DREYFUS: (*leaps forward with an eager...

DREYFUS: (leaps forward with an eager cry) The second watch! (He listens intently until the notes die away) It is over - so soon! How can I wait every night and long for this moment; how quickly it passes (His voice breaks) For twenty-four hours more, no sound other than the roaring of the sea, monotonous, unbroken - it tortures me! Every lash of the waves against this bleak rock us like a hammer strike at my brain. This one brief interlude in the night, the call of the bugle and of drum, reminds me that even here on this grim island, there are human beings. It brings me visions of life, of crowds - the echoes of marching feet. For a moment, I forget the horror of my loneliness. But now it is silent again; the sea holds sway. (Pounds on the wall, waits) He doesn’t come; and if he came, he wouldn’t speak. When I was surrounded by voices, I did not know the joy of them. Now, how grateful should I be if they gave me so much as a base, degenerate criminal for a companion - some creature with a human voice. (Becomes hysterical) I want to hear a voice, lest I go mad with the horror of this silence!

Citation: Jacob Gordin, Captain Dreyfus, Public Domain, 1898 pp. 1-2.