Classic Poem

" G ARÇON ! You — you
Snared along with this cursid crew?
(Only a child, and yet so bold,
Scarcely as much as ten years old!)
Do you hear? do you know
Why the gendarmes put you there, in the row,
You , with those Commune wretches tall,
With your face to the wall? "

" Know? To be sure I know! why not?
We 're here to be shot;
And there, by the pillar's the very spot,
Fighting for France, my father fell:
Ah, well!
That's just the way I would choose to fall,
With my back to the wall! "

( " Sacre! Fair, open fight, I say,
Is something right gallant in its way,
And fine for warming the blood; but who
Wants wolfish work like this to do?
Bah! 't is a butcher's business!) How?
(The boy is beckoning to me now:
I knew that his poor child's heart would fail,
. . . Yet his cheek's not pale:)
Quick! say your say, for don't you see,
When the church-clock yonder tolls out Three ,
You 're all to be shot?
. . . What?
" Excuse you one moment? " O, ho, ho!
Do you think to fool a gendarme so? "

" But, sir, here's a watch that a friend, one day
(My father's friend), just over the way,
Lent me; and if you 'll let me free,
— It still lacks seven minutes of Three , —
I 'll come, on the word of a soldier's son,
Straight back into line, when my errand's done. "

" Ha, ha! No doubt of it! Off! Begone!
(Now, good Saint Denis, speed him on!
The work will be easier since he 's saved;
For I hardly see how I could have braved
The ardor of that innocent eye,
As he stood and heard,
While I gave the word,
Dooming him like a dog to die. " )

" In time! Well, thanks, that my desire
Was granted; and now, I am ready: — Fire!
One word! — that's all!
— You 'll let me turn my back to the wall? "
" Parbleu! Come out of the line, I say,
Come out! (who said that his name was Ney? )
Ha! France will hear of him yet one day! "