No More Learning

'

For the next few days Duallach went hither and thither trying to raise
a bodyguard, and every man he met had some story of Costello, how he
killed the wrestler when but a boy by so straining at the belt that
went about them both that he broke the big wrestler's back; how when
somewhat older he dragged fierce horses through a ford in the Unchion
for a wager; how when he came to manhood he broke the steel horseshoe
in Mayo; how he drove many men before him through Rushy Meadow at
Drum-an-air because of a malevolent song they had about his poverty;
and of many another deed of his strength and pride; but he could find
none who would trust themselves with any so passionate and poor in a
quarrel with careful and wealthy persons like Dermott of the Sheep and
Namara of the Lake.

Then Costello went out himself, and after listening to many excuses
and in many places, brought in a big half-witted fellow, who followed
him like a dog, a farm-labourer who worshipped him for his strength,
a fat farmer whose forefathers had served his family, and a couple of
lads who looked after his goats and cows; and marshalled them before
the fire in the empty hall. They had brought with them their stout
cudgels, and Costello gave them an old pistol apiece, and kept them
all night drinking Spanish ale and shooting at a white turnip which
he pinned against the wall with a skewer. Duallach of the Pipes sat
on the bench in the chimney playing 'The Green Bunch of Rushes,' 'The
Unchion Stream,' and 'The Princes of Breffeny' on his old pipes, and
railing now at the appearance of the shooters, now at their clumsy
shooting, and now at Costello because he had no better servants. The
labourer, the half-witted fellow, the farmer and the lads were all well
accustomed to Duallach's railing, for it was as inseparable from wake
or wedding as the squealing of his pipes, but they wondered at the
forbearance of Costello, who seldom came either to wake or wedding, and
if he had would scarce have been patient with a scolding piper.

On the next evening they set out for Cool-a-vin, Costello riding a
tolerable horse and carrying a sword, the others upon rough-haired
garrons, and with their stout cudgels under their arms. As they rode
over the bogs and in the boreens among the hills they could see
fire answering fire from hill to hill, from horizon to horizon, and
everywhere groups who danced in the red light on the turf, celebrating
the bridal of life and fire. When they came to Dermott's house they
saw before the door an unusually large group of the very poor, dancing
about a fire, in the midst of which was a blazing cartwheel, that
circular dance which is so ancient that the gods, long dwindled to
be but fairies, dance no other in their secret places. From the door
and through the long loop-holes on either side came the pale light of
candles and the sound of many feet dancing a dance of Elizabeth and
James.

They tied their horses to bushes, for the number so tied already showed
that the stables were full, and shoved their way through a crowd of
peasants who stood about the door, and went into the great hall where
the dance was. The labourer, the half-witted fellow, the farmer and the
two lads mixed with a group of servants who were looking on from an
alcove, and Duallach sat with the pipers on their bench, but Costello
made his way through the dancers to where Dermott of the Sheep stood
with Namara of the Lake pouring Poteen out of a porcelain jug into horn
noggins with silver rims.

'Tumaus Costello,' said the old man, 'you have done a good deed
to forget what has been, and to fling away enmity and come to the
betrothal of my daughter to Namara of the Lake. '

'I come,' answered Costello, 'because when in the time of Costello De
Angalo my forebears overcame your forebears and afterwards made peace,
a compact was made that a Costello might go with his body-servants and
his piper to every feast given by a Dermott for ever, and a Dermott
with his body-servants and his piper to every feast given by a Costello
for ever. '

'If you come with evil thoughts and armed men,' said the son of Dermott
flushing, 'no matter how strong your hands to wrestle and to swing the
sword, it shall go badly with you, for some of my wife's clan have
come out of Mayo, and my three brothers and their servants have come
down from the Ox Mountains'; and while he spoke he kept his hand inside
his coat as though upon the handle of a weapon.

'No,' answered Costello, 'I but come to dance a farewell dance with
your daughter.
'

Dermott drew his hand out of his coat and went over to a tall pale girl
who was now standing but a little way off with her mild eyes fixed upon
the ground.

