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diff --git a/old/scrtr10.txt b/old/scrtr10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4e9bf26 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/scrtr10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2407 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Secret Rose, by W. B. Yeats +#5 in our series by W. B. Yeats + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The Secret Rose + +Author: W. B. Yeats + +Release Date: May, 2004 [EBook #5795] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on September 1, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE 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. Yeats + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SECRET ROSE *** + +This file should be named scrtr10.txt or scrtr10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, scrtr11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, scrtr10a.txt + +Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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