Chapter II: Act TWO

_SCENE ONE--A forest on the mountain tops, the great trees
glooming with the shadows of nightfall. In the distance,
between the dark boles, patches of sky with the fading
light of evening. The scene slopes down into a clump of
tangle-wood on the left. Up the slope, upon a stump that
stands out from among the trees, Selma is sitting with
her head bowed, her face almost hidden by her hair which
has fallen forward across her shoulders. She is dressed
in dappled fawn-skin. In her hand she has a spray of
dog-wood blossoms from which she is thoughtlessly tearing
the leaves. From the thicket below, three fairies steal in
one after another, having in their hands wild-flowers and
ferns._

_TIME--Early spring, three years later._

FIRST FAIRY-- (_Running a little way up the slope and stopping._)
Sister, see! (_Holding forth her flowers._) Kingcups!

SECOND FAIRY--(_Running closer._) Sister, see, I bring
The laced fern.

THIRD FAIRY--(_Running still closer._) See, see! Violets, sister!
I found them waking in an open place
Where the dew falls. (_Together they approach the stump._)

SECOND FAIRY--(_Softly._) Sister!

THIRD FAIRY-- Flowers, sister.

(_The first stoops down and looks up into Selma's
face. The others whisper together. From the
thicket below, two other fairies enter._)

FOURTH FAIRY--(_Stopping._) Hark, how it tinkles!

FIFTH FAIRY--It's the dew falling. (_They hurry up the slope._)

FIRST FAIRY--(_Rising quickly._) Her eyes are wet!

SECOND AND THIRD--(_To fourth and fifth._) Her eyes are wet!

FOURTH FAIRY-- Sister,
Anemones are opening in the wind.

FIFTH FAIRY--And every pink is jeweled in the fells.

FIRST FAIRY--And here are buttercups.

THIRD FAIRY-- And violets.

SECOND FAIRY-- (_Stooping._)
See, sister, here I bring the first frilled fern.
I found it where the dashing water-fall
Sprayed it. It was uncurling near a rock.

SELMA-- (_Without looking up._)
I do not like you, for you will not tell.

(_The fairies start and exchange glances._)

FIRST FAIRY--Oh, see the dew-globes break upon the moss!

(_She runs back a little way among the trees.
The others follow her and they talk among
themselves._)

SECOND FAIRY--Where is he now?

THIRD FAIRY-- He is making his way
To his cold dark cell in the cold dark house
Where the lizards dart and the crickets call.

FIRST FAIRY--I heard the grind of his wooden shoe
On the mountain road; but she must not know.

FOURTH FAIRY--We stood in the pines and we saw him pass,
A thin white shadow she would not know.

FIFTH FAIRY--And, sisters, he turned his face to the stars
And we heard him sigh.

FOURTH FAIRY-- And we heard him sigh.

THIRD FAIRY--It must be, it must be, for he cannot see.

FIRST FAIRY--He cannot see till he sees no more.

SELMA-- (_As before._)
You said he would come when the dog-wood bloomed.

SECOND FAIRY--Oh, see them!

THIRD FAIRY-- See the fairies!

(_They all look up the slope._)

FIRST FAIRY-- Round they go,
In their ringlets whirling, whirling.

FOURTH FAIRY--At every sparkle racing through the wood,
From crottle, kingcup, and green maiden-hair
In dainty gowpens fetch the dewy globes
And slide them down the sagging gossamers
To light them in the dance.

(_They glance toward the stump. Seeing that they
have not succeeded in attracting Selma's
attention, they take hands and circle toward
her singing._)

_Hark the bracken rustle, sister._
_Other elves are awaking, peeping,_
_While the cowslip buds are weeping_
_On the downs and in the dells._
_Trip it softly, softly, sister,_
_Lest the stock-dove, lightly sleeping,_
_Wake and hear our fairy bells._

(_After circling round the stump and seeking in
every way to induce her to join them, one
of them tries gently to take the spray of
dog-wood blossoms from her hand._)

SELMA--(_Calling aloud._) Father!

FIRST FAIRY--Oh, smell the wood pinks! They are waking now.

SECOND FAIRY--The bees are stirring in the gum.

THIRD FAIRY-- O sisters,
I know a brake where the brown quails sleep.
Let's tip the leaves and let the star-light on them.

(_Four of them run up the slope one after another
and each in turn as she disappears among the
trees glances back and calls to Selma._)

FIRST FAIRY--Sister!

SECOND FAIRY-- Sister!

