(Goes.)

King:  Oh, my poor child!  My poor little Nu!  I thought it never would come to pass, I to be sending you to the slaughter.  And I too bulky to go out and face him, having led an easy life!

Princess:  Do not be fretting.

King:  The world is gone to and fro!  I’ll never ask satisfaction again either in bed or board, but to be wasting away with watercresses and rising up of a morning before the sun rises in Babylon! (Weeps.) Oh, we might make out a way to baffle him yet!  Is there no meal will serve him only flesh and blood?  Try him with Grecian wine, and with what was left of the big dinner a while ago!

Gateman:  (Coming in.) There is some strange thing in the ocean from Aran out.  At first it was but like a bird’s shadow on the sea, and now you would nearly say it to be the big island would have left its moorings, and it steering its course towards Aughanish!

Dall Glic:  I’m in dread it should be the Dragon that has cleared the ocean at a leap!

King:  (Holding Princess.) I will not give you up!  Let him devour myself along with you!

Dull Glic:  (To Princess.) It is best for me to put you in a hiding-hole under the ground, that has seven locked doors and seven locks on the farthest door.  It might fail him to make you out.

Nurse:  Oh, it would be hard for her to go where she cannot hear the voice of a friend or see the light of day!

Princess:  Would you wish me to save myself and let all the district perish?  You heard what Fintan said.  It is not right for destruction to be put on a whole province, and the women and the children that I know.

Queen:  There is maybe time yet for you to wed.

Princess:  So long as I am living I have a choice.  I will not be saved in that way.  It is alone I will be in my death.

Manus:  (Coming to King.) I am going out from you, King.  I might not be coming in to you again.  I would wish to set you free from the promise you made me a while ago, and the bond.

King:  What does it signify now?  What does anything signify, and the world turning here and there!

Manus:  And another thing.  I would wish to ask pardon of the King’s daughter.  I ought not to have laid any claim to her, being a stranger in this place and without treasure or attendance.  And yet ...and yet ..._(stoops and kisses hem of her dress)_, she was dear to me.  It is a man who never may look on her again is saying that.

(Turns to door.)

Taig:  He is going to run from the Dragon!  It is kind father for a scullion to be timid!

Queen:  It is in his blood.  He is maybe not to blame for what is according to his nature.

Manus:  That is so.  I am doing what is according to my nature.

(Goes, Nurse goes after him.)