An adjutant of Marshal Moellendorf's If I define him rightly. Read--O read!-- Though reading draw them from their socket-holes Use your eyes now! THIRD LADY [glass up] As soon as 'tis affixed.... Ah--this means much! The people's air and gait Too well betray disaster. [Reading.] “Berliners, The King has lost the battle! Bear it well. The foremost duty of a citizen Is to maintain a brave tranquillity. This is what I, the Governor, demand Of men and women now.... The King lives still.” [They turn from the window and sit in a silence broken only by monosyllabic words, hearing abstractedly the dismay without that has followed the previous excitement and hope. The stagnation is ended by a cheering outside, of subdued emotional quality, mixed with sounds of grief. They again look forth. QUEEN LOUISA is leaving the city with a very small escort, and the populace seem overcome. They strain their eyes after her as she disappears. Enter fourth lady.] FIRST LADY How does she bear it? Whither does she go? FOURTH LADY She goes to join the King at Custrin, there To abide events--as we. Her heroism So schools her sense of her calamities As out of grief to carve new queenliness, And turn a mobile mien to statuesque, Save for a sliding tear. [The ladies leave the window severally.] SPIRIT IRONIC So the Will plays at flux and reflux still. This monarchy, one-half whose pedestal Is built of Polish bones, has bones home-made! Let the fair woman bear it. Poland did. SPIRIT OF THE YEARS Meanwhile the mighty Emperor nears apace, And soon will glitter at the city gates With palpitating drums, and breathing brass, And rampant joyful-jingling retinue. [An evening mist cloaks the scene.] SCENE VI THE SAME [It is a brilliant morning, with a fresh breeze, and not a cloud. The open Platz and the adjoining streets are filled with dense crowds of citizens, in whose upturned faces curiosity has mastered consternation and grief. Martial music is heard, at first faint, then louder, followed by a trampling of innumerable horses and a clanking of arms and accoutrements. Through a street on the right hand of the view from the windows come troops of French dragoons heralding the arrival of BONAPARTE. Re-enter the room hurriedly and cross to the windows several ladies as before, some in tears.] FIRST LADY The kingdom late of Prussia, can it be That thus it disappears?--a patriot-cry, A battle, bravery, ruin; and no more? SECOND LADY Thank God the Queen's gone! THIRD LADY