CHANTECLER [_Defending himself foot to foot._] Thanks! Another quip, for I can still fight with my feet! A VOICE The Alarm-Cock! CHANTECLER [_Who seems upheld by their insults._] Another pun! And I who know no more of fighting than can be learned on a peaceful farm-- A VOICE Thresh out his hayseed! CHANTECLER Thanks! I--[_His torn feathers fly around him._] CRY OF JOY See his fur fly! CHANTECLER I feel--Another pleasantry! A VOICE Lay on, Macfluff! CHANTECLER Thanks! I feel that the more I am mocked, insulted, flouted, and denied-- AN ASS [_Stretching his neck over the hedge._] Hee-haw! CHANTECLER Thanks!--the better I shall fight! THE WHITE PILE [_Chuckling._] He is game, but he’s giving out. THE PHEASANT-HEN Enough. Enough. Oh, stop! A VOICE On White Pile, twenty to one! THE PHEASANT-HEN [_Seeing_ CHANTECLER’S _bleeding neck._] He bleeds, oh! A HEN [_Rising on tiptoe behind the_ GOLDEN PADUA COCK.] I should like to see the blood! THE WHITE PILE [_Increasing the fury of his onset._] I’ll have your gizzard! THE HEN [_Trying to see._] The Padua Cock’s hat shuts off my view! THE BLACKBIRD Hats off! A VOICE That was a stinger! On his comb! SHRILL CRIES [_From the crowd._] Land him one! Do him up! Lay him out! Have his gore! PATOU [_Standing up in his wheelbarrow._] Will you stop behaving like human beings? CRIES [_Furiously keeping time with the blows showering upon_ CHANTECLER.] In the neck! On the nut! On the wing! On the--[_Sudden silence._] CHANTECLER [_Amazed._] What is this? The ring breaks up, the shouting dies--[_He looks around. The_ WHITE PILE _has drawn away and backed against the hedge. A strange commotion agitates the crowd._ CHANTECLER, _exhausted, bleeding, tottering, does not understand, and murmurs._] What joke are they preparing against my end? [_And suddenly._] Joy, Patou, joy! PATOU What? CHANTECLER I have done them an injustice. All of them, ceasing to insult and mock me, look, gather round me, closer and closer--look! PATOU [_Seeing them all, in fact, crowding around_ CHANTECLER, _and gazing anxiously at the sky, looks up too, and says simply._] It is the hawk! CHANTECLER Ah! [_A dark shadow slowly sweeps over the motley crowd, who crouch and cower._] PATOU When that great shadow falls, it is not the fine, strange Cocks we trust to keep off the bird of prey! CHANTECLER [_Suddenly grown great of size, his wounds forgotten, stands in the midst of them, and in an authoritative tone._] Yes, close around me, all of you, all! [_All, huddled in their feathers, their heads drawn in between their wings, press against him._] THE PHEASANT-HEN Dear, brave, and gentle heart! CHANTECLER [_The shadow sweeps over the crowd a second time. The_ GAME COCK _makes himself small._ CHANTECLER _alone remains standing, in the midst of a heap of ruffled, trembling feathers._] A HEN [_Looking up at the_ HAWK.] Twice the black shadow has swept over us!