You are too timid, For now you are safe from all the evil times, There is no evil that can find you here. OONA (_entering hurriedly_) Ochone! Ochone! The treasure room is broken in. The door stands open, and the gold is gone. (PEASANTS _raise a lamentable cry_.) CATHLEEN Be silent. (_The cry ceases._) Have you seen nobody? OONA Ochone! That my good mistress should lose all this money. CATHLEEN Let those among you--not too old to ride-- Get horses and search all the country round, I'll give a farm to him who finds the thieves. (_A man with keys at his girdle has come in while she speaks. There is a general murmur of "The porter! the porter!"_) PORTER Demons were here. I sat beside the door In my stone niche, and two owls passed me by, Whispering with human voices. OLD PEASANT God forsakes us. CATHLEEN Old man, old man, He never closed a door Unless one opened. I am desolate, Because of a strange thought that's in my heart; But I have still my faith; therefore be silent; For surely He does not forsake the world, But stands before it modelling in the clay And moulding there His image. Age by age The clay wars with His fingers and pleads hard For its old, heavy, dull and shapeless ease; But sometimes--though His hand is on it still-- It moves awry and demon hordes are born. (PEASANTS _cross themselves_.) Yet leave me now, for I am desolate, I hear a whisper from beyond the thunder. (_She comes from the oratory door._) Yet stay an instant. When we meet again I may have grown forgetful. Oona, take These two--the larder and the dairy keys. (_To the_ PORTER.) But take you this. It opens the small room Of herbs for medicine, of hellebore, Of vervain, monkshood, plantain, and self-heal. The book of cures is on the upper shelf. PORTER Why do you do this, lady; did you see Your coffin in a dream? CATHLEEN Ah, no, not that. But I have come to a strange thought. I have heard A sound of wailing in unnumbered hovels, And I must go down, down--I know not where-- Pray for all men and women mad from famine; Pray, you good neighbours. (_The_ PEASANTS _all kneel_. COUNTESS CATHLEEN _ascends the steps to the door of the oratory, and turning round stands there motionless for a little, and then cries in a loud voice_:) Mary, Queen of angels, And all you clouds on clouds of saints, farewell! END OF SCENE III. SCENE IV SCENE.--_A wood near the Castle, as in Scene II. A group of_ PEASANTS _pass_. FIRST PEASANT I have seen silver and copper, but not gold. SECOND PEASANT It's yellow and it shines. FIRST PEASANT It's beautiful. The most beautiful thing under the sun, That's what I've heard. THIRD PEASANT