EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND SEVENTY

 381.

It was a cruel thing for De Wimpffen 

To find himself, on taking the command,

To find himself on taking the command 

Called on, as his first act, to use his pen, 

To pledge his army to another's hand;

He wished himself in Africa again, 

Or in the deserts of some foreign land, 

Rather than bear what he believed a stigma, 

Which atom, man, looks on as an enigma.

382.

MacMahon. when the balls began to fly. 

Was spared this sad position, for he got 

Most seriously aggrieved about the thigh;

By an exploded shell the Prussians shot; 

And being laid upon his back, the high 

Command reverted to De Wimpffen's lot;

Who just arrived in time for the occasion 

To sign the deed ycleped capitulation. 

383.  

It was a strait indeed, be what his station, 

For man to be put in, the soldiers mad 

For man to be put in the soldiers 

At the idea of such an enodation 

To generalship incapable and bad;

To generalship incapable and bad 

What could be done, when every elevation 

Was by the foe's investing battery clad;

Six hundred cannons, eager too to throw 

Their liquid flames and lay the ramparts low?   

384. 

As all was lost save honour there remained 

Of the alternatives but one to choose;

The Gallic army must be either brained, 

Or it must be tied up within a noose; 

The latter being more pleasing, it obtained  

Most favour, from the chances it set loose, 

That the surviving captives might defray 

The debt they owed the foe some other day. 

11652.438 

11652.b38 

1.References:

EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND SEVENTY A Poem CANTO I LONDON CIVIL SERVICE PRINTING AND PUBLISHING COMPANY LIMITED 8 SALISBURY COURT FLEET STREET E.C.

LONDON CIVIL SERVICE PRINTING AND PUBLISHING COMPANY LIMITED 8 SALISBURY COURT FLEET STREET EC