Grenadier.  Well! we are well matched.  My blood reddened the plain of Austerlitz, where the great French nation was avenged on Brunswick and Souwaroff.  We have all perished, buried in a triumph.  We can shake hands upon it.

Cossack.  Brave men are equals, in whatever dress.  Let us shake hands.

Hussar.  We have all died for our country.  Let us be brothers.

Highlander.  Let us be brothers.  The hatreds of earth do not extend beyond the grave.

[They join hands.

Grenadier.  And now Peace is proclaimed, let us tell each other what we used to do before we became warriors.

Cossack.  I cultivated a piece of ground in the steppes and took care of my old mother.

Highlander.  I brought up my daughter by farming a piece of ground which I had cleared on my native heath.

Hussar.  I lived with my wife on the piece of land which we cultivated.

Grenadier.  I tilled a piece of ground also, and supported my sister.  It seems that we were all four of the same way of life.  How did we come to kill one another?

Cossack.  The Czar spoke, and I marched.

Highlander.  Parliament voted for war, and I marched.

Hussar.  Our princes cried, “To arms!” and I marched.

Grenadier.  As for me, my comrades cried, “To arms!” and I put on my best sabots.  But after all, what have we against each other?  Where was the quarrel between our respective ploughshares? (To the Hussar.) You, for instance, who began, what did you come into my country for?

Hussar.  We came to destroy brigands.

Grenadier.  Brigands!  That is to say, my unfortunate self, and other labourers like you and me.  After this, well might we be made to sing about

“Vile blood soaking our furrows!”

I see now this “vile blood” was yours, my friend, and that of brave men like you.  Cursed be those who forced us to fight together!

Hussar.  Cursed be the contrivers of War!

War (advancing).  Shame on you, degraded warriors!  Your very wives would disown you. (The Dead gaze fixedly.) You are silent!  What have you to answer?

Peace.  The Dead do not reply. (Points with her hand to the stage entrance.) These shall answer for them.

Enter Four Veiled Women.

[One of the Veiled Women slowly advances.  When in front of the stage she lifts her veil, and is seen by the audience.  The others afterwards do the same.

First Woman.  Oh, my brother! where are you now?  If you are ill, who nurses you?  If you are wounded, who watches over you?  If you are a prisoner, who comforts you?  If you are dead—­Alas! every night I go to rest weeping, because I have had no news of you; and every morning I awake dreading to receive it.  We were so happy!  We lived so comfortably together! and now I sit at our little table, with your empty place before me, and cannot eat for looking at it.  Yet I made you promise to come back when we said good-bye.  Ah! unkind!  Why are you so long in fulfilling your promise?