Page:Departmental Ditties and Ballads and Barrack-Room Ballads, Kipling, 1899.djvu/99

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BALLAD OF FISHER'S BOARDING-HOUSE
85

In Anne of Austria's trembling hands
The weary head fell low:—
"I ship mineselfs to-morrow, straight
"For Besser in Saro;
"Und there Ultruda comes to me
"At Easter, und I go.


"South, down the Cattegat—What's here?
"There—are—no—lights—to—guide!"
The mutter ceased, the spirit passed,
And Anne of Austria cried
In Fultah Fisher's boarding-house
When Hans the mighty died.


Thus slew they Hans the blue-eyed Dane,
Bull-throated, bare of arm,
But Anne of Austria looted first
The maid Ultruda's charm—
The little silver crucifix
That keeps a man from harm.