Iollann Beag goes to the door.

CEALLACH.

Why have good men such pride?

A King's Messenger appears upon the threshold. Iollann Beag holds the curtain of the door while the Messenger speaks.

THE MESSENGER

Who in this house is Ciaran?

CIARAN.

I am Ciaran.

THE MESSENGER

I bring you greeting from the King.

CIARAN.

Take back to him my greeting.

THE MESSENGER

The King has come to make the hunting of this wood.

CIARAN.

It is the King s privilege to hunt the woods of the cantred.

THE MESSENGER

Not far from here is a green-glade of the forest in which the King with his nobles and good men, his gillies and his runners, has sat down to meat.

CIARAN.

May it be a merry sitting for them.

THE MESSENGER

It has seemed to the King an unroyal thing to taste of the cheer of this greenwood while he is at enmity with you; for he has remembered the old saying that friendship is more welcome at meat than ale or music. Therefore, he has sent me to say to you that he has put all enmity out of his heart, and that in token thereof he invites you to share his forest feast, such as it is, you and your pupils.

CIARAN.

The King is kind. I would like well to come to him, but my rule forbids me to leave this house.

THE MESSENGER.

The King will take

badly any refusal. It is not usual to refuse a King's invitation.

CIARAN.

When I came to this place, after journeying many long roads of land and sea, I said to myself: ` I will abide here henceforth, this shall be the sod of my death.' And I made a vow to live in this little cloister alone, or with a few pupils, I who had been restless and a wanderer, and a seeker after difficult things; the King will not grudge me the loneliness of my cloister.

THE MESSENGER

I will say all this to the King. These lads will come with me?

CIARAN.

Will ye go to the King's feast, lads?

BREASAL.

May we go, Master.

CIARAN.

I will not gainsay you.

MAINE.

It will be a great thing to sit at the King's table.

CEALLACH.

Master, it may turn aside the King's displeasure for your not going if we go in your name. We may, perchance, bring the King here, and peace will be bound between you.

CIARAN

May God be near you in the places to which you go.

CEALLACH.

I am loath to leave you alone, Master.

CIARAN

Little Iollann will stay with me. Will you not, little Iollann.

Iollann Beag looks yearningly towards the Messenger and the others as if he would fain go; then he turns to Ciaran.

IOLLANN BEAG.

I will.

CIARAN.

(caressing him)

That is my good little lad.

ART.

We will bring you back some of the King's mead, Iollann.

IOLLANN BEAG.

Bring me some of his apples and his hazel-nuts.

RONAN.

We will, and, maybe, a roast capon, or a piece of venison.

They all go out laughing. Ceallach turns back in the door.

CEALLACH.

Good-bye, Master.

CIARAN.

May you go safe, lad. [(To Iollann).] You are my whole school now, Iollann.

IOLLANN.

(sitting down at his knee)

Do you think the King will come here?

CIARAN.

Yes, I think he will come.

IOLLANN.

I would like to see him. Is he a great, tall man?

CIARAN.

I have not seen him for a long time; not since he and I were lads.

IOLLAN

Were you friends?

CIARAN.

We were fostered together.

IOLLANN.

Is he a wicked King?

CIARAN.

No; he has ruled this country well. His people love him. They have gone into many perilous places with him, and he has never failed them.

IOLLAN

Why then does he hate you? Why do Ceallach and the others fear that he may do you harm?

CIARAN.

For twenty years Daire and I have stood over against each other. When we were at school we were rivals for the first place. I was first in all manly games; Daire was first in learning. Everyone said `Ciaran will be a great warrior and Daire will be a great poet or a great teacher.' And yet it has not been so. I was nearly as good as he in learning, and he was nearly as good as I in manly feats. I said that I would be his master in all things, and he said that he would be my master. And we strove one against the other.

IOLLANN BEAG.

Why did you want to be his master?

CIARAN.

I do not know. I thought that I should be happy if I were first and Daire

only second. But Daire was always first. I sought out difficult things to do that I might become a better man than he: I went into far countries and won renown among strange peoples, but very little wealth and no happiness; I sailed into seas that no man before me had sailed into, and saw islands that only God and the angels had seen before me; I learned outland tongues and read the books of many peoples and their old lore; and when I came back to my own country I found that Daire was its king, and that all men loved him. Me they had forgotten.

IOLLANN BEAG.

Were you sad when you came home and found that you were forgotten?

CIARAN.

No, I was glad. I said, `This is a hard thing that I have found to do, to live lonely and unbeloved among my own kin. Daire has not done anything as hard as this.' In one of the cities that I had sailed to I had heard of the true, illustrious God, and of men who had gone out from warm and pleasant houses, and from the kindly faces of neighbours to live in desert places, where God walked alone and terrible; and I said that I would do that hard thing,

though I would fain have stayed in my father's house. And so I came into this wilderness, where I have lived for seven years. For a few years I was alone; then pupils began to come to me. By-and-bye the druids gave out word that I was teaching new things and breaking established custom; and the King has forbade my teaching, and I have not desisted, and so he and I stand opposed as of old.

IOLLANN BEAG.

You will win this time, little Master.

CIARAN.

I think so; I hope so, dear. [(Aside.)] I would I could say `I know so.' This seems to me the hardest thing I have tried to do. Can a soldier fight for a cause of which he is not sure? Can a teacher die for a thing he does not believe? Forgive me, Lord! It is my weakness that cries out. I believe, I believe; help my unbelief. [(To Iollann Beag.)] Why do you think I shall win this time, Iollann,---I who have always lost?

IOLLANN BEAG.

Because God's great angels will fight for you. Will they not?

CIARAN.

Yes, I think they will. All that old chivalry stands harnessed in Heaven.

IOLLANN BEAG.

Will they not come if you call them?

CIARAN.

Yes, they will come. [(aside.)] Is it a true thing I tell this child or do I lie to him? Will they come at my call? Will they come at my call? My spirit reaches out and finds Heaven empty. The great halls stand horseless and riderless. I have called to you, O riders, and I have not heard the thunder of your coming. The multitudinous, many-voiced sea and the green, quiet earth have each its children, but where are the sons of Heaven? Where in all this temple of the world, this dim and wondrous temple, does its God lurk?

IOLLANN BEAG.

And would they come if I were to call them---old Peter, and the Baptist John, and Michael and his riders?

CIARAN.

We are taught that if one calls them with faith they will come.

IOLLANN BEAG.

Could I see them and speak to them?

CIARAN.

If it were necessary for any dear purpose of God's, as to save a soul that were in peril, we are taught that they would come in bodily presence, and that one could see them and speak to them.

IOLLANN BEAG.

If the soul of any dear friend of mine be ever in peril I will call upon them. I will say, `Baptist John, Baptist John, attend him. Good Peter of the Sword, strike valiantly. Young Michael, stand near with all the heroes of Heaven!'

CIARAN.

(aside)

If the soul of any dear friend of his were in peril! The peril is near! The peril is near!

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 518