He knew a glorious lie meant death,
But looked the Captain in the eye
And said, "Nay, none are there, or nigh."
The conclusion of my story
Comes from a letter amatory,
Which one Fritz, in school-boy hand,
Wrote Gretchen in the Fatherland.
"Wouldst believe it, Gretchen, that boy lied;
The little traitor! he defied
Our Kaiser and the German race!
Dear me! that thoughts so black and base
Should harbor in so sweet a face!"
And then Fritz told in close detail,
With many an expletive and wail,
How his company was mauled
By Belgian guns. What else he scrawled,
I spare the reader, both his fight
And courtship. He concludes:
"That night
We stood that boy against a wall,—
It was a church, as I recall.
He would not let us bind his eyes
Or tie his hands. We looked for cries,
For tears and pleadings for reprieve;
But not a word said he, save 'Vive
La Belgique!' Now could mind conceive
