No More Learning

FIRST MERCHANT.

Five hundred thousand crowns; we give the price,
The gold is here; the spirits, while you speak,
Begin to labour upward, for your face
Sheds a great light on them and fills their hearts
With those unveilings of the fickle light,
Whereby our heavy labours have been marred
Since first His spirit moved upon the deeps
And stole them from us; even before this day
The souls were but half ours, for your bright eyes
Had pierced them through and robbed them of content.
But you must sign, for we omit no form
In buying a soul like yours; sign with this quill;
It was a feather growing on the cock
That crowed when Peter dared deny his Master,
And all who use it have great honour in Hell.

[_CATHLEEN leans forward to sign. _

ALEEL.

[_Rushing forward and snatching the parchment from her. _]

Leave all things to the builder of the heavens.

CATHLEEN.

I have no thoughts: I hear a cry--a cry.

ALEEL.

[_Casting the parchment on the ground. _]

I had a vision under a green hedge,
A hedge of hips and haws--men yet shall hear
The archangels rolling Satan's empty skull
Over the mountain-tops.

FIRST MERCHANT.

Take him away.

[_TEIG and SHEMUS drag him roughly away so that he
falls upon the floor among the peasants.
CATHLEEN picks
up the parchment and signs, and then turns towards the
peasants. _

CATHLEEN.

Take up the money; and now come with me.
When we are far from this polluted place
I will give everybody money enough.

[_She goes out, the peasants crowding round her and
kissing her dress. ALEEL and the TWO MERCHANTS are left
alone. _

SECOND MERCHANT.

Now are our days of heavy labour done.

FIRST MERCHANT.

We have a precious jewel for Satan's crown.

SECOND MERCHANT.

We must away, and wait until she dies,
Sitting above her tower as two gray owls,
Watching as many years as may be, guarding
Our precious jewel; waiting to seize her soul.

FIRST MERCHANT.

We need but hover over her head in the air,
For she has only minutes: when she came
I saw the dimness of the tomb in her,
And marked her walking as with leaden shoes
And looking on the ground as though the worms
Were calling her, and when she wrote her name
Her heart began to break. Hush! hush!