WEDGEWOOD. If it is convenient. (Exit Hans.) A pretty house I have got into!—Smokes me!—smells a rat!—The FILTHY Dutchman! [Exit.
Scene II.
An open cut wood near Berlin. Tents in the distance. A military outpost. Enter
HAROLD, CORPORAL, and a party of SOLDIERS, in military undress.
SONG.
The life for me is a soldier's life!
With that what glories come!
The notes of the spirit-stirring fife,
The roll of the battle-drum;
The brilliant array, the bearing high,
The plumed warriors' tramp;
The streaming banners that flout the sky,
The gleaming pomp of the camp.
CHORUS.
A soldier's life is the life for me!
With that what glories come!
The notes of the spirit-stirring fife,
The roll of the battle-drum!
HAROLD.
So, corporal, at last we are to have a muster of the combined forces of the kingdom.
CORPORAL. Yes, the king is never so happy as when he has all his children, as he calls US, about him.
HAROLD. And plaguy good he takes of his CHILDREN! He looks after our domestic as well as our public interests! It was a strange whim in old Fritz to offer each of his soldiers one of the factory girls for a wife!
CORPORAL.
I wonder the old hero does not marry some of them himself.
HAROLD. He would rather look after his soldiers than meddle with the fancies of the women—and at his age too!