 | The sons of Usna |  |
SCENE XIV.
Another part of the field. Enter Conor, attended by his Soldiers and Manani, the Rough Hand, meeting the Sons of Usna, attended by the Sons of Dura.CONOR.
Charge on them, Soldiers! seize upon the Sons!
Where are the Sons of Dura?
SONS OF DURA.
Here we are.
CONOR.
Seize on the Sons of Usna!
SONS OF DURA.
We will not;
But here defend them with our lives!
CONOR.
Beware!
Be wary of my power! The day will come
When you will curse this present hour!
SONS OF DURA.
Thee too!
CONOR.
Where is Manani, King of Norway's Son?
The mighty Hercules with his iron hands?
MANANI.
Great Sovereign! I am here.
CONOR.
Come close to me.
Who slew thy father? Know you not the man?
MANANI.
I do, great King! Naisa was the man.
CONOR.
Who slew thy brothers, Atha and Traitha too?
MANANI.
Naisa was the man?
CONOR.
Then take revenge
Upon them for that mighty deed—for God
Has spoken, “Blood for blood!”
MANANI.
I will, great King!
Obedient to thy orders, take their lives!
For I do long to kill them as to live.
CONOR.
Then take them—they are thine. Revenge thyself!
ARDAN.
If that be so, then let me be killed first;
For I am the youngest of the three.
AINLI.
Not so.
I cannot live to see my brother slain,
And he the youngest, tenderest of us all.
I will be slain the first.
NAISA.
It shall not be.
I cannot live to see my brother slain
Before my face—the eldest of the three.
So, let me die the first, as I was born
Before.
CONOR.
Then let him die.
NAISA.
Here, take this sword.
Mananan, who was Neptune of the Sea,
And Hercules of the Land—the Son of Lear—
Bequeathed it, on his deathbed, unto me.
It is of heavenly temper, forged, of old,
By adamantine hammers, in the fires
Of Heaven, by Angels' hands; then tempered in
Celestial rivers, for immortal deeds.
When wielded by an honest hand, it leaves
Behind it no remains of stroke, or blow,
But yields the subject, as an Angel dies,
Without or blood or wound, parting the soul
And body asunder, never more to unite!
With this same sword let us be slain at once.
As we have lived in life, so let us die—
United, never more to part.
CONOR.
Yes, take
The sword! They're worthy to be slain by it—
Falling beneath the blade that they have slain
So many noble souls withal; for Kings
Should die by noble instruments—not fall
By Butcher's steel. Therefore, Manani, smite
Their heads off at one blow!
MANANI.
Come forth, great Sword!
This is a gift from all the Gods at once—
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Revenge for my dear father—brothers—slain!
Thou who dost sit enthroned above the world,
Watching the daily actions of all men,
And dealing out to all their due reward—
To the good man good—the evil his own deeds!
Great Gods! how I do thank you for this gift!
This hour, of all my life, is sweetest to my soul!
Now will I make amends for all the Past.
Foul murderer of my father, brothers—die!
[He strikes them, and they fall.
SONS OF DURA.
Foul murderer of the Sons of Usna—die!
[They kill Manani, and he falls. Conor rushes out.
Ten thousand curses fall on Conor's head! Pile up
The vengeance on his soul as high as Heaven!
For they have slain, this day, before our eyes,
The mightiest sons that ever lived! Brave men—
Kings of a King! more like the King of Heaven,
Than Kings of Men! Now! let us take revenge—
Swift vengeance on them all! Come—on! on! on!
[Exeunt.
Enter Daidra.
DAIDRA.
Oh! God! what do I see? Naisa dead?
The Sons of Usna slain? What has become
Of God, that He would suffer this? Alas!
Then I will die with them! here will I lie,
Until the Angel comes to take me home,
Where they are gone, to live forever more!
Now I remember how Naisa kissed
Darthula, one day sleeping in his Tent,
Which made me jealous—wrought upon me so—
I grew distracted on account of it!
Putting my little skiff upon the wave,
I started back for Erin's Isle alone;
For I was then indifferent of my life.
Now I am sorry that I acted so.
Oh! were she here, would she not weep with me,
Great drops of blood, to see them lying here—
Dead on the ground? I know she would! she would!
Naisa! husband of my youth! how long
Will be this night to me! how long will be
All future days without thy heavenly love!
For one year here is longer, left alone,
Than all eternity with thee in Heaven!
The Sons of Usna dead! they are not dead!
How could they die? how could such goodness die?
Three Lions from Huama's Hill—three Falcons fair
On Culan's Mount—Great Caffa's daughter's sons!
