Maire's voice is heard from the room, crying: MacDara!

MACDARA.

She is calling me.

He goes into the room; Sighle cries on her knees by the fire. Many voices are heard outside, the latch is lifted, and Maoilsheachlainn comes in.

SIGHLE.

Is he gone, master?

MAOILSHEACHLAINN.

Gone out the road

with ten or fifteen of the young lads. Is MacDara within still?

SIGHLE.

He was here in the kitchen a while. His mother called him and he went back to her.

Maoilsheachlainn goes over and sits down near the fire.

MAOILSHEACHLAINN.

I think, maybe, that Colm did what was right. We are too old to be at the head of work like this. Was MacDara talking to you about the trouble?

SIGHLE.

He said that he would have to do a hard, sweet thing, and that he would have to do it alone.

MAOILSHEACHLAINN.

I'm sorry but I called him before Colm went out.

A murmur is heard as of a crowd of men talking as they come up the hill.

SIGHLE.

What is that noise like voices?

MAOILSHEACHLAINN.

It is the boys coming up the hillside. There was a great crowd gathering below at the cross.

The voices swell loud outside the door. Cuimin Eanna, Diarmaid, and some others come in.

DIARMAID.

The men say we did wrong to let Colm go out with that little handful. They say we should all have marched.

CUIMIN.

And I say Colm was wrong to go before he got his orders. Are we all to go out and get shot down because one man is hotheaded? Where is the plan that was to come from Galway?

MAOILSHEACHLAINN.

Men, I'm blaming myself for not saying the thing I'm going to say before we let Colm go. We talk about getting word from Galway. What would you say, neighbours, if the man that will give the word is under the roof of this house.

CUIMIN.

Who is it you mean?

MAOILSHEACHLAINN.

[(going to the door of the room and throwing it open)]. Let you rise out, MacDara, and reveal yourself to the men that are waiting for your word.

ONE OF THE NEWCOMERS.

Has MacDara come home?

MacDara comes out of the room: Maire ni Fhiannachta stands behind him in the doorway.

DIARMAID

(starting up from where he has been sitting)

That is the man that stood among the people in the fair of Uachtar Ard! [(He goes up to MacDara and kisses his hand.)]

I could not get near you yesterday, MacDara, with the crowds that were round you. What was on me that didn't know you? Sure, I had a right to know that sad, proud head. Maire ni Fhiannachta, men and women yet unborn will bless the pains of your first childing.

Maire ni Fhiannachta comes forward slowly and takes her son's hand and kisses it.

MAIRE

(in a low voice)

Soft hand that played at my breast, strong hand that will fall heavy on the Gall, brave hand that will break the yoke! Men of this mountain, my son MacDara is the Singer that has quickened the dead years and all the quiet dust! Let the horsemen that sleep in Aileach rise up and follow him into the war! Weave your winding-sheets, women, for there will be many a noble corpse to be waked before the new moon!

Each comes forward and kisses his hand.

MAOILSHEACHLAINN.

Let you speak, MacDara, and tell us is it time.

MACDARA.

Where is Colm?

DIARMAID.

Gone out the road to fight the Gall, himself and fifteen.

MACDARA.

Has not Colm spoken by his deed already?

CUIMIN.

You are our leader.

MACDARA.

Your leader is the man that spoke first. Give me a pike and I will follow Colm. Why did you let him go out with fifteen men only? You are fourscore on the mountain.

DIARMAID.

We thought it a foolish thing for fourscore to go into battle against four thousand, or, maybe, forty thousand.

MACDARA.

And so it is a foolish thing. Do you want us to be wise?

CUIMIN.

This is strange talk.

MACDARA.

I will talk to you more strangely yet. It is for your own souls' sakes I would have had the fourscore go, and not for Colm's sake, or for the battle's sake, for the battle is won whether you go or not.

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 587