THE FIRST SUBALTERN (_shouting_): Listen! THE STANDARD BEARER: I hear and I do not understand! But I am struck with horror and my soul putrefies within me. THE FIRST SUBALTERN: How that ominous flag flaps in the wind. _(Pause._ VOICE (_calling from below_): Ho! _(Echo._ THE SECOND SUBALTERN (_bending over the precipice_): There is someone below who signals that he wishes to come up. THE STANDARD BEARER: Make fast the tackle. Lower away the cord. _(They do as he says. The cord runs out. Then the soldiers pull it up and after a time an armed man appears hanging from the rope. He comes to the ground._ THE STANDARD BEARER: Who are you, O man that rises from the depths? THE MESSENGER: Prostrate yourselves before me, for on my tongue sits death! I will tell you what I saw, and why I fled and could not stay where I was, and called to you to draw me up to this place and not to leave me below. THE STANDARD BEARER: Say no more! THE MESSENGER: I will announce the accursed thing That you may fall to the earth like men deprived of life, For the King of men is dead. ALL (_crying aloud_): Ho! ho! THE MESSENGER: At least I will tell what I know, for our detail was on guard at the crest of the mountain yonder, And we saw our army advance in good order across the plain, and the men were like tiny specks. And at noon they stopped to eat, and then resumed their march, and always we followed them. THE STANDARD BEARER: Well? Well? THE MESSENGER: Then a smoke arose from the earth and a thick dust blown by a violent wind, blotting out the army, And for long it hung above them so that we saw them no more. But when it was dissipated we perceived An infinite army advancing to oppose them. THE STANDARD BEARER: It is impossible! From whence would it come? THE MESSENGER: I do not know. Perhaps the wind brought them like lice. But still we looked and, listen well to this, We saw our army fleeing. THE STANDARD BEARER: What tale is this? Surely the dust was in your eyes. THE MESSENGER: I say that they fled! And not one of them remained But we saw them run as fast as they were able. And one man only remained, alone in the midst of the plain and we recognised who it was And then it was that I also Fled, wishing to see no more. _(Profound silence. Pause._ THE FIRST SUBALTERN (_bending over the precipice_): I see a crowd of men approaching at a gallop. MANY VOICES (_calling from below_): Ho! _(Echo._ _(They let down the rope after having fastened a large plank to it by means of chains._ _(The soldiers hoist the tackle. And soon over the brink of the precipice, on the plank where lies the body of TÊTE-D'OR, emerges the group of Captains, so crowded that some dangle their legs in the void, and others are clinging to the chains._ _(The group rises almost to the height of the sun, which it obscures, then the tackle turns and the plank slowly descends to the earth. They alight._