ACT IV.

[All go out exceptPaul Ruttledge.

Paul Ruttledge.Well, good-bye, Thomas;I don't suppose I'll see you again. Use all I have; spend it on your children; I'll never want it. [To the others.] Will you come and join us? We will find rags for you all. Perhaps you will give up that dream that is fading from you, and come among the blind, homeless people; put off the threadbare clothes of the Apostles and run naked for awhile. [Is going out.

Thomas Ruttledge.You have nothing against me, have you, Paul?

Paul Ruttledge.Oh, yes, I have; a little that I have said against all these, and a worse thing than all, though it is not in the book.

Thomas Ruttledge.What is it?

Paul Ruttledge.[Looking back from the threshold.] You have begotten fools.

Curtain.

Scene 1.—Great door in the middle of the stage under a stone cross, with flights of steps leading to door. EnterCharlie Ward, Paddy Cockfight, Tommy The Song,andSabina Silver.They are supportingPaul Ruttledge,who is bent and limping.

Charlie Ward.We must leave you here. The monks will take you in. We're very sorry, Paul. It's a heartscald to us to leave you and you know that, but what can we do? [They leadPaul Ruttledgeto steps.

Paul Ruttledge.Ah! that was a bad stitch! [Gasps.] Take care now; put me down gently.

Sabina Silver.Oh! can't we keep him with us anyway; he'll find no one to care him as well as myself.

Tommy the Song.What way can you care him, Sibby? It's no way to have him lying out on the roadside under guano bags, like ourselves, and the rain coming down on him like it did last night. It's in hospital he'll be for the next month.

Charlie Ward.We'd never leave you if you could even walk. If we have to give you to the monks itself, we'd keep round the place to encourage you, only for the last business. We'll have to put two counties at least between us and Gortmore after what we're after doing.

Paul Ruttledge.Never mind, boys, they'll never insult a tinker again in Gortmore as long as the town's a town.

Charlie Ward.Dear knows! it breaks my heart to think of the fine times we had of it since you joined us. Why the months seemed like days. And all the fine sprees we had together! Now you're gone from us we might as well be jailed at once.

Paddy Cockfight.And how you took to the cocks! I believe you were a betterjudge than myself. No one but you would ever have fancied that black-winged cock—and he never met his match.

Paul Ruttledge.Ah! well, I'm doubled up now like that old cock of Andy Farrell's.

Paddy Cockfight.No, but you were the best warrant to set a snare that ever I came across.

Paul Ruttledge.[Sitting down with difficulty on the steps.] Yes; it was a grand time we had, and I wouldn't take back a day of it; but it's over now, I've hit my ribs against the earth and they're aching.

Sabina Silver.Oh! Paul, Paul, is it to leave you we must? And you never once struck a kick or a blow on me all this time, not even and you in pain with the rheumatism. [A clock strikes inside.

Charlie Ward.There's the clock striking. The monks will be getting up. We'd best be off after the others. I hear some noise inside; they'd best not catch us here. I'll stop and pull the bell. Be off with you, boys!

Paul Ruttledge.Good-bye, Sabina. Don't cry! you'll get another husband.

Sabina Silver.I'll never lep the budget with another man; I swear it.

Paul Ruttledge.Good-bye, Paddy. Good-bye, Tommy. My mother Earth will have none of me and I will go look for my father that is in heaven.

Paddy Cockfight.Come along, Sibby.

[Takes her hand and hurries off.

Charlie Ward.[Rings bell.] Are they sure to let you in, Paul? Have you got your story ready?

Paul Ruttledge.No fear, they won't refuse a sick man. No one knows me but Father Jerome, and he won't tell on me.

Charlie Ward.There's a step inside. I'll cut for it.

[He goes out. Paul is left sitting on steps.

Scene 2.—The crypt under the Monastery church. A small barred window high up in the wall, through which the cold dawn is breaking. Altar in a niche at the back of stage; there are seven unlighted candles on the altar. A little hanging lamp near the altar.Paul Ruttledgeis lying on the altar steps. Friars are dancing slowly before him in the dim light.Father Aloysiusis leaning against a pillar.

SomeFriarscome in carrying lanterns.

First Friar.What are they doing? Dancing?

Second Friar.I told you they were dancing, and you would not believe me.

First Friar.What on earth are they doing it for?

Third Friar.I heard them saying Father Paul told them to do it if they ever found him in a trance again. He told them it was a kind of prayer and would bring joy down out of heaven, and make it easier for him to preach.

Second Friar.How still he is lying; you would nearly think him to be dead.

A Friar.It is just a twelvemonth to-day since he was in a trance like this.

Second Friar.That was the time he gave his great preaching. I can't blame those that went with him, for he all but persuaded me.

First Friar.They think he is going to preach again when he awakes, that's why they are dancing. When he wakes one of them will go and call the others.

