The sun was setting in its wonted west, When HONGREE, Sub-Lieutenant of Chassoores, Met MAHRY DAUBIGNY, the Village Rose, Under the Wizard's Oak--old trysting-place Of those who loved in rosy Aquitaine. They thought themselves unwatched, but they were not For HONGREE, Sub-Lieutenant of Chassoores, Found in LIEUTENANT-COLONEL JOOLES DUBOSC A rival, envious and unscrupulous, Who thought it not foul scorn to dog his steps, And listen, unperceived, to all that passed Between the simple little Village Rose And HONGREE, Sub-Lieutenant of Chassoores. A clumsy barrack-bully was DUBOSC, Quite unfamiliar with the well-bred tact That actuates a proper gentleman In dealing with a girl of humble rank. You'll understand his coarseness when I say He would have married MAHRY DAUBIGNY, And dragged the unsophisticated girl Into the whirl of fashionable life, For which her singularly rustic ways, Her breeding (moral, but extremely rude), Her language (chaste, but ungrammatical), Would absolutely have unfitted her. No such intention lurked within the breast Of HONGREE, Sub-Lieutenant of Chassoores! Contemporary with the incident Related in our opening paragraph, Was that sad war 'twixt Gallia and ourselves That followed on the treaty signed at Troyes; And so LIEUTENANT-COLONEL JOOLES DUBOSC (Brave soldier, he, with all his faults of style) And HONGREE, Sub-Lieutenant of Chassoores, Were sent by CHARLES of France against the lines Of our Sixth HENRY (Fourteen twenty-nine), To drive his legions out of Aquitaine. When HONGREE, Sub-Lieutenant of Chassoores, Returned (suspecting nothing) to his camp, After his meeting with the Village Rose, He found inside his barrack letter-box A note from the commanding-officer, Requiring his attendance at headquarters. He went, and found LIEUTENANT-COLONEL JOOLES. "Young HONGREE, Sub-Lieutenant of Chassoores, This night we shall attack the English camp: Be the 'forlorn hope' yours--you'll lead it sir, And lead it too with credit, I've no doubt" (These last words with a cruelly obvious sneer). "As every soul must certainly be killed (For you are twenty 'gainst two thousand men), It is not likely that you will return; But what of that? you'll have the benefit Of knowing that you die a soldier's death." [Illustration] Obedience was young HONGREE'S strongest point, But he imagined that he only owed Allegiance to his MAHRY and his King. "If MAHRY bade me lead these fated men, I'd lead them--but I do not think she would. If CHARLES, my King, said, 'Go, my son, and die,' I'd go, of course--my duty would be clear. But MAHRY is in bed asleep (I hope), And CHARLES, my King, a hundred leagues from this, As for LIEUTENANT-COLONEL JOOLES DUBOSC,