SEVERAL-- Be quiet, Noel.
JARDIN--Is that the way you fowlers take your birds,
Rush out and throw the net before their eyes?
Is it? And when the wolves prowl for your lambs,
You raise a shout before you stretch the string,
Do you? Here's Jacques. You think he'd have this cap
If he had yelled to the brute, "Watch for your skin,"
And rushed on him waving a club? Do you?
Eh? If you do, I tell you Jardin don't;
'N I reckon Jardin's seen a wolf or two.
This dwarf of Hulga's, you don't think he's sly,
Do you? Eh? Well, he is, sly as a newt.
You touch the stones once and you'll see him gone.
What's to be done, then? Listen to Jardin:
Deploy. You don't know what that means, do you?
Some of you here are burning for the East
To fight the Moslems. Just cry: "Allah-ho!"
And then rush on them, will you? Turks, ain't they?
JACQUES SAR--Right.
JARDIN-- Listen, men; I'll tell you what it means.
You've seen the falcon 'fore she strikes the hern
Open her talons, ain't you? That's deploy.
Well, then we'll open ours. Three of you fellows
Skirt the ford yonder and shut off retreat
To the cave. There's one claw open. Halt, men.
Then two detachments--Here, attention, men;
Wait for your orders.--Then two squads of three
March up that way-- (_He points left._)
and when you strike the hedge,
Right! left! one along the wold; the other
Down through the waddy; each to the river.
Then we've got him flanked. There's three claws open
And the bird is ours. Now listen. Listen men.
You men that mean to cut off his retreat,
Take spears. He'll squawk we pinch him, and the old hen,
Hearing her chick, will swoop down from the rocks.
Then's your chance; stick her.
JACQUES SAR-- Mine!
HUGH CAPET-- Let Jacques have her.
JACQUES SAR--I'll fetch her head back home to mother Sar.
(_He and the Bailiff come down into the crowd._)
A VOICE--What if the heathen charge down on us?
HUGH CAPET-- Bah!
JARDIN--You think he'd leave that peak for all the world?
HUGH CAPET--After what's happened?
JACQUES SAR-- After this shower of blood?
BACQUEUR--From that black planet came the thunder stone
That tore the field back there.
HUGH CAPET-- You think he would?
JARDIN--Now hear what Jardin says. If he could ask,
For what he suffered in the Holy Wars,
Two gifts of Heaven, and two strong saints should soar
Past the green steeples of these poplars here
And fold their white wings in that street and say:
"Soldier, what are they?" What would Jardin say?
First this: (_He steps back upon the steps._)
Up yonder is a holy monk
Whom God has blessed above all living men.
Abaddon hurled him down to take his life.
He's bruised almost to death. Saints, bring him down.
We're going to kindle such a fire here
As friends of darkness, glowering from the caves,
Shall see and then scoot shuddering to Hell.
(_The crowd shouts._)
Bring him down, then, and let him see the flames
Lick up the limbs that tripped him.
JACQUES SAR-- Right.
BACQUEUR-- You're right.
HUGH CAPET--Let's bring him down!
SHOUTS-- Right! Bring him! Bring him down!
JARDIN--Here, men, put on those caps. You think you're saints?
If you can fly through air, why bring him down;
You can't, then hush and hear what Jardin says.
First then I'd say: "Bring down the monk." Then this:
There's a big fellow on the mountain tops
What calls Thor Father, spitting at our Lord.
And in the dawn when Christians gather here
To holy mass he stands upon the peaks
And scowls upon the bells. He and the witch
Are brain and bowels to some heathen god
Whose dark hand works at night beneath the hills
Sapping the towers of Christ. Saints, send him down.
Tell him to strap his big old martel on him.
He comes down here he'll feel a damaskin
That's sliced the Turks and choked the gates of hell
With ghosts of Allah, and another'll go
Bloody and hot to Thor. (_Shouts._)
Send him down, saints.
Some one here says, "If Canzler comes, what then?"
He'll die. Who'll do it? Listen: Jardin will.
(_He comes down into the crowd that surges and
clamors about him._)