THIRD FAIRY-- Sister!

FOURTH FAIRY-- Sister!

(_The fifth fairy stands for a time looking after
the others, then comes to the stump and sits
down at Selma's feet._)

FIFTH FAIRY-- Sister,
If you will come and play, I'll show you slim
Young heath-bells in the dingle. Won't you, if
We take you where may-apples grow and pinks
Bend with their fairy mirrors on the moss?

VOICE-- (_From the thicket below._) O sister!

(_The fairy starts up and skips down the slope._)

SELMA-- (_Without looking up._)
Three times it has bloomed and he does not come.

SIXTH FAIRY-- (_Entering hurriedly from the thicket._)
We were floating along on the river mist
And saw them creep up the mountain side--

SEVENTH FAIRY-- (_Entering._)
And heard them plotting and heard them say:
"We will throw him down, we will throw him down."

SIXTH FAIRY--We called in his ear, but he did not hear,

(_The seventh starts up the slope toward Selma._)

FIFTH FAIRY--Oh, do not tell her! Oh, do not tell!

SEVENTH FAIRY--They will throw him down! They will throw him down!

FIFTH FAIRY--Oh, catch him with delicate hands as he falls
Into the mist and--

SIXTH FAIRY-- Save him!

SEVENTH FAIRY-- Save him!

FIFTH FAIRY--And I will run to the mountain cave.

(_The two fairies hasten out through the thicket,
the fifth disappears back among the trees,
left. Singing is heard up the slope. A moment
later, a number of fairies circle in with
green boughs in their hands._)

_On the downs and in the dells._
_Trip it softly, softly, sister,_
_Lest the stock-dove, lightly sleeping,_
_Wake and hear our fairy bells._

FIRST FAIRY--Oh, something black tumbled into the mist!

SECOND FAIRY--And something bright--what was it, sister?

FIRST FAIRY--A star, I think; it glanced and fell.

THIRD FAIRY--Sister, it flashed like a silver cross.

FOURTH FAIRY--And plopped into the brook. Did you see the ripples
Glitter in the moon?

SECOND FAIRY-- O sisters, see!
The will-o'-the-wisps rush down the valley fogs,
Their white veils trailing round the tall dark crags.

(_They hurry down the mountain. Selma, startled,
gets off the stump and runs a little way back
in the wood and, stopping, looks after them._)

VOICE OF CANZLER-- (_Up the slope._)
Where are you, child? (_He enters._)
Why do you stand out here
In darkness?

SELMA--They have gone away again.

CANZLER-- (_Who waits till she comes near him._)
Do not ask anything to stay, my child.
Where the leaf goes the tree goes, and the rocks
Flow away with the waters to the sea.

(_They go up the slope together._)

SELMA--He does not come and they will not tell.

(_She stops and looks back._)

CANZLER--Let us go home and watch the stars come out
Above the mountains where Val-father lives.
Perhaps the Norns will spin us a white thread.

(_They go out, Selma looking back._)

_SCENE TWO--A mountain cavern with jutting ledges of rock.
From the bones that lie about, one would imagine it to be
a den to which wild beasts drag and devour their prey. To
the right, a vine, growing out of the crevice in the rear
wall, shows by its leaves becoming a darker green as it
spreads to the right that the entrance is in that direction_
_and near by. Bowlders, evidently used for seats, lie here
and there, and in the rear, center, a smouldering fire
throws their shadows about the floor and walls. Several_
_willow baskets freshly woven hang on pegs driven into
seams in the rocks. To the left, an old spinning wheel with
a thread trailing from it, and near it, upon the floor, a
quantity of black wool. Farther over in the corner, a couch
of rushes and forest grass. From the ledge that projects
out over it hang bunches of dry herbs. In the left wall,
extending to the ceiling and barely wide enough to admit
of one's passing through, is a cleft whence are heard at
intervals the muffled sound of hammers far down in the
earth._

_To the right of the fire, Sigurd, the dwarf, is peeling
osiers. He is barefooted. About his neck he wears a string
of buckeyes. Beside him, upon the floor, lies a pile of
white osiers newly peeled. Occasionally he takes the withes
in his mouth and tears the bark off with his teeth. On the_
_other side of the fire, reclining upon his elbow, the gnome_
_Kilo is poking the coals with a stick._

_Despite the red glow of the fire, the cave is quite dark._

KILO--Love the monks, eh?

VOICE--(_To the left._) Kilo!

KILO-- Granny says you do.

VOICE--Kilo!

