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The people each day flock'd around,

As she sate at her meat and her wine; 'Twas always the use of our nation To witness the sovereign dine.

"Young virgins with fair golden tresses,
Old silver-hair'd prelates and priests;
Dukes, Marquises, Barons, Princesses,
Were splendidly served at her feasts.
Ventrebleu! but we pamper'd our ogress
With the best that our nation could bring,
And dainty she grew in her progress,
And called for the head of a King!

"She called for the blood of our King,

And straight from his prison we drew him ; And to her with shouting we led him,

And took him, and bound him, and slew him. The monarchs of Europe against me

Have plotted a godless alliance;

I'll fling them the head of King Louis,'
She said, 'as my gage of defiance.'

"I see him as now, for a moment,

Away from his gaolers he broke ; And stood at the foot of the scaffold,

And linger'd, and fain would have spoke. 'Ho, drummer! quick! silence yon Capet,' Says Santerre, with a beat of your drum ;' Lustily then did I tap it,

And the son of Saint Louis was dumb.

PART II.

"THE glorious days of September Saw many aristocrats fall;

'Twas then that our pikes drunk the blood, In the beautiful breast of Lamballe.

Pardi, 'twas a beautiful lady!

I seldom have look'd on her like

;

And I drumm'd for a gallant procession,
That march'd with her head on a pike.

"Let's show the pale head to the Queen,
We said she'll remember it well;
She look'd from the bars of her prison,
And shriek'd as she saw it, and fell.
We set up a shout at her screaming,
We laugh'd at the fright she had shown
At the sight of the head of her minion;
How she'd tremble to part with her own.

"We had taken the head of King Capet,

We called for the blood of his wife; Undaunted she came to the scaffold,

And bared her fair neck to the knife. As she felt the foul fingers that touch'd her, She shrunk, but she deign'd not to speak, She look'd with a royal disdain,

And died with a blush on her cheek!

10

"'Twas thus that our country was saved;
So told us the safety committee !
But psha! I've the heart of a soldier,
All gentleness, mercy, and pity.
I loathed to assist at such deeds,
And my drum beat its loudest of tunes
As we offered to justice offended
The blood of the bloody tribunes.

"Away with such foul recollections!

No more of the axe and the block;
I saw the last fight of the sections,

As they fell 'neath our guns at Saint Rock.
Young BONAPARTE led us that day;
When he sought the Italian frontier,
I follow'd my gallant young captain,
I follow'd him many a long year.

We came to an army in rags,
Our general was but a boy,
When we first saw the Austrian flags
Flaunt proud in the fields of Savoy.
In the glorious year ninety-six,

We march'd to the banks of the Po;

I carried my drum and my sticks,
And we laid the proud Austrian low.

"In triumph we enter'd Milan,

We seized on the Mantuan keys;
The troops of the Emperor ran,

And the Pope he fell down on his knees."-
Pierre's comrades here call'd a fresh bottle,
And clubbing together their wealth,
They drank to the Army of Italy,

And General Bonaparte's health.

The drummer now bared his old breast,

And show'd us a plenty of scars,

Rude presents that Fortune had made him, In fifty victorious wars.

"This came when I follow'd bold Kleber'Twas shot by a Mameluke gun;

And this from an Austrian sabre,

When the field of Marengo was won.

"My forehead has many deep furrows,
But this is the deepest of all;
A Brunswicker made it at Jena,
Beside the fair river of Saal.
This cross, 'twas the Emperor gave it;
(God bless him!) it covers a blow;
I had it at Austerlitz fight,

As I beat on my drum in the snow.

""Twas thus that we conquer'd and fought; But wherefore continue the story?

There's never a baby in France

But has heard of our chief and our glory,— But has heard of our chief and our fame, His sorrows and triumphs can tell, How bravely Napoleon conquer'd, How bravely and sadly he fell.

"It makes my old heart to beat higher,
To think of the deeds that I saw ;
I follow'd bold Ney through the fire,
And charged at the side of Murat."
And so did old Peter continue

His story of twenty brave years;
His audience follow'd with comments-
Rude comments of curses and tears.

He told how the Prussians in vain

Had died in defence of their land; His audience laugh'd at the story,

And vow'd that their captain was grand!
He had fought the red English, he said,
In many a battle of Spain;

They cursed the red English, and pray'd
To meet them and fight them again.

He told them how Russia was lost,
Had winter not driven them back;
And his company cursed the quick frost,
And doubly they cursed the Cossack.
He told how the stranger arrived;

They wept at the tale of disgrace;
And they long'd but for one battle more,
The stain of their shame to efface!

"Our country their hordes overrun,
We fled to the fields of Champagne,
And fought them, though twenty to one,
And beat them again and again!
Our warrior was conquer'd at last;
They bade him his crown to resign;
To fate and his country he yielded
The rights of himself and his line.

"He came, and among us he stood,

Around him we press'd in a throng,
We could not regard him for weeping,
Who had led us and loved us so long.
I have led you for twenty long years,'
Napoleon said, ere he went;
'Wherever was honour I found you,

And with you, my sons, am content.

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