Page:Departmental Ditties and Ballads and Barrack-Room Ballads, Kipling, 1899.djvu/301

 "CLEARED"

(IN MEMORY OF A COMMISSION)

for a patriot distressed, a spotless spirit hurt,

Help for an honourable clan sore trampled in the dirt!

From Queenstown Bay to Donegal, O listen to my song,

The honourable gentlemen have suffered grievous wrong.

Their noble names were mentioned—O the burning black disgrace!—

By a brutal Saxon paper in an Irish shooting-case;

They sat upon it for a year, then steeled their heart to brave it,

And "coruscating innocence" the learned Judges gave it.