KILO--Hush! I'm tired.

VOICE--Loki wants you. (_After a pause._) Kilo!

KILO-- (_To himself._)
Call on; Kilo don't care. It's sweat and drudge
And puff and hammer the livelong day
At the blazing forge, and then all night
The big black sledges swing and fall.
I'm tired. You love the bells?

VOICE-- Kilo! You hear?

KILO--
Dumb, are you, elf-brat? You squealed loud enough
The night that Granny found you on the moss
White as a hail-stone, thunder-whelped, and cold.
"Tweakle! tweakle!" Elf-cub, are you?

VOICE-- Kilo!

KILO-- (_Out of temper._)
Tell him I've gone with Granny.

(_From the left Zip enters. Under his arm he
carries a great sword, the blade of which he is
burnishing with a piece of sand-stone._)

ZIP-- Where is she?

KILO--Darkening the moon.

ZIP-- Is to-night the time?

KILO-- (_With a look warning him of the presence of the dwarf._)
Got the runes cut on it?

(_Zip hands the sword to Kilo and goes over and
stands near the vine. Kilo examines the
curiously wrought haft._)

ZIP-- Listen!

KILO-- (_Sitting up._) What is it? (_They listen._)

ZIP--The geese are out.

KILO--(_To the dwarf._) Hear that, gozzard? Do you?

ZIP--Hark! Hissing, they go down the mountain side
With flip-flap of their big grey wings.
(_He returns toward the fire._) Last night
The monks' new hunter wrung two ganders' necks.
I found their heads in the grotto.

KILO--(_Poking the dwarf with the sword._) Hear that, lob?
You herd the goslets for the holy men?
Next thing you'll grind the scauper for the monk,
And help him carve the cross. Granny'll get you.

ZIP--Where's Suk and Gimel?

KILO-- Digging water-herbs
Down in the marsh. (_He rises and the two walk left._)
'Twas said to throw him off.
The young imp shoots his ears out like a snail
To feel about for danger to the monks.
If he should hear the gnomes are out for blood,
You'd see him, he'd be footed like a hare
To put the monk on guard.

(_From the right, Zory enters. He crooks his back,
screens his eyes with his hand, and walks
feebly._)

ZORY-- "O dear! my eyes!
Rosa, is the moon up, dear?" Ha, ha! Zory! Zory!

(_He takes up the sword from the floor, and using
it as a cane, walks unsteadily._)

ZIP--Steal into the abbey, will they?

KILO-- No, no.
He's down in the village. At break of day
I saw the blur of his big black gown
In the mountain mists as he made his way.
To-night he will come from the little town.
Then Suk and Gimel--the road runs by
Where some wild vines dangle.
(_As though jerking them._) And far below,
The waters gurgle.

ZORY-- They will? Ho, ho!

KILO-- (_Huskily, nodding toward the dwarf._)
The spy of Woden.

ZORY--(_Dropping his voice._) If that's the plan,
Then the old dame with her gimlet eye
Sees farther than Woden's ravens can.
At dusk I crept over behind the town.
Some boys were up on the mountain side
Running a cow they were driving down,
With puff-balls pelting her brindled hide.
On a slope of heather I knew a sink
Where a brown backed bunny was wont to squat,
To warm his fur in the sun and wink
At the shadows darkening a cabbage plot.
Says I: "Now Zory will have some fun.
He'll start the hare for the village boys
And hear them hollo and see them run."
With barking of dogs and a hue and a cry
They will soon be off, and, flying the noise,
Wat will go bobbing across the down.
I'm off for the heather when lo, I hear,
Behind the sallows that fringe the foss,
A sneeze and a sigh and then, "O dear!"
Some women are trying to get across.
I hide in the dock. The dames pass by
With baskets of bennet. I hear one say:
"With our dear Lord hanging upon the tree,
And oh, such a beautiful, beautiful cross
No one ever saw, so the people say
Who have peered in the window. And think, la me!
In another day and another day
My every prayer will have been fulfilled.
May the Virgin spare us." The other sighs
And, scanning the shadowy mountain side:
"I fear he will never complete it, Clotilde.
He climbs that dreadful mountain at night.
Can you see him now? Oh, I fear, I fear
Those awful rocks where the devils hide!
It seems so dark. Rosa, is the moon up, dear?"
To see the old dame as she--
(_Mimicing with the sword for a cane._) daddled on
With her skirt in her hand, through the dewy grass,
Her little whisket of herbs on her arm
To keep off the devils, and mumbling a mass
And snuffling and moaning and sighing, "O dear!
It's a wicked world."

