Jameson's Ride
Wrong! Is it wrong? well, may be;
But I'm going, boys, all the same.
Do they think me a Burgher's baby,
To be scared by a scolding name?
They may argue, and prate, and order;
Go, tell them to save their breath:
Then, over the Transvaal border,
And gallop for life or death!
Let lawyers and statesmen addle
Their pates over points of law:
If sound be our sword, and saddle,
And gun-gear, who cares one straw?
When men of our own blood pray us
To ride to their kinsfolk's aid,
Not Heaven itself shall stay us
From the rescue they call a raid.
There are girls in the gold-reef city,
There are mothers and children too!
And they cry, "Hurry up! For pity!"
So what can a brave man do?
If even we win they'll blame us:
If we fail, they will howl and hiss.
But there's many a man lives famous
For daring a wrong like this!
So we forded and galloped forward
As hard as our beasts could pelt,
First eastward, then trending nor'ward.
Eight over the rolling veldt;
Till we came to the Burghers lying
In a hollow with hill behind,
And their bullets came hissing, flying,
Like hail on an Arctic wind.
Right sweet is the marksman's rattle,
And sweeter the cannon's roar;
But 'tis bitterly bad to battle,
Beleaguered, and one to four.
I can tell you it wasn't a trifle
To swarm over Krugersdorp Glen,
As they plied us with round and rifle,
And ploughed us again — and again.
Then we made for the gold-reef city,
Retreating, but not in rout.
They had called to us, "Quick! For pity!"
And he said, "They will sally out —
They will hear us come. Who doubts it?"
But how if they don't — what then?
"Well, worry no more about it,
But fight to the death like men."
Not a soul had supped or slumbered
Since the Borderland stream was cleft;
But we fought, even more outnumbered,
Till we had not a cartridge left.
We're not very soft or tender,
Or given to weep for woe,
But it breaks one to have to render
One's sword to the strongest foe.
I suppose we were wrong, were madmen,
Still I think at the Judgment Day,
When God sifts the good from the bad men,
There'll be something more to say.
We were wrong, but we aren't half sorry;
And as one of the baffled band,
I would rather have had that foray
Than the crushing of all the Rand.
—Swinford Old Manor, January 9