [_She looks out._]
I cannot see him, for all is dark outside.
Would my imagination and my heart
Were as little shaken as this holy flame!
[_She goes slowly into the chapel. The distant sound of an alarm
bell. The two_ MERCHANTS _enter hurriedly_.
SECOND MERCHANT. They are ringing the alarm, and in a moment
They’ll be upon us.
FIRST MERCHANT [_going to a door at the side_]. Here is the
Treasury,
You’d my commands to put them all to sleep.
SECOND MERCHANT. Some angel or else her prayers protected them.
[_Goes into the Treasury and returns with bags of treasure._
FIRST MERCHANT _has been listening at the oratory door_.
FIRST MERCHANT. She has fallen asleep.
[SECOND MERCHANT _goes out through one of the arches at the back
and stands listening. The bags are at his feet._
SECOND MERCHANT. We’ve all the treasure now,
So let’s away before they’ve tracked us out.
FIRST MERCHANT. I have a plan to win her.
SECOND MERCHANT. You have time enough
If you would kill her and bear off her soul
Before they are upon us with their prayers;
They search the Western Tower.
FIRST MERCHANT. That may not be.
We cannot face the heavenly host in arms.
Her soul must come to us of its own will;
But being of the ninth and mightiest Hell
Where all are kings, I have a plan to win it.
Lady, we’ve news that’s crying out for speech.
[CATHLEEN _wakes and comes to door of chapel_.
CATHLEEN. Who calls?
FIRST MERCHANT. Lady, we have brought news.
CATHLEEN. What are you?
FIRST MERCHANT. We are merchants, and we know the book of the world
Because we have walked upon its leaves; and there
Have read of late matters that much concern you;
And noticing the castle door stand open,
Came in to find an ear.
CATHLEEN. The door stands open,
That no one who is famished or afraid,
Despair of help or of a welcome with it.
But you have news, you say.
FIRST MERCHANT. We saw a man,
Heavy with sickness in the bog of Allen,
Whom you had bid buy cattle. Near Fair Head
We saw your grain ships lying all becalmed
In the dark night; and not less still than they,
Burned all their mirrored lanthorns in the sea.
CATHLEEN. Thanks be to God there’s money in the house
That can buy grain from those who have stored it up
To prosper on the hunger of the poor.
But you’ve been far and know the signs of things,
When will this famine end?
FIRST MERCHANT. Day copies day,
And there’s no sign of change, nor can it change,
With the wheat withered and the cattle dead.
CATHLEEN. And heard you of the demons who buy souls?
FIRST MERCHANT. There are some men who hold they have wolves’ heads,
And say their limbs--dried by the infinite flame--
Have all the speed of storms; others, again,
Say they are gross and little; while a few
Will have it they seem much as mortals are,
But tall and brown and travelled--like us, lady--
Yet all agree a power is in their looks
That makes men bow, and flings a casting-net
About their souls, and that all men would go
And barter those poor vapours, were it not
You bribe them with the safety of your gold.
CATHLEEN. Praise God that I am wealthy.
Why do they sell?
FIRST MERCHANT. As we came in at the great door we saw
Your porter sleeping in his niche--a soul
Too little to be worth a hundred pence,
And yet they buy it for a hundred crowns.
But for a soul like yours, I heard them say,
They would give five hundred thousand crowns and more.
CATHLEEN. How can a heap of crowns pay for a soul?
Is the green grave so terrible a thing?
FIRST MERCHANT. Some sell because the money gleams, and some
Because they are in terror of the grave,
And some because their neighbours sold before,
And some because there is a kind of joy
In casting hope away, in losing joy,
In ceasing all resistance, in at last
Opening one’s arms to the eternal flames,
In casting all sails out upon the wind;
To this--full of the gaiety of the lost--
Would all folk hurry if your gold were gone.
CATHLEEN. There is a something, Merchant, in your voice
That makes me fear. When you were telling how
A man may lose his soul and lose his God
Your eyes were lighted up, and when you told
How my poor money serves the people, both--
Merchants, forgive me--seemed to smile.
FIRST MERCHANT. I laugh
To think that all these people should be swung
As on a lady’s shoe-string,--under them
The glowing leagues of never-ending flame.
CATHLEEN. There is a something in you that I fear;
A something not of us; were you not born
In some most distant corner of the world?
[_The_ SECOND MERCHANT, _who has been listening at the door,
comes forward, and as he comes a sound of voices and feet is
heard_.
SECOND MERCHANT. Away now--they are in the passage--hurry,
For they will know us, and freeze up our hearts
With Ave Marys, and burn all our skin
With holy water.
FIRST MERCHANT. Farewell; for we must ride
Many a mile before the morning come;
Our horses beat the ground impatiently.
[_They go out. A number of_ PEASANTS _enter by other door_.
FIRST PEASANT. Forgive us, lady, but we heard a noise.
SECOND PEASANT. We sat by the fireside telling vanities.
FIRST PEASANT. We heard a noise, but though we have searched the
house
We have found nobody.
CATHLEEN. You are too timid,
For now you are safe from all the evil times,
There is no evil that can find you here.
OONA [_entering hurriedly_]. Ochone! Ochone! The treasure room is
broken in.
The door stands open, and the gold is gone.
[PEASANTS _raise a lamentable cry_.
CATHLEEN. Be silent. [_The cry ceases._]
Have you seen nobody?
OONA. Ochone!
That my good mistress should lose all this money.
CATHLEEN. Let those among you--not too old to ride--
Get horses and search all the country round,
I’ll give a farm to him who finds the thieves.
[_A man with keys at his girdle has come in while she speaks.
There is a general murmur of ‘The porter! the porter!’_
PORTER. Demons were here. I sat beside the door
In my stone niche, and two owls passed me by,
Whispering with human voices.
OLD PEASANT. God forsakes us.
CATHLEEN. Old man, old man, He never closed a door
Unless one opened. I am desolate,
Because of a strange thought that’s in my heart;
But I have still my faith; therefore be silent;
For surely He does not forsake the world,
But stands before it modelling in the clay
And moulding there His image. Age by age
The clay wars with His fingers and pleads hard
For its old, heavy, dull and shapeless ease;
But sometimes--though His hand is on it still--
It moves awry and demon hordes are born.
[PEASANTS _cross themselves_.
Yet leave me now, for I am desolate,
I hear a whisper from beyond the thunder.
[_She comes from the oratory door._
Yet stay an instant. When we meet again
I may have grown forgetful. Oona, take
These two--the larder and the dairy keys.
[_To the_ PORTER.]
But take you this. It opens the small room
Of herbs for medicine, every kind of herb.
The book of curses is on the upper shelf.
PORTER. Why do you do this, lady; did you see
Your coffin in a dream?
CATHLEEN. Ah, no, not that.
But I have come to a strange thought. I have heard
A sound of wailing in unnumbered hovels,
And I must go down, down--I know not where--
Pray for all men and women mad from famine;
Pray, you good neighbours.
[_The_ PEASANTS _all kneel_. COUNTESS CATHLEEN _ascends the steps
to the door of the oratory, and turning round stands there
motionless for a little, and then cries in a loud voice_:
Mary, Queen of angels,
And all you clouds on clouds of saints, farewell!
END OF SCENE III
------------------------------------------------------------------------