The King's Threshold; and On Baile's Strand Part 11

_Fintain._ O good fool, listen to me. Think of the care I have taken of you. I have brought you to many a warm hearth, where there was a good welcome for you, but you would not stay there, you were always wandering about.

_Barach._ The last time you brought me in, it was not I who wandered away, but you that got put out because you took the crubeen out of the pot, when you thought n.o.body was looking. Keep quiet now, keep quiet till I shut the door. Here is Cuchullain, now you will be beaten. I am going to tell him everything.

_Cuchullain._ [_Comes in and says to the fool._] Give me that horn.

[_The fool gives him a horn which CUCHULLAIN fills with ale and drinks._

_Fintain._ Do not listen to him, listen to me.

_Cuchullain._ What are you wrangling over?

_Barach._ He is fat and good for nothing. He has left me the bones and the feathers.

_Cuchullain._ What feathers?

_Barach._ I left him turning a fowl at the fire. He ate it all. He left me nothing but the bones and feathers.

_Fintain._ Do not believe him. You do not know how vain this fool is. I gave him the feathers, because I thought he would like nothing so well.

[_BARACH is sitting on a bench playing with a heap of feathers, which he has taken out of the breast of his coat._

_Barach._ [_Singing._] When you were an acorn on the tree top----

_Fintain._ Where would he be but for me? I must be always thinking, thinking to get food for the two of us, and when we've got it, if the moon's at the full or the tide on the turn, he'll leave the rabbit in its snare till it is full of maggots, or let the trout slip through his hands back into the water.

_Barach._ [_Singing._] When you were an acorn on the tree top, Then was I an eagle c.o.c.k; Now that you are a withered old block, Still am I an eagle c.o.c.k!

_Fintain._ Listen to him now! That's the sort of talk I have to put up with, day out day in.

[_The fool is putting the feathers into his hair. CUCHULLAIN takes a handful of feathers out of the heap and out of the fool's hair, and begins to wipe the blood from his sword with them._

_Barach._ He has taken my feathers to wipe his sword. It is blood that he is wiping from his sword!

_Fintain._ Whose blood? Whose blood?

_Cuchullain._ That young champion's.

_Fintain._ He that came out of Aoife's country?

_Cuchullain._ The Kings are standing round his body.

_Fintain._ Did he fight long?

_Cuchullain._ He thought to have saved himself with witchcraft.

_Barach._ That blind man there said he would kill you. He came from Aoife's country to kill you. That blind man said they had taught him every kind of weapon that he might do it. But I always knew that you would kill him.

_Cuchullain._ [_To the blind man._] You knew him, then?

_Fintain._ I saw him when I had my eyes, in Aoife's country.

_Cuchullain._ You were in Aoife's country?

_Fintain._ I knew him and his mother there.

_Cuchullain._ He was about to speak of her when he died.

_Fintain._ He was a Queen's son.

_Cuchullain._ What Queen, what Queen? [_He seizes the blind man._] Was it Scathach? There were many Queens. All the rulers were Queens.

_Fintain._ No, not Scathach.

_Cuchullain._ It was Uathach, then. Speak, speak!

_Fintain._ I cannot speak, you are clutching me too tightly.

[_CUCHULLAIN lets him go._] I cannot remember who it was. I am not certain. It was some Queen.

_Barach._ He said a while ago that the young man was Aoife's son.

_Cuchullain._ She? No, no, she had no son when I was there.

_Barach._ That blind man there said that she owned him for her son.

_Cuchullain._ I had rather he had been some other woman's son. What father had he? A soldier out of Alba? She was an amorous woman, a proud, pale amorous woman.

_Fintain._ None knew whose son he was.

_Cuchullain._ None knew? Did you know, old listener at doors?

_Fintain._ No, no, I knew nothing.

_Barach._ He said a while ago that he heard Aoife boast that she'd never but the one lover, and he the only man that had overcome her in battle.

[_A pause._

_Fintain._ Somebody is trembling. Why are you trembling, fool? the bench is shaking, why are you trembling? Is Cuchullain going to hurt us? It was not I who told you, Cuchullain.

_Barach._ It is Cuchullain who is trembling. He is shaking the bench with his knees.

_Cuchullain._ He was my son, and I have killed my son.

[_A pause._

'Twas they that did it, the pale windy people, Where, where, where? My sword against the thunder.

But no, for they have always been my friends; And though they love to blow a smoking coal Till it's all flame, the wars they blow aflame Are full of glory, and heart uplifting pride, And not like this; the wars they love awaken Old fingers and the sleepy strings of harps.

Who did it then? Are you afraid; speak out, For I have put you under my protection And will reward you well. Dubthach the Chafer.

He had an old grudge. No, for he is with Maeve.

Laegaire did it. Why do you not speak?