Here's news come at last!--Here's news come at last! A vessel's come in, which has sail'd very fast; And a gentleman serving before the mast,-- Mister Nokes--has declared that "the party has past Safe across to the Hague, where their grapnel they cast, As a fat burgomaster was staring aghast To see such a monster come borne on the blast, And it caught in his waistband, and there it stuck fast!"-- Oh! fie! Mister Nokes,--for shame, Mr. Nokes! To be poking your fun at us plain-dealing folks-- Sir, this isn't a time to be cracking your jokes, And such jesting your malice but scurvily cloaks; Such a trumpery tale every one of us smokes, And we know very well your whole story's a hoax!-- "Oh! what shall we do?--Oh! where will it end?-- Can nobody go?--Can nobody send To Calais--or Bergen-op-zoom--or Ostend? Can't you go there yourself?--Can't you write to a friend, For news upon which we may safely depend?"-- Huzza! huzza! one and eight-pence to pay For a letter from Hamborough, just come to say They descended at Weilburg, about break of day; And they've lent them the palace there, during their stay, And the town is becoming uncommonly gay, And they're feasting the party, and soaking their clay With Johannisberg, Rudesheim, Moselle, and Tokay! And the Landgraves, and Margraves, and Counts beg and pray That they won't think, as yet, about going away; Notwithstanding, they don't mean to make much delay, But pack up the balloon in a waggon, or dray, And pop themselves into a German "_po-shay_," And get on to Paris by Lisle and Tournay; Where they boldly declare, any wager they'll lay, If the gas people there do not ask them to pay Such a sum as must force them at once to say "Nay," They'll inflate the balloon in the Champs-Elysées, And be back again here the beginning of May.-- Dear me! what a treat for a juvenile _fête_! What thousands will flock their arrival to greet! There'll be hardly a soul to be seen in the street, For at Vauxhall the whole population will meet, And you'll scarcely get standing-room, much less a seat, For this all preceding attraction must beat: Since, they'll unfold, what we want to be told, How they cough'd,--how they sneez'd,--how they shiver'd with cold,-- How they tippled the "cordial" as racy and old As Hodges, or Deady, or Smith ever sold, And how they all then felt remarkably bold: How they thought the boil'd beef worth its own weight in gold; And how Mr. Green was beginning to scold Because Mr. Mason would try to lay hold Of the moon, and had very near overboard roll'd!