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diff --git a/5795.txt b/5795.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..59b5464 --- /dev/null +++ b/5795.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2363 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Secret Rose, by W. B. Yeats + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Secret Rose + +Author: W. B. Yeats + + +Release Date: May, 2004 [EBook #5795] +This file was first posted on September 1, 2002 +Last Updated: July 3, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SECRET ROSE *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + +THE SECRET ROSE: + +By W.B. Yeats + +THE SECRET ROSE: + + DEDICATION TO A.E. + TO THE SECRET ROSE + THE CRUCIFIXION OF THE OUTCAST + OUT OF THE ROSE + THE WISDOM OF THE KING + THE HEART OF THE SPRING + THE CURSE OF THE FIRES AND OF THE SHADOWS + THE OLD MEN OF THE TWILIGHT + WHERE THERE IS NOTHING, THERE IS GOD + OF COSTELLO THE PROUD, OF OONA THE DAUGHTER OF DERMOTT, AND OF THE + BITTER TONGUE + + +As for living, our servants will do that for us.--_Villiers de L'Isle +Adam._ + + +Helen, when she looked in her mirror, seeing the withered wrinkles +made in her face by old age, wept, and wondered why she had twice been +carried away.--_Leonardo da Vinci_. + + +_My dear A.E.--I dedicate this book to you because, whether you think +it well or ill written, you will sympathize with the sorrows and +the ecstasies of its personages, perhaps even more than I do myself. +Although I wrote these stories at different times and in different +manners, and without any definite plan, they have but one subject, the +war of spiritual with natural order; and how can I dedicate such a book +to anyone but to you, the one poet of modern Ireland who has moulded +a spiritual ecstasy into verse? My friends in Ireland sometimes ask me +when I am going to write a really national poem or romance, and by a +national poem or romance I understand them to mean a poem or romance +founded upon some famous moment of Irish history, and built up out of +the thoughts and feelings which move the greater number of patriotic +Irishmen. I on the other hand believe that poetry and romance cannot +be made by the most conscientious study of famous moments and of the +thoughts and feelings of others, but only by looking into that little, +infinite, faltering, eternal flame that we call ourselves. If a writer +wishes to interest a certain people among whom he has grown up, or +fancies he has a duty towards them, he may choose for the symbols of his +art their legends, their history, their beliefs, their opinions, because +he has a right to choose among things less than himself, but he cannot +choose among the substances of art. So far, however, as this book is +visionary it is Irish for Ireland, which is still predominantly Celtic, +has preserved with some less excellent things a gift of vision, which +has died out among more hurried and more successful nations: no shining +candelabra have prevented us from looking into the darkness, and when +one looks into the darkness there is always something there. + +W.B. YEATS._ + + + + +TO THE SECRET ROSE + + Far off, most secret, and inviolate Rose, + Enfold me in my hour of hours; where those + Who sought thee at the Holy Sepulchre, + Or in the wine-vat, dwell beyond the stir + And tumult of defeated dreams; and deep + Among pale eyelids heavy with the sleep + Men have named beauty. Your great leaves enfold + The ancient beards, the helms of ruby and gold + Of the crowned Magi; and the king whose eyes + Saw the Pierced Hands and Rood of Elder rise + In druid vapour and make the torches dim; + Till vain frenzy awoke and he died; and him + Who met Fand walking among flaming dew, + By a grey shore where the wind never blew, + And lost the world and Emir for a kiss; + And him who drove the gods out of their liss + And till a hundred morns had flowered red + Feasted, and wept the barrows of his dead; + And the proud dreaming king who flung the crown + And sorrow away, and calling bard and clown + Dwelt among wine-stained wanderers in deep woods; + And him who sold tillage and house and goods, + And sought through lands and islands numberless years + Until he found with laughter and with tears + A woman of so shining loveliness + That men threshed corn at midnight by a tress, + A little stolen tress. I too await + The hour of thy great wind of love and hate. + When shall the stars be blown about the sky, + Like the sparks blown out of a smithy, and die? + Surely thine hour has come, thy great wind blows, + Far off, most secret, and inviolate Rose? + + + + +THE CRUCIFIXION OF THE OUTCAST. + +A man, with thin brown hair and a pale face, half ran, half walked, +along the road that wound from the south to the town of Sligo. Many +called him Cumhal, the son of Cormac, and many called him the Swift, +Wild Horse; and he was a gleeman, and he wore a short parti-coloured +doublet, and had pointed shoes, and a bulging wallet. Also he was of the +blood of the Ernaans, and his birth-place was the Field of Gold; but +his eating and sleeping places where the four provinces of Eri, and his +abiding place was not upon the ridge of the earth. His eyes strayed from +the Abbey tower of the White Friars and the town battlements to a row +of crosses which stood out against the sky upon a hill a little to the +eastward of the town, and he clenched his fist, and shook it at the +crosses. He knew they were not empty, for the birds were fluttering +about them; and he thought how, as like as not, just such another +vagabond as himself was hanged on one of them; and he muttered: 'If it +were hanging or bowstringing, or stoning or beheading, it would be bad +enough. But to have the birds pecking your eyes and the wolves eating +your feet! I would that the red wind of the Druids had withered in +his cradle the soldier of Dathi, who brought the tree of death out of +barbarous lands, or that the lightning, when it smote Dathi at the foot +of the mountain, had smitten him also, or that his grave had been dug by +the green-haired and green-toothed merrows deep at the roots of the deep +sea.' + +While he spoke, he shivered from head to foot, and the sweat came out +upon his face, and he knew not why, for he had looked upon many crosses. +He passed over two hills and under the battlemented gate, and then round +by a left-hand way to the door of the Abbey. It was studded with great +nails, and when he knocked at it, he roused the lay brother who was the +porter, and of him he asked a place in the guest-house. Then the lay +brother took a glowing turf on a shovel, and led the way to a big and +naked outhouse strewn with very dirty rushes; and lighted a rush-candle +fixed between two of the stones of the wall, and set the glowing turf +upon the hearth and gave him two unlighted sods and a wisp of straw, +and showed him a blanket hanging from a nail, and a shelf with a loaf +of bread and a jug of water, and a tub in a far corner. Then the lay +brother left him and went back to his place by the door. And Cumhal the +son of Cormac began to blow upon the glowing turf that he might light +the two sods and the wisp of straw; but the sods and the straw would not +light, for they were damp. So he took off his pointed shoes, and drew +the tub out of the corner with the thought of washing the dust of the +highway from his feet; but the water was so dirty that he could not see +the bottom. He was very hungry, for he had not eaten all that day; so he +did not waste much anger upon the tub, but took up the black loaf, and +bit into it, and then spat out the bite, for the bread was hard and +mouldy. Still he did not give way to his anger, for he had not drunken +these many hours; having a hope of heath beer or wine at his day's end, +he had left the brooks untasted, to make his supper the more delightful. +Now he put the jug to his lips, but he flung it from him straightway, +for the water was bitter and ill-smelling. Then he gave the jug a kick, +so that it broke against the opposite wall, and he took down the blanket +to wrap it about him for the night. But no sooner did he touch it than +it was alive with skipping fleas. At this, beside himself with anger, he +rushed to the door of the guest-house, but the lay brother, being well +accustomed to such outcries, had locked it on the outside; so he emptied +the tub and began to beat the door with it, till the lay brother came +to the door and asked what ailed him, and why he woke him out of sleep. +'What ails me!' shouted Cumhal, 'are not the sods as wet as the sands +of the Three Rosses? and are not the fleas in the blanket as many as +the waves of the sea and as lively? and is not the bread as hard as the +heart of a lay brother who has forgotten God? and is not the water +in the jug as bitter and as ill-smelling as his soul? and is not the +foot-water the colour that shall be upon him when he has been charred in +the Undying Fires?' The lay brother saw that the lock was fast, and +went back to his niche, for he was too sleepy to talk with comfort. +And Cumhal went on beating at the door, and presently he heard the +lay brother's foot once more, and cried out at him, 'O cowardly and +tyrannous race of friars, persecutors of the bard and the gleeman, +haters of life and joy! O race that does not draw the sword and tell the +truth! O race that melts the bones of the people with cowardice and with +deceit!' + +'Gleeman,' said the lay brother, 'I also make rhymes; I make many while +I sit in my niche by the door, and I sorrow to hear the bards railing +upon the friars. Brother, I would sleep, and therefore I make known to +you that it is the head of the monastery, our gracious abbot, who orders +all things concerning the lodging of travellers.' + +'You may sleep,' said Cumhal, 'I will sing a bard's curse on the abbot. +'And he set the tub upside down under the window, and stood upon it, and +began to sing in a very loud voice. The singing awoke the abbot, so that +he sat up in bed and blew a silver whistle until the lay brother came +to him. 'I cannot get a wink of sleep with that noise,' said the abbot. +'What is happening?' + +'It is a gleeman,' said the lay brother, 'who complains of the sods, +of the bread, of the water in the jug, of the foot-water, and of the +blanket. And now he is singing a bard's curse upon you, O brother abbot, +and upon your father and your mother, and your grandfather and your +grandmother, and upon all your relations.' + +'Is he cursing in rhyme?' + +'He is cursing in rhyme, and with two assonances in every line of his +curse.' + +The abbot pulled his night-cap off and crumpled it in his hands, and the +circular brown patch of hair in the middle of his bald head looked like +an island in the midst of a pond, for in Connaught they had not yet +abandoned the ancient tonsure for the style then coming into use. 'If we +do not somewhat,' he said, 'he will teach his curses to the children in +the street, and the girls spinning at the doors, and to the robbers upon +Ben Bulben.' + +'Shall I go, then,' said the other, 'and give him dry sods, a fresh +loaf, clean water in a jug, clean foot-water, and a new blanket, and +make him swear by the blessed Saint Benignus, and by the sun and moon, +that no bond be lacking, not to tell his rhymes to the children in the +street, and the girls spinning at the doors, and the robbers upon Ben +Bulben?' + +'Neither our Blessed Patron nor the sun and moon would avail at all,' +said the abbot; 'for to-morrow or the next day the mood to curse would +come upon him, or a pride in those rhymes would move him, and he would +teach his lines to the children, and the girls, and the robbers. Or else +he would tell another of his craft how he fared in the guest-house, and +he in his turn would begin to curse, and my name would wither. For learn +there is no steadfastness of purpose upon the roads, but only under +roofs and between four walls. Therefore I bid you go and awaken Brother +Kevin, Brother Dove, Brother Little Wolf, Brother Bald Patrick, Brother +Bald Brandon, Brother James and Brother Peter. And they shall take the +man, and bind him with ropes, and dip him in the river that he shall +cease to sing. And in the morning, lest this but make him curse the +louder, we will crucify him.' + +'The crosses are all full,' said the lay brother. + +'Then we must make another cross. If we do not make an end of him +another will, for who can eat and sleep in peace while men like him +are going about the world? Ill should we stand before blessed Saint +Benignus, and sour would be his face when he comes to judge us at the +Last Day, were we to spare an enemy of his when we had him under our +thumb! Brother, the bards and the gleemen are an evil race, ever cursing +and ever stirring up the people, and immoral and immoderate in all +things, and heathen in their hearts, always longing after the Son of +Lir, and Aengus, and Bridget, and the Dagda, and Dana the Mother, and +all the false gods of the old days; always making poems in praise of +those kings and queens of the demons, Finvaragh, whose home is under +Cruachmaa, and Red Aodh of Cnocna-Sidhe, and Cleena of the Wave, and +Aoibhell of the Grey Rock, and him they call Donn of the Vats of the +Sea; and railing against God and Christ and the blessed Saints.' While +he was speaking he crossed himself, and when he had finished he drew the +nightcap over his ears, to shut out the noise, and closed his eyes, and +composed himself to sleep. + +The lay brother found Brother Kevin, Brother Dove, Brother Little Wolf, +Brother Bald Patrick, Brother Bald Brandon, Brother James and Brother +Peter sitting up in bed, and he made them get up. Then they bound +Cumhal, and they dragged him to the river, and they dipped him in it at +the place which was afterwards called Buckley's Ford. + +'Gleeman,' said the lay brother, as they led him back to the +guest-house, 'why do you ever use the wit which God has given you to +make blasphemous and immoral tales and verses? For such is the way of +your craft. I have, indeed, many such tales and verses well nigh by +rote, and so I know that I speak true! And why do you praise with rhyme +those demons, Finvaragh, Red Aodh, Cleena, Aoibhell and Donn? I, too, am +a man of great wit and learning, but I ever glorify our gracious abbot, +and Benignus our Patron, and the princes of the province. My soul is +decent and orderly, but yours is like the wind among the salley gardens. +I said what I could for you, being also a man of many thoughts, but who +could help such a one as you?' + +'Friend,' answered the gleeman, 'my soul is indeed like the wind, and it +blows me to and fro, and up and down, and puts many things into my mind +and out of my mind, and therefore am I called the