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!”
Lift up thy flag. It has never trailed in the dust, and it never shall.
Together, shoulder to shoulder, we will face the foe, and _They Shall
Not Pass_. On, on my Sister, on to Victory!