Page:Departmental Ditties and Ballads and Barrack-Room Ballads, Kipling, 1899.djvu/211

Rh For I sought a word of a Russian post.

Of a shifty promise, an unsheathed sword

And a grey-coat guard on the Helmund ford.

Then Mahbub Ali lowered his eyes

In the fashion of one who is weaving lies.

Quoth he: "Of the Russians who can say?

"When the night is gathering all is grey.

"But we look that the gloom of the night shall die

"In the morning flush of a blood-red sky.

"Friend of my heart, is it meet or wise

"To warn a King of his enemies?

"We know what Heaven or Hell may bring,

"But no man knoweth the mind of the King.

"That unsought counsel is cursed of God

"Attesteth the story of Wali Dad.

"His sire was leaky of tongue and pen,

"His dam was a clucking Khuttuck hen;

"And the colt bred close to the vice of each,

"For he carried the curse of an unstaunched speech.

"Therewith madness—so that he sought

"The favour of kings at the Kabul court;

"And travelled, in hope of honour, far

"To the line where the grey-coat squadrons are.