Third Friar.We were all in danger when one so pious was led away. It's five years he has been with us now, and no one ever went so quickly from lay brother to novice, and novice to friar.

First Friar.The way he fasted too! The Superior bade me watch him at meal times for fear he should starve himself.

Third Friar.He thought a great deal of Brother Paul then, but he isn't so well pleased with him now.

Second Friar.What is Father Aloysiusdoing there? standing so quiet and his eyes shut.

Third Friar.He is meditating. Didn't you hear Brother Paul gives meditations of his own.

First Friar.Colman was telling me about that. He gives them a joyful thought to fix their minds on. They must not let their minds stray to anything else. They must follow that single thought and put everything else behind them.

Third Friar.Colman fainted the other day when he was at his meditation. He says it is a great labour to follow one thought always.

Second Friar.What do they do it for?

First Friar.To escape what they call the wandering of nature. They say it was in the trance Brother Paul got the knowledge of it. He says that if a man can only keep his mind on the one high thought he gets out of time into eternity, and learns the truth for itself.

Third Friar.He calls that getting abovelaw and number, and becoming king and priest in one's own house.

Second Friar.A nice state of things it would be if every man was his own priest and his own king.

First Friar.I wonder will he wake soon. I thought I saw him stir just now. Father Aloysius, will he wake soon?

Aloysius.What did you say?

First Friar.Will he wake soon?

Aloysius.Yes, yes, he will wake very soon now.

Second Friar.What are they going to do now; are they going to dance?

Third Friar.He was too patient with him. He would have made short work of any of us if we had gone so far.

First Dancer.

Nam, et si ambulavero in medio umbrae mortis,Non timebo mala, quoniam tu mecum es.

First Friar.They are singing the twenty-second Psalm. What madness to sing!

Second Dancer.

Virga tua, et baculus tuus,Ipsa me consolata sunt.

First Dancer.

Parasti in conspectu meo mensamAdversus eos qui tribulant me.

Second Dancer.

Impinguasti in oleo caput meum;Et calix meus inebrians quam praeclarus est.

Second Friar.Here is the Superior. There'll be bad work now.

Superiorcomes in.

Superior.[Holding up his hand.] Silence!

[They stop singing and dancing.

First Dancer.It's the Superior.

Superior.Stop this blasphemy! Leave the chapel at once! I will deal with you by-and-by. [DancingFriarsgo out.

Jerome.[Stooping overPaul.] He has not wakened from the trance yet.

Aloysius.[Who still remains perfectly motionless.] Not yet, but he will soon awake—Paul!

Superior.It is hardly worth while being angry with those poor fools whose heads he has turned with his talk. [Stoops and toucheshis hand.] It is quite rigid. I will wait till he is alive again, there is no use wasting words on a dead body.

Jerome.[Stooping over him.] His eyes are beginning to quiver. Let me be the first to speak to him. He may say some wild things when he awakes, not knowing who is before him.

Superior.He must not preach. I must have his submission at once.

Jerome.I will do all I can with him. He is most likely to listen to me. I was once his close friend.

Superior.Speak to him if you like, but entire submission is the only thing I will accept. [To the otherMonks.] Come with me, we will leave Father Jerome here to speak to him. [SuperiorandFriarsgo to the door.] Such desecration, such blasphemy. Remember, Father Jerome, entire submission, and at once. [SuperiorandFriarsgo out.

Jerome.Where are the rest of his friends, Father Aloysius? Bartley and Colman ought to be with him when he is like this.

Aloysius.They are resting, because, when he has given his message, they may never be able to rest again.

Jerome.[Bending over him.] My poor Paul, this will wear him out; see how thin he has grown!

Aloysius.He is hard upon his body. He does not care what happens to his body.

Jerome.He was like this when he was a boy; some wild thought would come on him, and he would not know day from night, he would forget even to eat. It is a great pity he was so hard to himself; it is a pity he had not always someone to look after him.

Aloysius.God is taking care of him; what could men like us do for him? We cannot help him, it is he who helps us.

Jerome.[Going on his knee and taking his hand.] He is awaking. Help me to lift him up. [They lift him into a chair.

Aloysius.I will go and call the others now.

Jerome.Do not let them come for a little time, I must speak to him first.

Aloysius.I cannot keep them away long.One cannot know when the words may be put in his mouth.

[Aloysiusgoes out.Jeromestands byPaul Ruttledge,holding his hand.

Paul Ruttledge.[Raising his head.] Ah, you are there, Jerome. I am glad you are there. I could not get up to drive away the mouse that was eating the wax that dropped from the candles. Have you driven it away?

Jerome.It is not evening now. It is almost morning. You were on your knees praying for a great many hours, and then I think you fainted.

Paul Ruttledge.I don't think I was praying. I was among people, a great many people, and it was very bright—I will remember presently.

Jerome.Do not try to remember. You are tired, you must be weak, you must come and have food and rest.

