I hurried to the cliffs of Donegal,

And saw, creeping on the uneasy surge,

Those ships that bring the woman grain and meal;

They are five days from us.

FIRST MERCHANT.

I hurried East,

A gray owl flitting, flitting in the dew,

And saw nine hundred oxen toil through Meath

Driven on by goads of iron; they, too, brother,

Are full five days from us.