(_He laughs till he falls to the floor_ _where
he continues to laugh. Kilo steals to the fire
and_ _is about to snap a coal toward Zory when
Suk rushes in_ _right._)

SUK--Granny! O Granny!

ZIP AND KILO--What?

SUK--Where's Granny?

KILO-- On the peaks.

SUK--(_Rushing left._) Loki!

KILO--Stop him!

SUK--(_Dodging past Zip._) Loki!

KILO--Stop him, Zory! (_As he darts by, Zory, still upon_
_the floor, catches the gnome about the legs._) What is it?

ZIP--Over the cliff?

SUK--(_Panting._) Over and over. His black gown--
The wind puffs it--like a big bat
Swoops after him.

ZORY--Whew!

VOICE--(_Right._) Cock-a-doodle-doo!

SUK--(_Breaking away._) Loki!

(_He rushes out left, followed by the three other
gnomes. From the right Gimel enters._)

GIMEL--Cock-a-doodle-doo!
The sun's up, Granny! Hear the cock!
His morning trumpet wakes the village up.
Cock-a-doodle-doo!
See the good people in their Sunday clothes.
A long procession up the mountain goes
With boughs of cypress and boughs of yew.
And now the big bell in the abbey tower
T-o-l-l-s and it t-o-l-l-s and it t-o-l-l-s.
Cock-a-doodle-doo!
What makes the big bell
Sob in its tower? Can any one tell?
Why, the monk that pulls at the rope, I ween.
Cock-a-doodle-doo!

(_He follows the others through the narrow passage,
left. A moment later, from the opposite side,
a fairy appears and beckons to the dwarf. The
latter, after a quick glance to the left,
stealthily takes up the sword from the floor
and follows the fairy from the cave._)

_SCENE THREE--The monastery of St. Giles, in the mountains._
_An open court, with buildings dimly seen in the darkness.
To the right, the dormitory, a large structure built of
stone, with high, deep-set windows protected by heavy
shutters which are closed. Across the court a high wall,
starting in front, extends back some fifteen feet and abuts
the side of the chapel before which in outline long stone
steps may be discerned. In the center of the wall is an
archway with a pair of ponderous iron gates. The night is
dark and windy._

_Along the side of the dormitory comes old Andrew with a
staff and lighted taper. He is singing in a low voice._

ANDREW--_The barque o' the moon, like the Ithican's ship,_
_Heigho, she's swamped on the sea,_
_With her big bags of wind_--

(_Turning the corner and meeting the wind._) Hey!

Up, lads! Swell your bellies, sails! Now we're for't!

(_His candle threatening to go out, he draws back.
For a while he stands as if perplexed. Then,
rounding the corner, he again turns his
shoulder to the wind and, shielding his taper
thus, moves sidewise across the court toward
the chapel._)

Puff, devils, puff, puff! Howl and snap! howl and snap!
You'll scare old Andrew, will you? By the saints,
I'll have this taper in the chapel sconce
In spite of all your snarling.

(_He throws down his staff and shields his taper
with his gown._) Blow! blow! blow!

Here's a monk's soul borne to the Virgin's arms
Across a strip of Hell. D'you want to leap
Out of this greasy world? Out with you, then!
Here's a fine night to jump in, wind and moon,
Roar and the scud of swollen water-bags.
Jump, jump, soul! Swounds, here's a coward for you;
Here's a tallow-swad that loves swine's belly
Better'n the big deep. Shrift, eh? shrift and housel?
_Primum confessum_, foul monk. Gluttony. (_The taper flickers._)
Yip! See the devils pluck at him! Quick, priest;
St. Giles will lose a lamb. If I damn one,
I damn them all; damn the Abbot; damn Andrew.
Flesh is flesh. _Absolvo te. Secundum._
Bibbing, eh? Vap or burgundy? Vap?
That's a vile sin; but vap is hell enough.
_Quid tertio?_ (_He puts his ear to the taper._)
St! lower; the Devil's listening. (_Starting._)
Whee! Bless the saints! God must have gold for that.
No gold? No gold, no shrift. And here's old Claw-foot
Coming through the dark, that needs a furnace tender,
A skimmer for his bullion pots. Gramercy, monk.
No wench-craft there nor bibbing, soft bells and venison.
Limbs hot, hot lungs, hot belly, everything--
(_The taper goes out._) Puff!
Down over the big, windy world. Good jump;
Clean to the pit. (_Thunder._)
Ay, night, smack your black chaps.
Rumble! rumble!

