lift foes on
his foot!

XIII

'--An officer! ay, Miss Charlworth, he is, or he is so to be;
You'll own war isn't such humbug: and Glory means something, you
see.
"But don't say a word," he continues, "against the brave French any
more."
- That stopt me: we'll now march together. I couldn't read further
before.
That "brave French" I couldn't stomach. He can't see their cunning
to get
Us Britons to fight their battles, while best half the winnings they
net!'

XIV

The old man sneered, and read forward. It was of that desperate
fight; -
The Muscovite stole thro' the mist-wreaths that wrapped the chill
Inkermann height,
Where stood our silent outposts: old England was in them that day!
O sharp worked his ruddy wrinkles, as if to the breath of the fray
They moved! He sat bareheaded: his long hair over him slow
Swung white as the silky bog-flowers in purple heath-hollows that
grow.

XV

And louder at Tom's first person: acute and in thunder the 'I'
Invaded the ear with a whinny of triumph, that seem'd to defy
The hosts of the world. All heated, what wonder he little could
brook
To catch the sight of Mary's demure puritanical look?
And still as he led the onslaught, his treacherous side-shots he
sent
At her who was fighting a battle as fierce, and who sat there
unbent.

XVI

'"We stood in line, and like hedgehogs the Russians rolled under us
thick.
They frightened me there."--He's no coward; for when, Miss, they
came at the quick,
The sight, he swears, was a breakfast.--"My stomach felt tight: in
a glimpse
I saw you snoring at home with the dear cuddled-up little imps.
And then like the winter brickfields at midnight, hot fire
lengthened out.
Our fellows were just leashed bloodhounds: no heart of the lot
faced about.

XVII

'"And only that grumbler, Bob Harris, remarked that we stood one to
ten:
'Ye fool,' says Mick Grady, 'just tell 'em they know to compliment
men!'
And I sang out your old words: 'If the opposite side isn't God's,
Heigh! after you've counted a dozen, the pluckiest lads have the
odds.'
Ping-ping flew the enemies' pepper: the Colonel roared, Forward,
and we
Went at them. 'Twas first like a blanket: and then