Page:Rudyard Kipling's verse - Inclusive Edition 1885-1918.djvu/778

 760 RUDYARD KIPLING'S VERSE

Our ships in every harbour

Be neither whole nor sound, And, when we seek to mend a leak,

No oakum can be found, Or, if it is, the caulkers,

And carpenters also, For lack of pay have gone away,

And this the Dutchmen know I

Mere powder, guns, and bullets,

We scarce can get at all, Their price was spent in merriment

And revel at Whitehall, While we in tattered doublets

From ship to ship must row, Beseeching friends for odds and ends-

And this the Dutchmen know I

No King will heed our warnings,

No Court will pay our claims Our King and Court for their disport

Do sell the very Thames ! For, now De Ruyter's topsails,

Off naked Chatham show, We dare not meet him with our fleet

And this the Dutchmen know !

"BROWN BESS" (THE ARMY MUSKET 1700-1815)

TN THE days of lace-ruffles, perukes and brocade

Brown Bess was a partner whom none could despise An out-spoken, flinty-lipped, brazen-faced jade, With a habit of looking men straight in the eyes