| |
| 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 |
| |
| 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! | |
| |
| 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. | |
| |
| The Emperor Nap he talked so big | 25 |
| That he frightened Mr. Roscoe. | |
| “John Bull,” he cries, “if you’ll be wise, | |
| Ask the Emperor Nap if he will please | |
| To grant you peace, upon your knees, | |
| Because he is going to Moscow! | 30 |
| He’ll 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 he’ll certainly march to Moscow!” | 35 |
| |
| 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. Jeffrey’s “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. | |
| |
| 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. | |
| |
| 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. | |
| |
| 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. | |
| |
| 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! | |
| |
| 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 away—I tell you true— | |
| Upon the road from Moscow. | 130 |
| “’Tis myself,” quoth he, “I must mind most; | |
| So the Devil may take the hindmost.” | |
| |
| 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 won’t 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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