144 REGINALD WRIGHT KAUFFMAN
They came, with eyes that looked on death ; not driven slaves, but conscious men :
The Brugan burgher scant of breath, the lean- limbed hunter of Ardennes.
Their part it was to hold the gate, the narrow gate,
against a foe Outnumbering scores to one — to wait till Death
alone should bid them go. And how they held it ! Man and child ; about Liege
where Leman fed Blood-hungry Prussians blood and piled the
meadows with heroic dead ;
While village after village fell, cottage and church
engulfed in smoke ; While all the land became a Hell and served to turn
a Teuton joke ; While Belgian women prayed in vain for German
mercy, trusting, fond ; While German "Culture" burned Louvain, and
German tenderness Termonde :
You did it, Little Belgium — you ! You stopped
the dyke with half your sons ; You did what no one else could do against the
Vandals and the Huns !
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