Swift, Wild Horse.' +And he spoke no more that night, for his teeth were chattering with the +cold. + +The abbot and the friars came to him in the morning, and bade him get +ready to be crucified, and led him out of the guest-house. And while he +still stood upon the step a flock of great grass-barnacles passed high +above him with clanking cries. He lifted his arms to them and said, 'O +great grass-barnacles, tarry a little, and mayhap my soul will travel +with you to the waste places of the shore and to the ungovernable sea!' +At the gate a crowd of beggars gathered about them, being come there to +beg from any traveller or pilgrim who might have spent the night in the +guest-house. The abbot and the friars led the gleeman to a place in the +woods at some distance, where many straight young trees were growing, +and they made him cut one down and fashion it to the right length, while +the beggars stood round them in a ring, talking and gesticulating. The +abbot then bade him cut off another and shorter piece of wood, and nail +it upon the first. So there was his cross for him; and they put it upon +his shoulder, for his crucifixion was to be on the top of the hill where +the others were. A half-mile on the way he asked them to stop and see +him juggle for them; for he knew, he said, all the tricks of Aengus +the Subtle-hearted. The old friars were for pressing on, but the young +friars would see him: so he did many wonders for them, even to the +drawing of live frogs out of his ears. But after a while they turned on +him, and said his tricks were dull and a shade unholy, and set the cross +on his shoulders again. Another half-mile on the way, and he asked them +to stop and hear him jest for them, for he knew, he said, all the jests +of Conan the Bald, upon whose back a sheep's wool grew. And the young +friars, when they had heard his merry tales, again bade him take up +his cross, for it ill became them to listen to such follies. Another +half-mile on the way, he asked them to stop and hear him sing the story +of White-breasted Deirdre, and how she endured many sorrows, and how the +sons of Usna died to serve her. And the young friars were mad to hear +him, but when he had ended they grew angry, and beat him for waking +forgotten longings in their hearts. So they set the cross upon his back +and hurried him to the hill. + +When he was come to the top, they took the cross from him, and began to +dig a hole to stand it in, while the beggars gathered round, and talked +among themselves. 'I ask a favour before I die,' says Cumhal. + +'We will grant you no more delays,' says the abbot. + +'I ask no more delays, for I have drawn the sword, and told the truth, +and lived my vision, and am content.' + +'Would you, then, confess?' + +'By sun and moon, not I; I ask but to be let eat the food I carry in my +wallet. I carry food in my wallet whenever I go upon a journey, but I +do not taste of it unless I am well-nigh starved. I have not eaten now +these two days.' + +'You may eat, then,' says the abbot, and he turned to help the friars +dig the hole. + +The gleeman took a loaf and some strips of cold fried bacon out of his +wallet and laid them upon the ground. 'I will give a tithe to the poor,' +says he, and he cut a tenth part from the loaf and the bacon. 'Who among +you is the poorest?' And thereupon was a great clamour, for the beggars +began the history of their sorrows and their poverty, and their yellow +faces swayed like Gara Lough when the floods have filled it with water +from the bogs. + +He listened for a little, and, says he, 'I am myself the poorest, for +I have travelled the bare road, and by the edges of the sea; and the +tattered doublet of particoloured cloth upon my back and the torn +pointed shoes upon my feet have ever irked me, because of the towered +city full of noble raiment which was in my heart. And I have been the +more alone upon the roads and by the sea because I heard in my heart +the rustling of the rose-bordered dress of her who is more subtle than +Aengus, the Subtle-hearted, and more full of the beauty of laughter than +Conan the Bald, and more full of the wisdom of tears than White-breasted +Deirdre, and more lovely than a bursting dawn to them that are lost in +the darkness. Therefore, I award the tithe to myself; but yet, because I +am done with all things, I give it unto you.' + +So he flung the bread and the strips of bacon among the beggars, +and they fought with many cries until the last scrap was eaten. But +meanwhile the friars nailed the gleeman to his cross, and set it upright +in the hole, and shovelled the earth in at the foot, and trampled it +level and hard. So then they went away, but the beggars stared on, +sitting round the cross. But when the sun was sinking, they also got up +to go, for the air was getting chilly. And as soon as they had gone a +little way, the wolves, who had been showing themselves on the edge of +a neighbouring coppice, came nearer, and the birds wheeled closer and +closer. 'Stay, outcasts, yet a little while,' the crucified one called +in a weak voice to the beggars, 'and keep the beasts and the birds from +me.' But the beggars were angry because he had called them outcasts, so +they threw stones and mud at him, and went their way. Then the wolves +gathered at the foot of the cross, and the birds flew lower and lower. +And presently the birds lighted all at once upon his head and arms and +shoulders, and began to peck at him, and the wolves began to eat his +feet. 'Outcasts,' he moaned, 'have you also turned against the outcast?' + + + + +OUT OF THE ROSE. + + +One winter evening an old knight in rusted chain-armour rode slowly +along the woody southern slope of Ben Bulben, watching the sun go down +in crimson clouds over the sea. His horse was tired, as after a long +journey, and he had upon his helmet the crest of no neighbouring lord or +king, but a small rose made of rubies that glimmered every moment to a +deeper crimson. His white hair fell in thin curls upon his shoulders, +and its disorder added to the melancholy of his face, which was the face +of one of those who have come but seldom into the world, and always for +its trouble, the dreamers who must do what they dream, the doers who +must dream what they do. + +After gazing a while towards the sun, he let the reins fall upon the +neck of his horse, and, stretching out both arms towards the west, he +said, 'O Divine Rose of Intellectual Flame, let the gates of thy peace +be opened to me at last!' And suddenly a loud squealing began in the +woods some hundreds of yards further up the mountain side. He stopped +his horse to listen, and heard behind him a sound of feet and of voices. +'They are beating them to make them go into the narrow path by the +gorge,' said someone, and in another moment a dozen peasants armed with +short spears had come up with the knight, and stood a little apart from +him, their blue caps in their hands. Where do you go with the +spears?' he asked; and one who seemed the leader answered: 'A troop of +wood-thieves came down from the hills a while ago and carried off the +pigs belonging to an old man who lives by Glen Car Lough, and we turned +out to go after them. Now that we know they are four times more than we +are, we follow to find the way they have taken; and will presently tell +our story to De Courcey, and if he will not help us, to Fitzgerald; for +De Courcey and Fitzgerald have lately made a peace, and we do not know +to whom we belong.' + +'But by that time,' said the knight, 'the pigs will have been eaten.' + +'A dozen men cannot do more, and it was not reasonable that the whole +valley should turn out and risk their lives for two, or for two dozen +pigs.' + +'Can you tell me,' said the knight, 'if the old man to whom the pigs +belong is pious and true of heart?' + +'He is as true as another and more pious than any, for he says a prayer +to a saint every morning before his breakfast.' + +'Then it were well to fight in his cause,' said the knight, 'and if you +will fight against the wood-thieves I will take the main brunt of the +battle, and you know well that a man in armour is worth many like these +wood-thieves, clad in wool and leather.' + +And the leader turned to his fellows and asked if they would take the +chance; but they seemed anxious to get back to their cabins. + +'Are the wood-thieves treacherous and impious?' + +'They are treacherous in all their dealings,' said a peasant, 'and no +man has known them to pray.' + +'Then,' said the knight, 'I will give five crowns for the head of every +wood-thief killed by us in the fighting'; and he bid the leader show the +way, and they all went on together. After a time they came to where a +beaten track wound into the woods, and, taking this, they doubled back +upon their previous course, and began to ascend the wooded slope of the +mountains. In a little while the path grew very straight and steep, +and the knight was forced to dismount and leave his horse tied to a +tree-stem. They knew they were on the right track: for they could see +the marks of pointed shoes in the soft clay and mingled with them the +cloven footprints of the pigs. Presently the path became still more +abrupt, and they knew by the ending of the cloven foot-prints that the +thieves were carrying the pigs. Now and then a long mark in the clay +showed that a pig had slipped down, and been dragged along for a little +way. They had journeyed thus for about twenty minutes, when a confused +sound of voices told them that they were coming up with the thieves. And +then the voices ceased, and they understood that they had been overheard +in their turn. They pressed on rapidly and cautiously, and in about five +minutes one of them caught sight of a leather jerkin half hidden by a +hazel-bush. An arrow struck the knight's chain-armour, but glanced off +harmlessly, and then a flight of arrows swept by them with the buzzing +sound of great bees. They ran and climbed, and climbed and ran towards +the thieves, who were now all visible standing up among the bushes +with their still quivering bows in their hands: for they had only their +spears and they must at once come hand to hand. The knight was in the +front and smote down first one and then another of the wood-thieves. The +peasants shouted, and, pressing on, drove the wood-thieves before them +until they came out on the flat top of the mountain, and there they saw +the two pigs quietly grubbing in the short grass, so they ran about them +in a circle, and began to move back again towards the narrow path: the +old knight coming now the last of all, and striking down thief after +thief. The peasants had got no very serious hurts among them, for he had +drawn the brunt of the battle upon himself, as could well be seen from +the bloody rents in his armour; and when they came to the entrance of +the narrow path he bade them drive the pigs down into the valley, while +he stood there to guard the way behind them. So in a moment he was +alone, and, being weak with loss of blood, might have been ended there +and then by the wood-thieves he had beaten off, had fear not made them +begone out of sight in a great hurry. + +An hour passed, and they did not return; and now the knight could stand +on guard no longer, but had to lie down upon the grass. A half-hour +more went by, and then a young lad with what appeared to be a number of +cock's feathers stuck round his hat, came out of the path behind him, +and began to move about among the dead thieves, cutting their heads off, +Then he laid the heads in a heap before the knight, and said: 'O great +knight, I have been bid come and ask you for the crowns you promised +for the heads: five crowns a head. They bid me tell you that they have +prayed to God and His Mother to give you a long life, but that they are +poor peasants, and that they would have the money before you die. They +told me this over and over for fear I might forget it, and promised to +beat me if I did.' + +The knight raised himself upon his elbow, and opening a bag that hung to +his belt, counted out the five crowns for each head. There were thirty +heads in all. + +'O great knight,' said the lad, 'they have also bid me take all care of +you, and light a fire, and put this ointment upon your wounds.' And he +gathered sticks and leaves together, and, flashing his flint and steel +under a mass of dry leaves, had made a very good blaze. Then, drawing of +the coat of mail, he began to anoint the wounds: but he did it clumsily, +like one who does by rote what he had been told. The knight motioned him +to stop, and said: 'You seem a good lad.' + +'I would ask something of you for myself.' + +'There are still a few crowns,' said the knight; 'shall I give them to +you?' + +'O no,' said the lad. 'They would be no good to me. There is only one +thing that I care about doing, and I have no need of money to do it. I +go from village to village and from hill to hill, and whenever I come +across a good cock I steal him and take him into the woods, and I keep +him there under a basket until I get another good cock, and then I set +them to fight. The people say I am an innocent, and do not do me any +harm, and never ask me to do any work but go a message now and then. It +is because I am an innocent that they send me to get the crowns: anyone +else would steal them; and they dare not come back themselves, for now +that you are not with them they are afraid of the wood-thieves. Did you +ever hear how, when the wood-thieves are christened, the wolves are made +their god-fathers, and their right arms are not christened at all?' + +'If you will not take these crowns, my good lad, I have nothing for you, +I fear, unless you would have that old coat of mail which I shall soon +need no more.' + +'There was something I wanted: yes, I remember now,' said the lad. 