(_He feels about the ground for his staff, and,
having found it, walks back and stands under
one of the windows of the dormitory._) Soloman!
Soloman!

The Devil wants you. D'you hear? His pipe's gone out.
Give him a coal.

(_He waits a while, then beats upon the shutter
with his staff. A low voice is heard within._)

What's that? Eh?

VOICE-- Who is it?
Lucifer?

ANDREW--Ay, with his light out.
(_After a pause._) Come, come!
I'll have to cut a reed and suck the stars
Like the big fool you told of.

(_The shutter opens and the head of Soloman
appears._)

Light, light, man! (_Soloman whispers._)
Pipe out, cricket. Here's the big noisy winds
Roarin' in my ears. (_Soloman whispers and points to the corner._)
Prowling? A night like this!
Turned wolf, eh? There's a fine porker gone.
Louis and he were at their wassail cups,
Nuzzling a stoup o' hipo' a while ago. (_He comes toward the corner._)
God bless you, senechal, another stoup.
Swine-herd, all-hail! Fill up the Abbot's trough.
An he breaks sty, look out! God bless us then!
Water and bread, water and bread. Zooks, zooks!
The devil's up with Andrew if he finds
The oratory dark. (_He listens._) Otho! Spot! Hya! Hya!
There's something snooping here.

(_He crosses himself._) I'll get a light

And bustle from this place. It's the Devil
Walking on wool. (_He turns back toward the window._)
Water and bread. Sfoot, sfoot!
The sheep will find thin food on Andrew's grave.
Light, man, light! It's the bats hurtling.
(_Soloman disappears._) There's a chinch
That burrows in the vellum like a mole,
A parchment moth what can spin yarn or yarn
Like the old dame i' the tale. He reads and reads.
He's got a wit strung like a rosary thread
With tales and names and things and things and things.
Tell me a tale, says I, something valorous,
Something to lighten life for an old man.
Tales for tapers, says he. A go, says I.
And so I pilfers from the chapel sconce
The snuffed stubbs. To lighten life, says I.

(_Soloman reappears with a lighted candle._)

The lad that rode the dolphin, did he get
To land?

SOLOMAN--He stayed upon the sea.

ANDREW-- And drowned?

SOLOMAN--Turned buccaneer and sacked the christian ships
And sold the spoil in Jewry. (_Andrew walks away._)
Don't you wish
To hear it? The tale goes on to tell
How Hugh de Bouillon, cruising in the East,
Found him upon a cliff and took him down
From off a gibbet where the sea-gulls flew,
And with his harp upon the deck at night
He made the sea-lads merry with his songs.
Let's have them now, here at the gates of heaven,
Far off from dead men crying in the sea.

ANDREW--What makes the lightning go that way, zigzag?

SOLOMAN--The Devil broke it on a gibbet--

ANDREW-- Tush!

SOLOMAN--And hung it upon a sea-cliff.

ANDREW--Tush, tush, lad!
Don't make game o' the old man. If he's bent,
It's with prayer. (_He comes back to the window._)

SOLOMAN-- Sing me a sea-song.

ANDREW-- It's too raw
A night, lad.

(_He holds his taper up toward Soloman's, when
suddenly some one carrying a light appears at
the farther corner of the dormitory. Soloman
jerks back his candle._)

Eh? It's Bill-o'-the-wisp!
God save us, man! Moving! It's a torch.

(_The light passes behind the chapel. Andrew walks
back in the court._)

How the wind blows! There's blood in it. Caw, rooks,
Chatter and caw. Villainy is abroad.
There's blood on the stones somewhere, fresh blood.

(_He stands looking in the direction whence the
light disappeared._)

It's the new deer-man fastening up the dogs.
He hunts in the night when the brockets o' the wood
Come to the stream to drink. And none to tell them
O' the foul spear. No abbot-stag to say--
Standing to his belly in the stream--
"Drink will be the death of you." It's a foul world.

(_Returning toward the window._)

The hunter's at the kennel wi' his pups.
What's his name? He's been here now a sennight.

SOLOMAN--Macias.

ANDREW-- Macias; that's a good name.

SOLOMAN-- (_Giving Andrew a light._)
It's a lean name.

