What lack of patience or persistence, doomed

Thee to too early darkness? Seldom bloomed

So sudden-swift a flower of fame as thine,

When BRIGHT and GLADSTONE led the serried line

Of resolute reformers to the attack,

And dauntless DIZZY strove to hear them back.

Then rose "White-headed BOB," and foined and smote,

Setting his slashing steel against the throat

Of his old friends, and wrung from them applause.

The champion was valiant, though the cause