Though you promised to protect her, though you promised to defend her,
You are welcome to neglect her; to the devil you may send her;
You may strike her, curse, abuse her; so declares our law renowned;
And if after this you lose her, why, you’re paid two hundred pound.
William Makepeace Thackeray.
THE LOST LEADER
I
JUST for a handful of silver he left us,
Just for a riband to stick in his coat—
Found the one gift of which fortune bereft us,