I have been promptly thrust into the gap

Which the involuntary exodus

Of poor Sir Michael E. Hicks-Beach has made.

Now must I urge a valiant attempt

To show my mettle, and, in constant fray

With Ireland’s Home Rule representatives,

Or Ireland’s agitating multitudes,

To justify my elevated state.

Wherefore an’ these, the enemies of law,

Oppose the mandates of our Government,