_Initial Impulse_: Widows of certain heroic Frenchmen, petitioning
to be entered and drilled as the --nth Battalion of Avengers, are
accepted and trained.
_Steps toward the Dramatic Climax_: Each woman adds a packet of
potassium cyanide to her equipment. They request, further, to be
assigned to the position which will be in the course of advance to
retake the ground held to the death by their men. Major Fouquet
commands them. Order comes for the attack, and they go over the top,
eagerly, gripping their bayonets as they follow the barrage across No
Man’s Land. When the barrage lifts the women see “thrust shield-wise
above the heads of the Huns--frightened and sobbing--hundreds of
little children!” (This is a minor climax.) The women recognize they
must either betray a trust or cut through the barricade of children.
After an instant only the woman captain makes the sign of the cross
and stumbles forward--on her wrist bound the packet of death! They
will charge, her followers understand, but the poison will erase the
hideous memory forever. The captain falls....
_Dramatic Climax_: As the women grip to thrust, there sweeps down
a battalion of marching shadows in a blur of gold and blue that
outstrips the advance of the Avengers. There is a flash of charging
steel and the waving colors of the old --nth as they sweep over the
untouched children into the trench.
_Steps toward the Climax of Action_: The bravest man in the old --nth
bends over the fallen captain; there is a smile of recognition, then
the woman’s figure springs to his side and sweeps forward with the
Battalion.
_Climax of Action_: The old soldiers of the --nth, led by “a shining
one,” save their women from the “last hellish trap set by fiends”!
The Avengers and the White Battalion retake the ground for which the
--nth gave their lives.
_Dénouement_: Fouquet and Barres, having seen the field from
different angles, report the episode.
PRESENTATION. The rehearsal of this dramatic occurrence, so shortly
after the event, scarcely detracts from its stirring qualities. So
striking are they, in fact, that presented directly they would probably
suffer from over-emphasis and consequent lack of conviction. Moreover,
reality is conveyed through
1. The curiosity of the foreign officers over losing contact with the
French forces;
2. The colloquial way in which the history of the --nth Battalion is
given;