ANDREW-- Lean name? Fat, man, fat.
An it was lean we'd have to cast our skins,
As the snakes do, and sleep at breakfast time.
I tell you, Soloman, there a hunter for you.
He's for a beast, he fronts it i' the dark,
Blazing its pretty orbs wi' his big torch.
His eye's a rook's eye and his spear as true
As the bolt o' the buskined hussy what you say
Drops from the moon i' the dead o' night and hunts
Naked i' the woods. She's a--I'm a monk, though.
An you could see him coming through the copse,
Shuffling the dews away, zooks, you would say
The burnt faced fellows of Libya were for sure
Making a revel feast for the big god.
The game! the game! Sweet, tender prickets,
Stags and chamois calves, pheasants and geese,
Turtles and loaches and toper horse-fish
Wi' fins as red as blood. God bless us, though.
An the Abbot finds the oratory dark,
There'll be thin food for sheep on Andrew's grave.
Water and bread.

(_He starts toward the chapel, humming to himself._)

SOLOMAN-- What's the song, Andrew?

ANDREW-- Sh!
The Abbot hears me trill that heathen song,
I'll get no chick-weed. It's a foul song.

(_He comes forward and looks round the corner of
the dormitory, then returns to the window._)

A cricket chirped it from a chink i' the wall
As the old man dozed dreaming o' green fields,
Up there. (_He sings._)
_The grass is food for the ewe_
_And the ewe is food for man_
_And man is food for the green, green grass_
_And the grass for the ewe again._
The foul song makes goat's food of us all.
Old Andrew's shoots, gowan, and aigilops
For filthy goats to browse on. (_He starts away._)
Sfoot, I'll fast
'Fore I'll be carried around in a goat's udder.

(_Suddenly around the farther corner of the chapel
the light reappears. Soloman snatches-to the
shutter. Old Andrew blows out his taper and
gets down upon his knees by the wall. Macias,
the hunter, carrying a pine torch, comes
forward across the court._)

ANDREW-- (_Telling his beads._)
_Adeste, sancti_; villainy is abroad.

MACIAS-- (_Holding down his torch._)
Ay, monk, you're right. Are all the brothers in?

ANDREW--_Abi_, fiend! Out with the sooty torch!
Old Andrew's prayers can fly to heaven i' the dark.

MACIAS--I meant no harm, monk. I was passing by
And heard you say there's villainy abroad.
I thought perhaps you'd heard the blind bitch howl,
As I did, mournful. Did you? Did you hear her?

ANDREW-- (_Looking up._)
Who breaks old Andrew's mass? Zooks, it's the Devil
Thrusting his grimy face through censer smoke.

(_Turning to the wall._)

_Adeste, sancti_; villainy is abroad.

MACIAS-- (_Reflecting._)
It may have been in my dream. (_He walks out in the court._)
A few white stars
Still burned above the village. (_Looking up._) Not a star
In all the heavens. (_He returns right. Andrew has risen._)
Are all the brothers in?

ANDREW--Up there behind the clouds?

MACIAS-- Did you hear the howl?

ANDREW--Ay, heard it in the pines.

MACIAS-- The bitch, I mean.

ANDREW--Carnus is dog. Bitch is a carnal thought.
I've been at prayer.

MACIAS-- Within?

ANDREW-- The prayer was in;
Andrew was out.

MACIAS-- Here in the gale? How long?

ANDREW--Till a soul jumps from the big windy world.

MACIAS--Jumps from the world? Whose soul?

ANDREW-- The monk's.

MACIAS--(_Aside._) The monk's!
There, there it is, the howl of the hound!
Death has been here.

ANDREW-- Shook and refused to jump
Till he was driven off.

MACIAS-- What! Driven off?

ANDREW--Ay, by the winds.

MACIAS-- He died not in his cell?

ANDREW--He died here by the wall.

(_He walks back in the darkness._)

MACIAS-- Monk, beat the brush;
I fear some crime is crouching in the dark.

ANDREW--Ay, that there is; there's villainy abroad.

(_He stands listening._)

MACIAS--Why are you silent? Tell me how he died.

(_Andrew returns gloomily and lights his taper at
the hunter's torch._)

ANDREW--His soul was calm until it sniffed the gale
And saw the wild-fire grazing in the sky.
And then you should have seen him. When he heard
The roar of the wind and saw the lean moon
Rush through the clouds, tearing them with her horn,
Zooks, then he fluttered like a gull on a mast
When a big barque is poppling up and down
I' the foam. And all the while devils' grimy hands
Plucked at him through the dark.

(_The hunter turns away mumbling to himself._) Eh?
Mad? You're right.

An you'd a seen 'em you'd a said they're mad.

