Page:Two Mock Epics (Hanuman and Tantum Religio), Lyrics, Post Meridian Verse, The Turret Captain's Toast and other Verses.pdf/121

 There was his furniture in danger;

But thanks to Providence or fortune,

He had been barred out with the crowd.

’Twas all in vain for him to importune

With threat or curse, however loud;

The wily Chiavennian fox

Was deaf to all his shouts and knocks:

He should have been at home by rights,

But—and that “but” was the salvation

Of the two Calvinists—his nights

And noons, with others of his station,

Now oft were spent in drowning thought

Of debts and duns in Trani port.

This liquor was a god-send truly

To those who groaned beneath the ferule

Of that ecclesiastic bully,

Fuchs, of the Capuchins, and their rule.

A litre, costing six palancas,

Wiped clean from thought those rusty cankers.

Then Japhet, so the loon was christened,

Astride a barrel would denounce ’em,

With flaming cheeks and eyes that glistened

Down at the “Bœuce” and roar: “I counts ’em

No better nor a gang of fakes,

The linsey-woolsey undertakers!”

And much more to the same effect,

The Trani wines being strong and heady;

Then, when indignant and erect

He rose, protesting and unsteady,

It was a sight to see him peg off

Like a green cricket with one leg off.