<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">Belgium the Bar-Lass</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line"><span class="smallcaps">The</span> night was still. The King sat with the Queen.</p><p class="line">She sang. Her maidens spun. A peaceful scene.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Sudden, wild echoes shake the castle wall.</p><p class="line">Their foes come crashing through the outer hall.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">They rush like thunder down the gallery floor...</p><p class="line">...Someone has stolen the bolt that bars the door!</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">No pin to hold the loops, no stick, no stave,</p><p class="line">Nothing! An open door, an open grave!</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Then Catherine Bar-lass thrust her naked arm</p><p class="line">(A girl's arm, white as milk, alive and warm)</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Right through the loops from which the bolt was gone:</p><p class="line">"'Twill hold (she said) until they break the bone --</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">My King, you have one instant to prepare!"</p><p class="line">She said no more, because the thrust was there.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Oft have I heard that tale of Scotland's King</p><p class="line">The Poet, and Kate the Bar-lass. (Men will sing</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">For aye the deed one moment brings to birth --</p><p class="line">Such moments are the ransom of our Earth.)</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Brave Belgium, Bar-lass of our western world,</p><p class="line">Who, when the treacherous Prussian tyrant hurled</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">His hordes against our peace, thrust a slight hand,</p><p class="line">So firm, to bolt our portals and withstand,</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Whatever prove the glory of our affray,</p><p class="line">Thine arm, thy heart, thine act have won the day!</p></div><p class="byline">-- A. Mary F. Robinson.<br xmlns:exist="http://exist.sourceforge.net/NS/exist" xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"/> (Madame Duclaux.)</p></body></html> · Great War