The Unicorn from the Stars

epub:type="z3998:persona">Martin Coming in. I will make my banner, I will paint the unicorn on it. Give me that bit of canvas, there is paint over here. We will get no help from the settled men⁠—we will call to the lawbreakers, the tinkers, the sievemakers, the sheepstealers. He begins to make banner. Biddy That sounds to be a queer name of an army. Ribbons I can understand, Whiteboys, Rightboys, Threshers, and Peep o’ Day, but Unicorns I never heard of before. Johnny It is not a queer name but a very good name. Takes up lion and unicorn. It is often you saw that before you in the dock. There is the unicorn with the one horn, and what it is he is going against? The lion of course. When he has the lion destroyed, the crown must fall and be shivered. Can’t you see it is the League of the Unicorns is the league that will fight and destroy the power of England and King George? Paudeen It is with that banner we will march and the lads in the quarry with us, it is they will have the welcome before him! It won’t be long till we’ll be attacking the Square House! Arms there are in it, riches that would smother the world, rooms full of guineas, we will put wax on our shoes walking them; the horses themselves shod with no less than silver! Martin Holding up banner. There it is ready! We are very few now, but the army of the Unicorns will be a great army! To Johnny. Why have you brought me the message? Can you remember any more? Has anything more come to you? You have been drinking, the clouds upon your mind have been destroyed.⁠ ⁠… Can you see anything or hear anything that is beyond the world? Johnny I can not. I don’t know what do you want me to tell you at all? Martin I want to begin the destruction, but I don’t know where to begin⁠ ⁠… you do not hear any other voice? Johnny I do not. I have nothing at all to do with Freemasons or witchcraft. Paudeen It is Biddy Lally has to do with witchcraft. It is often she threw the cups and gave out prophecies the same as Columcille. Martin You are one of the knowledgeable women. You can tell me where it is best to begin, and what will happen in the end. Biddy I will foretell nothing at all. I rose out of it this good while, with the stiffness and the swelling it brought upon my joints. Martin If you have foreknowledge you have no right to keep silent. If you do not help me I may go to work in the wrong way. I know I have to destroy, but when I ask myself what I am to begin with, I am full of uncertainty. Paudeen Here now are the cups handy and the leavings in them. Biddy Taking cups and pouring one from another. Throw a bit of white money into the four corners of the house. Martin There! Throwing it. Biddy There can be nothing told without silver. It is not myself will have the profit of it. Along with that I will be forced to throw out gold. Martin There is a guinea for you. Tell me what comes before your eyes. Biddy What is it you are wanting to have news of? Martin Of what I have to go out against at the beginning⁠ ⁠… there is so much⁠ ⁠… the whole world it may be. Biddy Throwing from one cup to another and looking. You have no care for yourself. You have been across the sea, you are not long back. You are coming within the best day of your life. Martin What is it? What is it I have to do? Biddy I see a great smoke, I see burning⁠ ⁠… there is a great smoke overhead. Martin That means we have to burn away a great deal that men have piled up upon the earth. We must bring men once more to the wildness of the clean green earth. Biddy Herbs for my healing, the big herb and the little herb, it is true enough they get their great strength out of the earth. Johnny Who was it the green sod of Ireland belonged to in the olden times? Wasn’t it to the ancient race it belonged? And who has possession of it now but the race that came robbing over the sea? The meaning of that is to destroy the big houses and the towns, and the fields to be given back to the ancient race. Martin That is it. You don’t put it as I do, but what matter? Battle is all. Paudeen Columcille said, the four corners to be burned, and then the middle of the field to be burned. I tell you it was Columcille’s prophecy said that. Biddy Iron handcuffs I see and a rope and a gallows, and it maybe is not for yourself I see it, but for some I have acquaintance with a good way back. Martin That means the law. We must destroy the law. That was the first sin, the first mouthful of the apple. Johnny So it was, so it was. The law is the worst loss. The ancient law was for the benefit of all. It is the law of the English is the only sin. Martin When there were no laws men warred on one another and man to man, not with machines made in towns as they do now, and they grew hard and strong in body. They were altogether alive like him that made them in his image, like people in that unfallen country. But presently they thought it better to be safe, as if safety mattered or anything but the exaltation of the heart, and to have eyes that danger had made grave and piercing. We must overthrow the laws and banish them. Johnny It is what I say, to put out the laws is to put out the whole nation of the English. Laws for