SOLDIERS sing
We are they who come faster than fate: we are they who ride early
or late:
We storm at your ivory gate: Pale Kings of the sunset beware!
Not on silk nor on samet we lie, nor in curtained solemnity die
Among women who chatter and cry and children who mumble a prayer.
But we sleep by the ropes of the camp, and we rise with a shout and
we tramp
With the sun or the moon for a lamp, and the spray of the wind in
our hair.
From the lands where the elephant are to the forts of Merou and
Balghar,
Our steel we have brought and our star to shine on the ruins of
Rum.
We have marched from the Indies to Spain, and by God we will go
there again;
We have stood on the shore of the plain where the Waters of Destiny
boom.
A mart of destruction we made at Yalula where men were afraid,
For death was a difficult trade, and the sword was a broker of
doom;
And the Spear was a Desert Physician, who cured not a few of
ambition,
And drave not a few to perdition with medicine bitter and strong.
And the shield was a grief to the fool and as bright as a desolate
pool,
And as straight as the rock of Stamboul when our cavalry thundered
along:
For the coward was drowned with the brave when our battle sheered
up like a wave,
And our dead to the desert we gave, and the glory to God in our
song.
THE SOLDIERS
(Cheering) Allah Akbar! (etc.)
CHIEF OF POLICE That is a splendid song your soldiers sing, O breaker of infidel bones. Permit an inglorious policeman to inquire what flaming victory you celebrate today. Such is my loathly ignorance, I knew not the Caliph's army (may it be ever plosh in seas of hostile blood!) had even left Baghdad.
CAPTAIN OF MILITARY It is true we have not left Baghdad, But perchance we have saved it from destruction. For when the Caliph's Police have allowed a conspiracy to ripen undetected, It is our duty to mow down the conspirators. It is true we did but vanquish beggars—but they were beggars to fight. Half of them we slew and one-half we captured, and, since the police believe no clue but the ocular, here they are. A victory is well worth a song.
CHIEF OF POLICE
Allah, such a song! I thought: "At the least they have captured Cairo."
CAPTAIN OF MILITARY
To save Bagdad is better than to capture Cairo.
CHIEF OF POLICE (Pointing to the captive BEGGARS) Behold only the chain-mail of the vanquished!