Page:Lancashire Legends, Traditions, Pageants, Sports, Etc., with an Appendix Containing a Rare Tract.djvu/257

 France cannot forget that our fathers of yore, Used to pepper and butcher, at sea and on shore; And we'll speedily prove to this mock Alexander, "What was sauce for the goose will be sauce for the gander." I've heard, and I've read in a great many books, Half the Frenchmen are tailors and "t'other half cooks;" We've trimmings in store for the knights of the cloth, "And the cooks that come here will but spoil their own broth." It is said that the French are a numerous race, And perhaps it is true, for "ill weeds grow apace;" But come when they will, and as many as dare, I suspect they'll "arrive the day after the fair." To invade us more safely these warriors boast, They will wait till a storm drives our fleet from the coast, That 'twill be "an ill wind" will be soon understood, For a wind that blows Frenchmen "blows nobody good."

They would treat Britain worse than they've treated Mynheer, But they'll find that "they've got the wrong sow by the ear;" Let them come, then, in swarms, by this Corsican led, And I'll warrant we'll "hit the right nail on the head."