Page:In the Seven Woods, Yeats, 1903.djvu/56

 carved by those about him)

Give me the building plans, and have you written

That we—Cuchullain is looking in his shield;

It may be the pale riders of the wind

Throw pictures on it, or that Mananan,

His father's friend and sometime fosterer,

Foreknower of all things, has cast a vision,

Out of the cold dark of the rich sea,

Foretelling Emain's greatness.

CUCHULLAIN. No, great king

I looked on this out of mere idleness,

Imagining a woman that I loved.

(The sound of a trumpet without.)

CONCOBAR. Open the door for that is a herald's trumpet.

(The great door at the back is flung open; a young man who is fully armed and carries a shield with a woman's head painted on it, stands upon the threshold. Behind him are trumpeters. He walks into the centre of the hall, the trumpeting ceases.)

What is your message?

YOUNG MAN. I am of Aoife's army.

FIRST KING. Queen Aoife and her army have fallen upon us. 44