"LE GRAND FRANÇAIS."
["With all his faults, M. de Lesseps is perhaps the most remarkable—we may even say the most illustrious—of living Frenchmen."—The Times.]
Jacques Bonhomme loquitur:—
Someone should suffer—yes, of course—
For the depletion of my stocking;
But Le Grand Français? Bah! Remorse
Moves me to tears. It seems too shocking.
Get back my money? Pas de chance!
And then he is the pride of France!
I raged, I know, four years ago,
Against those Panama projectors.
The law seemed slack, inquiry slow;
How I denounced them, the Directors,
Including him—in some vague fashion;
But then—Bonhomme was in a passion!
And now to see the gendarme's hand—
Half-shrinkingly—upon his shoulder,
Our Grand Français—so old, so grand!
Ma foi, it palsies the beholder.
And will it lessen my large loss
To fix a stain on the Grand Cross?
Too sanguine? Too seductive? Yes!
But was it not such hopeful charming
That led him to his old success?
The thought is softening, and disarming;
O'er Suez and the Red Sea glance,
And see what he has done for France!
Peste on this Panama affair!
Egyptian sands sucked not our savings
As did those swamps. Still I can't bear
To see him suffer. 'Midst my cravings
For la revanche, I'd fain not touch
Our Greatest Frenchman—'tis too much!