Page:Elocutionist (1).pdf/20

 For many thousand men, 'said he,

'Were slain in that great victory!

'Now tell us what 'twas all about,

Young Peterkin he cries;

And little Wilhelmine looks up

With wonder-waiting eyes:

'Now tell us all about the war,

And what they killed each other for.'

'It was the English,' Kaspar cried,

'Who put the French to route;

But what they killed each other for,

I could not well make out.

But every body said,' quoth he,

'That 'twas a famous victory!

'My father lived at Blenheim then,

Yon little stream hard by:

They burned his dwelling to the ground,

And he was forc'd to fly:

So with his wife and child he fled,

Nor had he where to rest his head!

'With fircfire [sic] and sword the country round

Was wasted far and wide:

And many a childing mother then,

And new-born baby died!

But things like that, you know, must be

At every famous victory.

They say it was a shocking sight

After the field was won;

For many thousand bodies here

Lay rotting in the sun!

But things like that, you know, must be

After a famous victory.

'Great praise the Duke of Marbro' won,

And our good Prince Eugene,'