Corda I’ve found them. They’re shiny. They’re gold. Hurry up, take yours.

Morgana No.

A silence.

Corda You’re right. We don’t know anything.

Has there been a battle with the Saxons? We don’t know. Are the towns burning? We don’t know.

Sickness travels in the air. Whatever it is out there, the war – travels in the air. We’re breathing it. It makes a daughter kill her father and rob him. Just like that.

If you won’t come I’ll kill you too.

In the far distance a woman’s voice screams.

Morgana I heard it again.

Corda Get up to the little wood. Along the ditches.

Corda, holding the money in her skirt, scampers away.

Morgana hesitates and crosses herself, looking at the idol.

Come on little sister.

They run off.

Scene Five

Chichester asleep. The light changes to a sunlit, late afternoon.

An Irish Woman comes on.

Woman You.

Chichester wakes with a start. A silence. Then he stands, hurriedly. He speaks in upper-class English.

Chichester Where’s O’Rourke?

Woman The British army was here.

Chichester I didn’t see them. What did the bastards want?

A silence.

Woman What’s your name?

Chichester O’Rourke knows my name.

A silence.

My name is Henwick. Lliam Henwick.

Woman You’ve been putting it about you’re an Irishman, Mr Henwick.

Chichester Of Anglo-Irish parentage. My family’s house was burnt down in 1918 because my grandfather, something of a romantic drunk, went over to the Republican cause.

But you will have telephoned the backwater in County-Limerick that gave my father breath.

Don’t piss me about love.

Woman You have a token of your good faith.

Chichester For O’Rourke.

The Woman, impassive.

All right!

He takes out the pistol. He hands it to her. She examines it.

I’m a friend of the Republican cause.

And a businessman.

The Woman turns and walks away, taking the pistol.

Tell O’Rourke to come today!

The Republican cause is just!

Trust me! It’s in my blood! The great wrong of England in Ireland!

The Woman has gone.

(To himself:) Believe it, don’t you Tom. In a way, Tom.

I am the great wrong in Ireland.

He retches.

The fear worse than you thought, Tom?

He wipes his mouth.

But then a trained assassin is bound to be a dangerous man with dangerous thoughts.

He laughs.

In the distance, a woman’s voice screams.

He goes to the edge of the field. He takes out another pistol from a hiding place. He puts it in his clothing.

A woman’s voice screams again.

Chichester lies down and closes his eyes. He flicks at a fly.

Bugger off. Bugger off, Celtic fly.

He falls asleep.

Scene Six

Chichester turns over on his side, fast asleep, stretching an arm up.

Chichester Ah!

His arm falls. He settles in his sleep.

The Woman’s voice screaming, nearer.

Again, the voice even nearer.

Then two Cooks, both young, the First fat and the Second thin, carry Adona on an improvised stretcher. Her face is hidden by veils of silk, her body covered by richly embroidered and coloured cloths. A Steward, a fit, capable man, walks by the side of the stretcher.