A DUCK The Sun gets up to hear him!
CHANTECLER [_Avoiding the blows which the_ WHITE PILE _is beginning to aim at him._] Yes, it is I who give you back the Day!
A CHICK And a jolly fine day it is!
CHANTECLER [_While parrying and attacking._] The crowing of other c.o.c.ks, able neither to make nor mar, is no better nor worse than sonorous sneezing!
Mine--[_He is wounded._]
A VOICE Biff! In the neck!
CHANTECLER --mine makes--[_He is again wounded._]
THE TURKEY Insufferable self-sufficiency!
CHANTECLER --the light--[_Again he is struck._]
A VOICE Biff! On the neb!
CHANTECLER --the light appear!
A VOICE Biff! In the eye!
CHANTECLER [_Blinded with blood._] Yes, the light!
A VOICE [_Sneering._] Better have let sleeping darkness lie!
CHANTECLER [_Automatically repeating beneath his adversary's blows._] It is I who make the dawn appear!
PATOU [_Barking._] Aye! Aye! Aye!
THE PHEASANT-HEN [_Sobbing._] Stand up to him, darling! Oh, hit back! Hit back!
A CHICK Fellows, a nickname for the dawn!
ALL Yes! Yes!
[_The_ WHITE PILE _hurls himself upon_ CHANTECLER.]
THE PHEASANT-HEN Oh, cruel!
THE BLACKBIRD Chantecler's Light o' Love!
A VOICE A nickname for the c.o.c.k!
ALL Yes! Yes!
THE BLACKBIRD Grand Master of Illuminations!
ANOTHER VOICE Purveyor of Sunny Beams!
CHANTECLER [_Defending himself foot to foot._] Thanks! Another quip, for I can still fight with my feet!
A VOICE The Alarm-c.o.c.k!
CHANTECLER [_Who seems upheld by their insults._] Another pun! And I who know no more of fighting than can be learned on a peaceful farm--
A VOICE Thresh out his hayseed!
CHANTECLER Thanks! I--[_His torn feathers fly around him._]
CRY OF JOY See his fur fly!
CHANTECLER I feel--Another pleasantry!
A VOICE Lay on, Macfluff!
CHANTECLER Thanks! I feel that the more I am mocked, insulted, flouted, and denied--
AN a.s.s [_Stretching his neck over the hedge._] Hee-haw!
CHANTECLER Thanks!--the better I shall fight!
THE WHITE PILE [_Chuckling._] He is game, but he's giving out.
THE PHEASANT-HEN Enough. Enough. Oh, stop!
A VOICE On White Pile, twenty to one!
THE PHEASANT-HEN [_Seeing_ CHANTECLER'S _bleeding neck._] He bleeds, oh!
A HEN [_Rising on tiptoe behind the_ GOLDEN PADUA c.o.c.k.] I should like to see the blood!
THE WHITE PILE [_Increasing the fury of his onset._] I'll have your gizzard!
THE HEN [_Trying to see._] The Padua c.o.c.k's hat shuts off my view!
THE BLACKBIRD Hats off!
A VOICE That was a stinger! On his comb!
SHRILL CRIES [_From the crowd._] Land him one! Do him up! Lay him out! Have his gore!
PATOU [_Standing up in his wheelbarrow._] Will you stop behaving like human beings?
CRIES [_Furiously keeping time with the blows showering upon_ CHANTECLER.] In the neck! On the nut! On the wing! On the--[_Sudden silence._]
CHANTECLER [_Amazed._] What is this? The ring breaks up, the shouting dies--[_He looks around. The_ WHITE PILE _has drawn away and backed against the hedge. A strange commotion agitates the crowd._ CHANTECLER, _exhausted, bleeding, tottering, does not understand, and murmurs._] What joke are they preparing against my end? [_And suddenly._] Joy, Patou, joy!