Just a little nearer than the bugle some horns play “Yankee Doodle.”
In the darkling tavern faint voices of men take up the chorus.
A very little light shines upon the Chronicler’s figure. He rises and lifts his right hand.
The Drummers play a long roll.
Then the Chronicler speaks.]
The Chronicler
(Directly into the audience.)
In the Book of American Freedom it has been written that the Town of Lexington, in the County of Middlesex, in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, shall be designated as “The Birthplace of American Liberty.” This, says the book, is a fitting designation because the events which had their scene in Lexington on the glorious morning of the nineteenth of April one hundred and fifty years ago this year did forever mark and set aside the town to be a symbol of liberty to all free nations and all free peoples.
[The Drummers play another roll on their drums and the Chronicler sits.
Off stage, to a noble tune which gradually increases in volume, the Chorus sings two verses from Drayton’s “To the Virginian Voyage.”]