FIRST PEASANT. They've bags and bags of it.

(They go out. The two MERCHANTS follow silently.)

END OF SCENE 4


SCENE 5

SCENE.--The house of SHEMUS RUA. There is an alcove at the back
with curtains; in it a bed, and on the bed is the body of MARY
with candles round it. The two MERCHANTS while they speak put a
large book upon a table, arrange money, and so on.

FIRST MERCHANT. Thanks to that lie I told about her ships
And that about the herdsman lying sick,
We shall be too much thronged with souls to-morrow.

SECOND MERCHANT. What has she in her coffers now but mice?

FIRST MERCHANT. When the night fell and I had shaped myself
Into the image of the man-headed owl,
I hurried to the cliffs of Donegal,
And saw with all their canvas full of wind
And rushing through the parti-coloured sea
Those ships that bring the woman grain and meal.
They're but three days from us.

SECOND MERCHANT. When the dew rose
I hurried in like feathers to the east,