“What ails me? Shall I peaceful sleep till Germans
Shall give me sleeping, bound, to hangman’s hands?”
“O husband! Heaven forbid! The sentries guard
Full well the trenches.” “True the sentries guard them.
I watch and grasp the sabre in my hand.
But when the sentries die the sword is broken.
List, if I live to old age, wretched age——”
“But Heaven will give us comfort in our children.”
“The Germans will fall on us, slay the wife,
The children tear away, and lead them far,