Punch (59.1870)

202 PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI. [November L2, 1370

HUSH-SH-SH-SH !

Angelina, (who has been chatting most agreeably ever since the music began). "0 uoxt you Boat ox Part-Singing, Captain Edwin
Captain Edwin. " I do, indeed—part Sihging, and part Talking, yon know ! "

" NOUS SOMMES TRA.HIS !"

" Ws are betrayed! " Even so, but by whom ?

Not by your Generals alone, or worst,
By ail that should have stood 'twixt you and doom:

Most by yourselves, with wilful blindness curst.

Your Emperor betrayed you, when he sowed
Battle-seed broadcast, and laid at your door

Red swathes of fields the scythe of death had mowed,
And husks of War's steel flail and bloody floor.

Your Ministers betrayed you, when they said

That all was readiness to face the foe, $

Though foul corruption on your strength had fed,
As white ants eat great boles that seem to grow.

Your Publicists betrayed you, when they lashed
The sides of your iutent, till, to reach Rhine,

Through fence of faith and policy you crashed,

And overleaped the bounds of " mine " and " thine."

Your Orators betrayed you, when they passed
Before your weak eyes what a mirror seemed,

Bur was the mockery of one, which glassed

Mot what you were, but what, you would be deemed.

Your Journalists betrayed you, when they dressed

The falsest fancies in the fairest show ;
With new-forged lie confronting lie contest,

And calling you, that should have cried, to crow.

Your Officers betrayed you, Guard and Line,
Swagg'ring with outside show of men of war,

But lingering o'er the absinthe and the wine..
With talk of battles, from the battle far.

Your Rank and File betrayed you, who despised
The thoughtful mind, the brain that grasps a whole ;

Who eager elan, desperate dash, o'er-prized,
And spurned at discipline and self-control.

Your Visitors'betrayed you, when they praised
Your tawdriuess as taste, your filth as fun;

Much that was worst in you to virtue raised,
Still seeking what they had done well to shun..

And You betray Yourselves, when still you shut
Your wilful eyes, and will not see the truth,

With your own hands your stoutest sinews cut,
Despise your age, and sacrifice your youth ;

Striving and shouting, " Vive this! " and " Vive that! "

While she, whose life you live, France, bleeds to death;
And while fierce factions on her blood wax fat,

In struggle waste your strength, in shrieks your breath .-

And scatter charge of treason in blind rage,
Confounding false and bad with good and true ;

Till in despair your Generals quit the stage,
And break the sword, that should your foes undo.

Ere for the realm of France and her soiled flag.
Disaster can be checked, and suffering stay'd,

She must learn to face truth, bate boast and brag,
And, beaten, say, " We're beat," not " We're betrayed."

Cockneys at Aldershott.

First Cockney. 'Ere, 'Arry, where's the Colonel ?
Second Cockney. The Colonel, bless yer, 'e's in an 'ut.

The Most Useful " Free Lances."— Ambulance*.