TO ARMS FOR LIBERTY
NO. 1. Introductory Music: suggesting strife, discord—War.
The Curtain Rises. Belgium, a girl dressed in Belgian costume, clutching Belgium’s flag to her heart, enters and rushes to center of stage.
BELGIUM:
Hark! Hark! Do you not hear it? The heavy measured tread, the rumbling cannon, the screaming shot, the bursting shell, the anguished cries of my brave children?
Look! Look! Can you not see? Nay, thank God you cannot see what I have been forced to look upon. (Belgium covers her eyes.) Oh, my sons! My brave sons—for ye were brave! Ye fell, but ye fell with your faces to the foe, defending your homes, your country, and your honor! Still ye are gone and I am left desolate.
Oh, my children, my children! None too young, none too old, none too brave, none too tender to escape the brutal destroyer! All lost, lost, lost!
(The distant strains of “Sambre et Meuse” are heard and France, a girl dressed in classic white robe, wearing liberty cap, and carrying tricolor, enters. She goes to Belgium’s side and places her hand on the latter’s shoulder.)
FRANCE:
Arise, my Sister. All is not lost! Thine honor and thy truth and thy loyalty are all untarnished. Pure and white they shine before the eyes of all the world. Till the stars fade and the sun dies, all men shall say of thee, “Belgium’s is a consecrated,—Belgium’s is a holy ground!”