Three Red Branch Heroes—Dragons from the Fort
Of Monad—fosterlings by Otho reared—
Schooled by fair Aify, in the Isle of Skye,
With Conlach, by Cuchullan, her first son,
And Conal Carnach, mighty men of War!
Naisa, who was all the world to me,
Now, being dead, I have no other world!
Having no world, why should I wish to live?
To live without my world, is living death!
Then I can never live—for I must die!
He being dead, the world is now my grave!
As being where he lived was all my life!
Then, when the Sexton comes to dig his grave,
I'll make him dig two graves for us in one!
Then—then, to think it was for me he died!
This makes the loss of him far bitterer still!
Oh! God! should I not hold him doubly dear?
I should! I will! I will forever more!—
No, I will not lie here—I will arise
And go, from place to place, until I find
Some one who will revenge his death for me!
Cuchullan comes!
Enter Cuchullan.
Oh! my dear friend! look at
Naisa lying here dead on the ground!
CUCHULLAN.
Naisa dead? Murdered? Who did this deed?
DAIDRA.
Manani! Conor's bloody dog—set on
By Conor!
CUCHULLAN.
Gods! can it be possible?
Naisa dead? Where is Manani now?
DAIDRA.
In Hell! sent there by Dura's noble Sons.
CUCHULLAN.
May God in Heaven reward them for the deed!
For they have saved me from the Devil's death!
But where is Conor?
DAIDRA.
God Almighty knows.
Fled—gone to Eman, where he celebrates
Their death, before his Nobles, with such pomp,
Quaffing his wine, as makes the Devils laugh
In Hell—shaking the rafters with their shouts—
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Excess, exulting in their overthrow—
Rejoicing that Naisa is in Heaven!
Oh! God! Cuchullan! what are we to do
To take revenge upon them for this deed?
This hellish, devilish, damned, matchless deed!
CUCHULLAN.
Revenge! revenge upon them all! for there
Was not, upon the face of this wide world,
Three mightier men of war than these same Sons!
All my dear friends—now lying here in death!
Naisa was the dearest friend I had—
Dear as the blood that circles through my heart—
Now aching for his loss. Now he is gone—
Never to walk upon this world again!
DAIDRA.
They were to death ingloriously betrayed
By the foul lying lips of Conor—he
Who broke his guarantee to damn his soul!
CUCHULLAN.
Damned be his soul! for he is doubly damned—
Damned here on earth—forever more in Hell!
Here lies our utmost hope in hopeless death!
The Prince of Princes, King of all our Kings—
Gone, like the golden Sun, setting in clouds,
Behind the Mountains of Eternity—
To rise no more!—no more to shine on earth!
Thus, Glory, Honor, Riches, sink to Death,
Like bubbles on the sea, not knowing there
Were ever bubbles there; or, as the rain
Melts on the waves, not knowing there was rain!
He who was, yesterday, so rich in life—
So opulent in Heaven's rare gifts, that even
The Angels might have envied him his wealth—
Is now—(Death having robbed him of his all)—
Too poor to call himself himself! his soul,
That was himself, having left his body here
Bereft of everything but hopeless Death!
DAIDRA.
You were their cousin—will you not avenge
Their death?
CUCHULLAN.
By Heaven! I will do all that man
Can do—to take revenge upon them all!
DAIDRA.
Then do so now—it will not do to wait!
Rouse all the troops to vengeance! while he sleeps,
Drunk with the opiate of last night's debauch,—
Weary with long carousing in his Halls—
That should be now the Palace of the dead—
Sack the black Mansion that contains his soul,
Blacker than Erebus—setting the Vulture free—
Gorged with the flesh of Kings, out of this world—
To make his eyrie with the fowls of Hell!
CUCHULLAN.
I will! by Heaven! I will go now! But where
Is Fergus?
DAIDRA.
Fergus! traitor that he is—
With Barach, feasting, while the Sons, he swore,
Before Almighty God, to see returned
Safely to Eman, are now lying here,
Baptized in their own blood—dead on the ground!
Call not his cursed name to me again,
For he is falser far than Conor is!
CUCHULLAN.
Then I will go to Mevia; she will help.
Meantime have them interred by righteous hands,
Under the Willows on Ardsellach's Heights—
Nature's green Band of weeping Niobes—
Whose sorrows shall return with every Spring—
Perennial as the eternal years of God—
Where all the world can see their Monument!
DAIDRA.
I will. Caffa, the Druid, shall be there
To preach their funeral sermon—there to wake
New fires of vengeance in his hearers' hearts!
CUCHULLAN.
Stay till he comes. Tell him to lay them out—
Mantling their bodies in his robes of snow,
To Emblem their pure souls, white now as Birds
Of Paradise, singing on Eden-trees
Among the enraptured Hosts of Heaven! Farewell!
