ALL THE BIRDS [Chuckling and rocking in their peculiarly disgusting and characteristic fashion.] Ha, ha!

THE GRAND-DUKE [Spreading his wings to demand silence.] Hush! [All return to their appalling stillness.]

THE BLACKBIRD
My eye is merely roguish.  I am here to look on, you know, without taking
sides,—­in the artist spirit, that’s all.

AN OWL
If you are not taking sides, then you are siding with us!

THE BLACKBIRD
Oh, I say, what a primitive notion!

THE SCREECH-OWL [Completing his sentence.] Let us express ourselves with simple and direct malevolence:  the Cock is a robber!

ALL
A robber!  He robs us!

THE BLACKBIRD
Now, what the—­Robs you of what?

THE GRAND-DUKE
Of health!  Gladness!

THE BLACKBIRD
How is that?

THE SCREECH-OWL
By his crowing!

THE GRAND-DUKE
His crowing brings on enlargement of the spleen and pericarditis!  For it
heralds—­

THE BLACKBIRD
[Hopping about.] Oh, I see—­The light!

[All make a violent motion in his direction; the BLACKBIRD frightened, hides among the fagots.]

THE GRAND-DUKE [Emphatically.] Never speak that word!  When that word is spoken, Night at the horizon feels a crawling discomfort, a titillation underneath her wing.

THE BLACKBIRD [Cautiously correcting himself.] The brightness of—­[General start of dismay repeated; the BLACKBIRD again dodges behind the fagots.]

AN OWL [Hurriedly.] Never utter that horrible grating word, which so hatefully suggests the scratching of a match!

THE SCREECH-OWL You should express yourself:  The Cock heralds the folding back of the pall—­

THE BLACKBIRD
But the day—­[Start and threatening gesture from all.]

ALL
[In voices of unspeakable anguish.] Not that word!

THE GRAND-DUKE
You must refer to it as “that which will be!”

THE BLACKBIRD
What difference does it make whether or not he heralds the—­

ALL
[Stopping him.] Ha!

THE BLACKBIRD
—­the folding back of the pall, since that which will be—­will be!

THE GRAND-DUKE [In tones of despair.] Simple torture it is to hear a brazen throat forever reminding you of what you know to be only too true!

ALL
[Writhing in pain.] Too true!  Too true!

THE GRAND-DUKE
He begins while the night is still pleasant and cool—­

CRIES ON ALL SIDES
He is a robber, a thief!

THE GRAND-DUKE
He cheats us!

ALL THE OWLS
He cheats us!  Cheats us!

THE GRAND-DUKE
Of the good bit of night there still is left.

AN OWLET
He compels us to leave our posts beside the warrens—­

THE SCREECH-OWL
Our feasts of steaming flesh!