Page:Tight little island.pdf/5

 ::We'd give them enough of the island,

Frenchmen should just-bite at the dust,


 * But not a bit more of the island.


 * When the hollow drum, &c.

When the hollow drum has beát to bed ;

When the little fifer hangs his head;


 * Still and mute,


 * The Moorish flute,


 * And nodding guards watch wearily;


 * Then will we,


 * From prison free,


 * March out by moon-light cheerily.

When the Moorish cymbals clash by day ;

When the brazen trumpet's shrilly bray;


 * The slave, in vain,


 * May then complain,

Of tyranny and knavery.


 * Would he know,


 * His time to go,

And slily slip from ’slavery—-

’Tis when the hollow drum has beat to bed ;

When the little fifer hangs his head ;


 * Still and mute,


 * The Moorish flute,

And nodding guards watch wearily;