20
For many thousand men, 'said he,
'Were slain in that great victory!
'Now tell us what 'twas all about,
Young Peterkin he cries;
And little Wilhelmine looks up
With wonder-waiting eyes:
'Now tell us all about the war,
And what they killed each other for.'
'It was the English,' Kaspar cried,
'Who put the French to route;
But what they killed each other for,
I could not well make out.
But every body said,' quoth he,
'That 'twas a famous victory!
'My father lived at Blenheim then,
Yon little stream hard by:
They burned his dwelling to the ground,
And he was forc'd to fly:
So with his wife and child he fled,
Nor had he where to rest his head!
'With firc and sword the country round
Was wasted far and wide:
And many a childing mother then,
And new-born baby died!
But things like that, you know, must be
At every famous victory.
They say it was a shocking sight
After the field was won;
For many thousand bodies here
Lay rotting in the sun!
But things like that, you know, must be
After a famous victory.
'Great praise the Duke of Marbro' won,
