2oo THE YPRES TIMES
Vandamme has got a very small domain,
Where he the bitter cud of shame may chew,
For having served his master very ill,
Who, but for him, might be an emperor still.
(Vandamme was one of Napoleon's generals.)
From Cassel to Balleul is two posts more;
And at Balleul I've something to relate
We saw a red-faced Englishman, who wore
A dark^blue coat, a fur cap on his pate
He look'd like one who had been rich before
He was a half-pay major en retraite;
And, being married to a breeding spouse,
Had not wherewith in England to keep house
And so, upon reflection, I divine
He fix'd in France, by preference, to live,
Where things are cheaper. You may have your wine
For what, at home, you would for small beer give.
Nay, for a franc a head you well may dine;
Money in England goes as through a sieve.
Firewood alone in France is very dear,
But then you want no fire for half the year.
We might have learn'd his history, had not I
Wanted the courage, when we pass'd, to speak.
Again, in changing horses, he went by,
But silence is so difficult to break.
It can never be silence in Flanders for us, under the quietest cloudy night, by
the loneliest sluice or cross-road; and the British voices which we hear have their
origin in more centuries than this. Their words have found some recording in
unexpected ways; so that a true anthology of the British soldier at Ypres would be
a gathering from literature partly produced when as yet the Ypres League was
wrapped in the haze of the far future.
A j A HESE were honoured in their generations, and were a glory in their
days. There be of them that have left a name behind them to declare
their praises, and some there be which have no memorial, who are
perished as though they had never been. But these were men whose righteous
deeds have not been forgotten. Their seed shall remain for ever, and their
glory shall not be blotted out their name liveth to all generations."