'Costello has come to dance a farewell dance, for he knows that you
will never see one another again. '

The girl lifted her eyes and gazed at Costello, and in her gaze was
that trust of the humble in the proud, the gentle in the violent,
which has been the tragedy of woman from the beginning. Costello led
her among the dancers, and they were soon drawn into the rhythm of the
Pavane, that stately dance which, with the Saraband, the Gallead, and
the Morrice dances, had driven out, among all but the most Irish of
the gentry, the quicker rhythms of the verse-interwoven, pantomimic
dances of earlier days; and while they danced there came over them the
unutterable melancholy, the weariness with the world, the poignant and
bitter pity for one another, the vague anger against common hopes and
fears, which is the exultation of love. And when a dance ended and the
pipers laid down their pipes and lifted their horn noggins, they stood
a little from the others waiting pensively and silently for the dance
to begin again and the fire in their hearts to leap up and to wrap them
anew; and so they danced and danced Pavane and Saraband and Gallead and
Morrice through the night long, and many stood still to watch them,
and the peasants came about the door and peered in, as though they
understood that they would gather their children's children about them
long hence, and tell how they had seen Costello dance with Dermott's
daughter Oona, and become by the telling themselves a portion of
ancient romance; but through all the dancing and piping Namara of the
Lake went hither and thither talking loudly and making foolish jokes
that all might seem well with him, and old Dermott of the Sheep grew
redder and redder, and looked oftener and oftener at the doorway to see
if the candles there grew yellow in the dawn.

At last he saw that the moment to end had come, and, in a pause after a
dance, cried out from where the horn noggins stood that his daughter
would now drink the cup of betrothal; then Oona came over to where he
was, and the guests stood round in a half-circle, Costello close to
the wall to the right, and the piper, the labourer, the farmer, the
half-witted man and the two farm lads close behind him. The old man
took out of a niche in the wall the silver cup from which her mother
and her mother's mother had drunk the toasts of their betrothals, and
poured Poteen out of a porcelain jug and handed the cup to his daughter
with the customary words, 'Drink to him whom you love the best. '

She held the cup to her lips for a moment, and then said in a clear
soft voice: 'I drink to my true love, Tumaus Costello. '

And then the cup rolled over and over on the ground, ringing like
a bell, for the old man had struck her in the face and the cup had
fallen, and there was a deep silence.

There were many of Namara's people among the servants now come out of
the alcove, and one of them, a story-teller and poet, a last remnant of
the bardic order, who had a chair and a platter in Namara's kitchen,
drew a French knife out of his girdle and made as though he would
strike at Costello, but in a moment a blow had hurled him to the
ground, his shoulder sending the cup rolling and ringing again. The
click of steel had followed quickly, had not there come a muttering and
shouting from the peasants about the door and from those crowding up
behind them; and all knew that these were no children of Queen's Irish
or friendly Namaras and Dermotts, but of the wild Irish about Lough
Gara and Lough Cara, who rowed their skin coracles, and had masses
of hair over their eyes, and left the right arms of their children
unchristened that they might give the stouter blows, and swore only by
St. Atty and sun and moon, and worshipped beauty and strength more than
St. Atty or sun and moon.

Costello's hand had rested upon the handle of his sword and his
knuckles had grown white, but now he drew it away, and, followed by
those who were with him, strode towards the door, the dancers giving
way before him, the most angrily and slowly, and with glances at the
muttering and shouting peasants, but some gladly and quickly, because
the glory of his fame was over him. He passed through the fierce
and friendly peasant faces, and came where his good horse and the
rough-haired garrons were tied to bushes; and mounted and bade his
ungainly bodyguard mount also and ride into the narrow boreen. When
they had gone a little way, Duallach, who rode last, turned towards
the house where a little group of Dermotts and Namaras stood next to a
more numerous group of countrymen, and cried: 'Dermott, you deserve to
be as you are this hour, a lantern without a candle, a purse without a
penny, a sheep without wool, for your hand was ever niggardly to piper
and fiddler and story-teller and to poor travelling people.