Page:Plays in Prose and Verse (1922).djvu/95

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
THE KING'S THRESHOLD
79

Starve if they will. We have to keep in mind
The stomach God has left us.

mayor. Hush! I have it!
The King was said to be most friendly to us,
And we have reason, as you'll recollect,
For thinking that he was about to give
Those grazing lands inland we so much need,
Being pinched between the water and the stones.
Our mowers mow with knives between the stones;
The sea washes the meadows. You know well
We have asked nothing but what’s reasonable.

seanchan. Reason in plenty. Yellowy white hair,
A hollow face, and not too many teeth.
How comes it he has been so long in the world
And not found Reason out?

[While saying this he has turned half round. He hardly looks at the mayor.

brian [trying to pull mayor away]. What good is there
In telling him what he has heard all day!
I will set food before him.

mayor [shoving brian away]. Don’t hurry me!
It’s small respect you’re showing to the town!
Get farther off! [to seanchan]. We would not have you think,