CONCHUBOR. — _looking at her for a moment._ — That’s the first friendly word I’ve heard you speaking, Deirdre. A game the like of yours should be the proper thing for softening the heart and putting sweetness in the tongue; and yet this night when I hear you I’ve small blame left for Naisi that he stole you off from Ulster. DEIRDRE. — _to Naisi._ — Now, Naisi, answer gently, and we’ll be friends tonight. NAISI. — _doggedly._ — I have no call but to be friendly. I’ll answer what you will. DEIRDRE. — _taking Naisi’s hand._ — Then you’ll call Conchubor your friend and king, the man who reared me up upon Slieve Fuadh. [_As Conchubor is going to clasp Naisi’s hand cries are heard behind._ CONCHUBOR. What noise is that? AINNLE. — _behind._ — Naisi. . . . Naisi. Come to us; we are betrayed and broken. NAISI. It’s Ainnle crying out in a battle. CONCHUBOR. I was near won this night, but death’s between us now. [_He goes out._ DEIRDRE. — _clinging to Naisi._ — There is no battle. . . . Do not leave me, Naisi. NAISI. I must go to them. DEIRDRE. — _beseechingly._ — Do not leave me, Naisi. Let us creep up in the darkness behind the grave. If there’s a battle, maybe the strange fighters will be destroyed, when Ainnle and Ardan are against them. [_Cries heard._ NAISI. — _wildly._ — I hear Ardan crying out. Do not hold me from my brothers. DEIRDRE. Do not leave me, Naisi. Do not leave me broken and alone. NAISI. I cannot leave my brothers when it is I who have defied the king. DEIRDRE. I will go with you. NAISI. You cannot come. Do not hold me from the fight. [_He throws her aside almost roughly._ DEIRDRE. — _with restraint._ — Go to your brothers. For seven years you have been kindly, but the hardness of death has come between us. NAISI. — _looking at her aghast._ — And you’ll have me meet death with a hard word from your lips in my ear? DEIRDRE. We’ve had a dream, but this night has waked us surely. In a little while we’ve lived too long, Naisi, and isn’t it a poor thing we should miss the safety of the grave, and we trampling its edge? AINNLE. — _behind._ — Naisi, Naisi, we are attacked and ruined! DEIRDRE. Let you go where they are calling. (_She looks at him for an instant coldly._) Have you no shame loitering and talking, and a cruel death facing Ainnle and Ardan in the woods? NAISI. — _frantic._ — They’ll not get a death that’s cruel, and they with men alone. It’s women that have loved are cruel only; and if I went on living from this day I’d be putting a curse on the lot of them I’d meet walking in the east or west, putting a curse on the sun that gave them beauty, and on the madder and the stone-crop put red upon their cloaks. DEIRDRE. — _bitterly._ — I’m well pleased there’s no one in this place to make a story that Naisi was a laughing-stock the night he died. NAISI. There’d not be many’d make a story, for that mockery is in your eyes this night will spot the face of Emain with a plague of pitted graves. [_He goes out._