Arms and the Man

by Bernard Shaw

BLUNTSCHLI.
Apologize, man, apologize! (He resumes his seat at the table.)

SERGIUS.
(with the old measured emphasis, folding his arms). I never apologize.

RAINA.
(passionately). This is the doing of that friend of yours, Captain Bluntschli. It is he who is spreading this horrible story about me. (She walks about excitedly.)

BLUNTSCHLI.
No: he’s dead—burnt alive.

RAINA.
(stopping, shocked). Burnt alive!

BLUNTSCHLI.
Shot in the hip in a wood yard. Couldn’t drag himself out. Your fellows’ shells set the timber on fire and burnt him, with half a dozen other poor devils in the same predicament.

RAINA.
How horrible!

SERGIUS.
And how ridiculous! Oh, war! war! the dream of patriots and heroes! A fraud, Bluntschli, a hollow sham, like love.

RAINA.
(outraged). Like love! You say that before me.

BLUNTSCHLI.
Come, Saranoff: that matter is explained.