For now you are safe from all the evil times.
There is no evil that can find you here.

OONA (entering hurriedly)
Ochone! Ochone! The treasure room is broken in,
The door stands open, and the gold is gone.

(PEASANTS raise a lamentable cry.)

CATHLEEN. Be silent.

(The cry ceases.)

Have you seen nobody?

OONA Ochone!
That my good mistress should lose all this money.

CATHLEEN. Let those among you--not too old to ride--
Get horses and search all the country round,
I'll give a farm to him who finds the thieves.

(A man with keys at his girdle has come in while she speaks.
There is a general murmur of The Porter! the porter!")

PORTER. Demons were here. I sat beside the door
In my stone niche, and two owls passed me by,
Whispering with human voices.

OLD PEASANT. God forsakes us.