Page:Rudyard Kipling's verse - Inclusive Edition 1885-1918.djvu/65

Rh Now Anne of Austria shared their drinks,

Collinga knew her fame,

From Tarnau in Galicia

To Jaun Bazaar she came,

To eat the bread of infamy

And take the wage of shame.

She held a dozen men to heel—

Rich spoil of war was hers,

In hose and gown and ring and chain,

From twenty mariners,

And, by Port Law, that week, men called

Her Salem Hardieker's.

But seamen learnt—what landsmen know—

That neither gifts nor gain

Can hold a winking Light o' Love

Or Fancy's flight restrain,

When Anne of Austria rolled her eyes

On Hans the blue-eyed Dane.

Since Life is strife, and strife means knife,

From Howrah to the Bay,

And he may die before the dawn

Who liquored out the day,

In Fultah Fisher's boarding-house

We woo while yet we may.

But cold was Hans the blue-eyed Dane,

Bull-throated, bare of arm,

And laughter shook the chest beneath

The maid Ultruda's charm—

The little silver crucifix

That keeps a man from harm.