Maybe. Everybody is talking about it, but we don't know. He disappeared quietly, like a mouse. FOURTH WOMAN He will be hanged--the Prussians hang such people! HENRIETTA Wait, wait! Today, while I was in the garden, I heard the telephone ringing in the house; it was ringing for a long time. I was frightened, but I went in after all--and, just think of it! Some one said: "Monsieur Pierre was killed!" SECOND WOMAN And nothing more? HENRIETTA Nothing more; not a word! All grew quiet again. I felt so bad and was so frightened that I could hardly run out. Now I will not enter that house for anything! FOURTH WOMAN Whose voice was it? SECOND WOMAN Madame Henrietta says it was an unfamiliar voice. HENRIETTA Yes, an unfamiliar voice. FOURTH WOMAN Look! There seems to be a light in the windows of the house--somebody is there! SILVINA Oh, I am afraid! I can't bear it! HENRIETTA Oh, what are you saying; what are you saying? There is no one there! SECOND WOMAN That's from the redness of the sky! FOURTH WOMAN What if some one is ringing there again? HENRIETTA How is that possible? At night? _All listen. Silence._ SECOND WOMAN What will become of us? They are coming this way, and there is nothing that can stop them! FOURTH WOMAN I wish I might die now! When you are dead, you don't hear or see anything. HENRIETTA It keeps on all night like this--it is burning and burning! And in the daytime it will again be hard to see things on account of the smoke; and the bread will smell of burning! What is going on there? FOURTH WOMAN They have killed Monsieur Pierre. SECOND WOMAN They have killed him? Killed him? SILVINA You must not speak of it! My God, whither should I go! I cannot bear this. I cannot understand it! _Weeps softly._ FOURTH WOMAN They say there are twenty millions of them, and they have already set Paris on fire. They say they have cannon which can hit a hundred kilometers away. HENRIETTA My God, my God! And all that is coming upon us! SECOND WOMAN Merciful God, have pity on us! FOURTH WOMAN And they are flying and they are hurling bombs from airships--terrible bombs, which destroy entire cities! HENRIETTA My God! What have they done with the sky! Before this You were alone in the sky, and now those base Prussians are there too! SECOND WOMAN Before this, when my soul wanted rest and joy I looked at the sky, but now there is no place where a poor soul can find rest and joy! FOURTH WOMAN They have taken everything away from our Belgium--even the sky! I wish I could die at once! There is no air to breathe now! _Suddenly frightened._ Listen! Don't you think that now my husband, my husband-- HENRIETTA No, no! FOURTH WOMAN Why is the sky so red? What is it that is burning there? SECOND WOMAN Have mercy on us, O God! The fire seems to be moving toward us! _Silence. The redness of the flames seems to be swaying over the earth._ _Curtain_ SCENE IV