The Complete Works. William Butler Yeats

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      All’s well, again!

      All’s well! all’s well! You cried your doubts so loud,

      That I had almost doubted.

      NAISI.

      I would have killed him,

      And he the while but busy in his house

      For the more welcome.

      DEIDRE.

      The message is not finished.

      FERGUS.

      Come quickly. Conchubar will laugh, that I—

      Although I held out boldly in my speech—

      That I, even I—

      DEIDRE.

      Wait, wait! He is not done.

      FERGUS.

      That am so great a friend, have doubted him.

      MESSENGER.

      Deirdre, and Fergus, son of Rogh, are summoned;

      But not the traitor that bore off the queen.

      It is enough that the king pardon her,

      And call her to his table and his bed.

      NAISI.

      So, then, it’s treachery.

      FERGUS.

      I’ll not believe it.

      NAISI.

      Tell Conchubar to meet me in some place

      Where none can come between us but our swords.

      MESSENGER.

      I have done my message; I am Conchubar’s man;

      I take no message from a traitor’s lips.

      [He goes.

      NAISI.

      No, but you must; and I will have you swear

      To carry it unbroken.

      [He follows MESSENGER out.

      FERGUS.

      He has been suborned.

      I know King Conchubar’s mind as it were my own;

      I’ll learn the truth from him.

      [He is about to follow NAISI, but DEIRDRE stops him.

      DEIRDRE.

      No, no, old man,

      You thought the best, and the worst came of it;

      We listened to the counsel of the wise,

      And so turned fools. But ride and bring your friends.

      Go, and go quickly. Conchubar has not seen me;

      It may be that his passion is asleep,

      And that we may escape.

      FERGUS.

      But I’ll go first,

      And follow up that Libyan heel, and send

      Such words to Conchubar, that he may know

      At how great peril he lays hands upon you.

      [NAISI enters.]

      NAISI.

      The Libyan, knowing that a servant’s life

      Is safe from hands like mine, but turned and mocked.

      FERGUS.

      I’ll call my friends, and call the reaping-hooks,

      And carry you in safety to the ships.

      My name has still some power. I will protect,

      Or, if that is impossible, revenge.

      [Goes out by other door.

      NAISI.

       [Who is calm, like a man who has passed beyond life.]

      The crib has fallen and the birds are in it;

      There is not one of the great oaks about us

      But shades a hundred men.

      DEIDRE.

      Let’s out and die,

      Or break away, if the chance favour us.

      NAISI.

      They would but drag you from me, stained with blood.

      Their barbarous weapons would but mar that beauty,

      And I would have you die as a queen should—

      In a death chamber. You are in my charge.

      We will wait here, and when they come upon us,

      I’ll hold them from the doors, and when that’s over,

      Give you a cleanly death with this grey edge.

      DEIDRE.

      I will stay here; but you go out and fight.

      Our way of life has brought no friends to us,

      And if we do not buy them leaving it,

      We shall be ever friendless.

      NAISI.

      What do they say?

      That Lugaidh Redstripe and that wife of his

      Sat at this chessboard, waiting for their end.

      They knew that there was nothing that could save them,

      And so played chess as they had any night

      For years, and waited for the stroke of sword.

      I never heard a death so out of reach

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