I am not dying. Maurice, I think you had better go out. COUNT CLAIRMONT _Quickly._ Oh, no, no. He is your son, Grelieu, and he should be present to hear what his father will say. Oh, I should have been proud to have such a father. LAGARD Our Count is a very fine young man--Pardon me, Count, I have again upset our-- COUNT CLAIRMONT That's nothing, I have already grown accustomed to it. Master, it is necessary for you and your family to leave for Antwerp today. EMIL GRELIEU Are our affairs in such a critical condition? LAGARD What is there to tell? Things are in bad shape, very bad. That horde of Huns is coming upon us like the tide of the sea. Today they are still there, but tomorrow they will flood your house, Grelieu. They are coming toward Antwerp. To what can we resort in our defence? On this side are they, and there is the sea. Only very little is left of Belgium, Grelieu. Very soon there will be no room even for my beard here. Isn't that so, Count? _Silence. Dull sounds of cannonading are heard in the distance. All turn their eyes to the window._ EMIL GRELIEU Is that a battle? COUNT CLAIRMONT _Listening, calmly._ No, that is only the beginning. But tomorrow they will carry their devilish weapons past your house. Do you know they are real iron monsters, under whose weight our earth is quaking and groaning. They are moving slowly, like amphibia that have crawled out at night from the abyss--but they are moving! Another few days will pass, and they will crawl over to Antwerp, they will turn their jaws to the city, to the churches--Woe to Belgium, master! Woe to Belgium! LAGARD Yes, it is very bad. We are an honest and peaceful people despising bloodshed, for war is such a stupid affair! And we should not have had a single soldier long ago were it not for this accursed neighbor, this den of murderers. GENERAL And what would we have done without any soldiers, Monsieur Lagard? LAGARD And what can we do with soldiers, Monsieur General? COUNT CLAIRMONT You are wrong, Lagard. With our little army there is still one possibility--to die as freemen die. But without an army we would have been bootblacks, Lagard! LAGARD _Grumbling._ Well, I would not clean anybody's boots. Things are in bad shape, Grelieu, in very bad shape. And there is but one remedy left for us--. True, it is a terrible remedy. EMIL GRELIEU I know. LAGARD Yes? What is it? EMIL GRELIEU The dam. _Jeanne and Emil shudder and look at each other with terror in their eyes._ COUNT CLAIRMONT You shuddered, you are shuddering, madame. But what am I to do, what are we to do, we who dare not shudder? JEANNE Oh, I simply thought of a girl who was trying to find her way to Lonua. She will never find her way to Lonua. COUNT CLAIRMONT But what is to be done? What is to be done?