<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">To the King of the Belgians</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line"><span class="smallcaps">Multitudes</span> upon multitudes they throng</p><p class="line">And thicken: who shall number their array?</p><p class="line">They bid the peoples tremble and obey:</p><p class="line">Their faces are set forward, all for wrong.</p><p class="line">They trample on the covenant and are strong</p><p class="line">And terrible. Who shall dare to say them nay?</p><p class="line">How shall a little nation bar the way</p><p class="line">Where that resistless host is borne along?</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">You never thought, O! gallant King, to bow</p><p class="line">To overmastering force and stand aside.</p><p class="line">Safe and secure you might have reigned. But now</p><p class="line">Your Belgium is transfigured, glorified,</p><p class="line">The friend of France and England, who avow</p><p class="line">An Equal here, and thank the men who died.</p></div><p class="byline">H. M.</p><em>Times, August</em> 14, 1914</body></html> · Great War