(_He disappears._)
WITCH-- There you go!
Ay, straddle her! Ride her through the clouds!
There they are, Thor.
Now for my dwarf. (_Picking up her club._)
I'll bruise him a little. (_Shouting._)
Sigurd!
I'll get you. (_She goes out, left._)
_SCENE TWO--The scriptorium in the dormitory of the abbey._
_The walls are of stone. In the left wall, near the_
_corner, a door opens into a hall that leads thence to the_
_courtyard. Near it, forward, an enormous chest with metal
trimmings and handles of embossed stags' heads, the antlers
gradually disappearing into the panel. Upon the chest, as
though thrown there carelessly, lies a heavy cloak. About
ten feet from the door, against the rear wall, stands a
small priedieu covered with a rich altar-cloth interwoven
with the figure--seen in old arras--of St. Giles sitting
upon a rock with the deer resting its head in his lap.
Behind the deer is a clump of brambles. The kneeling piece,
which projects from under the folds of the altar-cloth,
is of dark wood highly polished. Upon it is a scarlet
cushion. A little above the priedieu, in a semicircular
niche in the wall, is set a bronze crucifix some ten inches
in height. Before it burns a small taper. Farther to the
right, a second door leading into a corridor which connects
with the sleeping apartments. Between this door and the
priedieu are shelves filled with books and old manuscripts.
Beyond the door, which swings in and is partly open, an
old buckler hangs upon the wall, and beneath it, upon two
iron spikes, a long spear. Between the spear and buckler
is fixed a parchment cut mitriform and bearing in large
illumined letters the inscriptions_ HUGH DE BUILLON CUM DEO
ET CUM GODEFRIDO NICAEIS ANTIOCHIIS HIEROSOLYMIS MIL NONAG
SEPT OCT NOV. _Farther to the right, in the corner, a
Saracen coat-of-mail filled with spears which, converging
center and spread out above and below, look like a sheaf
of steel. Across the breast of the coat-of-mail is a strip
of parchment with the inscription illumined as before_: A
MOHAMED FILIO SATAN CHRISTO FILIO DEI. _In the right wall are
apertures of two deep-set windows, near which are three
carrels, each with an old manuscript spread out upon it
and ink-pots and other copying and illuminating materials.
Hanging beside them are finger rags smeared with various
colored stains. On one of the carrels lies a sprig of
flowering mountain laurel. Near the center of the room, a
few feet to the right, stands a long table running parallel
with the side walls. It is overstrewn with old manuscripts,
some of them discolored and half unrolled; others, near
the forward end, piled in the form of a miniature pyramid.
Farther back, a small brass lamp, pitcher-shaped and with a
wick protruding from its spout, burns with a yellow flame.
The room is but dimly lighted, as a large room would be,
with a single lamp burning upon the table and a little
taper winking in the niche in the wall._
_To the right of the table, in a square, high-backed chair
with animal-feet, sits the Abbot in a black gown,
bareheaded. His feet, which are under the table, are cased
in slippers of sheep-skin with the white fleece still upon
it. From his right hand, which hangs beside his chair, a
scroll of parchment trails upon the floor. Farther back,
upon the opposite side of the table, stands the Priest, his
left hand resting upon the back of a chair the front legs
of which are raised a few inches from the floor. At the
further end of the table Oswald is standing with his finger
wiping away the tears that trinkle down his cheeks._
_Thunder is heard intermittently, and from time to time the_
_windows are shaken by the violence of the wind._
FATHER BENEDICT-- (_White with wrath, turning to the Abbot._)
Endorse this, Father?
OSWALD-- Father, I did not say it.
ABBOT--_Ira_, Benedict, _altis urbibus_
_Causa cur perirent_. Let him explain.
FATHER BENEDICT--I say, do you endorse this?
OSWALD-- I did not say it.
ABBOT--I endorse nothing till I hear both sides.
FATHER BENEDICT--I gave you both sides.
ABBOT-- Sit down, Benedict.
FATHER BENEDICT--You think I'd sit down with these things
spread here, (_With a wave toward the manuscripts._)
And Christ thrust yonder in the little niche?
Not while I have in mind the first Psalm.
ABBOT-- Yet
You seem to have forgotten what #agapaƓ# means,
As found in that third chapter of St. John.
(_He lays his parchment upon the table and reaches
over and takes a book from the pile at his
right._)
FATHER BENEDICT--Not while I have in mind the first Psalm.
ABBOT-- (_Turning over the leaves of the book._)
If
You thought more of the Gospels--
FATHER BENEDICT---(_Sarcastically._) As heathens do.
ABBOT--What is it to be a heathen? Is it not
To act unchristlike?
FATHER BENEDICT-- What is it to be a dog?