And season’d with Satire, to give them a zest.
[p17] But the Countess was shock’d! and declar’d with much feeling,
“She hated the faults of her neighbour revealing.
Detraction, of late, had been full of employment,
And truly, some folks knew no other enjoyment.
’Twas said, tho’ for her part, she thought it quite cruel,
That Monsieur le Coq had been kill’d in a duel.
The Hedge-Sparrow publicly swore all was true,
That so long had been told of the Tyrant Cuckoo;
And the Bullfinch did whistle indeed to some tune,