'I +want you to tell me why you fought like the champions and giants in the +stories and for so little a thing. Are you indeed a man like us? Are +you not rather an old wizard who lives among these hills, and will not a +wind arise presently and crumble you into dust?' + +'I will tell you of myself,' replied the knight, 'for now that I am the +last of the fellowship, 'I may tell all and witness for God. Look at +the Rose of Rubies on my helmet, and see the symbol of my life and of +my hope.' And then he told the lad this story, but with always +more frequent pauses; and, while he told it, the Rose shone a deep +blood-colour in the firelight, and the lad stuck the cock's feathers in +the earth in front of him, and moved them about as though he made them +actors in the play. + +'I live in a land far from this, and was one of the Knights of St. +John,' said the old man; 'but I was one of those in the Order who always +longed for more arduous labours in the service of the Most High. At last +there came to us a knight of Palestine, to whom the truth of truths had +been revealed by God Himself. He had seen a great Rose of Fire, and a +Voice out of the Rose had told him how men would turn from the light of +their own hearts, and bow down before outer order and outer fixity, and +that then the light would cease, and none escape the curse except the +foolish good man who could not, and the passionate wicked man who would +not, think. Already, the Voice told him, the wayward light of the heart +was shining out upon the world to keep it alive, with a less clear +lustre, and that, as it paled, a strange infection was touching the +stars and the hills and the grass and the trees with corruption, and +that none of those who had seen clearly the truth and the ancient way +could enter into the Kingdom of God, which is in the Heart of the Rose, +if they stayed on willingly in the corrupted world; and so they must +prove their anger against the Powers of Corruption by dying in the +service of the Rose of God. While the Knight of Palestine was telling +us these things we seemed to see in a vision a crimson Rose spreading +itself about him, so that he seemed to speak out of its heart, and the +air was filled with fragrance. By this we knew that it was the very +Voice of God which spoke to us by the knight, and we gathered about +him and bade him direct us in all things, and teach us how to obey the +Voice. So he bound us with an oath, and gave us signs and words whereby +we might know each other even after many years, and he appointed places +of meeting, and he sent us out in troops into the world to seek good +causes, and die in doing battle for them. At first we thought to die +more readily by fasting to death in honour of some saint; but this he +told us was evil, for we did it for the sake of death, and thus took out +of the hands of God the choice of the time and manner of our death, and +by so doing made His power the less. We must choose our service for its +excellence, and for this alone, and leave it to God to reward us at His +own time and in His own manner. And after this he compelled us to eat +always two at a table to watch each other lest we fasted unduly, for +some among us said that if one fasted for a love of the holiness of +saints and then died, the death would be acceptable. And the years +passed, and one by one my fellows died in the Holy Land, or in warring +upon the evil princes of the earth, or in clearing the roads of robbers; +and among them died the knight of Palestine, and at last I was alone. I +fought in every cause where the few contended against the many, and +my hair grew white, and a terrible fear lest I had fallen under the +displeasure of God came upon me. But, hearing at last how this western +isle was fuller of wars and rapine than any other land, I came hither, +and I have found the thing I sought, and, behold! I am filled with a +great joy.' + +Thereat he began to sing in Latin, and, while he sang, his voice grew +fainter and fainter. Then his eyes closed, and his lips fell apart, and +the lad knew he was dead. 'He has told me a good tale,' he said, 'for +there was fighting in it, but I did not understand much of it, and it is +hard to remember so long a story.' + +And, taking the knight's sword, he began to dig a grave in the soft +clay. He dug hard, and a faint light of dawn had touched his hair and he +had almost done his work when a cock crowed in the valley below. 'Ah,' +he said, 'I must have that bird'; and he ran down the narrow path to the +valley. + + + + +THE WISDOM OF THE KING. + + +The High-Queen of the Island of Woods had died in childbirth, and +her child was put to nurse with a woman who lived in a hut of mud and +wicker, within the border of the wood. One night the woman sat rocking +the cradle, and pondering over the beauty of the child, and praying that +the gods might grant him wisdom equal to his beauty. There came a knock +at the door, and she got up, not a little wondering, for the nearest +neighbours were in the dun of the High-King a mile away; and the night +was now late. 'Who is knocking?' she cried, and a thin voice answered, +'Open! for I am a crone of the grey hawk, and I come from the darkness +of the great wood.' In terror she drew back the bolt, and a grey-clad +woman, of a great age, and of a height more than human, came in and +stood by the head of the cradle. The nurse shrank back against the wall, +unable to take her eyes from the woman, for she saw by the gleaming +of the firelight that the feathers of the grey hawk were upon her head +instead of hair. But the child slept, and the fire danced, for the +one was too ignorant and the other too full of gaiety to know what a +dreadful being stood there. 'Open!' cried another voice, 'for I am a +crone of the grey hawk, and I watch over his nest in the darkness of the +great wood.' The nurse opened the door again, though her fingers could +scarce hold the bolts for trembling, and another grey woman, not less +old than the other, and with like feathers instead of hair, came in and +stood by the first. In a little, came a third grey woman, and after her +a fourth, and then another and another and another, until the hut was +full of their immense bodies. They stood a long time in perfect silence +and stillness, for they were of those whom the dropping of the sand has +never troubled, but at last one muttered in a low thin voice: 'Sisters, +I knew him far away by the redness of his heart under his silver skin'; +and then another spoke: 'Sisters, I knew him because his heart fluttered +like a bird under a net of silver cords '; and then another took up the +word: 'Sisters, I knew him because his heart sang like a bird that is +happy in a silver cage.' And after that they sang together, those who +were nearest rocking the cradle with long wrinkled fingers; and their +voices were now tender and caressing, now like the wind blowing in the +great wood, and this was their song: + + Out of sight is out of mind: + Long have man and woman-kind, + Heavy of will and light of mood, + Taken away our wheaten food, + Taken away our Altar stone; + Hail and rain and thunder alone, + And red hearts we turn to grey, + Are true till Time gutter away. + +When the song had died out, the crone who had first spoken, said: 'We +have nothing more to do but to mix a drop of our blood into his blood.' +And she scratched her arm with the sharp point of a spindle, which she +had made the nurse bring to her, and let a drop of blood, grey as the +mist, fall upon the lips of the child; and passed out into the darkness. +Then the others passed out in silence one by one; and all the while the +child had not opened his pink eyelids or the fire ceased to dance, for +the one was too ignorant and the other too full of gaiety to know what +great beings had bent over the cradle. + +When the crones were gone, the nurse came to her courage again, and +hurried to the dun of the High-King, and cried out in the midst of the +assembly hall that the Sidhe, whether for good or evil she knew not, had +bent over the child that night; and the king and his poets and men of +law, and his huntsmen, and his cooks, and his chief warriors went with +her to the hut and gathered about the cradle, and were as noisy as +magpies, and the child sat up and looked at them. + +Two years passed over, and the king died fighting against the Fer Bolg; +and the poets and the men of law ruled in the name of the child, but +looked to see him become the master himself before long, for no one +had seen so wise a child, and tales of his endless questions about +the household of the gods and the making of the world went hither and +thither among the wicker houses of the poor. Everything had been well +but for a miracle that began to trouble all men; and all women, who, +indeed, talked of it without ceasing. The feathers of the grey hawk +had begun to grow in the child's hair, and though, his nurse cut them +continually, in but a little while they would be more numerous than +ever. This had not been a matter of great moment, for miracles were a +little thing in those days, but for an ancient law of Eri that none who +had any blemish of body could sit upon the throne; and as a grey +hawk was a wild thing of the air which had never sat at the board, or +listened to the songs of the poets in the light of the fire, it was not +possible to think of one in whose hair its feathers grew as other than +marred and blasted; nor could the people separate from their admiration +of the wisdom that grew in him a horror as at one of unhuman blood. Yet +all were resolved that he should reign, for they had suffered much from +foolish kings and their own disorders, and moreover they desired to +watch out the spectacle of his days; and no one had any other fear but +that his great wisdom might bid him obey the law, and call some other, +who had but a common mind, to reign in his stead. + +When the child was seven years old the poets and the men of law were +called together by the chief poet, and all these matters weighed and +considered. The child had already seen that those about him had hair +only, and, though they had told him that they too had had feathers but +had lost them because of a sin committed by their forefathers, they knew +that he would learn the truth when he began to wander into the country +round about. After much consideration they decreed a new law commanding +every one upon pain of death to mingle artificially the feathers of the +grey hawk into his hair; and they sent men with nets and slings and bows +into the countries round about to gather a sufficiency of feathers. They +decreed also that any who told the truth to the child should be flung +from a cliff into the sea. + +The years passed, and the child grew from childhood into boyhood and +from boyhood into manhood, and from being curious about all things +he became busy with strange and subtle thoughts which came to him in +dreams, and with distinctions between things long held the same and +with the resemblance of things long held different. Multitudes came from +other lands to see him and to ask his counsel, but there were guards set +at the frontiers, who compelled all that came to wear the feathers of +the grey hawk in their hair. While they listened to him his words seemed +to make all darkness light and filled their hearts like music; but, +alas, when they returned to their own lands his words seemed far off, +and what they could remember too strange and subtle to help them to live +out their hasty days. A number indeed did live differently afterwards, +but their new life was less excellent than the old: some among them had +long served a good cause, but when they heard him praise it and their +labour, they returned to their own lands to find what they had loved +less lovable and their arm lighter in the battle, for he had taught them +how little a hair divides the false and true; others, again, who +had served no cause, but wrought in peace the welfare of their own +households, when he had expounded the meaning of their purpose, found +their bones softer and their will less ready for toil, for he had shown +them greater purposes; and numbers of the young, when they had heard him +upon all these things, remembered certain words that became like a fire +in their hearts, and made all kindly joys and traffic between man and +man as nothing, and went different ways, but all into vague regret. + +When any asked him concerning the common things of life; disputes about +the mear of a territory, or about the straying of cattle, or about the +penalty of blood; he would turn to those nearest him for advice; but +this was held to be from courtesy, for none knew that these matters were +hidden from him by thoughts and dreams that filled his mind like the +marching and counter-marching of armies. Far less could any know that +his heart wandered lost amid throngs of overcoming thoughts and dreams, +shuddering at its own consuming solitude. + +Among those who came to look at him and to listen to him was the +daughter of a little king who lived a great way off; and when he saw her +he loved, for she was beautiful, with a strange and pale beauty unlike +the women of his land; but Dana, the great mother, had decreed her a +heart that was but as the heart of others, and when she considered the +mystery of the hawk feathers she was troubled with a great horror. He +called her to him when the assembly was over and told her of her beauty, +and praised her simply and frankly as though she were a fable of the +bards; and he asked her humbly to give him her love, for he was +only subtle in his dreams. Overwhelmed with his greatness, she half +consented, and yet half refused, for she longed to marry some warrior +who could carry her over a mountain in his arms. Day by day the king +gave her gifts; cups with ears of gold and findrinny wrought by the +craftsmen of distant lands; cloth from over sea, which, though woven +with curious figures, seemed to her less beautiful than the bright cloth +of her own country; and still she was ever between a smile and a frown; +between yielding and withholding. He laid down his wisdom at her feet, +and told how the heroes when they die return to the world and begin +their labour anew; how the kind and mirthful Men of Dea drove out the +huge and gloomy and misshapen People from Under the Sea; and a multitude +of things that even the Sidhe have forgotten, either because they +happened so long ago or because they have not time to think of them; and +still she half refused, and still he hoped, because he could not believe +that a beauty so much like wisdom could hide a common heart. + +There was a tall young man in the dun who had yellow hair, and was +skilled in wrestling and in the training of horses; and one day when the +king walked in the orchard, which was between the foss and the forest, +he heard his voice among the salley bushes which hid the waters of the +foss. 