Paul Ruttledge.I do not think I can rest. I think there is something else I have to do, I forget what it is.

Jerome.I am afraid you are thinking of preaching again. You must not preach. The Superior says you must not. He is very angry; I have never seen him so angry. He will not allow you to preach again.

Paul Ruttledge.Did I ever preach?

Jerome.Yes. It was in the garden you got the trance last time. We found you like this, and we lifted you to the bench under the yew tree, and then you began to speak. You spoke about getting out of the body while still alive, about getting away from law and number. All the friars came to listen to you. We had never heard such preaching before, but it was very like heresy.

Paul Ruttledge.[Getting up.] Jerome, Jerome, I remember now where I was. I was in a great round place, and a great crowd of things came round me. I couldn't see them very clearly for a time, but some of them struck me with their feet, hard feet like hoofs, and soft cat-like feet; and somepecked me, and some bit me, and some clawed me. There were all sorts of beasts and birds as far as I could see.

Jerome.Were they devils, Paul, were they the deadly sins?

Paul Ruttledge.I don't know, but I thought, and I don't know how the thought came to me, that they were the part of mankind that is not human; the part that builds up the things that keep the soul from God.

Jerome.That was a terrible vision.

Paul Ruttledge.I struggled and I struggled with them, and they heaped themselves over me till I was unable to move hand or foot; and that went on for a long, long time.

Jerome.[Crossing himself.] God have mercy on us.

Paul Ruttledge.Then suddenly there came a bright light, and all in a minute the beasts were gone, and I saw a great many angels riding upon unicorns, white angels on white unicorns. They stood all roundme, and they cried out, "Brother Paul, go and preach; get up and preach, Brother Paul." And then they laughed aloud, and the unicorns trampled the ground as though the world were already falling in pieces.

Jerome.It was only a dream. Come with me. You will forget it when you have had food and rest.

Paul Ruttledge.[Looking at his arm.] It was there one of them clawed me; one that looked at me with great heavy eyes.

Jerome.The Superior has been here; try and listen to me. He says you must not preach.

Paul Ruttledge.Great heavy eyes and hard sharp claws.

Jerome.[Putting his hands on his shoulders.] You must awake from this. You must remember where you are. You are under rules. You must not break the rules you are under. The brothers will be coming in to hear you, you must not speak to them. The Superior has forbidden it.

Paul Ruttledge.[TouchingJerome'shand.] I have always been a great trouble to you.

Jerome.You must go and submit to the Superior. Go and make your submission now, for my sake. Think of what I have done for your sake. Remember how I brought you in, and answered for you when you came here. I did not tell about that wild business. I have done penance for that deceit.

Paul Ruttledge.Yes, you have always been good to me, but do not ask me this. I have had other orders.

Jerome.Last time you preached the whole monastery was upset. The Friars began to laugh suddenly in the middle of the night.

Paul Ruttledge.If I have been given certain truths to tell, I must tell them at once before they slip away from me.

Jerome.I cannot understand your ideas; you tell them impossible things. Things that are against the order of nature.

Paul Ruttledge.I have learned that one needs a religion so wholly supernatural, that is so opposed to the order of nature that the world can never capture it.

[SomeFriarscome in. They carry green branches in their hands.

Paul Ruttledge.They are coming. Will you stay and listen?

Jerome.I must not stay. I must not listen.

Paul Ruttledge.Help me over to the candles. I am weak, my knees are weak. I shall be strong when the words come. I shall be able to teach. [He lights a taper at the hanging lamp and tries to light the candles with a shaking hand.Jerometakes the taper from him and lights the candles.] Why are you crying, Jerome?

Jerome.Because we that were friends are separated now. We shall never be together again.

Paul Ruttledge.Never again? The love of God is a very terrible thing.

Jerome.I have done with meddling. Imust leave you to authority now. I must tell the Superior you will not obey. [He goes out.

First Friar.Father Jerome had a very dark look going out.

Second Friar.He was shut up with the Superior this morning. I wonder what they were talking about.

First Friar.I wonder if the Superior will mind our taking the branches. They are only cut on Palm Sunday other years. What will he tell us, I wonder? It seems as if he was going to tell us how to do some great thing. Do you think he will teach us to do cures like the friars used at Esker?

Second Friar.Those were great cures they did there, and they were not strange men, but just the same as ourselves. I heard of a man went to them dying on a cart, and he walked twenty miles home to Burren holding the horses head.

First Friar.Maybe we'll be able to see visions the same as were seen at Knock.It's a great wonder all that was seen and all that was done there.

Third Friar.I was there one time, and the whole place was full of crutches that had been thrown away by people that were cured. There was a silver crutch there some rich man from America had sent as an offering after getting his cure. Speak to him, Brother Colman. He seems to be in some sort of a dream. Ask if he is going to speak to us now.

Colman.We are all here, Brother Paul.

