Queen:  She thought it to be a champion and a high up man that had died for her sake.  It is what broke her down in the latter end, hearing him to be no big man at all, but a clown!

Nurse:  Oh, my darling!  And I not here to tell you!  You are a motherless child, and the curse of your mother will be on me!  It was no clown fought for you, but a king, having generations of kings behind him, the young King of Sorcha, Manus, son of Solas son of Lugh.

King:  I would believe that now sooner than many a thing I would hear.

Nurse:  (Keening.) Oh, my child, and my share!  I thought it was you would be closing my eyes, and now I am closing your own!  You to be brought away in your young youth!  Your hand that was whiter than the snow of one night, and the colour of the foxglove on your cheek.

(A great shouting outside and burst of music.  A march played.  Manus comes in, followed by Fintan and Prince of the Marshes.  Shouts and music continue.  He leads the Dragon by a bridle.  The others are in front of Princess, huddled from Dragon.  Queen gets up on a chair.)

Manus:  Where is the Princess Nu?  I have brought this beast to bow itself at her feet.

(All are silent.  Manus flings bridle to Fintan’s hand.  Dragon backs out.  All go aside from Princess.)

Nurse:  She is here dead before you.

Manus:  That cannot be!  She was well and living half an hour ago.

Nurse:  (Rises.) Oh, if she could but waken and hear your voice!  She died with the fret of losing you, that is heaven’s truth!  It is tormented she was with these giving out you were done away with, and mocking at your weapons that they laid down to be the cleaver and the spit, till the heart broke in her like a nut.

Manus:  (Kneeling beside her.) Then it is myself have brought the death darkness upon you at the very time I thought to have saved you!

Nurse:  There is no blame upon you, but some that had too much talk!

(Goes on keening.)

Manus:  What call had I to come humbugging and letting on as I did, teasing and tormenting her, and not coming as a King should that is come to ask for a Queen!  Oh, come back for one minute only till I will ask your pardon!

Dall Glic:  She cannot come to you or answer you at all for ever.

Manus:  Then I myself will go follow you and will ask for your forgiveness wherever you are gone, on the Plain of Wonder or in the Many-Coloured Land!  That is all I can do ...to go after you and tell you it was no want of respect that brought me in that dress, but hurry and folly and taking my own way.  For it is what I have to say to you, that I gave you my heart’s love, what I never gave to any other, since first I saw you before me in my sleep!  Here, now, is a short road to reach you!