The Unicorn from the Stars and Other Plays Part 9

FATHER JOHN. He has gone up the path.

THOMAS. Hurry after him! Tell him to hide himself ... this attack he had a hand in is a hanging crime.... Tell him to hide himself, to come to me when all is quiet ... bad as his doings are, he is my own brother's son; I will get him on to a ship that will be going to France.

FATHER JOHN. That will be best; send him back to the Brothers and to the wise Bishops. They can unravel this tangle. I cannot; I cannot be sure of the truth.

THOMAS. Here are the constables; he will see them and get away.... Say no word.... The Lord be praised that he is out of sight.

[CONSTABLES _come in._]

CONSTABLE. The man we are looking for, where is he? He was seen coming here along with you. You have to give him up into the power of the law.

JOHNNY B. We will not give him up! Go back out of this or you will be sorry.

PAUDEEN. We are not in dread of you or the like of you.

BIDDY. Throw them down over the rocks!

NANNY. Give them to the picking of the crows!

ALL. Down with the law!

FATHER JOHN. Hush! He is coming back. [_To_ CONSTABLES.] Stop, stop ...

leave him to himself. He is not trying to escape; he is coming towards you.

PAUDEEN. There is a sort of a brightness about him. I misjudged him calling him a traitor. It is not to this world he belongs at all. He is over on the other side.

[MARTIN _has come in. He stands higher than the others upon some rocks._]

MARTIN. _Ex calix meus inebrians quam praeclarus est!_

FATHER JOHN. I must know what he has to say. It is not from himself he is speaking.

MARTIN. Father John, heaven is not what we have believed it to be. It is not quiet; it is not singing and making music and all strife at an end. I have seen it, I have been there. The lover still loves, but with a greater pa.s.sion; and the rider still rides, but the horse goes like the wind and leaps the ridges; and the battle goes on always, always.

That is the joy of heaven, continual battle. I thought the battle was here, and that the joy was to be found here on earth, that all one had to do was to bring again the old, wild earth of the stories, but no, it is not here; we shall not come to that joy, that battle, till we have put out the senses, everything that can be seen and handled, as I put out this candle. [_He puts out candle._] We must put out the whole world as I put out this candle [_he puts out candle_]; we must put out the light of the stars and the light of the sun and the light of the moon [_he puts out the remaining candles and comes down to where the others are_], till we have brought everything to nothing once again. I saw in a broken vision, but now all is clear to me. Where there is nothing, where there is nothing ... there is G.o.d!

CONSTABLE. Now we will take him!

JOHNNY B. We will never give him up to the law!

PAUDEEN. Make your escape! We will not let you be followed.

[_They struggle with_ CONSTABLES; _the women help them; all disappear, struggling. There is a shot._ MARTIN _falls dead.

Beggars come back with a shout._]

JOHNNY B. We have done for them; they will not meddle with you again.

PAUDEEN. Oh, he is down!

FATHER JOHN. He is shot through the breast. Oh, who has dared meddle with a soul that was in the tumults on the threshold of sanct.i.ty?

JOHNNY B. It was that gun went off and I striking it from the constable's hand.

MARTIN [_looking at his hand, on which there is blood_]. Ah, that is blood! I fell among the rocks. It is a hard climb. It is a long climb to the vineyards of Eden. Help me up. I must go on. The Mountain of Abiegnos is very high ... but the vineyards ... the vineyards!

[_He falls back, dead. The men uncover their heads._]

PAUDEEN [_to_ BIDDY]. It was you misled him with your foretelling that he was coming within the best day of his life.

JOHNNY B. Madness on him or no madness, I will not leave that body to the law to be buried with a dog's burial or brought away and maybe hanged upon a tree. Lift him on the sacks; bring him away to the quarry; it is there on the hillside the boys will give him a great burying, coming on horses and bearing white rods in their hands.

[_They lift him and carry the body away, singing._]

Our hope and our darling, our heart dies with you.

You to have failed us, we are foals astray!

FATHER JOHN. He is gone, and we can never know where that vision came from. I cannot know; the wise Bishops would have known.

THOMAS [_taking up banner_]. To be shaping a lad through his lifetime, and he to go his own way at the last, and a queer way. It is very queer the world itself is, whatever shape was put upon it at the first!

ANDREW. To be too headstrong and too open, that is the beginning of trouble. To keep to yourself the thing that you know, and to do in quiet the thing you want to do, there would be no disturbance at all in the world, all people to bear that in mind!

CURTAIN

CATHLEEN NI HOULIHAN

CHARACTERS

PETER GILLANE.

MICHAEL GILLANE _his son, going to be married_.

PATRICK GILLANE _a lad of twelve, Michael's brother_.

BRIDGET GILLANE _Peter's wife_.

DELIA CAHEL _engaged to_ MICHAEL.

THE POOR OLD WOMAN.

NEIGHBOURS.