'My blossom,' it said, 'I hate them for making you weave these +dingy feathers into your beautiful hair, and all that the bird of prey +upon the throne may sleep easy o' nights'; and then the low, musical +voice he loved answered: 'My hair is not beautiful like yours; and now +that I have plucked the feathers out of your hair I will put my hands +through it, thus, and thus, and thus; for it casts no shadow of terror +and darkness upon my heart.' Then the king remembered many things that +he had forgotten without understanding them, doubtful words of his poets +and his men of law, doubts that he had reasoned away, his own continual +solitude; and he called to the lovers in a trembling voice. They came +from among the salley bushes and threw themselves at his feet and prayed +for pardon, and he stooped down and plucked the feathers out of the hair +of the woman and then turned away towards the dun without a word. He +strode into the hall of assembly, and having gathered his poets and his +men of law about him, stood upon the dais and spoke in a loud, clear +voice: 'Men of law, why did you make me sin against the laws of Eri? Men +of verse, why did you make me sin against the secrecy of wisdom, for law +was made by man for the welfare of man, but wisdom the gods have made, +and no man shall live by its light, for it and the hail and the rain and +the thunder follow a way that is deadly to mortal things? Men of law and +men of verse, live according to your kind, and call Eocha of the Hasty +Mind to reign over you, for I set out to find my kindred.' He then came +down among them, and drew out of the hair of first one and then another +the feathers of the grey hawk, and, having scattered them over the +rushes upon the floor, passed out, and none dared to follow him, for +his eyes gleamed like the eyes of the birds of prey; and no man saw him +again or heard his voice. Some believed that he found his eternal abode +among the demons, and some that he dwelt henceforth with the dark and +dreadful goddesses, who sit all night about the pools in the forest +watching the constellations rising and setting in those desolate +mirrors. + + + + +THE HEART OF THE SPRING. + + +A very old man, whose face was almost as fleshless as the foot of a +bird, sat meditating upon the rocky shore of the flat and hazel-covered +isle which fills the widest part of the Lough Gill. A russet-faced boy +of seventeen years sat by his side, watching the swallows dipping for +flies in the still water. The old man was dressed in threadbare blue +velvet, and the boy wore a frieze coat and a blue cap, and had about his +neck a rosary of blue beads. Behind the two, and half hidden by trees, +was a little monastery. It had been burned down a long while before by +sacrilegious men of the Queen's party, but had been roofed anew with +rushes by the boy, that the old man might find shelter in his last days. +He had not set his spade, however, into the garden about it, and the +lilies and the roses of the monks had spread out until their confused +luxuriancy met and mingled with the narrowing circle of the fern. Beyond +the lilies and the roses the ferns were so deep that a child walking +among them would be hidden from sight, even though he stood upon his +toes; and beyond the fern rose many hazels and small oak trees. + +'Master,' said the boy, 'this long fasting, and the labour of beckoning +after nightfall with your rod of quicken wood to the beings who dwell +in the waters and among the hazels and oak-trees, is too much for your +strength. Rest from all this labour for a little, for your hand seemed +more heavy upon my shoulder and your feet less steady under you to-day +than I have known them. Men say that you are older than the eagles, +and yet you will not seek the rest that belongs to age.' He spoke in an +eager, impulsive way, as though his heart were in the words and thoughts +of the moment; and the old man answered slowly and deliberately, as +though his heart were in distant days and distant deeds. + +'I will tell you why I have not been able to rest,' he said. 'It is +right that you should know, for you have served me faithfully these five +years and more, and even with affection, taking away thereby a little of +the doom of loneliness which always falls upon the wise. Now, too, that +the end of my labour and the triumph of my hopes is at hand, it is the +more needful for you to have this knowledge.' + +'Master, do not think that I would question you. It is for me to keep +the fire alight, and the thatch close against the rain, and strong, lest +the wind blow it among the trees; and it is for me to take the heavy +books from the shelves, and to lift from its corner the great painted +roll with the names of the Sidhe, and to possess the while an incurious +and reverent heart, for right well I know that God has made out of His +abundance a separate wisdom for everything which lives, and to do these +things is my wisdom.' + +'You are afraid,' said the old man, and his eyes shone with a momentary +anger. + +'Sometimes at night,' said the boy, 'when you are reading, with the +rod of quicken wood in your hand, I look out of the door and see, now +a great grey man driving swine among the hazels, and now many little +people in red caps who come out of the lake driving little white cows +before them. I do not fear these little people so much as the grey man; +for, when they come near the house, they milk the cows, and they drink +the frothing milk, and begin to dance; and I know there is good in the +heart that loves dancing; but I fear them for all that. And I fear the +tall white-armed ladies who come out of the air, and move slowly hither +and thither, crowning themselves with the roses or with the lilies, and +shaking about their living hair, which moves, for so I have heard them +tell each other, with the motion of their thoughts, now spreading out +and now gathering close to their heads. They have mild, beautiful faces, +but, Aengus, son of Forbis, I fear all these beings, I fear the people +of Sidhe, and I fear the art which draws them about us.' + +'Why,' said the old man, 'do you fear the ancient gods who made the +spears of your father's fathers to be stout in battle, and the little +people who came at night from the depth of the lakes and sang among the +crickets upon their hearths? And in our evil day they still watch over +the loveliness of the earth. But I must tell you why I have fasted and +laboured when others would sink into the sleep of age, for without your +help once more I shall have fasted and laboured to no good end. When you +have done for me this last thing, you may go and build your cottage and +till your fields, and take some girl to wife, and forget the ancient +gods. I have saved all the gold and silver pieces that were given to me +by earls and knights and squires for keeping them from the evil eye +and from the love-weaving enchantments of witches, and by earls' and +knights' and squires' ladies for keeping the people of the Sidhe from +making the udders of their cattle fall dry, and taking the butter from +their churns. I have saved it all for the day when my work should be at +an end, and now that the end is at hand you shall not lack for gold and +silver pieces enough to make strong the roof-tree of your cottage and to +keep cellar and larder full. I have sought through all my life to find +the secret of life. I was not happy in my youth, for I knew that it +would pass; and I was not happy in my manhood, for I knew that age +was coming; and so I gave myself, in youth and manhood and age, to the +search for the Great Secret. I longed for a life whose abundance +would fill centuries, I scorned the life of fourscore winters. I would +be--nay, I _will_ be!--like the Ancient Gods of the land. I read in my +youth, in a Hebrew manuscript I found in a Spanish monastery, that there +is a moment after the Sun has entered the Ram and before he has passed +the Lion, which trembles with the Song of the Immortal Powers, and that +whosoever finds this moment and listens to the Song shall become like +the Immortal Powers themselves; I came back to Ireland and asked the +fairy men, and the cow-doctors, if they knew when this moment was; but +though all had heard of it, there was none could find the moment upon +the hour-glass. So I gave myself to magic, and spent my life in fasting +and in labour that I might bring the Gods and the Fairies to my side; +and now at last one of the Fairies has told me that the moment is at +hand. One, who wore a red cap and whose lips were white with the froth +of the new milk, whispered it into my ear. Tomorrow, a little before the +close of the first hour after dawn, I shall find the moment, and then +I will go away to a southern land and build myself a palace of white +marble amid orange trees, and gather the brave and the beautiful about +me, and enter into the eternal kingdom of my youth. But, that I may hear +the whole Song, I was told by the little fellow with the froth of the +new milk on his lips, that you must bring great masses of green boughs +and pile them about the door and the window of my room; and you must put +fresh green rushes upon the floor, and cover the table and the rushes +with the roses and the lilies of the monks. You must do this to-night, +and in the morning at the end of the first hour after dawn, you must +come and find me.' + +'Will you be quite young then?' said the boy. + +'I will be as young then as you are, but now I am still old and tired, +and you must help me to my chair and to my books.' + +When the boy had left Aengus son of Forbis in his room, and had lighted +the lamp which, by some contrivance of the wizard's, gave forth a sweet +odour as of strange flowers, he went into the wood and began cutting +green boughs from the hazels, and great bundles of rushes from the +western border of the isle, where the small rocks gave place to gently +sloping sand and clay. It was nightfall before he had cut enough for his +purpose, and well-nigh midnight before he had carried the last bundle +to its place, and gone back for the roses and the lilies. It was one of +those warm, beautiful nights when everything seems carved of precious +stones. Sleuth Wood away to the south looked as though cut out of green +beryl, and the waters that mirrored them shone like pale opal. The roses +he was gathering were like glowing rubies, and the lilies had the dull +lustre of pearl. Everything had taken upon itself the look of something +imperishable, except a glow-worm, whose faint flame burnt on steadily +among the shadows, moving slowly hither and thither, the only thing that +seemed alive, the only thing that seemed perishable as mortal hope. +The boy gathered a great armful of roses and lilies, and thrusting the +glow-worm among their pearl and ruby, carried them into the room, where +the old man sat in a half-slumber. He laid armful after armful upon +the floor and above the table, and then, gently closing the door, threw +himself upon his bed of rushes, to dream of a peaceful manhood with his +chosen wife at his side, and the laughter of children in his ears. +At dawn he rose, and went down to the edge of the lake, taking the +hour-glass with him. He put some bread and a flask of wine in the boat, +that his master might not lack food at the outset of his journey, and +then sat down to wait until the hour from dawn had gone by. Gradually +the birds began to sing, and when the last grains of sand were falling, +everything suddenly seemed to overflow with their music. It was the +most beautiful and living moment of the year; one could listen to the +spring's heart beating in it. He got up and went to find his master. +The green boughs filled the door, and he had to make a way through them. +When he entered the room the sunlight was falling in flickering circles +on floor and walls and table, and everything was full of soft green +shadows. But the old man sat clasping a mass of roses and lilies in his +arms, and with his head sunk upon his breast. On the table, at his left +hand, was a leathern wallet full of gold and silver pieces, as for a +journey, and at his right hand was a long staff. The boy touched him and +he did not move. He lifted the hands but they were quite cold, and they +fell heavily. + +'It were better for him,' said the lad, 'to have told his beads and +said his prayers like another, and not to have spent his days in seeking +amongst the Immortal Powers what he could have found in his own deeds +and days had he willed. Ah, yes, it were better to have said his prayers +and kissed his beads!' He looked at the threadbare blue velvet, and +he saw it was covered with the pollen of the flowers, and while he was +looking at it a thrush, who had alighted among the boughs that were +piled against the window, began to sing. + + + + +THE CURSE OF THE FIRES AND OF THE SHADOWS. + + +One summer night, when there was peace, a score of Puritan troopers +under the pious Sir Frederick Hamilton, broke through the door of the +Abbey of the White Friars which stood over the Gara Lough at Sligo. As +the door fell with a crash they saw a little knot of friars, gathered +about the altar, their white habits glimmering in the steady light of +the holy candles. All the monks were kneeling except the abbot, who +stood upon the altar steps with a great brazen crucifix in his hand. +'Shoot them!' cried Sir Frederick Hamilton, but none stirred, for all +were new converts, and feared the crucifix and the holy candles. The +white lights from the altar threw the shadows of the troopers up on +to roof and wall. As the troopers moved about, the shadows began a +fantastic dance among the corbels and the memorial tablets. For a little +while all was silent, and then five troopers who were the body-guard of +Sir Frederick Hamilton lifted their muskets, and shot down five of the +friars. The noise and the smoke drove away the mystery of the pale altar +lights, and the other troopers took courage and began to strike. In a +moment the friars lay about the altar steps, their white habits stained +with blood. 'Set fire to the house!' cried Sir Frederick Hamilton, +and at his word one went out, and came in again carrying a heap of dry +straw, and piled it against the western wall, and, having done this, +fell back, for the fear of the crucifix and of the holy candles +was still in his heart. Seeing this, the five troopers who were Sir +Frederick Hamilton's body-guard darted forward, and taking each a holy +candle set the straw in a blaze. The red tongues of fire rushed up and +flickered from corbel to corbel and from tablet to tablet, and crept +along the floor, setting in a blaze the seats and benches. The dance of +the shadows passed away, and the dance of the fires began. The troopers +fell back towards the door in the southern wall, and watched those +yellow dancers springing hither and thither. + +For a time the altar stood safe and apart in the midst of its white +light; the eyes of the troopers turned upon it. The abbot whom they +had thought dead had risen to his feet and now stood before it with the +crucifix lifted in both hands high above his head. Suddenly he cried +with a loud voice, 'Woe unto all who smite those who dwell within the +Light of the Lord, for they shall wander among the ungovernable shadows, +and follow the ungovernable fires!' And having so cried he fell on his +face dead, and the brazen crucifix rolled down the steps of the altar. +The smoke had now grown very thick, so that it drove the troopers out +into the open air. Before them were burning houses. Behind them shone +the painted windows of the Abbey filled with saints and martyrs, +awakened, as from a sacred trance, into an angry and animated life. The +eyes of the troopers were dazzled, and for a while could see nothing but +the flaming faces of saints and martyrs. Presently, however, they saw a +man covered with dust who came running towards them. 