THE BATTLE OF BARTLEMY'S.
Snowballs to right of them,
Snowballs to left of them,
Snowballs in front of them,
Shattered and sundered.
"Forward the Blue Brigade!
Run 'em in! Who's afraid?"
Less easy done than said:
Not in the least dismayed,
Every bold student stayed,
And at the Blue Brigade
Volleyed and thundered.
Flashed every truncheon bare,
Helmets were tossed in air,
Robert gets quite a scare,
While every student there
Hooted and pelted.
* * * *
Stormed at with jeer and yell,
Truncheon and helmet fell,
Back rushed they all, pell mell,—
How the force wondered;
Many a pretty maid,
Down in the area shade,
Weeps for her Bob betrayed,
Weeps for her Blue Brigade,
Knowing they blundered.
Funny Folks, December 25, 1875.
CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE.
(No. 2.)
(At the Alexandra Palace Banquet, given to the survivors of the Baltic of Balaclava, on October 25, 1875).
PAYING sight! Left and right,
Crowds pressing onward,—
Sharp Alexandra Board
Dines the Two Hundred!
"Free passes grant them all!"
Veterans, short and tall—
Sharp Alexandra Board—
(Profits will not be small)—
Dines the Two Hundred!
"Go it, the Light Brigade!"
Toast-Master, sore dismayed,
Queered by those heroes' chaff,
Boggled and blundered.
Theirs not to speechify,
Still less to make reply;
Theirs but to drain all dry,—
Into the drinkables
Walked the Two Hundred!
Bottles to right of them,
Bottles to left of them,
Bottles in front of them,
While the band thundered;
They knew no "Captain Cork"—
Boldly they went to work,
After the eatables
Fell to their knife and fork,—
Thirsty Two Hundred!
À La Russe might surprise,
Still they knew joints and pies,
Clearing the dishes there,
Relevés and entrées, while
Scared waiters wondered;
Then, plunged in 'bacca smoke,
Glasses and pipes they broke—
Comrades long sundered,
Big with old lark and joke,
Gleefully met again—
Jolly Two Hundred!
Trophies to right of them,
Trophies to left of them,
CARDIGAN'S charger's head,
Piously sundered!
Back they reeled, from the spread,
Straight as they could, to bed—
They that had dined so well—
Nothing to pay per head—
Happy Two Hundred!
When shall their glory fade?
O, what a meal they made!
Cockneydom wondered.
Honour the Charge they made—
Bravo the Light Brigade!
Hearty Two Hundred!
Punch, November 6, 1875.