The Unicorn from the Stars

for the whole province; and that you may be sitting in the middle of Paradise and in the chair of the Graces! Johnny Amen to that. It’s pity I didn’t think the time I sent for yourself to send the little lad of a messenger looking for a priest to overtake him. It might be in the end the Almighty is the best man for us all! Andrew Sure I sent him on myself to bid the priest to come. Living or dead I would wish to do all that is rightful for the last and the best of my own race and generation. Biddy Jumping up. Is it the priest you are bringing in among us? Where is the sense in that? Aren’t we robbed enough up to this with the expense of the candles and the like? Johnny If it is that poor starved priest he called to that came talking in secret signs to the man that is gone, it is likely he will ask nothing for what he has to do. There is many a priest is a Whiteboy in his heart. Nanny I tell you, if you brought him tied in a bag he would not say an Our Father for you, without you having a half-crown at the top of your fingers. Biddy There is no priest is any good at all but a spoiled priest. A one that would take a drop of drink, it is he would have courage to face the hosts of trouble. Rout them out he would, the same as a shoal of fish from out the weeds. It’s best not to vex a priest, or to run against them at all. Nanny It’s yourself humbled yourself well to one the time you were sick in the gaol and had like to die, and he bade you to give over the throwing of the cups. Biddy Ah, plaster of Paris I gave him. I took to it again and I free upon the roads. Nanny Much good you are doing with it to yourself or any other one. Aren’t you after telling that corpse no later than yesterday that he was coming within the best day of his life? Johnny Whisht, let ye. Here is the priest coming. Father John comes in. Father John It is surely not true that he is dead? Johnny The spirit went from him about the middle hour of the night. We brought him here to this sheltered place. We were loth to leave him without friends. Father John Where is he? Johnny Taking up sacks. Lying there stiff and stark. He has a very quiet look as if there was no sin at all or no great trouble upon his mind. Father John Kneels and touches him. He is not dead. Biddy Pointing to Nanny. He is dead. If it was letting on he was, he would not have let that one rob him and search him the way she did. Father John It has the appearance of death, but it is not death. He is in a trance. Paudeen Is it Heaven and Hell he is walking at this time to be bringing back newses of the sinners in pain? Biddy I was thinking myself it might away he was, riding on white horses with the riders of the forths. Johnny He will have great wonders to tell out the time he will rise up from the ground. It is a pity he not to waken at this time and to lead us on to overcome the troop of the English. Sure those that are in a trance get strength, that they can walk on water. Andrew It was Father John wakened him yesterday the time he was lying in the same way. Wasn’t I telling you it was for that I called to him? Biddy Waken him now till they’ll see did I tell any lie in my foretelling. I knew well by the signs, he was coming within the best day of his life. Paudeen And not dead at all! We’ll be marching to attack Dublin itself within a week. The horn will blow for him, and all good men will gather to him. Hurry on, Father, and waken him. Father John I will not waken him. I will not bring him back from where he is. Johnny And how long will it be before he will waken of himself? Father John Maybe today, maybe tomorrow, it is hard to be certain. Biddy If it is away he is he might be away seven years. To be lying like a stump of a tree and using no food and the world not able to knock a word out of him, I know the signs of it well. Johnny We cannot be waiting and watching through seven years. If the business he has started is to be done we have to go on here and now. The time there is any delay, that is the time the Government will get information. Waken him now, Father, and you’ll get the blessing of the generations. Father John I will not bring him back. God will bring him back in his own good time. For all I know he may be seeing the hidden things of God. Johnny He might slip away in his dream. It is best to raise him up now. Andrew Waken him, Father John. I thought he was surely dead this time, and what way could I go face Thomas through all that is left of my lifetime, after me standing up to face him the way I did? And if I do take a little drop of an odd night, sure I’d be very lonesome if I did not take it. All the world knows it’s not for love of what I drink, but for love of the people that do be with me! Waken him, Father, or maybe I would waken him myself. Shakes him. Father John Lift your hand from touching him. Leave him to himself and to the power of God. Johnny If you will not bring him back why wouldn’t we