Entered at Stationers' Hall.

Copyright, 1902.

By JOHN O'NEILL.

All Rights Reserved.

BODLEIAN

44.1004

PARY

THE ARGUMENT.

The approaching conflict at the Yellow Ford, near the river Blackwater in Armagh, August the tenth, 1598, between the nation of the Gael under Fardora's son, the Prince of Ulad, on the one side, and the European veteran armies of Queen Elizabeth on the other, is brought before the judgment of heaven.

A commission is given to the patron or guardian saint of both nations to go forth and award the coming victory; founding their decision on the results thereof to future generations, which are to be foreshown to them in vision. On such conditions, the victory is regarded as already passed, and won by Queen Eire, (pronounced Era) and the trial begins. The celestial court is held on the double star in the constellation Cygnus, which forms a cross in the northern sky.

Action of the drama: the finding of judgment on the future events of one hundred and forty-seven years, from Yellow Ford to Fontenoy.

Time of the action: the same as taken in the recital, about two hours; but to the celestial spirits, one moment only.

Place: Dun Angus on the rock in the Isle of Arranmore.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE.

Queen Eire (pronounced Era) representing the nation of the Gael.

Her sister Fohla, the goddess of wisdom, her counsellor. Her sister Banba, goddess of the Island of Inisfail and agriculture.

The Tribemonster, representing the evil of the tribe system, spearman to the Queen.

Mac Alpruin, Guardian Saint of Erin.

Saint George, the Cappadocian Youth, Guardian Saint of Albion.

Crom Cruah, a demon of Satan.

There is a cross in heaven, and at its foot, Where, of the dying God the feet might bleed, "Twixt Altair and th' enspher'd Orphean lute;

There burns a star, which to the sage's ken,
Sheweth twin lights, in single orbs apart,
One emerald, and one siderial gold,
Upon the Milky Way, ere galaxy

Its widening track displays. Thither repair
Celestial regents crown'd, their court supreme
To hold, and in foresighted vision doom
Impending battle and Queen Eire's lot
At Yellow Ford; if by defeat deprav'd,

A Herod she must serve, and to his likeness
Resemble her great soul; or right with wrong
Conflicting, she asserts to all the world
True human liberty: a plea to heaven.

Itself, for suffrage; all Beatitudes,

Whom Gael or Saxon e'er invok'd or hymn'd
With cloister psalmody in jewell'd shrines.

Nor marvel that the Saxon dames begat

Worthies of heaven; for well the olden time

Attesteth, ere their carnal ancestry

Supernal sold for earthly, and forsook

The cross for Mammon, whence inhuman crimes,
Which on man's chastisement impos'd sevenfold

Sin's penalty; and laid on righteous necks
Burdens, the proof of mighty constancy.

But when the seed of the apostate king,
Elizabeth, declar'd the Christ, her foe,

With bonds and death, weening to grasp and hold
Fair Banba's fruitful plains, and drive at will
The landless Gael; she never dreamt in sleep,
The warrior's way of serving on His side.

Now in God's vision sit, of Eire's fate,
Umpires, the connoniz'd of two fam'd Isles,
Who school'd the fathers of the Gael and Gall;*
These take the golden, those, the emerald star,
That Calpruin's son to eyes immortal shew
The days unborn; of all that spirit host,
Ablest to vision forth the trials vast,

Of the great fold he gather'd and conclude
Victor or vanquish'd, by the suffrage free
Of arbitrating heaven: whether the debt,
*The Saxon or English.