MACIAS--Where will I find the Abbot?

ANDREW-- Legions of them.
They'd seen me sponge him twice with a good shrift.
As soon as ever the third foul sin appeared,
They pounced him and pitched him down over the world
To where the big deep dashes up the sky
Spraying the stars of heaven. Down, down, down!

(_He walks back in the court and stands listening._)

Hear it? Blood on the stones, fresh blood. (_Calling._) Mother!

MACIAS--Chattering to himself. It must be he,
The ancient acholyte they told me of.
Gray hairs and staff--

ANDREW-- Mother!

MACIAS-- His ears are keen
From listening to the crickets in the stones,
Year after year. Jesu, that's a long time.
The eagles that were young upon the crags
When he came here are gray. God, fifty years!
For fifty years to watch the lizards spawn,
To feed them, name them, miss them then and see
In the green crevices of the old wall
Another brood come forth. Each rook that haunts
These musty gables here, he knows them all;
Knows every tomb-bat in the coffin'd crypt;
Can tell the spiders, where they cast their webs
In the dark corners, where and how and why;
The rere-mice, when they breed; the vermin--God!
Fifty long years, fifty! And all that time
To count the days like beads and feel them black!
I'd rather be a fox. I'd rather be--
Never to have chased the chamois up the cliffs!
Never to have felt the thrill of stag at bay,
Or heard the pheasant in the wild brown brake
Whir! (_Walking right._) I'd rather be a chipmunk free to--

ANDREW--You got the dogs shut in?

MACIAS-- (_At the corner of the dormitory._)
They're shut in. Why?

ANDREW--Hear it.

MACIAS-- I hear nothing.

ANDREW-- Far down in the dark.
There, groaning in the wind.
It tries to rise.
Some stag or something's fallen from the rocks.
Are the dogs in? Is Twinkle in, and Spot?

(_Macias walks back._)

There's something moving round it.

MACIAS-- Stag, you say?

ANDREW--It's not a stag. Its foot sounds like a paw.
Hear it? It's dragging off the carcass. Hear?

MACIAS--Old man, your ears are at the gates of death.
What is it that you hear in this wild night?
Awake you strike the trail I struck in sleep.
I have just had a dream in which I saw
A stag out on the mountain there dragged down.

ANDREW-- (_Abstractedly._)
Its foot sounds like a paw.

MACIAS-- 'Twas in the dream.
I am just from a dream in which I saw
A snow-white talbot pull a stag down.

ANDREW-- Dream?

MACIAS--And when the talbot had pulled down the buck
A pair of hands, small as a fairy's are,
Reached through the leaves and--

ANDREW-- Mother Mary! Hold!
I will wake Daniel.

MACIAS-- Are all the brothers in?

(_Andrew beats upon the shutter._)

Do what?

ANDREW--You're right. He'll read it as easy
As the old fellow what ate pulse and got
Lean as the kine he saw. He knows them all.
Says he: "Dreams sleep under the dog-wood blooms
And love to hear the patter o' the rain."
Why, he knows the color o' their beards, man.
Says he, one day, telling me of a dream--
Onar was its name, gray-beard like a king--
Steals into a tent: "Now you can get the girl;
Wake up and fight; now you can get her."
(_A low voice within._) Eh?
A dream, God bless us, fire-wing. (_The shutter opens._)
He.

SOLOMAN-- Tell it.

(_Farther back, a second shutter opens._)

MACIAS--First tell me this: Did either of you monks
Hear Fever howl?

SOLOMAN-- I heard no howl.

MACIAS--(_Flashing back his torch._) Did you?

LEO-- (_In a thin voice._)
What?

MACIAS--Hear Fever howl.

LEO-- What's Fever?

MACIAS-- The bitch.

LEO-- Shame!

