Page:Lancashire Legends, Traditions, Pageants, Sports, Etc., with an Appendix Containing a Rare Tract.djvu/257

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France cannot forget that our fathers of yore,
Used to pepper and butcher, at sea and on shore;
And we'll speedily prove to this mock Alexander,
"What was sauce for the goose will be sauce for the gander."
 
I've heard, and I've read in a great many books,
Half the Frenchmen are tailors and "t'other half cooks;"
We've trimmings in store for the knights of the cloth,
"And the cooks that come here will but spoil their own broth."
 
It is said that the French are a numerous race,
And perhaps it is true, for "ill weeds grow apace;"
But come when they will, and as many as dare,
I suspect they'll "arrive the day after the fair."
 
To invade us more safely these warriors boast,
They will wait till a storm drives our fleet from the coast,
That 'twill be "an ill wind" will be soon understood,
For a wind that blows Frenchmen "blows nobody good."

They would treat Britain worse than they've treated Mynheer,
But they'll find that "they've got the wrong sow by the ear;"
Let them come, then, in swarms, by this Corsican led,
And I'll warrant we'll "hit the right nail on the head."