Dedication
TO THE MEMORY OF CHARLES ALLSTON COLLINS. (9th April, 1873.)
First Scene — The Cottage on the Frontier
Preamble
The place is France.
The time is autumn, in the year eighteen hundred and seventy—the year of the war between France and Germany.
The persons are, Captain Arnault, of the French army; Surgeon Surville, of the French ambulance; Surgeon Wetzel, of the German army; Mercy Merrick, attached as nurse to the French ambulance; and Grace Roseberry, a traveling lady on her way to England.