Paul Ruttledge.Have you all been through your meditations? [They all gather round him.

Bartley.We have all tried; we have done our best; but it is hard to keep our mind on the one thing for long.

Paul Ruttledge."He ascended into heaven." Have you meditated upon that? Did you reject all earthly images that came into your mind till the light began to gather?

Third Friar.I could not fix my mindwell. When I put out one thought others came rushing in.

Colman.When I was meditating, the inside of my head suddenly became all on fire.

Aloysius.While I was meditating I felt a spout of fire going up between my shoulders.

Paul Ruttledge.That is the way it begins. You are ready now to hear the truth. Now I can give you the message that has come to me. Stand here at either side of the altar. Brother Colman, come beside me here. Lay down your palm branches before this altar; you have brought them as a sign that the walls are beginning to be broken up, that we are going back to the joy of the green earth. [Goes up to the candles and speaks.] Et calix meus inebrians quam praeclarus est. For a long time after their making men and women wandered here and there, half blind from the drunkenness of Eternity; they had not yet forgotten that the green Earth was theLove of God, and that all Life was the Will of God, and so they wept and laughed and hated according to the impulse of their hearts. [He takes up the green boughs and presses them to his breast.] They gathered the green Earth to their breasts and their lips, as I gather these boughs to mine, in what they believed would be an eternal kiss. [He remains a little while silent.

Second Friar.I see a light about his head.

Third Friar.I wonder if he has seen God.

Paul Ruttledge.It was then that the temptation began. Not only the Serpent who goes upon his belly, but all the animal spirits that have loved things better than life, came out of their holes and began to whisper. The men and women listened to them, and because when they had lived according to the joyful Will of God in mother wit and natural kindness, they sometimes did one another an injury, they thought that it would be better to be safe than tobe blessèd, they made the Laws. The Laws were the first sin. They were the first mouthful of the apple, the moment man had made them he began to die; we must put out the Laws as I put out this candle.

[He puts out the candle with an extinguisher, still holding the boughs with his left hand. Two orthodox Friars have come in.

First Orthodox Friar.You had better go for the Superior.

Second Orthodox Friar.I must stop and listen.

[The First Orthodox Friar listens for a minute or two and then goes out.

Paul Ruttledge.And when they had lived amidst the green Earth that is the Love of God, they were sometimes wetted by the rain, and sometimes cold and hungry, and sometimes alone from one another; they thought it would be better to be comfortable than to be blessèd. They began to build big houses and big towns. They grew wealthy and they sat chattering attheir doors; and the embrace that was to have been eternal ended, lips and hands were parted. [He lets the boughs slip out of his arms.] We must put out the towns as I put out this candle. [Puts out another candle.

A Friar.Yes, yes, we must uproot the towns.

Paul Ruttledge.But that is not all, for man created a worse thing, yes, a worse defiance against God. [TheFriarsgroan.] God put holiness into everything that lives, for everything that desires is full of His Will, and everything that is beautiful is full of His Love; but man grew timid because it had been hard to find his way amongst so much holiness, and though God had made all time holy, man said that only the day on which God rested from life was holy, and though God had made all places holy, man said, "no place but this place that I put pillars and walls about is holy, this place where I rest from life"; and in this and like ways he built up the Church. Wemust destroy the Church, we must put it out as I put out this candle. [Puts out another candle.

Friars.[Clasping one another's hands.] He is right, he is right. The Church must be destroyed. [TheSuperiorcomes in.

First Friar.Here is the Superior.

A Friar.He has been saying——

Superior.Hush! I will hear him to the end.

Paul Ruttledge.That is not all. These things may be accomplished and yet nothing be accomplished. The Christian's business is not reformation but revelation, and the only labours he can put his hand to can never be accomplished in Time. He must so live that all things shall pass away. [He stands silent for a moment and then cries, lifting his hand above his head.] Give me wine out of thy pitchers; oh, God, how splendid is my cup of drunkenness. We must become blind, and deaf, and dizzy. We must get rid of everything that is notmeasureless eternal life. We must put out hope as I put out this candle. [Puts out a candle.] And memory as I put out this candle. [As before.] And thought, the waster of Life, as I put out this candle. [As before.] And at last we must put out the light of the Sun and of the Moon, and all the light of the World and the World itself. [He now puts out the last candle, the chapel is very dark. The only light is the faint light of morning coming through the window.] We must destroy the World; we must destroy everything that has Law and Number, for where there is nothing, there is God.

[TheSuperiorcomes forward. One ofPaul'sFriarsmakes as if to speak to him. TheSuperiorstrikes at him with the back of his hand.

Superior.[ToPaul Ruttledge.] Get out of this, rebel, blasphemous rebel!

Paul Ruttledge.Do as you like to me, but you cannot silence my thoughts. I learned them from Jesus Christ, who madea terrible joy, and sent it to overturn governments, and all settled order.

