OTTO You need not think that we do it with a light heart. We are acting as you see, only because we are forced and constrained to do so by the incredible attitude of your fellow-countrymen. THE BURGOMASTER Of course it was Belgium that began. OTTO That’s truer than you think. She began by playing the game of our enemies; and, if we had not struck the first blow, we should have been the victims of our confidence in her loyalty. THE BURGOMASTER Look here, Otto, I know you for an intelligent, conscientious and thoroughly honest man. You have lived among us and you know what sort of people we are. How can you stand there and seriously utter such—I don’t know what word to use, or, if I did, it wouldn’t be a pleasant one. Let them tell that sort of humbug to your wretched soldiers, or to a pack of Junkers fuddled with pride and stupidity, but not to a man like yourself! You know the plain, terrible truth as well as I do, just as you know what to think of the hideous massacres at Vise, Andenne, Dinant, Aerschot, Louvain and other places. OTTO Excuse me, it is not the same thing. I admit that the violation of Belgium was a regrettable incident; in my opinion it was a mistake, necessary perhaps, from certain points of view, but one which will cost us dear. But I do not admit the massacres. There have been executions of hostages and reprisals necessitated by incessant acts of treachery committed by the civil population. Here and there, perhaps, there has been some excess of zeal; that, unfortunately, is inevitable. But I know the German army better than you do, because I belong to it; and it is the most highly disciplined army in the world. It is extremely rare, not to say impossible, for the army to act without orders, or to overstep the orders which it receives. THE BURGOMASTER That’s just what I blame it for. To judge by the effects, those orders are execrable! OTTO It’s lucky that we’re alone. Don’t use words like that: with the best will in the world, I might not always be able to save you from the unpleasant consequences. THE BURGOMASTER Very well, we won’t argue about it. We shall never agree on these points nor on a good many others. I know what I know; and I stick to it. OTTO I also know what I know; and history will judge between us.... Let us try rather to get back to the feeling that united us before this cataclysm, for which we are not responsible. THE BURGOMASTER It’s a good thing that you at least do not hold us to be responsible for the disaster which your people have brought on us. I thank you for that. OTTO