Page:Plays in Prose and Verse (1922).djvu/145

Rh Among the unshapely bodies of old men; I whose mere name has kept this country safe, I that in early days have driven out Maeve of Cruachan and the northern pirates, The hundred kings of Sorcha, and the kings Out of the Garden in the East of the World. Must I, that held you on the throne when all Had pulled you from it, swear obedience As if I were some cattle-raising king? Are my shins speckled with the heat of the fire, Or have my hands no skill but to make figures Upon the ashes with a stick? Am I So slack and idle that I need a whip Before I serve you?

. No, no whip, Cuchulain, But every day my children come and say: ‘This man is growing harder to endure. How can we be at safety with this man That nobody can buy or bid or bind? We shall be at his mercy when you are gone; He burns the earth as if he were a fire, And time can never touch him.’

. And so the tale Grows finer yet; and I am to obey Whatever child you set upon the throne, As if it were yourself!

. Most certainly. I am High King, my son shall be High King; And you for all the wildness of your blood,