I would never do that!

Princess: Do you, father, urge me to go?

King: They are in too big a hurry why
wouldn't they wait a while, for a quarter, or three-quarters
of a year.

Princess: Is that all the delay I am given, and
the term is set for me, like a servant that would be
banished from the house?

King: That's not it. That's not right. I
would never give in to let you go ...if it
wasn't ...

Princess: I know. (Stands up.) For my own
good!

(Trumpet outside.)

Gatekeeper: (Coming in.) There is company
at the door.

Queen: Who is it?

Gatekeeper: Servants, and a company of women,
and one that would seem to be a Prince, and young.

Princess: Then he is come asking me in marriage.

Dall Glic: Who is he at all?

Gatekeeper: They were saying he is the son
of the King of the Marshes.

King: Go bring him in.

(Gatekeeper goes.)

Dall Glic: That's right! He has great riches
and treasure. There are some say he is the first
match in Ireland.

Nurse: He is not. If his father has a copper
crown, and our own King a silver one, it is the
King of Sorcha has a crown of gold! The young
King of Sorcha that is the first match.

Dall Glic: If he is, this one is apt to be the
second first.

Queen: Do you hear, Nuala, what luck is flowing
to you?

Dall Glic: Do not now be turning your back
on him as you did to so many.

Princess: No; whoever he is, it is likely I will
not turn away from this one.

Queen: Go now and ready yourself to meet him.

Princess: Am I not nice enough the way I am?

Queen: You are not. The King of Alban's
daughter has hair as smooth as if a cow had licked it.

(Princess goes.)

Gatekeeper: Here is the Prince of the Marshes!

(Enter Prince, very young and timid, an old lady
on each side slightly in advance of him.)

King: A great welcome before you....
And who may these be?

Prince: Seven aunts I have....

First Aunt: (Interrupting.) If he has, there
are but two of us have come along with him.

Second Aunt: For to care him and be company
for him on his journey, it being the first time he
ever quitted home.

Queen: This is a great honour. Will you take
a chair?

First Aunt: Leave that for the Prince of the
Marshes. It is away from the draught of the
window.

Second Aunt: We ourselves are in charge of
his health. I have here his eel-skin boots for the
days that will be wet under foot.

First Aunt: And I have here my little bag of
cures, with a cure in it that would rise the body
out of the grave as whole and as sound as the time
you were born.

(Lays it down.)

King: (To Prince.) It is many a day your
father and myself were together in our early time.
What way is he? He was farther out in age than
myself.

Prince: He is ...

First Aunt: (Interrupting.) He is only middling
these last years. The doctors have taken him in
hand.

King: He was more for fowling, and I was
more for horses—before I increased so much in
girth. Is it for horses you are, Prince?

Prince: I didn't go up on one up to this.

First Aunt: Kings and princes are getting scarce.
They are the most class is wearing away, and it is
right for them keep in mind their safety.

Second Aunt: The Prince has no need to go
upon a horse, where he has always a coach at his
command.

King: It is fowling that suits you so?

Prince: I would be well pleased ...

First Aunt: There is great danger going out
fowling with a gun that might turn on you after
and take your life.

Second Aunt: Why would the Prince go into
danger, having servants that will go following
after birds?

Queen: He is likely waiting till his enemies will
make an attack upon the country to defend it.

First Aunt: There is a good dyke around about
the marshes, and a sort of quaking bog. It is not
likely war will come till such time as it will be made
by the birds of the air.

King: Well, we must strive to knock out some
sport or some pleasure.

Prince: It was not on pleasure I was sent.

First Aunt: That's so, but on business.

Second Aunt: Very weighty business.

King: Let the lad tell it out himself.

Prince: I hope there is no harm in me coming
hither. I would be loth to push on you ...

First Aunt: We thought it was right, as he
was come to sensible years ...

King: Stop a minute, ma'am, give him his
time.

Prince: My father ... and his counsellors ...
and my seven aunts ...that said it would be
right for me to join with a wife.

Queen: They showed good sense in that.

Prince: (Rapidly.) They bade me come and
take a look at your young lady of a Princess to see
would she be likely to be pleasing to them.

First Aunt: That's it, and that is what brought
ourselves along with him—to see would we be
satisfied.

King: I don't know. The girl is young—
she's young.

First Aunt: It is what we were saying, that
might be no drawback. It might be easier train
her in our own ways, and to do everything that
is right.

King: Sure we are all wishful to do the thing
that is right, but it's sometimes hard to know.

Second Aunt: Not in our place. What the
King of the Marshes would not know, his counsellors
and ourselves would know.

Queen: It will be very answerable to the Princess
to be under such good guidance.

First Aunt: For low people and for middling
people it is well enough to follow their own opinion
and their will. But for the Prince's wife to have
any choice or any will of her own, the people would
not believe her to be a real princess.

(Princess comes to door, listening unseen.)

King: Ah, you must not be too strict with a
girl that has life in her.

Prince: My seven aunts that were saying they
have a great distrust of any person that is lively.

First Aunt: We would rather than the greatest
beauty in the world get him a wife who would be
content to stop in her home.

(Princess comes in very stately and with a
fine dress. She curtseys. Aunts curtsey
and sit down again. Prince bows uneasily
and sidles away.)

First Aunt: Will you sit, now, between the
two of us?

Princess: It is more fitting for a young girl
to stay in her standing in the presence of a king's
kindred and his son, since he is come so far to look
for me.

Second Aunt: That is a very nice thought.

Princess: My far-off grandmother, the old
people were telling me, never sat at the table
to put a bit in her mouth till such time as her
lord had risen up satisfied. She was that obedient
to him that if he had bidden her, she would have
laid down her hand upon red coals.

(Prince looks bored and fidgets.)

First Aunt: Very good indeed.

Princess: That was a habit with my grandmother.
I would wish to follow in her ways.

King: This is some new talk.

Queen: Stop; she is speaking fair and good.

Princess: A little verse, made by some good