MACIAS-- (_To Soloman._)
A while ago I started up from sleep
And hurried to the kennel, thinking sure
I'd find old Fever sick again; but no;
The bitch was sleeping. And yet I heard a howl.
It may have been the white hound in my dream.
I seemed to be out on the mountain there.
'Twas early morning; a few stars still shone
Above the village. Soon, far down the road,
I heard a baying as of hounds. Thinks I:
"A deer has passed and waked the village dogs.
Now for a chase." There must have been a slot
Of fresh blood on the road that fired the pack,
For on they came like mad. Around the cliff
Long bodies swung like shadows through the mist,
And tore on up the mountain. Farther up
A stag plunged from a hazel copse, and then
A snow-white talbot, following close behind,
Shot smoking from the brake. "Abloy!" I cried,
And leaped upon a rock. The after-pack,
Nosing the vent along the mountain road,
Heard the loud challenge of the leading hound
And, breaking trail, came crashing through the brush
And spied the quarry, and with their heads in air
Sprang after up the scree, their steaming mouths
Ringing the mountains round. The pretty deer,
With nostrils flaming and with dappled flanks
Torn by the furze, came skirting round a rock
And turned to dash under some low-hung boughs
When over a near knoll the hot, sinewy hound,
Like to a cat-o'-mountain from a limb,
Shot through the air. Crash through the boughs he went.
Sprinkling the earth with leaves. Out jumped my knife,
And, leaping from the rock, I hurried down
To slit the poor brute's throat and save a steak
From the mad, hungry pack. The pretty buck
Staggered beneath the hound, while the beads of blood
Dripped from the quivering hocks. The head fell back,
The tender haunches sank on the soft turf,
And death was closing up the eyes, when lo,
Sancta Maria, what a miracle!

(_He pauses a moment, then proceeds with more and
more animation._)

A gale had risen and the clouds that hung
Gray in the heavens when the chase began,
Foamed, and, flying black before the winds,
Grappled the woods and threw his thick, green hair
Into the swirling rack of livid sky.
Lightnings and thunders, winds and tumbling rocks
Charged on the pack of dogs as though they were
Devils come up from Hell, and hurled them down
Into the pit again. Under the beech
Where the white talbot had pulled down the buck
Behold the miracle the Virgin wrought!
Out of a dallop of green boughs that hung
Close to the haunches of the hart appeared
A pair of small pink hands that with one wrench
Tore the hound's jaws apart. The deer rose up
As from a sleep, shook his brown coat and browsed
The succulent green twigs, then wandered off
Up the dark mountain side, whilst like a star
Between the dim, dissolving antlers shone
A crucifix of silver, dripping blood.

(_Several shutters in the second story have opened
and faces are seen white in the glare of the
torch. Old Andrew, frightened, has drawn back
in the shadow against the wall._)

Lo, then a sight such as I hope our Lord
Will visit to these dying eyes of mine
In their last hour. The louring mountain brows
Brightened beneath a drift of golden feet,
And wings waved in the air, and faces bloomed
In the edding sky, and the dark towering ridge,
Lifting its weight of crags above the storm,
Sloughed off its shadow, and the field of pines,
Like a green army climbing to the clouds
Out of the darkness of the dale below,
Shook their victorious plumes, and every rock,
Tree, bush, and vine, and weed, and flower sent up
Voices of joy till all the mountains rang.

LEO--"I say unto you that joy shall be in heaven over one
sinner that returneth."

VOICE-- (_From the second story._)
Who is the sinner?

MACIAS--(_Calling up._) Are all the brothers in?

VOICE--(_Calling._) Oswald!

ANOTHER-- Ask Pierre.

ANOTHER-- (_Far within._) He has not returned. (A pause.)

ANOTHER--He may have stayed with Father Benedict.
He finishes to-morrow.

SOLOMAN-- Tell this dream
To the Abbot. (_The hunter disappears round the corner._)

A VOICE-- Let us hear what Father says.

ANOTHER--Oswald is girt about with prophesy.

ANOTHER--Fiends cannot harm him.

ANOTHER-- Jesus is with him.

(_The shutters are closed hurriedly._)

ANDREW-- (_Alone._)
The Devil is a big, long-legged crane,
Wading the marsh of life, and we are frogs,
Tadpoles and water-bugs. I'll fast and pray.

(_He shields his flickering taper with his gown and
makes his way across the court toward the
chapel._)

_SCENE FOUR--A desolate mountain road along the top of a
cliff that plunges down from the edge of a pine-wood._
_Overhead the wind is heard moaning in the trees, and upon
the ground patches of moonlight wave to and fro. From the
left, past some bushes which almost hide the road from
view, the dwarf, Sigurd, appears carrying the monk, Oswald,
limp in his arms. The latter's face is so emaciated that
one would never recognize him as the same person as was
seen in the forest some three years ago. His feet, upon
which are heavy wooden shoes, drag along the road. Suddenly
from somewhere in his clothing the large silver crucifix
falls to the ground. The dwarf stoops, and, resting the
monk upon his knee, reaches down and secures the crucifix,
which he puts between his teeth. Then, having gotten a new
hold, he rises and, with difficulty, makes his way up the
road._