'Two messengers,' +he cried, 'have been sent by the defeated Irish to raise against you the +whole country about Manor Hamilton, and if you do not stop them you +will be overpowered in the woods before you reach home again! They ride +north-east between Ben Bulben and Cashel-na-Gael.' + +Sir Frederick Hamilton called to him the five troopers who had first +fired upon the monks and said, 'Mount quickly, and ride through the +woods towards the mountain, and get before these men, and kill them.' + +In a moment the troopers were gone, and before many moments they had +splashed across the river at what is now called Buckley's Ford, and +plunged into the woods. They followed a beaten track that wound along +the northern bank of the river. The boughs of the birch and quicken +trees mingled above, and hid the cloudy moonlight, leaving the pathway +in almost complete darkness. They rode at a rapid trot, now chatting +together, now watching some stray weasel or rabbit scuttling away in +the darkness. Gradually, as the gloom and silence of the woods oppressed +them, they drew closer together, and began to talk rapidly; they were +old comrades and knew each other's lives. One was married, and told +how glad his wife would be to see him return safe from this harebrained +expedition against the White Friars, and to hear how fortune had made +amends for rashness. The oldest of the five, whose wife was dead, spoke +of a flagon of wine which awaited him upon an upper shelf; while a +third, who was the youngest, had a sweetheart watching for his return, +and he rode a little way before the others, not talking at all. Suddenly +the young man stopped, and they saw that his horse was trembling. 'I saw +something,' he said, 'and yet I do not know but it may have been one of +the shadows. It looked like a great worm with a silver crown upon his +head.' One of the five put his hand up to his forehead as if about to +cross himself, but remembering that he had changed his religion he put +it down, and said: 'I am certain it was but a shadow, for there are a +great many about us, and of very strange kinds.' Then they rode on in +silence. It had been raining in the earlier part of the day, and the +drops fell from the branches, wetting their hair and their shoulders. In +a little they began to talk again. They had been in many battles against +many a rebel together, and now told each other over again the story +of their wounds, and so awakened in their hearts the strongest of all +fellowships, the fellowship of the sword, and half forgot the terrible +solitude of the woods. + +Suddenly the first two horses neighed, and then stood still, and would +go no further. Before them was a glint of water, and they knew by the +rushing sound that it was a river. They dismounted, and after much +tugging and coaxing brought the horses to the river-side. In the midst +of the water stood a tall old woman with grey hair flowing over a grey +dress. She stood up to her knees in the water, and stooped from time to +time as though washing. Presently they could see that she was washing +something that half floated. The moon cast a flickering light upon it, +and they saw that it was the dead body of a man, and, while they were +looking at it, an eddy of the river turned the face towards them, and +each of the five troopers recognised at the same moment his own face. +While they stood dumb and motionless with horror, the woman began to +speak, saying slowly and loudly: 'Did you see my son? He has a crown of +silver on his head, and there are rubies in the crown.' Then the oldest +of the troopers, he who had been most often wounded, drew his sword and +cried: 'I have fought for the truth of my God, and need not fear the +shadows of Satan,' and with that rushed into the water. In a moment he +returned. The woman had vanished, and though he had thrust his sword +into air and water he had found nothing. + +The five troopers remounted, and set their horses at the ford, but all +to no purpose. They tried again and again, and went plunging hither and +thither, the horses foaming and rearing. 'Let us,' said the old trooper, +'ride back a little into the wood, and strike the river higher up.' They +rode in under the boughs, the ground-ivy crackling under the hoofs, +and the branches striking against their steel caps. After about twenty +minutes' riding they came out again upon the river, and after another +ten minutes found a place where it was possible to cross without sinking +below the stirrups. The wood upon the other side was very thin, and +broke the moonlight into long streams. The wind had arisen, and had +begun to drive the clouds rapidly across the face of the moon, so that +thin streams of light seemed to be dancing a grotesque dance among the +scattered bushes and small fir-trees. The tops of the trees began also +to moan, and the sound of it was like the voice of the dead in the +wind; and the troopers remembered the belief that tells how the dead in +purgatory are spitted upon the points of the trees and upon the points +of the rocks. They turned a little to the south, in the hope that they +might strike the beaten path again, but they could find no trace of it. + +Meanwhile, the moaning grew louder and louder, and the dance of the +white moon-fires more and more rapid. Gradually they began to be aware +of a sound of distant music. It was the sound of a bagpipe, and they +rode towards it with great joy. It came from the bottom of a deep, +cup-like hollow. In the midst of the hollow was an old man with a red +cap and withered face. He sat beside a fire of sticks, and had a burning +torch thrust into the earth at his feet, and played an old bagpipe +furiously. His red hair dripped over his face like the iron rust upon +a rock. 'Did you see my wife?' he cried, looking up a moment; 'she was +washing! she was washing!' 'I am afraid of him,' said the young trooper, +'I fear he is one of the Sidhe.' 'No,' said the old trooper, 'he is a +man, for I can see the sun-freckles upon his face. We will compel him +to be our guide'; and at that he drew his sword, and the others did the +same. They stood in a ring round the piper, and pointed their swords at +him, and the old trooper then told him that they must kill two rebels, +who had taken the road between Ben Bulben and the great mountain spur +that is called Cashel-na-Gael, and that he must get up before one of +them and be their guide, for they had lost their way. The piper turned, +and pointed to a neighbouring tree, and they saw an old white horse +ready bitted, bridled, and saddled. He slung the pipe across his back, +and, taking the torch in his hand, got upon the horse, and started off +before them, as hard as he could go. + +The wood grew thinner and thinner, and the ground began to slope up +toward the mountain. The moon had already set, and the little white +flames of the stars had come out everywhere. The ground sloped more and +more until at last they rode far above the woods upon the wide top of +the mountain. The woods lay spread out mile after mile below, and away +to the south shot up the red glare of the burning town. But before and +above them were the little white flames. The guide drew rein suddenly, +and pointing upwards with the hand that did not hold the torch, shrieked +out, 'Look; look at the holy candles!' and then plunged forward at a +gallop, waving the torch hither and thither. 'Do you hear the hoofs of +the messengers?' cried the guide. 'Quick, quick! or they will be gone +out of your hands!' and he laughed as with delight of the chase. The +troopers thought they could hear far off, and as if below them, rattle +of hoofs; but now the ground began to slope more and more, and the speed +grew more headlong moment by moment. They tried to pull up, but in vain, +for the horses seemed to have gone mad. The guide had thrown the reins +on to the neck of the old white horse, and was waving his arms and +singing a wild Gaelic song. Suddenly they saw the thin gleam of a river, +at an immense distance below, and knew that they were upon the brink of +the abyss that is now called Lug-na-Gael, or in English the Stranger's +Leap. The six horses sprang forward, and five screams went up into the +air, a moment later five men and horses fell with a dull crash upon the +green slopes at the foot of the rocks. + + + + +THE OLD MEN OF THE TWILIGHT. + + +At the place, close to the Dead Man's Point, at the Rosses, where the +disused pilot-house looks out to sea through two round windows like +eyes, a mud cottage stood in the last century. It also was a watchhouse, +for a certain old Michael Bruen, who had been a smuggler in his day, +and was still the father and grandfather of smugglers, lived there, and +when, after nightfall, a tall schooner crept over the bay from Roughley, +it was his business to hang a horn lanthorn in the southern window, that +the news might travel to Dorren's Island, and from thence, by another +horn lanthorn, to the village of the Rosses. But for this glimmering of +messages, he had little communion with mankind, for he was very old, and +had no thought for anything but for the making of his soul, at the foot +of the Spanish crucifix of carved oak that hung by his chimney, or bent +double over the rosary of stone beads brought to him a cargo of silks +and laces out of France. One night he had watched hour after hour, +because a gentle and favourable wind was blowing, and _La Mere de +Misericorde_ was much overdue; and he was about to lie down upon his +heap of straw, seeing that the dawn was whitening the east, and that the +schooner would not dare to round Roughley and come to an anchor after +daybreak; when he saw a long line of herons flying slowly from Dorren's +Island and towards the pools which lie, half choked with reeds, behind +what is called the Second Rosses. He had never before seen herons flying +over the sea, for they are shore-keeping birds, and partly because this +had startled him out of his drowsiness, and more because the long +delay of the schooner kept his cupboard empty, he took down his rusty +shot-gun, of which the barrel was tied on with a piece of string, and +followed them towards the pools. + +When he came close enough to hear the sighing of the rushes in the +outermost pool, the morning was grey over the world, so that the tall +rushes, the still waters, the vague clouds, the thin mists lying among +the sand-heaps, seemed carved out of an enormous pearl. In a little he +came upon the herons, of whom there were a great number, standing with +lifted legs in the shallow water; and crouching down behind a bank of +rushes, looked to the priming of his gun, and bent for a moment over his +rosary to murmur: 'Patron Patrick, let me shoot a heron; made into a pie +it will support me for nearly four days, for I no longer eat as in my +youth. If you keep me from missing I will say a rosary to you every +night until the pie is eaten.' Then he lay down, and, resting his gun +upon a large stone, turned towards a heron which stood upon a bank of +smooth grass over a little stream that flowed into the pool; for he +feared to take the rheumatism by wading, as he would have to do if he +shot one of those which stood in the water. But when he looked along +the barrel the heron was gone, and, to his wonder and terror, a man of +infinitely great age and infirmity stood in its place. He lowered the +gun, and the heron stood there with bent head and motionless feathers, +as though it had slept from the beginning of the world. He raised the +gun, and no sooner did he look along the iron than that enemy of all +enchantment brought the old man again before him, only to vanish when he +lowered the gun for the second time. He laid the gun down, and crossed +himself three times, and said a _Paternoster_ and an _Ave Maria_, and +muttered half aloud: 'Some enemy of God and of my patron is standing +upon the smooth place and fishing in the blessed water,' and then aimed +very carefully and slowly. He fired, and when the smoke had gone saw an +old man, huddled upon the grass and a long line of herons flying with +clamour towards the sea. He went round a bend of the pool, and coming +to the little stream looked down on a figure wrapped in faded clothes of +black and green of an ancient pattern and spotted with blood. He shook +his head at the sight of so great a wickedness. Suddenly the clothes +moved and an arm was stretched upwards towards the rosary which hung +about his neck, and long wasted fingers almost touched the cross. He +started back, crying: 'Wizard, I will let no wicked thing touch my +blessed beads'; and the sense of a The Old great danger just escaped +made him tremble. + +'If you listen to me,' replied a voice so faint that it was like a sigh, +'you will know that I am not a wizard, and you will let me kiss the +cross before I die.' + +'I will listen to you,' he answered, 'but I will not let you touch my +blessed beads,' and sitting on the grass a little way from the dying +man, he reloaded his gun and laid it across his knees and composed +himself to listen. + +'I know not how many generations ago we, who are now herons, were the +men of learning of the King Leaghaire; we neither hunted, nor went to +battle, nor listened to the Druids preaching, and even love, if it came +to us at all, was but a passing fire. The Druids and the poets told us, +many and many a time, of a new Druid Patrick; and most among them were +fierce against him, while a few thought his doctrine merely the doctrine +of the gods set out in new symbols, and were for giving him welcome; but +we yawned in the midst of their tale. At last they came crying that he +was coming to the king's house, and fell to their dispute, but we would +listen to neither party, for we were busy with a dispute about the +merits of the Great and of the Little Metre; nor were we disturbed +when they passed our door with sticks of enchantment under their arms, +travelling towards the forest to contend against his coming, nor when +they returned after nightfall with torn robes and despairing cries; for +the click of our knives writing our thoughts in Ogham filled us with +peace and our dispute filled us with joy; nor even when in the morning +crowds passed us to hear the strange Druid preaching the commandments of +his god. The crowds passed, and one, who had laid down his knife to yawn +and stretch himself, heard a voice speaking far off, and knew that the +Druid Patrick