Stedman and Hutchinson, comps. A Library of American Literature:
An Anthology in Eleven Volumes. 1891.
Vols. IX–XI: Literature of the Republic, Part IV., 1861–1889
A Triumph of Order
By John Hay (18381905)A
In the Commune’s closing days,
Had captured a crowd of rebels
By the wall of Père-la-Chaise.
And dark-eyed Amazon girls,
And one little boy, with a peach-down cheek
And yellow clustering curls.
And said, “What dost thou here?”
“Sapristi, Citizen captain!
I’m a Communist, my dear!”
“Very well! That’s my affair!
But first let me take to my mother,
Who lives by the wine-shop there,
A gay old thing, is it not?
It would please the old lady to have it,
Then I’ll come back here, and be shot.”
The grizzled captain grinned,
As the little man skimmed down the hill,
Like a swallow down the wind.
In the glut of those awful days,
And Death writhed gorged like a greedy snake
From the Arch to Père-la-Chaise.
The child’s shrill voice was heard!
“Houp-là! the old girl made such a row,
I feared I should break my word.”
He took his place with the rest,
A button was lost from his ragged blouse,
Which showed his soft, white breast.
With your little one—two—three!”
The Chassepots tore the stout young heart,
And saved Society!