You, Otto, you? It’s not true! He can’t have dared! It’s impossible! And you didn’t rebel, you didn’t lash him across the face, you didn’t cut him down with your sword, your eyes said nothing of what was passing in your soul? I refuse to believe it! There has been nothing like this in any war in history! Why, it’s not possible! It’s only a test! He wanted to find out how far he could go; but he knows quite well that no man, no man in the world, not even a German, could agree to that!... Well, what did you answer? I hope that by this time he knows what to expect and that, though you have had the misfortune to be born in Germany, you are still different from the rest of them! OTTO The worst of it is that he is obliged to do what he is doing. I am the only officer he has with him. It’s the regulation: he can’t act differently. ISABELLE He can’t act differently!... And you dare tell me that, just as though you approved!... But you, you, what did you say, what did you do and what do you intend to do? OTTO I told him it was impossible. ISABELLE That’s something, at last! It’s the first word which was worthy of you, which was worthy of the man I married!... And what did he reply? He didn’t insist, of course? OTTO He told me that he would give me till seven o’clock to think it over. If at seven o’clock precisely I am not at the head of my men in the little yard behind the stables, he will have me arrested, place me against the wall beside your father and will himself command the party which will execute both sentences. ISABELLE Good! I shall go and stand between the two of you. He will order three volleys and it will be finished. After all, life has become impossible. FLORIS I shall go too. ISABELLE And “the man is not a bad sort,” you say! “He’s one of your most humane officers!” OTTO It’s war! ISABELLE And who started the war? OTTO As far as you Belgians were concerned, you did! And many of us were sore at heart when we found that we had to march against you. But you wanted it! Ah, that beloved king of yours did a fine stroke of work, on the day when he blocked the way to a peaceful army of men, who merely asked to pass through the country as friends. THE BURGOMASTER Silence! Our king’s wishes were the wishes of every one of us; and if to-morrow we had to do once more what we have done to-day, you would find us in the same place, among our ruins, our martyrs and our dead, ready to begin all over again. FLORIS Tell your horrible Kaiser to put that in his pipe and smoke it!