When they set free a captive
They take in ransom a less valued thing.
The fisher when some knowledgeable man
Restores to him his wife, or son, or daughter,
Knows he must lose a boat or net, or it may be
The cow that gives his children milk; and some
Have offered their own lives. I do not ask
Your life, or any valuable thing;
You spoke but now of the mere chance that some day
You'd sit together by the hearth again;
Renounce that chance, that miserable hour,
And he shall live again.
EMER
I do not question
But you have brought ill luck on all he loves
And now, because I am thrown beyond your power
Unless your words are lies, you come to bargain.
FIGURE of CUCHULAIN
You loved your power when but newly married
And I love mine although I am old and withered;
You have but to put yourself into that power
And he shall live again.
EMER
No, never, never.
FIGURE of CUCHULAIN
You dare not be accursed yet he has dared.