If he may live I am content, Content that he shall turn on me, If but the dead will set him free That I may speak with him at whiles, Eyes that the cold moon or the harsh sea Or what I know not's made indifferent. GHOST of CUCHULAIN What a wise silence has fallen in this dark! I know you now in all your ignorance Of all whereby a lover's quiet is rent. What dread so great as that he should forget The least chance sight or sound, or scratch or mark On an old door, or frail bird heard and seen In the incredible clear light love cast All round about her some forlorn lost day? That face, though fine enough, is a fool's face And there's a folly in the deathless Sidhe Beyond man's reach. WOMAN of the SIDHE I told you to forget After my fashion; you would have none of it; So now you may forget in a man's fashion. There's an unbridled horse at the sea's edge. Mount; it will carry you in an eye's wink To where the King of Country-Under-Wave, Old Mananan, nods above the board and moves His chessmen in a dream. Demand your life And come again on the unbridled horse. GHOST of CUCHULAIN Forgive me those rough words. How could you know That man is held to those whom he has loved By pain they gave, or pain that he has given, Intricacies of pain. WOMAN of the SIDHE I am ashamed That being of the deathless shades I chose A man so knotted to impurity. (The Ghost of Cuchulain goes out) WOMAN of the SIDHE (to Figure of Cuchulain) To you that have no living light, but dropped From a last leprous crescent of the moon, I owe it all. FIGURE of CUCHULAIN Because you have failed I must forego your thanks, I that took pity Upon your love and carried out your plan To tangle all his life and make it nothing That he might turn to you. WOMAN of the SIDHE Was it from pity You taught the woman to prevail against me? FIGURE of CUCHULAIN You know my nature--by what name I am called. WOMAN of the SIDHE Was it from pity that you hid the truth That men are bound to women by the wrongs They do or suffer? FIGURE of CUCHULAIN You know what being I am. WOMAN of the SIDHE I have been mocked and disobeyed--your power Was more to you than my good-will, and now I'll have you learn what my ill-will can do; I lay you under bonds upon the instant To stand before our King and face the charge And take the punishment. FIGURE of CUCHULAIN I'll stand there first. And tell my story first, and Mananan Knows that his own harsh sea made my heart cold. WOMAN of the SIDHE My horse is there and shall outrun your horse. (The Figure of Cuchulain falls back, the Woman of the Sidhe goes out. Drum taps, music resembling horse hoofs.) EITHNE INGUBA (entering quickly)