Or shelter in a reed-built town. They asked for hostages. We gave
Our leaders to these dirty-brown mongrels, who brought us to the Save
With loss. My tutor's Damocles perhaps had lived in times like these;
For whoso straggled from the main body was never seen again.
Ere this my rhyme had spread, and swelled into a marching-song. I blushed
To witness how the spearmen held their sides with laughter, as they yelled
"Bramble and briar." 'Twas the first faint mutiny. These men of Gaul
Bantered the sterner pilgrims so I wondered why they came at all.
Yea, often now that I am old and hear how zealous scribes have told
The zeal that made the first crusade, well—history is eaten cold.