was preaching within the king's house; but our hearts were +deaf, and we carved and disputed and read, and laughed a thin laughter +together. In a little we heard many feet coming towards the house, and +presently two tall figures stood in the door, the one in white, the +other in a crimson robe; like a great lily and a heavy poppy; and we +knew the Druid Patrick and our King Leaghaire. We laid down the slender +knives and bowed before the king, but when the black and green robes had +ceased to rustle, it was not the loud rough voice of King Leaghaire that +spoke to us, but a strange voice in which there was a rapture as of +one speaking from behind a battlement of Druid flame: "I preached the +commandments of the Maker of the world," it said; "within the king's +house and from the centre of the earth to the windows of Heaven there +was a great silence, so that the eagle floated with unmoving wings in +the white air, and the fish with unmoving fins in the dim water, while +the linnets and the wrens and the sparrows stilled there ever-trembling +tongues in the heavy boughs, and the clouds were like white marble, +and the rivers became their motionless mirrors, and the shrimps in the +far-off sea-pools were still enduring eternity in patience, although it +was hard." And as he named these things, it was like a king numbering +his people. "But your slender knives went click, click! upon the oaken +staves, and, all else being silent, the sound shook the angels with +anger. O, little roots, nipped by the winter, who do not awake although +the summer pass above you with innumerable feet. O, men who have no part +in love, who have no part in song, who have no part in wisdom, but dwell +with the shadows of memory where the feet of angels cannot touch you as +they pass over your heads, where the hair of demons cannot sweep about +you as they pass under your feet, I lay upon you a curse, and change you +to an example for ever and ever; you shall become grey herons and stand +pondering in grey pools and flit over the world in that hour when it is +most full of sighs, having forgotten the flame of the stars and not yet +found the flame of the sun; and you shall preach to the other herons +until they also are like you, and are an example for ever and ever; and +your deaths shall come to you by chance and unforeseen, that no fire of +certainty may visit your hearts."' + +The voice of the old man of learning became still, but the voteen bent +over his gun with his eyes upon the ground, trying in vain to understand +something of this tale; and he had so bent, it may be for a long time, +had not a tug at his rosary made him start out of his dream. The old man +of learning had crawled along the grass, and was now trying to draw the +cross down low enough for his lips to reach it. + +'You must not touch my blessed beads, cried the voteen, and struck +the long withered fingers with the barrel of his gun. He need not have +trembled, for the old man fell back upon the grass with a sigh and was +still. He bent down and began to consider the black and green clothes, +for his fear had begun to pass away when he came to understand that he +had something the man of learning wanted and pleaded for, and now that +the blessed beads were safe, his fear had nearly all gone; and surely, +he thought, if that big cloak, and that little tight-fitting cloak +under it, were warm and without holes, Saint Patrick would take the +enchantment out of them and leave them fit for human use. But the black +and green clothes fell away wherever his fingers touched them, and while +this was a new wonder, a slight wind blew over the pool and crumbled the +old man of learning and all his ancient gear into a little heap of dust, +and then made the little heap less and less until there was nothing but +the smooth green grass. + + + + +WHERE THERE IS NOTHING, THERE IS GOD. + + +The little wicker houses at Tullagh, where the Brothers were accustomed +to pray, or bend over many handicrafts, when twilight had driven them +from the fields, were empty, for the hardness of the winter had brought +the brotherhood together in the little wooden house under the shadow of +the wooden chapel; and Abbot Malathgeneus, Brother Dove, Brother +Bald Fox, Brother Peter, Brother Patrick, Brother Bittern, Brother +Fair-Brows, and many too young to have won names in the great battle, +sat about the fire with ruddy faces, one mending lines to lay in the +river for eels, one fashioning a snare for birds, one mending the +broken handle of a spade, one writing in a large book, and one shaping +a jewelled box to hold the book; and among the rushes at their feet lay +the scholars, who would one day be Brothers, and whose school-house +it was, and for the succour of whose tender years the great fire was +supposed to leap and flicker. One of these, a child of eight or nine +years, called Olioll, lay upon his back looking up through the hole in +the roof, through which the smoke went, and watching the stars appearing +and disappearing in the smoke with mild eyes, like the eyes of a beast +of the field. He turned presently to the Brother who wrote in the big +book, and whose duty was to teach the children, and said, 'Brother Dove, +to what are the stars fastened?' The Brother, rejoicing to see so much +curiosity in the stupidest of his scholars, laid down the pen and +said, 'There are nine crystalline spheres, and on the first the Moon +is fastened, on the second the planet Mercury, on the third the planet +Venus, on the fourth the Sun, on the fifth the planet Mars, on the sixth +the planet Jupiter, on the seventh the planet Saturn; these are the +wandering stars; and on the eighth are fastened the fixed stars; but +the ninth sphere is a sphere of the substance on which the breath of God +moved in the beginning.' + +'What is beyond that?' said the child. 'There is nothing beyond that; +there is God.' + +And then the child's eyes strayed to the jewelled box, where one great +ruby was gleaming in the light of the fire, and he said, 'Why has +Brother Peter put a great ruby on the side of the box?' + +'The ruby is a symbol of the love of God.' + +'Why is the ruby a symbol of the love of God?' + +'Because it is red, like fire, and fire burns up everything, and where +there is nothing, there is God.' + +The child sank into silence, but presently sat up and said, 'There is +somebody outside.' + +'No,' replied the Brother. 'It is only the wolves; I have heard them +moving about in the snow for some time. They are growing very wild, now +that the winter drives them from the mountains. They broke into a fold +last night and carried off many sheep, and if we are not careful they +will devour everything.' + +'No, it is the footstep of a man, for it is heavy; but I can hear the +footsteps of the wolves also.' + +He had no sooner done speaking than somebody rapped three times, but +with no great loudness. + +'I will go and open, for he must be very cold.' + +'Do not open, for it may be a man-wolf, and he may devour us all.' + +But the boy had already drawn back the heavy wooden bolt, and all the +faces, most of them a little pale, turned towards the slowly-opening +door. + +'He has beads and a cross, he cannot be a man-wolf,' said the child, as +a man with the snow heavy on his long, ragged beard, and on the matted +hair, that fell over his shoulders and nearly to his waist, and dropping +from the tattered cloak that but half-covered his withered brown body, +came in and looked from face to face with mild, ecstatic eyes. Standing +some way from the fire, and with eyes that had rested at last upon the +Abbot Malathgeneus, he cried out, 'O blessed abbot, let me come to the +fire and warm myself and dry the snow from my beard and my hair and my +cloak; that I may not die of the cold of the mountains, and anger the +Lord with a wilful martyrdom.' + +'Come to the fire,' said the abbot, 'and warm yourself, and eat the food +the boy Olioll will bring you. It is sad indeed that any for whom Christ +has died should be as poor as you.' + +The man sat over the fire, and Olioll took away his now dripping cloak +and laid meat and bread and wine before him; but he would eat only of +the bread, and he put away the wine, asking for water. When his beard +and hair had begun to dry a little and his limbs had ceased to shiver +with the cold, he spoke again. + +'O blessed abbot, have pity on the poor, have pity on a beggar who has +trodden the bare world this many a year, and give me some labour to do, +the hardest there is, for I am the poorest of God's poor.' + +Then the Brothers discussed together what work they could put him to, +and at first to little purpose, for there was no labour that had not +found its labourer in that busy community; but at last one remembered +that Brother Bald Fox, whose business it was to turn the great quern in +the quern-house, for he was too stupid for anything else, was getting +old for so heavy a labour; and so the beggar was put to the quern from +the morrow. + +The cold passed away, and the spring grew to summer, and the quern was +never idle, nor was it turned with grudging labour, for when any passed +the beggar was heard singing as he drove the handle round. The last +gloom, too, had passed from that happy community, for Olioll, who had +always been stupid and unteachable, grew clever, and this was the more +miraculous because it had come of a sudden. One day he had been even +duller than usual, and was beaten and told to know his lesson better +on the morrow or be sent into a lower class among little boys who would +make a joke of him. He had gone out in tears, and when he came the next +day, although his stupidity, born of a mind that would listen to every +wandering sound and brood upon every wandering light, had so long been +the byword of the school, he knew his lesson so well that he passed to +the head of the class, and from that day was the best of scholars. At +first Brother Dove thought this was an answer to his own prayers to the +Virgin, and took it for a great proof of the love she bore him; but when +many far more fervid prayers had failed to add a single wheatsheaf +to the harvest, he began to think that the child was trafficking with +bards, or druids, or witches, and resolved to follow and watch. He had +told his thought to the abbot, who bid him come to him the moment he hit +the truth; and the next day, which was a Sunday, he stood in the path +when the abbot and the Brothers were coming from vespers, with their +white habits upon them, and took the abbot by the habit and said, 'The +beggar is of the greatest of saints and of the workers of miracle. I +followed Olioll but now, and by his slow steps and his bent head I saw +that the weariness of his stupidity was over him, and when he came to +the little wood by the quern-house I knew by the path broken in the +under-wood and by the footmarks in the muddy places that he had gone +that way many times. I hid behind a bush where the path doubled upon +itself at a sloping place, and understood by the tears in his eyes that +his stupidity was too old and his wisdom too new to save him from terror +of the rod. When he was in the quern-house I went to the window and +looked in, and the birds came down and perched upon my head and my +shoulders, for they are not timid in that holy place; and a wolf passed +by, his right side shaking my habit, his left the leaves of a bush. +Olioll opened his book and turned to the page I had told him to learn, +and began to cry, and the beggar sat beside him and comforted him until +he fell asleep. When his sleep was of the deepest the beggar knelt down +and prayed aloud, and said, "O Thou Who dwellest beyond the stars, show +forth Thy power as at the beginning, and let knowledge sent from Thee +awaken in his mind, wherein is nothing from the world, that the nine +orders of angels may glorify Thy name;" and then a light broke out of +the air and wrapped Aodh, and I smelt the breath of roses. I stirred a +little in my wonder, and the beggar turned and saw me, and, bending low, +said, "O Brother Dove, if I have done wrong, forgive me, and I will do +penance. It was my pity moved me;" but I was afraid and I ran away, and +did not stop running until I came here.' Then all the Brothers began +talking together, one saying it was such and such a saint, and one that +it was not he but another; and one that it was none of these, for they +were still in their brotherhoods, but that it was such and such a +one; and the talk was as near to quarreling as might be in that +gentle community, for each would claim so great a saint for his native +province. At last the abbot said, 'He is none that you have named, for +at Easter I had greeting from all, and each was in his brotherhood; but +he is Aengus the Lover of God, and the first of those who have gone to +live in the wild places and among the wild beasts. Ten years ago he felt +the burden of many labours in a brotherhood under the Hill of Patrick +and went into the forest that he might labour only with song to the +Lord; but the fame of his holiness brought many thousands to his cell, +so that a little pride clung to a soul from which all else had been +driven. Nine years ago he dressed himself in rags, and from that day +none has seen him, unless, indeed, it be true that he has been seen +living among the wolves on the mountains and eating the grass of the +fields. Let us go to him and bow down before him; for at last, after +long seeking, he has found the nothing that is God; and bid him lead us +in the pathway he has trodden.' + +They passed in their white habits along the beaten path in the wood, +the acolytes swinging their censers before them, and the abbot, with his +crozier studded with precious stones, in the midst of the incense; and +came before the quern-house and knelt down and began to pray, awaiting +the moment when the child would wake, and the Saint cease from his watch +and come to look at the sun going down into the unknown darkness, as his +way was. + + + + +OF COSTELLO THE PROUD, OF OONA THE DAUGHTER OF DERMOTT, AND OF THE BITTER TONGUE. + + +Costello had come up from the fields and lay upon the ground before the +door of his square tower, resting his head upon his hands and looking +at the sunset, and considering the chances of the weather. Though the +customs of Elizabeth and James, now going out of fashion in England, had +begun to prevail among the gentry, he still wore the great cloak of the +native Irish; and the sensitive outlines of his face and the greatness +of his indolent body had a commingling of pride and strength which +belonged to a simpler age. His eyes wandered from the sunset to where +the long white road lost itself over the south-western horizon and to +a horseman who toiled slowly up the hill. A few more minutes and the +horseman was near enough for his little and shapeless body, his long +Irish cloak, and the dilapidated bagpipes hanging from his shoulders, +and the rough-haired garron under him, to be seen distinctly in the grey +dusk. So soon as he had come within earshot, he began crying: 'Is it +sleeping you are, Tumaus Costello, when better men break their hearts +on the great white roads? Get up out of that, proud Tumaus, for I have +news! Get up out of that, you great omadhaun! Shake yourself out of the +earth, you great weed of a man!' + +Costello had risen to his feet, and as the piper came up to him seized +him by the neck of his jacket, and lifting him out of his saddle threw +him on to the ground. + +'Let me alone, let me alone,' said the other, but Costello still shook +him. + +'I have news from Dermott's daughter, Winny,' The great fingers were +loosened, and the piper rose gasping. + +'Why did you not tell me,' said Costello, that you came from her? You +might have railed your fill.' + +'I have come from her, but I will not speak unless I am paid for my +shaking.' + +Costello fumbled at the bag in which he carried his money, and it was +some time before it would open, for the hand that had overcome many men +shook with fear and hope. 