[Paul'sFriarsrush to save him from theSuperior.

Paul Ruttledge.There is no need for violence. I am ready to go.

Colman.[Taking his hand.] I will go with you.

Aloysius.I will go with you too.

Several other Friars.And I, and I, and I.

Superior.Whoever goes with this heretic goes straight into the pit.

Bartley.Do not leave us behind you. Let us go with you.

Colman.Teach us! teach us! we will help you to teach others.

Paul Ruttledge.Let me go alone, the one more, the one nearer falsehood.

Bartley.We will go with you! We will go with you! We must go where we can hear your voice.

A Friar.[Who stands behind theSuperior.] God is making him speak against himself.

Paul Ruttledge.No, the time has not come for you. You would be thinking of your food at midday and listening for the bells at prayer time. You have not yet heard the voices and seen the faces.

Superior.A miracle! God is making the heretic speak against himself. Listen to him!

Aloysius.We will not stay behind, we will go with you.

Bartley.We cannot live without hearing you!

Paul Ruttledge.I am led by hands that are colder than ice and harder than diamonds. They will lead me where there will be hard thoughts of me in the hearts of all that love me, and there will be a fire in my heart that will make it as bare as the wilderness.

Aloysius.We will go with you. We too will take those hands that are colder than ice and harder than diamonds.

Several Monks.We too! we too!

Patrick.Bring us to the hands thatare colder than ice and harder than diamonds.

Other Monks.Pull them away! pull them away from him!

[They are about to seize the Monks who are withPaul Ruttledge.

Superior.[Going between them.] Back! back! I will have no scuffling here. Let the devil take his children if he has a mind to. God will call His own.

[TheMonksfall back.Superiorgoes up to altar, takes the cross from it and turns, standing on the steps.

Superior.Father Aloysius, come to me here. [AloysiustakesPaul Ruttledge'shand.] Father Bartley, Father Colman. [They go nearer toPaul Ruttledge.] Father Patrick! [AFriarcomes towards him.] Kneel down! [Father Patrickkneels.] Father Clement, Father Nestor, Father James ... leave the heretic—you are on the very edge of the pit. Your shoes are growing red hot.

A Friar.I am afraid, I am afraid. [He kneels.

Superior.Kneel down; return to your God. [SeveralMonkskneel.

Colman.They have deserted us.

Paul Ruttledge.Many will forsake the truth before the world is pulled down. [Stretching out his arms over his head.] I pulled down my own house, now I go out to pull down the world.

Superior.Strip off those holy habits.

Paul Ruttledge.[Taking off his habit.] One by one I am plucking off the rags and tatters of the world.

Scene:Smooth level grass near the Shannon. Ecclesiastical ruins, a part of which have been roofed in. Rocky plain in the distance, with a river.Father Colmansorting some bundles of osiers.Aloysiusenters with an empty bag.

Scene:Smooth level grass near the Shannon. Ecclesiastical ruins, a part of which have been roofed in. Rocky plain in the distance, with a river.Father Colmansorting some bundles of osiers.

Aloysiusenters with an empty bag.

Colman.You are the first to come back Aloysius. Where is Brother Bartley?

Aloysius.He parted from me at the cross roads and went on to preach at Shanaglish. He should soon be back now.

Colman.Have you anything in the bag?

Aloysius.Nothing. [Throws the bag down.] It doesn't seem as if our luck was growing. We have but food enough to last till to-morrow. We have hardly that. The rats from the river got at the few potatoesI gathered from the farmers at Lisheen last week, in the corner where they were.

Colman.This is the first day you got nothing at all. Maybe you didn't ask the right way.

Aloysius.I asked for alms for the sake of the love of God. But the first place where I asked it, the man of the house was giving me a handful of meal, and the woman came and called out that we were serving the devil in the name of God, and she drove me from the door.

Colman.It is since the priests preached against us they say that. Did you go on to Lisheen. They used always to treat us well there.

Aloysius.I did, but I got on no better there.

Colman.That is a wonder, after the woman that had the jaundice being cured with prayers by Brother Paul.

Aloysius.That's just it. If he did cure her, they say the two best of her husband's bullocks died of the blackwater the nextday, and he was no way thankful to us after that.

Colman.Did you try the houses along the bog road?

Aloysius.I did, and the children coming back from school called out after me and asked who was it did away with the widow Cloran's cow.

Colman.The widow Cloran's cow?

Aloysius.That was the cow that died after grazing in the ruins here.

Colman.If it did, it was because of an old boot it picked up and ate, and that never belonged to us.

Aloysius.I wish we had something ourselves to eat. They should be sitting down to their dinner in the monastery now. They will be having a good dinner to-day to carry them over the fast to-morrow.

Colman.I am thinking sometimes, Brother Paul should give more thought to us than he does. It is all very well for him, he is so taken up with his thoughts and his visions he doesn't know if he is full or fasting.

