Page:Ballads and Barrack-Room Ballads (1892).djvu/130

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‘CLEARED’

(IN MEMORY OF A COMMISSION)

Help for a patriot distressed, a spotless spirit hurt,
Help for an honourable clan sore trampled in the dirt!
From Queenstown Bay to Donegal, O listen to my song,
The honourable gentlemen have suffered grievous wrong.

Their noble names were mentioned—O the burning black disgrace!—
By a brutal Saxon paper in an Irish shooting-case;
They sat upon it for a year, then steeled their heart to brave it,
And ‘coruscating innocence’ the learned Judges gave it.