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SERINGAPATAM
69
The lads were bonny, the lads were young,But he claimed a pitiless debt;Life and death in the balance hung,They watched it swing and set.They saw him search with sombre eyes,They knew the place he sought;They saw him feel for the hilted steel,They bowed before his thought.
But he—he saw the prison thereIn the old quivering heat,Where merry hearts had met despairAnd died without defeat;Where feeble hands had raised the cupFor feebler lips to drain,And one had worn with smiling scornHis double load of pain.
"The sleep that Tippoo Sahib sleepsHears not the voice of man;The faith that Tippoo Sahib keepsNo earthly judge may scan;For all the wrong your father wroughtYour father's sons are free;Where Lucas lay no tongue shall sayThat Mercy bound not me."
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