[Exit Cuchullan.
DAIDRA.
Here lies my Cedar, broken by the Storm—
Taller than any on Ardsellach's Heights;
While over him his faithful Willow weeps
Eternal tears of sorrow for his fall!
The dearest joy she ever had on earth!
More dear than all the living world could be,
Had they ten thousand brighter worlds than this!
Farewell! oh! God! how bitter is that word!
Too bitter! yet it must be said! Farewell!
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While living, makes me wish him so now dead!
Now do I know that he is gone to Heaven,
For now do spring up all around his form,
Celestial flowers, immortal in their bloom.
Why should I tarry here, now he is there?
I will not stay! I cannot stay away from Heaven!
Enter Fergus.
FERGUS.
Come, do not weep! but go with me. All shall
Be well. This Cedar, you see lying here,
Broken by an untimely storm—shall sprout
Again, next Spring, out of his grave in earth,
Into the tallest Tree of all the woods.
[Exit.
Enter Caffa.
CAFFA.
What is the matter here?
DAIDRA.
Death! death! death!
CAFFA.
What! are the Sons of Usna dead?
DAIDRA.
Dead! dead!
CAFFA.
Who did this dreadful deed?
DAIDRA.
Manani did—
By Conor's dread command!
CAFFA.
Oh! damnéd fiend!
Against his solemn guarantee?
DAIDRA.
Oh! God!
Talk not of guarantees!
CAFFA.
His solemn oath—
Pronounced in presence of the eternal God!
DAIDRA.
What does he care for God! He has no God!
CAFFA.
Vile, perjured villain! may his soul be damned
In Hell forever more!
DAIDRA.
As now on earth,
So will he be in Hell forever more!
CAFFA.
When were they slain?
DAIDRA.
Just now—are not yet cold!
CAFFA.
But how? By what? Did they not use the Sword
I gave to them, owned by the Son of Lear,
Which had no power to wound such noble souls?
DAIDRA.
I know not that. I was not here to see.
I only know that they are dead forever more!
CAFFA.
That sword was tempered in celestial fires,
Forged out by adamantine hammers, in
The hands of Angels, for immortal deeds!
Naisa pledged me they would use that sword—
For Conor had divulged to me his wish
That they should die by it. Had they done so,
They would be living now—for, in its edge,
There was no power to harm great Usna's Sons—
Having been tempered in the fires of Heaven,
Which are the Fountains of celestial love.
DAIDRA.
Oh! God! you say not so?
CAFFA.
I do indeed.
Here is the sword—grasped in Manani's hand—
He cold in death!
DAIDRA.
By Sons of Dura slain!
CAFFA
(taking up the sword).
Now will I work enchantment on the dead,
And, if my power be equal to my love,
They will return to life again.
DAIDRA.
Then do—
For God's sake, do! Restore them back to life,
And I will praise you while my life has breath!
CAFFA
(working enchantment—celestial music heard).
Naisa! rise! awake! come forth!
DAIDRA.
He stirs!
He lives! my husband lives! he breathes! he wakes
Oh! God! thank God! thank God! he lives! he lives!
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[They rise.
Here, let me kiss him—love him ever more!
Give me thy hands, dear Ainli, Ardan too!
What will Darthula say to this?
NAISA.
We live!
Now, then, for action! how we may succeed
In razing Eman to the ground!
CAFFA.
It stands!
So let it stand, the theatre of the day
When Usna shall be crowned as Erin's King.
But if you will pull down—pull Conor down!
A rotten temple, threatening now to fall—
Crushing us in his fall! So pull him down—
And bury his foul timbers in the Sea!
Let not one stone upon another stand—
But grinding up his bones to powdered dust,
Scatter them on the four great winds of Heaven,
Till they be all dispersed throughout the world—
Finding no resting-place on land or sea!
NAISA.
But how shall this be done?
CAFFA.
Be done? By that
Same matchless power, which now belongs alone
To Usna's Sons!
NAISA.
We will exert that power!
Now, then, to conquer Conor, or to die—
Then wear the crown he has usurped from us!
Look down from Heaven, ye everliving Gods!
Who watch above the souls of righteous men!
Breathe into mine that supernatural power
Which once did animate the men of old,
And fit me to achieve my greatest work!
CAFFA.
This is my Malediction—that from this
Day forth, never, through all succeeding time,
Into the bosom of Eternity—
Shall Conor prosper in the sight of men,
Nor Eman flourish, till great Usna's Sons
Sit on the throne!
DAIDRA.
God grant that day, I pray!
[Exeunt.
Curtain Falls.
End of Act Fourth.
| The sons of Usna | |