Aloysius.He has such holy thoughts and visions no one would like to trouble him. He ought not to be in the world at all, or to do the world's work.

Colman.So long as he is in the world, he must give some thought to it. There must be something wrong in the way he is doing things now. I thought he would have had half Ireland with him by this time with his great preaching, but someway when he preaches to the people, they don't seem to mind him much.

Aloysius.He is too far above them; they have not education to understand him.

Colman.They understand me well enough when I give my mind to it. But it is harder to preach now than it was in the monastery. We had something to offer then; absolution here, and heaven after.

Aloysius.Isn't it enough for them to hear that the kingdom of heaven is within them, and that if they do the right meditations——

Colman.What can poor people that have their own troubles on them get from a few words like that they hear at a cross road or a market, and the wind maybe blowing them away? If we could gather them together now.... Look, Aloysius, at these sally rods; I have a plan in my mind about them.

[He has stuck some of the rods in the ground, and begins weaving others through them.

Aloysius.Are you going to make baskets like you did in the monastery schools?

Colman.We must make something if we are to live. But it is more than that I was thinking of; we might coax some of the youngsters to come and learn the basket making; it would make them take to us better if we could put them in the way of earning a few pence.

Aloysius.[Taking up some of the osiers and beginning to twist them.] That might be a good way to come at them; they could work through the day, and at evening wecould tell them how to repeat the words till the light comes inside their heads. But would Paul think well of it? He is more for pulling down than building up.

Colman.When I explain it to him I am sure he will think well of it; he can't go on for ever without anyone to listen to him.

Aloysius.I suppose not, and with no way of living. But I don't know, I'm afraid he won't like it.

Colman.Hush! Here he is coming.

Aloysius.If one had a plan now for doing some destruction——

Colman.Hush! don't you see there is somebody with him.

Paul Ruttledgecomes in withCharlie Ward.

Paul Ruttledge.This is Charlie Ward, my old friend.

Aloysius.The Charlie Ward you lived on the roads with?

Paul Ruttledge.Yes, when I went looking for the favour of my hard mother,Earth, he helped me. He is her good child and she loves him.

Colman.He is welcome. How did he find you out?

Paul Ruttledge.I don't know. How did you find me out, Charlie?

Charlie Ward.Oh, I didn't lose sight of you so much as you thought. I had to stop away from Gortmore a good while after we left you at the gate, but I sent Paddy Cockfight one time to get news, and he mended cans for the laundry of the monastery, and they told him you were well again, and a monk as good as the rest. But a while ago I got word there was a monk had gone near to break up the whole monastery with his talk and his piety, and I said to myself, "That's Paul!" And then I heard there was a monk had been driven out for not keeping the rules, and I said to myself, "That's Paul!" And the other day when what's left of us came to Athlone, I heard talk of some disfrocked monks that were upsetting the whole neighbourhood,and I said, "That's Paul." To Sabina Silver I said that. "That merry chap Paul," I said.

Paul Ruttledge.I'm afraid you have a very bad opinion of me, Charlie. Well, maybe I earned it.

Aloysius.You cannot know much of him if you have a bad opinion of him. He will be made a saint some day.

Charlie Ward.He will, if there's such a thing as a saint of mischief.

Paul Ruttledge.A saint of mischief? Well, why not that as well as another? He would upset all the beehives, he would throw them into the market-place. Sit down now, Charlie, and eat a bit with us.

Colman.You are welcome, indeed, to all we can give you, but we have not a bit of food that is worth offering you. Aloysius got nothing at all in the villages to-day, Brother Paul. The people are getting cross.

Paul Ruttledge.Well, sit down, anyway. The country people liked me well enoughonce, there was no man they liked so much as myself when I gave them drink for nothing. Didn't they, Charlie?

Charlie Ward.Oh, that was a great time. They were lying thick about the roads. I'll be thinking of it to my dying day.

Paul Ruttledge.I have given them another kind of drink now.

Charlie Ward.What sort of a drink is that?

Paul Ruttledge.We have rolled a great barrel out of a cellar that is under the earth. We have rolled it right into the midst of them. [He moves his hand about as if he were moving a barrel.] It's heavy, and when they have drunk what is in it, I would like to see the man that would be their master.

Charlie Ward.That would be a great drink, but I wouldn't be sure that you're in earnest.

Paul Ruttledge.Colman and Aloysius will tell you all about it. It was made in a good still, the barley was grown in a field that's down under the earth.

Charlie Ward.That's likely enough. I often heard of places like that.

Paul Ruttledge.And when they have drunk from my barrel, they will break open the door, they will put law and number under their two feet; and they will have a hot palm and a cold palm, for they will put down the moon and the sun with their two hands.

Charlie Ward.There's no mistake but you're the same Paul still; nice and plain and simple, only for your hard talk. And what about the rheumatism? It's hardly you got through that fit you had, and you don't look as if much hardship would agree with you now.

