ew
Bore stain of outrage done to honour's code.

And you have played your game as you began.
Witness the white flag raised by shattered ranks,
The cry for mercy, answered, man to man--
And the swift stroke of traitor steel for thanks.

Once bitten we were twice a little shy,
And then forgot; but with the mounting score
Our old good-nature, tried a shade too high,
Stiffens its lip and means to stand no more.

So now, when you protest with bleating throat,
And broider round your wrongs a piteous tale,
Urging the Neutral Ones to take a note
That we have passed outside the human pale;

The world (no fool) will know where lies the blame
If England lets your pleadings go unheard;
To grace of chivalry you've lost your claim;
We've grown too wise to trust a Bosch's word.

O. S.

* * * * *

THE BILLETING CAPTAIN.

MY job is to ride on ahead of the regiment, whenever we leave the
trenches, and secure accommodation for men and horses in the place
allotted to us. For billeting purposes there are four kinds of villages
behind our front: the good, the indifferent, the positively bad, and the
village of R----. It was to R---- that I was ordered on my first errand
of this kind. On the road I met a friend who holds the same pest in his
regiment as I do in mine. I told him where I was going, and he grinned.
"You'll find all the doors locked when you arrive," he said. "The Mayor
is away on service and you won't get any help from his wife. She's the
most disagreeable woman I ever met, and is known for miles round as a
holy terror." When at length I reached my destination I sent the rest of
the party in search of barns and stables, proceeding myself towards the
village pump, which I had been told was always a good place to work
from. But there was little sign of life here. The _place_ was deserted,
except for one old man who was supporting himself by the pump handle,
while with a stick in his other hand he tried to strafe a hen that had
inadvertently run between his legs.

"Bon jour, M'sieur," I said by way of a start.

"Cigarette anglaise!" replied the patriarch.

I offered my case and was presently being entertained with reminiscences
of the war of _soixante-dix_. By the time that he had finished his
cigarette he had gone further back into history and was vividly
describing the retreat from Moscow under the First Napoleon, on which
occ