Page:Departmental Ditties and Ballads and Barrack-Room Ballads, Kipling, 1899.djvu/303

Rh But—sure it keeps their honour white—the learned Court believes

They never gave a piece of plate to murderers and thieves.

They never told the ramping crowd to card a woman's hide,

They never marked a man for death—what fault of theirs he died?—

They only said "intimidate," and talked and went away—

By God, the boys that did the work were braver men than they!

Their sin it was that fed the fire—small blame to them that heard—

The "bhoys" get drunk on rhetoric, and madden at the word—

They knew whom they were talking at, if they were Irish too,

The gentlemen that lied in Court, they knew and well they knew.