<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">The Hell-Gate of Soissons</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line"><span class="smallcaps">My</span> name is Darino, the poet. You have heard? <em>Oui, Comédie Française</em>.</p><p class="line">Perchance it has happened, <em>mon ami</em>, you know of my unworthy lays.</p><p class="line">Ah, then you must guess how my fingers are itching to talk to a pen;</p><p class="line">For I was at Soissons, and saw it, the death of twelve Englishmen.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">My leg, <em>malheureusement</em>, I left it behind on the banks of the Aisne.</p><p class="line">Regret? I would pay with the other to witness their valor again.</p><p class="line">A trifle, indeed, I assure you, to give for the honor to tell</p><p class="line">How that handful of British, undaunted, went into the Gateway of Hell.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Let me draw you a plan of the battle. Here we French and your Engineers stood;</p><p class="line">Over there a detachment of German sharpshooters lay hid in a wood.</p><p class="line">A <em>mitrailleuse</em> battery planted on top of this well-chosen ridge</p><p class="line">Held the road for the Prussians and covered the direct approach to the bridge.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">It was madness to dare the dense murder that spewed from those ghastly machines.</p><p class="line">(Only those who have danced to its music can know what the <em>mitrailleuse</em> means.)</p><p class="line">But the bridge on the Aisne was a menace; our safety demanded its fall:</p><p class="line">"Engineers, -- volunteers!" In a body, the Royals stood out at the call.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Death at best was the fate of that mission -- to their glory not one was dismayed.</p><p class="line">A party was chosen -- and seven survived till the powder was laid.</p><p class="line">And <em>they</em> died with their fuses unlighted. Another detachment! Again</p><p class="line">A sortie is made -- all too vainly. The bridge still commanded the Aisne.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">We were fighting two foes -- Time and Prussia -- the moments were worth more than troops.</p><p class="line">We <em>must</em> blow up the bridge. A lone soldier darts out from the Royals and swoops</p><p class="line">For the fuse! Fate seems with us. We cheer him; he answers -- our hopes are reborn!</p><p class="line">A ball rips his visor -- his khaki shows red where another has torn.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Will he live -- will he last -- will he make it? <em>Hélas!</em> And so near to the goal!</p><p class="line">A second, he dies! then a third one! A fourth! Still the Germans take toll!</p><p class="line">A fifth, <em>magnifique!</em> It is magic! How does he escape them? He may...</p><p class="line">Yes, he <em>does!</em> See, the match flares! A rifle rings out from the woods and says "Nay!"</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Six, seven, eight, nine take their places, six, seven, eight, nine brave their hail;</p><p class="line">Six, seven, eight, nine -- how we count them! But the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth fail!</p><p class="line">A tenth! <em>Sacré nom!</em> But these English are soldiers -- they know how to try;</p><p class="line">(He fumbles the place where his jaw was) -- they show, too, how heroes can die.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Ten we count -- ten who ventured unquailing -- ten there were -- and ten no more!</p><p class="line">Yet another salutes and superbly essays where the ten failed before.</p><p class="line">God of Battles, look down and protect him! Lord, his heart is as Thine -- let him live!</p><p class="line">But the <em>mitrailleuse</em> splutters and stutters, and riddles him into a sieve.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Then I thought of my sins, and sat waiting the charge that we could not withstand,</p><p class="line">And I thought of my beautiful Paris, and gave a last look at the land,</p><p class="line">At France, my <em>belle France</em>, in her glory of blue sky and green field and wood.</p><p class="line">Death with honor, but never surrender. And to die with such men -- it was good.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">They are forming, the bugles are blaring -- they will cross in a moment and then...</p><p class="line">When out of the line of the Royals (your island, <em>mon ami</em>, breeds men)</p><p class="line">Burst a private, a tawny-haired giant -- it was hopeless, but <em>ciel!</em> how he ran!</p><p class="line"><em>Bon Dieu</em> please remember the pattern, and make many more on his plan!</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">No cheers from our ranks, and the Germans, they halted in wonderment too;</p><p class="line">See, he reaches the bridge; ah! he lights it! I am dreaming, it <em>cannot</em> be true.</p><p class="line">Screams of rage! <em>Fusillade!</em> They have killed him! Too late, though, the good work is done.</p><p class="line">By the valor of twelve English martyrs, the Hell-Gate of Soissons is won!</p></div><p class="byline">Herbert Kaufman</p></body></html> · Great War