Part 14 (2/2)

_Patrick._ Bring us to the hands that are colder than ice and harder than diamonds.

_Other Monks._ Pull them away! pull them away from him!

[_They are about to seize the Monks who are with_ PAUL RUTTLEDGE.

_Superior._ [_Going between them._] Back! back! I will have no scuffling here. Let the devil take his children if he has a mind to. G.o.d will call His own.

[_The_ Monks _fall back_. SUPERIOR _goes up to altar, takes the cross from it and turns, standing on the steps_.

_Superior._ Father Aloysius, come to me here. [ALOYSIUS _takes_ PAUL RUTTLEDGE'S _hand_.] Father Bartley, Father Colman. [_They go nearer to_ PAUL RUTTLEDGE.] Father Patrick! [_A_ Friar _comes towards him_.] Kneel down! [FATHER PATRICK _kneels_.] Father Clement, Father Nestor, Father James ... leave the heretic--you are on the very edge of the pit. Your shoes are growing red hot.

_A Friar._ I am afraid, I am afraid. [_He kneels._

_Superior._ Kneel down; return to your G.o.d. [_Several_ Monks _kneel_.

_Colman._ They have deserted us.

_Paul Ruttledge._ Many will forsake the truth before the world is pulled down. [_Stretching out his arms over his head._] I pulled down my own house, now I go out to pull down the world.

_Superior._ Strip off those holy habits.

_Paul Ruttledge._ [_Taking off his habit._] One by one I am plucking off the rags and tatters of the world.

ACT V.

Scene: _Smooth level gra.s.s near the Shannon. Ecclesiastical ruins, a part of which have been roofed in. Rocky plain in the distance, with a river._ FATHER COLMAN _sorting some bundles of osiers_.

ALOYSIUS _enters with an empty bag_.

_Colman._ You are the first to come back Aloysius. Where is Brother Bartley?

_Aloysius._ He parted from me at the cross roads and went on to preach at Shanaglish. He should soon be back now.

_Colman._ Have you anything in the bag?

_Aloysius._ Nothing. [_Throws the bag down._] It doesn't seem as if our luck was growing. We have but food enough to last till to-morrow. We have hardly that. The rats from the river got at the few potatoes I gathered from the farmers at Lisheen last week, in the corner where they were.

_Colman._ This is the first day you got nothing at all. Maybe you didn't ask the right way.

_Aloysius._ I asked for alms for the sake of the love of G.o.d. But the first place where I asked it, the man of the house was giving me a handful of meal, and the woman came and called out that we were serving the devil in the name of G.o.d, and she drove me from the door.

_Colman._ It is since the priests preached against us they say that. Did you go on to Lisheen. They used always to treat us well there.

_Aloysius._ I did, but I got on no better there.

_Colman._ That is a wonder, after the woman that had the jaundice being cured with prayers by Brother Paul.

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