“Chamberlain. Yes, madam! Why did you ride
out to the bear-hunt with our master, just as the
signal was given to march away? You should not have
missed that imposing spectacle, when the loud drums
told us the time was come, and shrieking orphans here
followed a living father, and there a raving mother ran
to impale her sucking babe on the bayonets. You
should have seen how lovers were torn asunder with
sabre strokes, and old graybeards stood still in their
despair, and at last threw their very crutches after the
young fellows who were starting for the New World.
Oh! and through it all, the noisy rolling of the drums,
so that the Almighty might not hear us pray!
“Lady. Be quiet, poor old man! They will come back. They will see their home again.
“Chamberlain. Heaven knows it! So they will! Even at the city gates they turned and cried, ‘God help you, wife and children! Long live our father the duke! We shall be back for the Day of Judgment!’”
