_Colm goes out angrily, and the others follow him, trying to restrain
him. Sighle comes to the fire, where she kneels._
SIGHLE (_as in a reverie_). “They will go out laughing,” I said, but
Colm has gone out with anger in his heart. And he was so kind.... Love
is a terrible thing. There is no pain so great as the pain of love.... I
wish MacDara and I were children in the green _mám_ and that we did not
know that we loved each other.... Colm will lie dead on the road to Glen
Inagh, and MacDara will go out to die.... There is nothing in the world
but love and death. _MacDara comes out of the room._
MACDARA (_in a low voice_). She has dropped asleep, Sighle.
SIGHLE. She watched long, MacDara. We all watched long.
MACDARA. Every long watch ends. Every traveller comes home.
SIGHLE. Sometimes when people watch it is death that comes.
MACDARA. Could there be a royaller coming, Sighle?... Once I wanted
life. You and I to be together in one place always: that is what I
wanted. But now I see that we shall be together for a little time only;
that I have to do a hard, sweet thing, and that I must do it alone. And
because I love you I would not have it different.... I wanted to have
your kiss on my lips, Sighle, as well as my mother’s and Colm’s. But I
will deny myself that. (_Sighle is crying._) Don’t cry, child. Stay near
my mother while she lives--it may be for a little while of years. You
poor women suffer so much pain, so much sorrow, and yet you do not die
until long after your strong, young sons and lovers have died.
_Maire’s voice is heard from the room, crying_: MacDara!
MACDARA. She is calling me.
_He goes into the room; Sighle cries on her knees by the fire. After a
little while voices are heard outside, the latch is lifted, and
Maoilsheachlainn comes in._
SIGHLE. Is he gone, master?
MAOILSHEACHLAINN. Gone out the road with ten or fifteen of the young
lads. Is MacDara within still?
SIGHLE. He was here in the kitchen a while. His mother called him and he
went back to her.
_Maoilsheachlainn goes over and sits down near the fire._
MAOILSHEACHLAINN. I think, maybe, that Colm did what was right. We are
too old to be at the head of work like this. Was MacDara talking to you
about the trouble?
SIGHLE. He said that he would have to do a hard, sweet thing, and that
he would have to do it alone.
MAOILSHEACHLAINN. I’m sorry but I called him before Colm went out.
_A murmur is heard as of a crowd of men talking as they come up the
hill._
SIGHLE. What is that noise like voices?
MAOILSHEACHLAINN. It is the boys coming up the hillside. There was a
great crowd gathering below at the cross.
_The voices swell loud outside the door. Cuimin Eanna, Diarmaid, and
some others come in._
DIARMAID. The men say we did wrong to let Colm go out with that little
handful. They say we should all have marched.
CUIMIN. And I say Colm was wrong to go before he got his orders. Are we
all to go out and get shot down because one man is hotheaded? Where is
the plan that was to come from Galway?
MAOILSHEACHLAINN. Men, I’m blaming myself for not saying the thing I’m
going to say before we let Colm go. We talk about getting word from
Galway. What would you say, neighbours, if the man that will give the
word is under the roof of this house.
CUIMIN. Who is it you mean?
MAOILSHEACHLAINN (_going to the door of the room and throwing it open_).
Let you rise out, MacDara, and reveal yourself to the men that are
waiting for your word.
ONE OF THE NEWCOMERS. Has MacDara come home?
_MacDara comes out of the room: Maire ni Fhiannachta stands behind him
in the doorway._
DIARMAID (_starting up from where he has been sitting_). That is the man
that stood among the people in the fair of Uachtar Ard! (_He goes up to
MacDara and kisses his hand._) I could not get near you yesterday,
MacDara, with the crowds that were round you. What was on me that didn’t
know you? Sure, I had a right to know that sad, proud head. Maire ni
Fhiannachta, men and women yet unborn will bless the pains of your first
childing.
_Maire ni Fhiannachta comes forward slowly and takes her son’s hand
and kisses it._
MAIRE (_in a low voice_). Soft hand that played at my breast, strong
hand that will fall heavy on the Gall, brave hand that will break the
yoke! Men of this mountain, my son MacDara is the Singer that has
quickened the dead years and all the quiet dust! Let the horsemen that
sleep in Aileach rise up and follow him into the war! Weave your
winding-sheets, women, for there will be many a noble corpse to be waked
before the new moon!
_Each comes forward and kisses his hand._
MAOILSHEACHLAINN. Let you speak, MacDara, and tell us is it time.
MACDARA. Where is Colm?
DIARMAID. Gone out the road to fight the Gall, himself and fifteen.
MACDARA. Has not Colm spoken by his deed already?
CUIMIN. You are our leader.
MACDARA. Your leader is the man that spoke first. Give me a pike and I
will follow Colm. Why did you let him go out with fifteen men only? You
are fourscore on the mountain.
DIARMAID. We thought it a foolish thing for fourscore to go into battle
against four thousand, or, maybe, forty thousand.
MACDARA. And so it is a foolish thing. Do you want us to be wise?
CUIMIN. This is strange talk.
MACDARA. I will talk to you more strangely yet. It is for your own
souls’ sakes I would have had the fourscore go, and not for Colm’s sake,
or for the battle’s sake, for the battle is won whether you go or not.
_A cry is heard outside. One rushes in terror-stricken._
THE NEWCOMER. Young Colm has fallen at the Glen foot.
MACDARA. The fifteen were too many. Old men, you did not do your work
well enough. You should have kept all back but one. One man can free a
people as one Man redeemed the world. I will take no pike, I will go
into the battle with bare hands. I will stand up before the Gall as
Christ hung naked before men on the tree!
_He moves through them, pulling off his clothes as he goes. As he
reaches the threshold a great shout goes up from the people. He passes
out and the shout dies slowly away. The other men follow him slowly.
Maire ni Fhiannachta sits down at the fire, where Sighle still
crouches._