“Speak out,” said the splendid Colonel, “if you’ve anything, lad, to say;
Your Queen and your dear old country shall hear what you’ve done to-day!”
But the Trooper knawed his chin-strap, and sheepishly hung his head;
“Speak out, old man,” said his comrades, and here’s what he should have said—
“There sits on your side by the Staff, sir, a man whom the world has known
As not a protector of woman, when one’s by herself alone;
And all he’s got he deserves it—the General smiled, “Of course;”
And nobody thought the better of the man on the old White Horse!
“I’ve fought very well for my pals here, along with the boys and tars,
And I have never—no, never—dishonoured the Tenth Hussars;