'Here is all the money in my bag,' he said, +dropping a stream of French and Spanish money into the hand of the +piper, who bit the coins before he would answer. + +'That is right, that is a fair price, but I will not speak till I have +good protection, for if the Dermotts lay their hands upon me in any +boreen after sundown, or in Cool-a-vin by day, I will be left to rot +among the nettles of a ditch, or hung on the great sycamore, where they +hung the horse-thieves last Beltaine four years.' And while he spoke he +tied the reins of his garron to a bar of rusty iron that was mortared +into the wall. + +'I will make you my piper and my bodyservant,' said Costello, 'and no +man dare lay hands upon the man, or the goat, or the horse, or the dog +that is Tumaus Costello's.' + +'And I will only tell my message,' said the other, flinging the saddle +on the ground, 'in the corner of the chimney with a noggin in my hand, +and a jug of the Brew of the Little Pot beside me, for though I am +ragged and empty, my forbears were well clothed and full until their +house was burnt and their cattle harried seven centuries ago by the +Dillons, whom I shall yet see on the hob of hell, and they screeching'; +and while he spoke the little eyes gleamed and the thin hands clenched. + +Costello led him into the great rush-strewn hall, where were none of the +comforts which had begun to grow common among the gentry, but a feudal +gauntness and bareness, and pointed to the bench in the great chimney; +and when he had sat down, filled up a horn noggin and set it on the +bench beside him, and set a great black jack of leather beside the +noggin, and lit a torch that slanted out from a ring in the wall, his +hands trembling the while; and then turned towards him and said: 'Will +Dermott's daughter come to me, Duallach, son of Daly?' + +'Dermott's daughter will not come to you, for her father has set women +to watch her, but she bid me tell you that this day sennight will be the +eve of St. John and the night of her betrothal to Namara of the Lake, +and she would have you there that, when they bid her drink to him she +loves best, as the way is, she may drink to you, Tumaus Costello, and +let all know where her heart is, and how little of gladness is in her +marriage; and I myself bid you go with good men about you, for I saw the +horse-thieves with my own eyes, and they dancing the "Blue Pigeon" in +the air.' And then he held the now empty noggin towards Costello, his +hand closing round it like the claw of a bird, and cried: 'Fill my +noggin again, for I would the day had come when all the water in the +world is to shrink into a periwinkle-shell, that I might drink nothing +but Poteen.' + +Finding that Costello made no reply, but sat in a dream, he burst out: +'Fill my noggin, I tell you, for no Costello is so great in the world +that he should not wait upon a Daly, even though the Daly travel the +road with his pipes and the Costello have a bare hill, an empty house, a +horse, a herd of goats, and a handful of cows.' 'Praise the Dalys if you +will,' said Costello as he filled the noggin, 'for you have brought me a +kind word from my love.' + +For the next few days Duallach went hither and thither trying to raise +a bodyguard, and every man he met had some story of Costello, how he +killed the wrestler when but a boy by so straining at the belt that went +about them both that he broke the big wrestler's back; how when somewhat +older he dragged fierce horses through a ford in the Unchion for a +wager; how when he came to manhood he broke the steel horseshoe in Mayo; +how he drove many men before him through Rushy Meadow at Drum-an-air +because of a malevolent song they had about his poverty; and of many +another deed of his strength and pride; but he could find none who +would trust themselves with any so passionate and poor in a quarrel with +careful and wealthy persons like Dermott of the Sheep and Namara of the +Lake. + +Then Costello went out himself, and after listening to many excuses and +in many places, brought in a big half-witted fellow, who followed him +like a dog, a farm-labourer who worshipped him for his strength, a fat +farmer whose forefathers had served his family, and a couple of lads who +looked after his goats and cows; and marshalled them before the fire +in the empty hall. They had brought with them their stout cudgels, +and Costello gave them an old pistol apiece, and kept them all night +drinking Spanish ale and shooting at a white turnip which he pinned +against the wall with a skewer. Duallach of the pipes sat on the +bench in the chimney playing 'The Green Bunch of Rushes', 'The Unchion +Stream,' and 'The Princes of Breffeny' on his old pipes, and railing now +at the appearance of the shooters, now at their clumsy shooting, and +now at Costello because he had no better servants. The labourer, the +half-witted fellow, the farmer and the lads were all well accustomed to +Duallach's railing, for it was as inseparable from wake or wedding as +the squealing of his pipes, but they wondered at the forbearance of +Costello, who seldom came either to wake or wedding, and if he had would +scarce have been patient with a scolding piper. + +On the next evening they set out for Cool-a-vin, Costello riding a +tolerable horse and carrying a sword, the others upon rough-haired +garrons, and with their stout cudgels under their arms. As they rode +over the bogs and in the boreens among the hills they could see +fire answering fire from hill to hill, from horizon to horizon, and +everywhere groups who danced in the red light on the turf, celebrating +the bridal of life and fire. When they came to Dermott's house they saw +before the door an unusually large group of the very poor, dancing about +a fire, in the midst of which was a blazing cartwheel, that circular +dance which is so ancient that the gods, long dwindled to be but +fairies, dance no other in their secret places. From the door and +through the long loop-holes on either side came the pale light of +candles and the sound of many feet dancing a dance of Elizabeth and +James. + +They tied their horses to bushes, for the number so tied already showed +that the stables were full, and shoved their way through a crowd of +peasants who stood about the door, and went into the great hall where +the dance was. The labourer, the half-witted fellow, the farmer and +the two lads mixed with a group of servants who were looking on from an +alcove, and Duallach sat with the pipers on their bench, but Costello +made his way through the dancers to where Dermott of the Sheep stood +with Namara of the Lake pouring Poteen out of a porcelain jug into horn +noggins with silver rims. + +'Tumaus Costello,' said the old man, 'you have done a good deed to +forget what has been, and to fling away enmity and come to the betrothal +of my daughter to Namara of the Lake.' + +'I come,' answered Costello, 'because when in the time of Costello De +Angalo my forbears overcame your forbears and afterwards made peace, a +compact was made that a Costello might go with his body-servants and his +piper to every feast given by a Dermott for ever, and a Dermott with +his body-servants and his piper to every feast given by a Costello for +ever.' + +'If you come with evil thoughts and armed men,' said the son of Dermott +flushing,' no matter how strong your hands to wrestle and to swing the +sword, it shall go badly with you, for some of my wife's clan have come +out of Mayo, and my three brothers and their servants have come down +from the Ox Mountains'; and while he spoke he kept his hand inside his +coat as though upon the handle of a weapon. + +'No,' answered Costello, 'I but come to dance a farewell dance with your +daughter.' + +Dermott drew his hand out of his coat and went over to a tall pale girl +who was now standing but a little way off with her mild eyes fixed upon +the ground. + +'Costello has come to dance a farewell dance, for he knows that you will +never see one another again.' + +The girl lifted her eyes and gazed at Costello, and in her gaze was that +trust of the humble in the proud, the gentle in the violent, which has +been the tragedy of woman from the beginning. Costello led her among the +dancers, and they were soon drawn into the rhythm of the Pavane, that +stately dance which, with the Saraband, the Gallead, and the Morrice +dances, had driven out, among all but the most Irish of the gentry, the +quicker rhythms of the verse-interwoven, pantomimic dances of earlier +days; and while they danced there came over them the unutterable +melancholy, the weariness with the world, the poignant and bitter pity +for one another, the vague anger against common hopes and fears, which +is the exultation of love. And when a dance ended and the pipers laid +down their pipes and lifted their horn noggins, they stood a little from +the others waiting pensively and silently for the dance to begin again +and the fire in their hearts to leap up and to wrap them anew; and +so they danced and danced Pavane and Saraband and Gallead and Morrice +through the night long, and many stood still to watch them, and the +peasants came about the door and peered in, as though they understood +that they would gather their children's children about them long hence, +and tell how they had seen Costello dance with Dermott's daughter Oona, +and become by the telling themselves a portion of ancient romance; but +through all the dancing and piping Namara of the Lake went hither and +thither talking loudly and making foolish jokes that all might seem +well with him, and old Dermott of the Sheep grew redder and redder, and +looked oftener and oftener at the doorway to see if the candles there +grew yellow in the dawn. + +At last he saw that the moment to end had come, and, in a pause after +a dance, cried out from where the horn noggins stood that his daughter +would now drink the cup of betrothal; then Oona came over to where he +was, and the guests stood round in a half-circle, Costello close to +the wall to the right, and the piper, the labourer, the farmer, the +half-witted man and the two farm lads close behind him. The old man took +out of a niche in the wall the silver cup from which her mother and her +mother's mother had drunk the toasts of their betrothals, and poured +Poteen out of a porcelain jug and handed the cup to his daughter with +the customary words, 'Drink to him whom you love the best.' + +She held the cup to her lips for a moment, and then said in a clear soft +voice: 'I drink to my true love, Tumaus Costello.' + +And then the cup rolled over and over on the ground, ringing like a +bell, for the old man had struck her in the face and the cup had fallen, +and there was a deep silence. + +There were many of Namara's people among the servants now come out of +the alcove, and one of them, a story-teller and poet, a last remnant +of the bardic order, who had a chair and a platter in Namara's kitchen, +drew a French knife out of his girdle and made as though he would strike +at Costello, but in a moment a blow had hurled him to the ground, his +shoulder sending the cup rolling and ringing again. The click of steel +had followed quickly, had not there come a muttering and shouting from +the peasants about the door and from those crowding up behind them; +and all knew that these were no children of Queen's Irish or friendly +Namaras and Dermotts, but of the wild Irish about Lough Gara and Lough +Cara, who rowed their skin coracles, and had masses of hair over their +eyes, and left the right arms of their children unchristened that they +might give the stouter blows, and swore only by St. Atty and sun and +moon, and worshipped beauty and strength more than St. Atty or sun and +moon. + +Costello's hand had rested upon the handle of his sword and his knuckles +had grown white, but now he drew it away, and, followed by those who +were with him, strode towards the door, the dancers giving way before +him, the most angrily and slowly, and with glances at the muttering and +shouting peasants, but some gladly and quickly, because the glory of +his fame was over him. He passed through the fierce and friendly peasant +faces, and came where his good horse and the rough-haired garrons were +tied to bushes; and mounted and bade his ungainly bodyguard mount +also and ride into the narrow boreen. When they had gone a little way, +Duallach, who rode last, turned towards the house where a little +group of Dermotts and Namaras stood next to a more numerous group of +countrymen, and cried: 'Dermott, you deserve to be as you are this hour, +a lantern without a candle, a purse without a penny, a sheep without +wool, for your hand was ever niggardly to piper and fiddler and +story-teller and to poor travelling people.' He had not done before the +three old Dermotts from the Ox Mountains had run towards their horses, +and old Dermott himself had caught the bridle of a garron of the Namaras +and was calling to the others to follow him; and many blows and many +deaths had been had not the countrymen caught up still glowing sticks +from the ashes of the fires and hurled them among the horses with loud +cries, making all plunge and rear, and some break from those who held +them, the whites of their eyes gleaming in the dawn. + +For the next few weeks Costello had no lack of news of Oona, for now a +woman selling eggs or fowls, and now a man or a woman on pilgrimage to +the Well of the Rocks, would tell him how his love had fallen ill the +day after St. John's Eve, and how she was a