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MAD GUILLEAU, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: A rap struck on the cottage gate
Last Line: Mad guilleau the old warrior call.


A RAP struck on the cottage gate,
Where Jacques and Joan his wife of late
Alone in the deep wood abide.
'Come in,' they both together cried.

An aged man toil bent they see,
A moustache long and white had he;
His clothes are tumbling into rags;
His sabots in his hands he drags.

'Is this the cottage (then he said)
Which in war time inhabited
Jean Guilleau? What of him became?'
Said they, 'We never heard his name.'

'His wife, she was for kindness known,
And she was called the Bourguinonne.
Do you remember her?' 'Not more;
We never heard of her before.'

'Two children formed their family,
The daughter's name was Jeanne Marie:
Tell me, has she too disappeared?'
'She never here was seen or heard.'

'But have you heard the neighbours say,
That when the empire held sway
Guilleau the son enlisted?' 'No;
The neighbours never told us so.'

'Well, truly, I am Guilleau's son,
My mother was the Bourguinonne,
My sister Jeanne Marie; and I
The Emperor served in days gone by.

'For France, what sufferings have I borne;
By cold Siberian prison worn
For forty years of torture, come
For shelter to my ancient home.

'But all things changed in it appear,
It has lost all I held so dear--
My God, what will become of me?
Best never have come back, I see!'

'To the next town if you proceed,
There you may find the roof you need.
But 'tis not fitting that the poor
Should trouble folk from door to door.

'There, you your story can declare,
And can establish who you are;
And when your name and life they trace,
The workhouse is a pleasant place.'

The morrow at the chapel gate
Our old grey-headed beggar sate:
His hand to travellers stretched out,
His talk the Emperor about.

And every day long tales he told
Of victories and battles old;
The village children, great and small,
Mad Guilleau the old warrior call.





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