First Soldier.
Twelve years of age?
Add two, because her mother loves her so!
That’s ripe enough for marriage to a soldier.
(They laugh uproariously, and sing again mockingly:)
“Zum Rhein, zum Rhein, zum deutscher Rhein!”
(They move forward again.)
Rada (raising the revolver).
One word. If you are deaf to honour, blind
To truth, and if compassion cannot reach you,
Then I appeal to fear! Yes, you shall fear me.
Listen! I heard, when I was in that room,
A sound like gun-fire, coming from the south:
What if it were the British?
Soldiers.
Ah! The swine!
The dogs!
Rada.