rce_

SCENE: _A house made of logs. There are two windows at the back and
a door which cuts off one of the corners of the room. Through the
door one can see low rocks which make the ground outside higher than
it is within, and beyond the rocks a misty moon-lit sea. Through the
windows one can see nothing but the sea. There is a great chair at
the opposite side to the door, and in front of it a table with cups
and a flagon of ale. Here and there are stools._

_At the Abbey Theatre the house is orange red and the chairs and
tables and flagons black, with a slight purple tinge which is not
clearly distinguishable from the black. The rocks are black with a
few green touches. The sea is green and luminous, and all the
characters except the RED MAN and the Black Men are dressed in
various shades of green, one or two with touches of purple which
look nearly black. The Black Men all wear dark purple and have eared
caps, and at the end their eyes should look green from the reflected
light of the sea. The RED MAN is altogether in red. He is very tall,
and his height increased by horns on the Green Helmet. The effect is
intentionally violent and startling._

LAEGAIRE

What is that? I had thought that I saw, though but in the wink of an
eye,
A cat-headed man out of Connaught go pacing and spitting by;
But that could not be.

CONALL

You have dreamed it--there's nothing out there.
I killed them all before daybreak--I hoked them out of their lair;
I cut off a hundred heads with a single stroke of my sword,
And then I danced on their graves and carried away their hoard.

LAEGAIRE

Does anything stir on the sea?

CONALL

Not even a fish or a gull:
I can see for a mile or two, now that the moon's at the full.

[_A distant shout._]

LAEGAIRE

Ah--there--there is someone who calls us.

CONALL

But from the landward side,
And we have nothing to fear that has not come up from the tide;
The rocks and the bushes cover whoever made that noise,
But the land will do us no harm.

LAEGAIRE

It was like Cuchulain's voice.

CONALL

But that's an impossible thing.

LAEGAIRE

An impossible thing indeed.

CONALL

For he will never come home, he has all that he could need
In that high windy Scotland--good luck in all that he does.
Her