FEDELM. Come with me now, and I will send for them, For I have a great room that’s full of beds I can make ready; and there is a smooth lawn Where they can play at hurley and sing poems Under an apple-tree. SEANCHAN. I know that place: An apple-tree, and a smooth level lawn Where the young men can sway their hurley sticks. [_Sings._] The four rivers that run there, Through well-mown level ground, Have come out of a blessed well That is all bound and wound By the great roots of an apple, And all the fowl of the air Have gathered in the wide branches And keep singing there. [_FEDELM, troubled, has covered her eyes with her hands._ FEDELM. No, there are not four rivers, and those rhymes Praise Adam’s paradise. SEANCHAN. I can remember now, It’s out of a poem I made long ago About the Garden in the East of the World, And how spirits in the images of birds Crowd in the branches of old Adam’s crabtree. They come before me now, and dig in the fruit With so much gluttony, and are so drunk With that harsh wholesome savour, that their feathers Are clinging one to another with the juice. But you would lead me to some friendly place, And I would go there quickly. FEDELM. [_Helping him to rise._] Come with me. _He walks slowly, supported by her, till he comes to table._ SEANCHAN. But why am I so weak? Have I been ill? Sweetheart, why is it that I am so weak? [_Sinks on to seat._ FEDELM. [_Goes to table._] I’ll dip this piece of bread into the wine, For that will make you stronger for the journey. SEANCHAN. Yes, give me bread and wine; that’s what I want, For it is hunger that is gnawing me. [_He takes bread from FEDELM, hesitates, and then thrusts it back into her hand._ But, no; I must not eat it. FEDELM. Eat, Seanchan. For if you do not eat it you will die. SEANCHAN. Why did you give me food? Why did you come? For had I not enough to fight against Without your coming? FEDELM. Eat this little crust, Seanchan, if you have any love for me. SEANCHAN. I must not eat it—but that’s beyond your wit. Child! child! I must not eat it, though I die. FEDELM. [_Passionately._] You do not know what love is; for if you loved, You would put every other thought away. But you have never loved me. SEANCHAN. [_Seizing her by wrist._] You, a child, Who have but seen a man out of the window, Tell me that I know nothing about love, And that I do not love you! Did I not say There was a frenzy in the light of the stars All through the livelong night, and that the night Was full of marriages? But that fight’s over, And all that’s done with, and I have to die. FEDELM. [_Throwing her arms about him._]