In the following scene from Act 2, Sergius and Major Petkoff discuss the battle retrospectively, during which they recall the fact that Bluntschli was harbored by two Bulgarian women. This scene introduces dramatic irony to the Act, on account of the fact that the two men are unaware of Raina and Catherine's involvement in Bluntschli's escape:
PETKOFF: (grinning). Sergius: tell Catherine that queer story his friend told us about him—how he escaped after Slivnitza. You remember?—about his being hid by two women.
SERGIUS: (with bitter irony). Oh, yes, quite a romance. He was serving in the very battery I so unprofessionally charged. Being a thorough soldier, he ran away like the rest of them, with our cavalry at his heels. To escape their attentions, he had the good taste to take refuge in the chamber of some patriotic young Bulgarian lady.
This scene complements an earlier scene in Act 1, during which Bluntschli reflects on the battle and describes Sergius's initial charge as foolhardy and ridiculous, undermining Raina's construction of him as the ideal romantic hero. While Bluntschli criticizes the naïveté of Sergius's romantic, antiquated wartime principles, Sergius criticizes Bluntschli's taste, implying that he fought without honor or decorum. The use of dramatic irony in this passage functions as a device to allow readers knowledge of where both men stand ideologically.
