The Dynasts : Parts First And Second

THE DYNASTS ACT n
OLD MAN
Come he is, though 'tis you that say it! This, then, is the beginning of what England's waited for! They stand and watch the light awhile.
YOUNGER MAN
Just what you was praising the Lord for by-now, Private Cantle.
PRIVATE
My meaning was------
WOMAN (simpering)
O that I hadn't married a fiery sojer, to make me bring fatherless children into the world, all through his dreadful calling! Why didn't a man of no sprawl content me!
OLD MAN (shouldering his pike)
We can't heed your innocent pratings any longer, good neighbours, being in the King's service, and a hot invasion on. Fall in, fall in, mate. Straight to the tinder-box. Quick march!
The two men hasten to the hut, and are heard striking a flint and steel. Returning with a lit lantern they ignite a wisp of furze, and with this set the first stack of fuel in a blaze. The private of the Locals and his wife hastily retreat by the light of the flaming beacon, under which the purple rotundities of the heath show like bronze, and the pits like the eye-sockets of a skull.
SPIRIT SINISTER
This is good, and spells blood. (To -the Chorus of the Years.) / assume that It means to let us carry out this invasion with pleasing slaughter, so as not to disappoint my hope ?
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