Page:Departmental Ditties and Ballads and Barrack-Room Ballads, Kipling, 1899.djvu/225

Rh But little they cared for the Native Press,

The worn white soldiers in Khaki dress,

Who tramped through the jungle and camped in the byre,

Who died in the swamp and were tombed in the mire,

Who gave up their lives, at the Queen's Command,

For the Pride of their Race and the Peace of the Land.

Now, first of the foemen of Boh Da Thone

Was Captain O'Neil of the "Black Tyrone,"

And his was a Company, seventy strong,

Who hustled that dissolute Chief along.

There were lads from Galway and Louth and Meath

Who went to their death with a joke in their teeth,

And worshipped with fluency, fervour, and zeal

The mud on the boot-heels of "Crook" O'Neil.

But ever a blight on their labours lay,

And ever their quarry would vanish away,