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THE EMPEROR NAP he would set off | |
On a summer excursion to Moscow: | |
The fields were green, and the sky was blue, | |
Morbleu! Parbleu! | |
What a pleasant excursion to Moscow! | 5 |
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Four hundred thousand men and more | |
Must go with him to Moscow: | |
There were marshals by the dozen, | |
And dukes by the score; | |
Princes a few, and kings one or two. | 10 |
While the fields are so green, and the sky so blue, | |
Morbleu! Parbleu! | |
What a pleasant excursion to Moscow! | |
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There was Junot and Augereau, | |
Heigh-ho for Moscow! | 15 |
Dombrowsky and Poniatowsky, | |
Marshal Ney, lack-a-day! | |
General Rapp, and the Emperor Nap; | |
Nothing would do, | |
While the fields were so green, and the sky so blue, | 20 |
Morbleu! Parbleu! | |
Nothing would do | |
For the whole of this crew, | |
But they must be marching to Moscow. | |
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The Emperor Nap he talked so big | 25 |
That he frightened Mr. Roscoe. | |
John Bull, he cries, if youll be wise, | |
Ask the Emperor Nap if he will please | |
To grant you peace, upon your knees, | |
Because he is going to Moscow! | 30 |
Hell make all the Poles come out of their holes, | |
And beat the Russians, and eat the Prussians; | |
For the fields are green, and the sky is blue, | |
Morbleu! Parbleu! | |
And hell certainly march to Moscow! | 35 |
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And Counselor Brougham was all in a fume | |
At the thought of the march to Moscow: | |
The Russians, he said, they were undone, | |
And the great Fee-Faw-Fum | |
Would presently come, | 40 |
With a hop, step, and jump, unto London; | |
For, as for his conquering Russia, | |
However some persons might scoff it, | |
Do it he could, and do it he would, | |
And from doing it nothing would come but good, | 45 |
And nothing could call him off it. | |
Mr. Jeffrey said so, who must certainly know; | |
For he was the Edinburgh Prophet. | |
They all of them knew Mr. Jeffreys Review, | |
Which with Holy Writ ought to be reckoned: | 50 |
It was, through thick and thin, to its party true; | |
Its back was buff, and its sides were blue, | |
Morbleu! Parbleu! | |
It served them for Law, and for Gospel too. | |
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But the Russians stoutly they turned to | 55 |
Upon the road to Moscow. | |
Nap had to fight his way all through; | |
They could fight, though they could not parlez-vous. | |
But the fields were green, and the sky was blue, | |
Morbleu! Parbleu! | 60 |
And so he got to Moscow. | |
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He found the place too warm for him, | |
For they set fire to Moscow. | |
To get there had cost him much ado; | |
And then no better course he knew, | 65 |
While the fields were green, and the sky was blue, | |
Morbleu! Parbleu! | |
But to march back again from Moscow. | |
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The Russians they stuck close to him | |
All on the road from Moscow. | 70 |
There was Tormazow and Jemalow, | |
And all the others that end in ow; | |
Milarodovitch and Jaladovitch | |
And Karatschkowitch, | |
And all the others that end in itch; | 75 |
Schamscheff, Souchosaneff, | |
And Schepaleff, | |
And all the others that end in eff; | |
Wasiltschikoff, Kostomaroff, | |
And Tchoglokoff, | 80 |
And all the others that end in off; | |
Rajeffsky and Novereffsky | |
And Rieffsky, | |
And all the others that end in effsky; | |
Oscharoffsky and Rostoffsky, | 85 |
And all the others that end in offsky. | |
And Platoff he played them off, | |
And Shouvaloff he shovelled them off, | |
And Markoff he marked them off, | |
And Krosnoff he crossed them off, | 90 |
And Tuchkoff he touched them off, | |
And Boroskoff he bored them off, | |
And Kutousoff he cut them off, | |
And Parenzoff he pared them off, | |
And Woronzoff he worried them off, | 95 |
And Doctoroff he doctored them off, | |
And Rodionoff he flogged them off. | |
And last of all an admiral came, | |
A terrible man with a terrible name | |
A name which you all know by sight very well; | 100 |
But which no one can speak, and no one can spell. | |
They stuck close to Nap with all their might; | |
They were on the left and on the right, | |
Behind and before, and by day and by night; | |
He would rather parlez-vous than fight: | 105 |
But he looked white, and he looked blue, | |
Morbleu! Parbleu! | |
When parlez-vous no more would do, | |
For they remembered Moscow. | |
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And then came on the frost and snow, | 110 |
All on the road from Moscow. | |
The wind and the weather he found, in that hour, | |
Cared nothing for him, nor for all his power; | |
For him who, while Europe crouched under his rod, | |
Put his trust in his Fortune, and not in his God. | 115 |
Worse and worse every day the elements grew, | |
The fields were so white, and the sky so blue, | |
Sacrebleu! Ventrebleu! | |
What a horrible journey from Moscow! | |
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What then thought the Emperor Nap | 120 |
Upon the road from Moscow? | |
Why, I ween he thought it small delight | |
To fight all day, and to freeze all night; | |
And he was besides in a very great fright, | |
For a whole skin he liked to be in; | 125 |
And so, not knowing what else to do, | |
When the fields were so white, and the sky so blue, | |
Morbleu! Parbleu! | |
He stole awayI tell you true | |
Upon the road from Moscow. | 130 |
Tis myself, quoth he, I must mind most; | |
So the Devil may take the hindmost. | |
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Too cold upon the road was he, | |
Too hot had he been at Moscow; | |
But colder and hotter he may be, | 135 |
For the grave is colder than Muscovy; | |
And a place there is to be kept in view, | |
Where the fire is red, and the brimstone blue, | |
Morbleu! Parbleu! | |
Which he must go to, | 140 |
If the Pope say true, | |
If he does not in time look about him; | |
Where his namesake almost | |
He may have for his Host; | |
He has reckoned too long without him. | 145 |
If that Host get him in Purgatory, | |
He wont leave him there alone with his glory; | |
But there he must stay for a very long day, | |
For from thence there is no stealing away, | |
As there was on the road from Moscow. | 150 |
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