Aloysius.He does not, indeed, and if he doesn't kill himself one way he will another. Wait now till I tell you the way he is living. I don't think he tasted bit or sup to-day, and all he had last night was a couple of dry potatoes.

Charlie Ward.Is that so? [TakesPaul Ruttledge'sarm.] You haven't much moreflesh on you than a crane in moonlight. They don't seem to have much notion of minding you here, you that were reared soft. It would be better for you to come back to us; bad as our lodging is, there'd be a bit in the pot for you and Sabina to care you. It's she would give you a good welcome.

Colman.[Starting up.] We can mind him well enough here. I have a plan. We haven't been getting on the way we ought with the people. It's no way to be getting on with people to be asking things of them always, they have no opinion at all of us seeing us the way we are. They have no notion of the respect they should show to Brother Paul, and the way all the Brothers used to be listening to his preaching, and the townspeople as well. And I, myself, the time I preached in Dublin——

Aloysius.Yes, indeed, Paul, think of the great crowds used to come when you preached in the Abbey church, and all the money that was gathered that time of the Mission.

Paul Ruttledge.Yes, I used to like once to see all the faces looking up at me. But now all that is gone from me. Now I think it is enough to be a witness for the truth, and to think the thoughts I like. God will bring the people to me. He will make of my silence a great wind that will shatter the ships of the world.

Colman.That is all very well, but the people are not coming.

Aloysius.And more than that, they are driving us away from their doors now, Paul.

Charlie Ward.The way they do to us. But Paul was not born on the roads. [Lights his pipe.

Colman.It's no use stopping waiting for a wind; if we have anything to say that's worth the people listening to, we must bring them to hear it one way or another. Now, it is what I was saying to Aloysius, we must begin teaching them to make things, they never had the chance of any instruction of the sort here.

Paul Ruttledge.To make things? This sort of things? [Takes the half-made basket fromColman.

Colman.Those and other things, we got a good training in the old days. And we'll get a grant from the Technical Board. The Board pays up to four hundred pounds to some of its instructors.

Paul Ruttledge.And then?

Aloysius.Oh, then we'll sell all the things we make. I'm sure we'll get a market for them.

Paul Ruttledge.Oh, I understand; you will sell them. And what about the dividing of the money? You will need to make laws about that.

Colman.Of course; we will have to make rules, and to pay according to work.

Paul Ruttledge.Oh, we will grow quite rich in time. What are we to do then? we can't go on living in this ruin?

Colman.Of course not. We'll build workshops and houses for those who cometo work from a distance, good houses, slated, not thatched.

Paul Ruttledge.[Turning toAloysiusandCharlie Ward.] Yes, you see his plan. To gather the people together, to build houses for them; to make them rich too, and to keep their money safe. And the Kingdom of God too? What about that?

Colman.Oh, I'm just coming to that. They will think so much more of our teaching when we have got them under our influence by other things. Of course we will teach them their meditations, and give them a regular religious life. We must settle out some little place for them to pray in—there's a high gable over there where we could hang a bell——

Paul Ruttledge.Oh yes, I understand. You would weave them together like this [weaves the osiers in and out], you would add one thing to another, laws and money and church and bells, till you had got everything back again that you have escaped from. But it is my business to tear thingsasunder like this [tears pieces from the basket], and this, and this——

Aloysius.I told him you'd never agree to it. He ought to have known that himself.

Colman.We must have something to offer the people.

Paul Ruttledge.You say that because you got nothing to-day. Aloysius has got nothing in his sack. [Taking sack and turning it upside down.] It is quite empty. Every religious teacher before me has offered something to his followers, but I offer them nothing. [Plunging his arm down into the sack.] My sack is quite empty. I will never dip my hand into nature's full sack of illusions; I am tired of that old conjuring bag. [He walks up and down muttering.

Charlie Ward.[ToColman.] You may as well give up trying to settle him down to anything. He was a tinker once, and he'll be a tinker always; he has got the wandering into his blood. Will you comeback to the roads, Paul, to your old friends and to Sabina?

Paul Ruttledge.[Sitting down beside him.] Ah, my old friends, they were very kind to me; but these friends too are very kind to me.

Charlie Ward.Well, come and see them anyway; they'll be glad to see you, those that are left of us.

Paul Ruttledge.Those that are left of you? Where are the others?

Charlie Ward.Some are dead, and some are jailed, and some are on the roads here and there. Sabina is with us always, and Johneen is a great hand with the tools now, but Tommy the Song——

Paul Ruttledge.Oh, Tommy the Song, does he pray still? He was beginning to pray. Did he ever get an answer?

Charlie Ward.Well, I don't know about an answer, but I believe he heard something one night beside an old thorn tree, some sort of a voice it was.

Paul Ruttledge.A voice? What did itsay to him? Did he see anything? We have learned too much, our minds are like troubled water—we get nothing but broken images. He who knew nothing may have seen all. Is he praying still?

