BYLES FOR THE BILL.
[In a letter addressed to The Times, headed "Pass the Bill and Take the Consequences," Sir William Byles makes the statement:—"I for one will take the risk without hesitation.">[
Darkling I sing. Ere Tuesday's hour for tea
Shall set this doggerel in the glare of day,
He who adjured us still to "wait and see,"
He will have tweaked the mystic veil away,
And you will know—whatever it may be.
You, but not I; for I have yet to wait.
Far South, beneath (I hope) a stainless sky
The pregnant news shall find me, rather late,
Powerless to watch the ball with steadfast eye
Through sheer distraction as to Ulster's fate.
Fain would I have upon my well-pricked ear
Such tidings fall as prove that party pride
Yields with a mutual grace. And yet I fear
These desperadoes on the Liberal side—
Bill Byles (for one), the Bradford Buccaneer.
"Pass"—so he boldly writes—"the Bill and take
(His conscience will not let him run to "damn")
"The Consequences." That is why I shake
Even as when the shorn and shivering lamb
Observes the wolf advancing in his wake.
I see him bear, this dreadful man of gore,
A brace of battleaxes at the slope;
I see him fling his gauntlet on the floor,
And (shouting, "Byles for Redmond and the Pope!")
Let loose the Nonconformist Dogs of War.
Ah! take and hide me in some hollow lair,
Red hills of Var! and ye umbrella-pines,
Cover me like a gamp! I cannot bear
This Apparition with its armed lines
Humming the strain, "Sir Byles s'en va-t-en guerre."
March 7.
O. S.