(A dark MERCURIALISED face appears, leading A veiled figure.)

The dark Mercury:  The Castle is looking for him.  He was drummed out of the army.

Martha:  (THICKVEILED, A crimson Halter round her neck, A copy of the Irish Times in her hand, in tone of reproach, pointing) Henry!  Leopold!  Lionel, thou lost one!  Clear my name.

First watch:  (Sternly) Come to the station.

Bloom:  (Scared, hats himself, steps back, then, plucking at his heart and lifting his right forearm on the square, he gives the sign and DUEGUARD of FELLOWCRAFT) No, no, worshipful master, light of love.  Mistaken identity.  The Lyons mail.  Lesurques and Dubosc.  You remember the Childs fratricide case.  We medical men.  By striking him dead with a hatchet.  I am wrongfully accused.  Better one guilty escape than ninetynine wrongfully condemned.

Martha:  (Sobbing behind her veil) Breach of promise.  My real name is Peggy Griffin.  He wrote to me that he was miserable.  I’ll tell my brother, the Bective rugger fullback, on you, heartless flirt.

Bloom:  (Behind his hand) She’s drunk.  The woman is inebriated. (He murmurs vaguely the pass of Ephraim) Shitbroleeth.

Second watch:  (Tears in his eyes, to bloom) You ought to be thoroughly well ashamed of yourself.

Bloom:  Gentlemen of the jury, let me explain.  A pure mare’s nest.  I am a man misunderstood.  I am being made a scapegoat of.  I am a respectable married man, without a stain on my character.  I live in Eccles street.  My wife, I am the daughter of a most distinguished commander, a gallant upstanding gentleman, what do you call him, Majorgeneral Brian Tweedy, one of Britain’s fighting men who helped to win our battles.  Got his majority for the heroic defence of Rorke’s Drift.

First watch:  Regiment.

Bloom:  (Turns to the gallery) The royal Dublins, boys, the salt of the earth, known the world over.  I think I see some old comrades in arms up there among you.  The R. D. F., with our own Metropolitan police, guardians of our homes, the pluckiest lads and the finest body of men, as physique, in the service of our sovereign.

A voice:  Turncoat!  Up the Boers!  Who booed Joe Chamberlain?

Bloom:  (His hand on the shoulder of the first watch) My old dad too was a J. P. I’m as staunch a Britisher as you are, sir.  I fought with the colours for king and country in the absentminded war under general Gough in the park and was disabled at Spion Kop and Bloemfontein, was mentioned in dispatches.  I did all a white man could. (With quiet feeling) Jim Bludso.  Hold her nozzle again the bank.