Part 16 (1/2)

_(Goes.)_

_King_: Oh, my poor child! My poor little Nu! I thought it never would come to pa.s.s, I to be sending you to the slaughter. And I too bulky to go out and face him, having led an easy life!

_Princess_: Do not be fretting.

_King_: The world is gone to and fro! I'll never ask satisfaction again either in bed or board, but to be wasting away with watercresses and rising up of a morning before the sun rises in Babylon!

_(Weeps.)_ Oh, we might make out a way to baffle him yet! Is there no meal will serve him only flesh and blood? Try him with Grecian wine, and with what was left of the big dinner a while ago!

_Gateman: (Coming in.)_ There is some strange thing in the ocean from Aran out. At first it was but like a bird's shadow on the sea, and now you would nearly say it to be the big island would have left its moorings, and it steering its course towards Aughanis.h.!.+

_Dall Glic_: I'm in dread it should be the Dragon that has cleared the ocean at a leap!

_King: (Holding Princess.)_ I will not give you up! Let him devour myself along with you!

_Dull Glic: (To Princess.)_ It is best for me to put you in a hiding-hole under the ground, that has seven locked doors and seven locks on the farthest door. It might fail him to make you out.

_Nurse_: Oh, it would be hard for her to go where she cannot hear the voice of a friend or see the light of day!

_Princess_: Would you wish me to save myself and let all the district perish? You heard what Fintan said. It is not right for destruction to be put on a whole province, and the women and the children that I know.

_Queen_: There is maybe time yet for you to wed.

_Princess_: So long as I am living I have a choice.

I will not be saved in that way. It is alone I will be in my death.

_Ma.n.u.s: (Coming to King.)_ I am going out from you, King. I might not be coming in to you again. I would wish to set you free from the promise you made me a while ago, and the bond.

_King_: What does it signify now? What does anything signify, and the world turning here and there!

_Ma.n.u.s_: And another thing. I would wish to ask pardon of the King's daughter. I ought not to have laid any claim to her, being a stranger in this place and without treasure or attendance.

And yet ...and yet ..._(stoops and kisses hem of her dress)_, she was dear to me. It is a man who never may look on her again is saying that.

_(Turns to door.)_

_Taig_: He is going to run from the Dragon!

It is kind father for a scullion to be timid!

_Queen_: It is in his blood. He is maybe not to blame for what is according to his nature.

_Ma.n.u.s_: That is so. I am doing what is according to my nature.

_(Goes, Nurse goes after him.)_

_Queen: (To Dall Glic.)_ Go throw a dishcloth after him that the little lads may be mocking him along the road!

_Dall Glic_: I will not. I have meddled enough at your bidding. I am done with living under dread. Let you blind me entirely! I am free of you. It might be best for me the two eyes to be withered, and I seeing nothing but the ever-living laws!

_Prince of Marshes: (Coming to Princess.)_ It is my grief that with all the teachers I had there was not one to learn me the handling of weapons or of arms. But for all that I will not run away, but will strive to strike one blow in your defence against that wicked beast.

_Princess_: It is a good friend that would rid us of him. But it grieves me that you should go into such danger.