The Collected Works in Verse and Prose of William Butler Yeats, Vol. 4 (of 8) / The Hour-glass. Cathleen ni Houlihan. The Golden Helmet. The Irish Dramatic Movement

by W. B. Yeats

[The YOUNG MAN seizes LEAGERIE’S arm, and thrusting it up, passes him, and puts his shield over the chair where there is an empty place.

YOUNG MAN [at table].

It is here I will spend the night, but I won’t tell you why till I have drunk. I am thirsty. What, the flagon full and the cups empty and Leagerie and Conal there! Why, what’s in the wind that Leagerie and Conal cannot drink?

LEAGERIE.

It is Cuchulain.

CONAL.

Better go away to Scotland again, or if you stay here ask no one what has happened or what is going to happen.

CUCHULAIN.

What more is there that can happen so strange as that I should come home after years and that you should bid me begone?

CONAL.