little better or a little +worse, as it might be; and though he looked to his horses and his cows +and goats as usual, the common and uncomely, the dust upon the roads, +the songs of men returning from fairs and wakes, men playing cards +in the corners of fields on Sundays and Saints' Days, the rumours of +battles and changes in the great world, the deliberate purposes of those +about him, troubled him with an inexplicable trouble; and the country +people still remember how when night had fallen he would bid Duallach +of the Pipes tell, to the chirping of the crickets, 'The Son of Apple,' +'The Beauty of the World,' 'The King of Ireland's Son,' or some other +of those traditional tales which were as much a piper's business as +'The Green Bunch of Rushes,' 'The Unchion Stream,' or 'The Chiefs of +Breffeny'; and while the boundless and phantasmal world of the legends +was a-building, would abandon himself to the dreams of his sorrow. + +Duallach would often pause to tell how some clan of the wild Irish had +descended from an incomparable King of the Blue Belt, or Warrior of the +Ozier Wattle, or to tell with many curses how all the strangers and most +of the Queen's Irish were the seed of the misshapen and horned People +from Under the Sea or of the servile and creeping Ferbolg; but Costello +cared only for the love sorrows, and no matter whither the stories +wandered, whether to the Isle of the Red Lough, where the blessed are, +or to the malign country of the Hag of the East, Oona alone endured +their shadowy hardships; for it was she and no king's daughter of old +who was hidden in the steel tower under the water with the folds of the +Worm of Nine Eyes round and about her prison; and it was she who won +by seven years of service the right to deliver from hell all she could +carry, and carried away multitudes clinging with worn fingers to the hem +of her dress; and it was she who endured dumbness for a year because of +the little thorn of enchantment the fairies had thrust into her tongue; +and it was a lock of her hair, coiled in a little carved box, which gave +so great a light that men threshed by it from sundown to sunrise, and +awoke so great a wonder that kings spent years in wandering or fell +before unknown armies in seeking to discover her hiding-place; for there +was no beauty in the world but hers, no tragedy in the world but hers: +and when at last the voice of the piper, grown gentle with the wisdom of +old romance, was silent, and his rheumatic steps had toiled upstairs and +to bed, and Costello had dipped his fingers into the little delf font of +holy water and begun to pray to Mary of the Seven Sorrows, the blue +eyes and star-covered dress of the painting in the chapel faded from his +imagination, and the brown eyes and homespun dress of Dermott's daughter +Winny came in their stead; for there was no tenderness in the passion +who keep their hearts pure for love or for hatred as other men for God, +for Mary and for the Saints, and who, when the hour of their visitation +arrives, come to the Divine Essence by the bitter tumult, the Garden +of Gethsemane, and the desolate Rood ordained for immortal passions in +mortal hearts. + +One day a serving-man rode up to Costello, who was helping his two lads +to reap a meadow, and gave him a letter, and rode away without a word; +and the letter contained these words in English: 'Tumaus Costello, my +daughter is very ill. The wise woman from Knock-na-Sidhe has seen her, +and says she will die unless you come to her. I therefore bid you come +to her whose peace you stole by treachery.-DERMOTT, THE SON OF DERMOTT.' + +Costello threw down his scythe, and sent one of the lads for Duallach, +who had become woven into his mind with Oona, and himself saddled his +great horse and Duallach's garron. + +When they came to Dermott's house it was late afternoon, and Lough Gara +lay down below them, blue, mirror-like, and deserted; and though they +had seen, when at a distance, dark figures moving about the door, the +house appeared not less deserted than the Lough. The door stood half +open, and Costello knocked upon it again and again, so that a number of +lake gulls flew up out of the grass and circled screaming over his head, +but there was no answer. + +'There is no one here,' said Duallach, 'for Dermott of the Sheep is too +proud to welcome Costello the Proud,' and he threw the door open, and +they saw a ragged, dirty, very old woman, who sat upon the floor leaning +against the wall. Costello knew that it was Bridget Delaney, a deaf and +dumb beggar; and she, when she saw him, stood up and made a sign to +him to follow, and led him and his companion up a stair and down a long +corridor to a closed door. She pushed the door open and went a little +way off and sat down as before; Duallach sat upon the ground also, but +close to the door, and Costello went and gazed upon Winny sleeping upon +a bed. He sat upon a chair beside her and waited, and a long time passed +and still she slept on, and then Duallach motioned to him through the +door to wake her, but he hushed his very breath, that she might sleep +on, for his heart was full of that ungovernable pity which makes the +fading heart of the lover a shadow of the divine heart. Presently he +turned to Duallach and said: 'It is not right that I stay here where +there are none of her kindred, for the common people are always ready to +blame the beautiful.' And then they went down and stood at the door of +the house and waited, but the evening wore on and no one came. + +'It was a foolish man that called you Proud Costello,' Duallach cried +at last; 'had he seen you waiting and waiting where they left none but a +beggar to welcome you, it is Humble Costello he would have called you.' + +Then Costello mounted and Duallach mounted, but when they had ridden a +little way Costello tightened the reins and made his horse stand still. +Many minutes passed, and then Duallach cried: 'It is no wonder that +you fear to offend Dermott of the Sheep, for he has many brothers and +friends, and though he is old, he is a strong man and ready with his +hands, and he is of the Queen's Irish, and the enemies of the Gael are +upon his side.' + +And Costello answered flushing and looking towards the house: 'I swear +by the Mother of God that I will never return there again if they do not +send after me before I pass the ford in the Brown River,' and he rode +on, but so very slowly that the sun went down and the bats began to fly +over the bogs. When he came to the river he lingered awhile upon the +bank among the flowers of the flag, but presently rode out into the +middle and stopped his horse in a foaming shallow. Duallach, however, +crossed over and waited on a further bank above a deeper place. After +a good while Duallach cried out again, and this time very bitterly: 'It +was a fool who begot you and a fool who bore you, and they are fools of +all fools who say you come of an old and noble stock, for you come of +whey-faced beggars who travelled from door to door, bowing to gentles +and to serving-men. + +With bent head, Costello rode through the river and stood beside him, +and would have spoken had not hoofs clattered on the further bank and a +horseman splashed towards them. It was a serving-man of Dermott's, and +he said, speaking breathlessly like one who had ridden hard: 'Tumaus +Costello, I come to bid you again to Dermott's house. When you had gone, +his daughter Winny awoke and called your name, for you had been in her +dreams. Bridget Delaney the Dummy saw her lips move and the trouble upon +her, and came where we were hiding in the wood above the house and took +Dermott of the Sheep by the coat and brought him to his daughter. He +saw the trouble upon her, and bid me ride his own horse to bring you the +quicker.' + +Then Costello turned towards the piper Duallach Daly, and taking him +about the waist lifted him out of the saddle and hurled him against a +grey rock that rose up out of the river, so that he fell lifeless into +the deep place, and the waters swept over the tongue which God had made +bitter, that there might be a story in men's ears in after time. Then +plunging his spurs into the horse, he rode away furiously toward the +north-west, along the edge of the river, and did not pause until he came +to another and smoother ford, and saw the rising moon mirrored in the +water. He paused for a moment irresolute, and then rode into the ford +and on over the Ox Mountains, and down towards the sea; his eyes almost +continually resting upon the moon which glimmered in the dimness like +a great white rose hung on the lattice of some boundless and phantasmal +world. But now his horse, long dark with sweat and breathing hard, for +he kept spurring it to an extreme speed, fell heavily, hurling him into +the grass at the roadside. He tried to make it stand up, and failing in +this, went on alone towards the moonlight; and came to the sea and saw a +schooner lying there at anchor. Now that he could go no further because +of the sea, he found that he was very tired and the night very cold, +and went into a shebeen close to the shore and threw himself down upon +a bench. The room was full of Spanish and Irish sailors who had just +smuggled a cargo of wine and ale, and were waiting a favourable wind to +set out again. A Spaniard offered him a drink in bad Gaelic. He drank it +greedily and began talking wildly and rapidly. + +For some three weeks the wind blew inshore or with too great violence, +and the sailors stayed drinking and talking and playing cards, and +Costello stayed with them, sleeping upon a bench in the shebeen, and +drinking and talking and playing more than any. He soon lost what little +money he had, and then his horse, which some one had brought from +the mountain boreen, to a Spaniard, who sold it to a farmer from the +mountains, and then his long cloak and his spurs and his boots of soft +leather. At last a gentle wind blew towards Spain, and the crew rowed +out to their schooner, singing Gaelic and Spanish songs, and lifted +the anchor, and in a little while the white sails had dropped under the +horizon. Then Costello turned homeward, his life gaping before him, and +walked all day, coming in the early evening to the road that went from +near Lough Gara to the southern edge of Lough Cay. Here he overtook a +great crowd of peasants and farmers, who were walking very slowly after +two priests and a group of well-dressed persons, certain of whom were +carrying a coffin. He stopped an old man and asked whose burying it was +and whose people they were, and the old man answered: 'It is the burying +of Oona, Dermott's daughter, and we are the Namaras and the Dermotts and +their following, and you are Tumaus Costello who murdered her.' + +Costello went on towards the head of the procession, passing men who +looked at him with fierce eyes and only vaguely understanding what he +had heard, for now that he had lost the understanding that belongs to +good health, it seemed impossible that a gentleness and a beauty which +had been so long the world's heart could pass away. Presently he stopped +and asked again whose burying it was, and a man answered: 'We are +carrying Dermott's daughter Winny whom you murdered, to be buried in the +island of the Holy Trinity,' and the man stooped and picked up a stone +and cast it at Costello, striking him on the cheek and making the blood +flow out over his face. Costello went on scarcely feeling the blow, and +coming to those about the coffin, shouldered his way into the midst of +them, and laying his hand upon the coffin, asked in a loud voice: 'Who +is in this coffin?' + +The three Old Dermotts from the Ox Mountains caught up stones and bid +those about them do the same; and he was driven from the road, covered +with wounds, and but for the priests would surely have been killed. + +When the procession had passed on, Costello began to follow again, and +saw from a distance the coffin laid upon a large boat, and those about +it get into other boats, and the boats move slowly over the water to +Insula Trinitatis; and after a time he saw the boats return and their +passengers mingle with the crowd upon the bank, and all disperse by +many roads and boreens. It seemed to him that Winny was somewhere on the +island smiling gently as of old, and when all had gone he swam in the +way the boats had been rowed and found the new-made grave beside the +ruined Abbey of the Holy Trinity, and threw himself upon it, calling to +Oona to come to him. Above him the square ivy leaves trembled, and all +about him white moths moved over white flowers, and sweet odours drifted +through the dim air. + +He lay there all that night and through the day after, from time to +time calling her to come to him, but when the third night came he had +forgotten, worn out with hunger and sorrow, that her body lay in the +earth beneath; but only knew she was somewhere near and would not come +to him. + +Just before dawn, the hour when the peasants hear his ghostly voice +crying out, his pride awoke and he called loudly: 'Winny, daughter +of Dermott of the Sheep, if you do not come to me I will go and never +return to the island of the Holy Trinity,' and before his voice had died +away a cold and whirling wind had swept over the island and he saw many +figures rushing past, women of the Sidhe with crowns of silver and dim +floating drapery; and then Oona, but no longer smiling gently, for she +passed him swiftly and angrily, and as she passed struck him upon the +face crying: 'Then go and never return.' + +He would have followed, and was calling out her name, when the whole +glimmering company rose up into the air, and, rushing together in the +shape of a great silvery rose, faded into the ashen dawn. + +Costello got up from the grave, understanding nothing but that he had +made his beloved angry and that she wished him to go, and wading out +into the lake, began to swim. He swam on and on, but his limbs were too +weary to keep him afloat, and her anger was heavy about him, and when +he had gone a little way he sank without a struggle, like a man passing +into sleep and dreams. + +The next day a poor fisherman found him among the reeds upon the lake +shore, lying upon the white lake sand with his arms flung out as though +he lay upon a rood, and carried him to his own house. And the very poor +lamented over him and sang the keen, and when the time had come, laid +him in the Abbey on Insula Trinitatis with only the ruined altar between +him and Dermott's daughter, and planted above them two ash-trees that +in after days wove their branches together and mingled their trembling +leaves. + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Secret Rose, by W. B. 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