Washington
What is to become of the army this winter? We are barefoot and naked. Soldiers are not made of sticks and stones to occupy a cold, bleak hill and sleep under frost and snow without clothes or blankets. Unless some great and capital change takes place, this army must inevitably starve, dissolve or disperse. From my soul I pity these miseries which it is not in my power to relieve or prevent.
[The light fades except upon Washington and Freedom.]
Freedom
I have cried out your name to the broad heavens,
I have given your courage to the stars to shout.
Be of good cheer, my leader,
The strong and the young have heard and will give answer,
The day is not yet lost.
[Washington looks hopefully into her beautiful, pitiful face as she bends over him. The light leaves them and the Chronicler rises.]
The Chronicler
How differently fare the enemies of Freedom! In Philadelphia where the British are, is a time of plenty and of high festival.
[There is music, suddenly and very bright and as the light floods the scene, two British soldiers have run in with regimental colors which conceal Freedom and Washington and the stair from our view. Then a gay crowd troops on to the stage and a double column of grenadiers in scarlet coats. The soldiers quickly form the three sides of a rectangle and General Howe and Major Andre ride into their midst. Ladies are there, richly clad and elaborately coiffured. Musicians are there with huge bass viols and sundry eccentric instruments of the period. When all the crowd are assembled, General Howe and Major Andre ride down to the water’s edge to welcome two barges. In one of them is the English Queen of Beauty and, in the other, the American Queen of Beauty. Each of the queens is attended by a bevy of damsels in Turkish costumes. General Howe leads the English Queen to her throne. Major Andre performs the same function for the American Queen. The damsels follow them and the barges are pulled away out of sight.
Immediately the two queens have been enthroned, twelve knights ride into the scene, dressed in eighteenth century adaptations of the habiliments of chivalry. They divide into two parties, the Knights of the Blended Rose and the Knights of the Burning Mountain. Each party salutes its queen and the mock tournament is played out, terminating in an exchange of pistol fire without casualties. Then the horses are led off and the knights and the ladies all join in a brilliant, stately dance which ends in a picture centering in the two queens, each one of whom has removed a slipper from which her particular knight is drinking wine.