Charlie Ward.If he is, it's in Galway gaol he's praying, with or without a thorn tree.

Paul Ruttledge.Did he tell no one what the voice said to him?

Charlie Ward.He did not, unless he might have told Johneen or some other one.

Paul Ruttledge.I will go with you and see them. [Gets up.

Colman.[ToAloysius,with whom he has been whispering.] Take care, but if he goes back to his old friends, he'll stop with them and leave us.

Aloysius.[Putting his hand onPaul Ruttledge'sarm.] Don't go, Brother Paul, till I talk to you awhile.

Paul Ruttledge.Do you want me? Well, Charlie, I will stay here, I won't go;but bring all the rest to see me, I want to ask them about that vision.

Charlie Ward.I'll bring one of them, anyway. [Exit.

Aloysius.Brother Paul, it is what I am thinking; now the tinkers have come back to you, you could begin to gather a sort of an army; you can't fight your battle without an army. They could call to the other tinkers, and the tramps and the beggars, and the sieve-makers and all the wandering people. It would be a great army.

Paul Ruttledge.Yes, that would be a great army, a great wandering army.

Aloysius.The people would be afraid to refuse us then; we would march on——

Paul Ruttledge.Yes, we could march on. We could march on the towns, and we could break up all settled order; we could bring back the old joyful, dangerous, individual life. We would have banners, we would each have a banner, banners with angels upon them—we will march upon the world with banners——

Colman.We would not be in want of food then, we could take all we wanted.

Aloysius.We could take all we wanted, we would be too many to put in gaol; all the people would join us in the end; you would be able to persuade them all, Brother Paul, you would be their leader; we would make great stores of food——

Paul Ruttledge.We will have one great banner that will go in front, it will take two men to carry it, and on it we will have Laughter, with his iron claws and his wings of brass and his eyes like sapphires——

Aloysius.That will be the banner for the front, we will have different troops, we will have captains to organize them, to give them orders——

Paul Ruttledge.[Standing up.] To organize? That is to bring in law and number? Organize—organize—that is how all the mischief has been done. I was forgetting, we cannot destroy the world with armies, it is inside our minds that it must be destroyed, it must be consumed in amoment inside our minds. God will accomplish his last judgment, first in one man's mind and then in another. He is always planning last judgments. And yet it takes a long time, and that is why he laments in the wind and in the reeds and in the cries of the curlews.

Colman.I think we had better go down to the river and see are there any eels on the lines we set. We must find something for supper. It is near sunset; see how the crows are flying home.

Paul Ruttledge.[Looking up.] The crows are my darlings! I like their harsh merriment better than those sad cries of the wind and the rushes. Look at them, they are tossing about like witches, tossing about on the wind, drunk with the wind.

Colman.Well, I'll go look at the lines, anyhow. Put turf on the fire, Aloysius; Bartley should soon be home from Shanaglish.

Aloysius.I wonder why he isn't home by this. I'm uneasy till I see him, afterthe way the people treated me to-day. [Shades his eyes to look out.] Here he is! He's running!

Colman.[Coming over to him.] He is running hard! He must be in some danger——

EnterBartleyout of breath.

Bartley.Run, run, come away, there's not a minute to lose.

Colman.What is the matter? what has happened?

Bartley.The people are coming up the road! They attacked me in the market! They followed me, they are on the road. I slipped away across the fields. Run, run!

Colman.What is it? What are they going to do to us?

Bartley.You would know that if you saw them! They have stones and sticks. Raging they are, and calling for our lives. They say we brought witchcraft and ill-luck on the place! Come to the boat, it's in the rushes; they won't see us, we'll get to the island. Hurry, hurry! [He runs out.

Aloysius.Come, Brother Paul, hurry, hurry!

Paul Ruttledge.I am going to stay.

Bartley.They will kill us if we stay! Brother Colman said they have stones and sticks; I think I hear them!

Paul Ruttledge.You are afraid because you have been shut up so long. I am not afraid because I have lived upon the roads, where one is ready for anything that may happen. One has to learn that, like any other thing. I will stay.

Aloysius.He wants the crown!

Paul Ruttledge.Where is Bartley?

Colman.He is gone. Come, you must go too, we can't leave you here. You have too much to do to throw your life away, we have all too much to do.

Paul Ruttledge.No, no. There is nothing to do; I am going to stay.

Aloysius.I will stay with you. [Takes his hand.

Paul Ruttledge.Death is the last adventure, the first perfect joy, for at death thesoul comes into possession of itself, and returns to the joy that made it. [A great shout outside.

Colman.[SeizingAloysius.] Come, come, Aloysius! come, Paul! We haven't a moment, here they are. [DragsAloysiusaway.

Paul Ruttledge.Good-bye, Aloysius, good-bye, Colman. Keep a pick going at the foundations of the world.

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