STEPNEY
(Audi altemm þartem)
LEONIDAS had hundreds to hold Thermopylas;
So had good Sir Richard Grenville, the tiger of the sea.
Horatius had two comrades, and Rome and all its gods.
We are worth the three together, if you come to talk of odds!
For a day we held up London, and the cursed robber crew,
Though they were fifteen hundred, and we were only two.
All day we fought the cowards, that dared not break the door.
They had soldiers and policemen, all the tools of modern war,
With their field—gun and their Maxim and the rifle and the
shell
;
But they skulked with Winston Churchill, or we'd sent a few
to hell!
They hid themselves and volleyed, did the braves of Waterloo,
They were only fifteen hundred, and Fritz and I were two.
All day we fought the cowards, the Saxon and the Scot;
We gave them Hell and Tommy, as we answered shot for shot,
Till a bullet found its billet, and poor Fritz lay dead at last.
Then I lit the pile of shavings, nailed our colours to the mast.
Ayl we left the red flag flying, the red flag of fire that flew,
Though they were fifteen hundred, and we were only two.
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