THE FIRST WOMAN.  Oh, do you see that?

SECOND WOMAN.  King of the World, he said!  Oh, are we not the unhappy sinners?

FIRST WOMAN.  My bitter grief for myself and yourself!

SECOND WOMAN.  I am lost for ever.  There is no forgiveness for me to find for the thing I did!

FIRST WOMAN.  Nor for myself.

SECOND WOMAN.  You were not so guilty as I was.

FIRST WOMAN.  Let us go; and let us hide ourselves under some scalp of a rock, in a hole in the earth, or in the middle of the woods!

SECOND WOMAN.  Let us then hasten that we may hide ourselves.

MARY MOTHER (rises up and stretches out her hands, beckoning to the women).  Come over here.  Come to this cradle.  The Son of God is in this cradle, and His cradle is nothing but a manger.  But yet He is King of the World.  There is a welcome before the whole world coming to this cradle; but it is those that are asking forgiveness will get the greatest welcome.

(The two women fall on their knees.

Child angels come and stand on the rising ground at each side of the stable, and shining clothes on them like the colours of the morning.  They lift their trumpets and blow them softly.)

MARY MOTHER.  Listen to the angels, the angels of God!

AN ANGEL OF THEM.  A hundred welcomes before the whole world to this cradle.  We give out peace; we give out goodwill; we give out joy to the whole world! (They take their share of trumpets up again, and blow them long and very sweetly.)

THE END.

Printed by PONSONBY & GIBBS at the University Press, Dublin