THE PRESENTATION.
Put on your best, my countrymen, and turn
Your steeds toward the palace. You can have
No just objection to a call, I trust,
Upon the king and queen. For though you're all
Such staunch republicans, 't is plain to see
You've quite a curiosity to know
How those who wear a crown deport themselves.
Well, there's no harm in that.
But what a show
Our sober, unambitious gentry make
In regimentals, with their laced chapeaus,
En militaire! I'm sure the friends at home
Would never know them, and their babes would be
As much alarmed as Hector's, when he shrank
Back from the hero's helm and nodding plumes,
Into his nurse's arms. I'm quite well versed
In that most classic scene, which oft was wrought
In bright embroidery, where I went to school.
And I have seen it framed, and glazed, and hung
On parlor walls, when I was fain to think,
Asking the pardon of the ones who spent
