BELGIAN BAR-LASS.

Clutha Leader, Volume XLI, Issue 41, 4 December 1914, Page 8

BELGIAN BAR-LASS.

l'lie night was still; the King sat with tjie yueen, She sang, her women &pun; a 'peaceful scene. Sudden, wild echoes shako the castle wall; Their lues are trashing through th« distant hall; They rush like thunder down the gallery iioor. See! Someone has stol'n tlie stapie from tlie door. Xo bar to hold the bolt, no stick, no stave! -Nothing: an open door—and op<>n grave! then Catherine Bar-lase thrust her naked arm i,A girl's arm, white as milk, and round and waring Right through the loops from which the bolt was gone: ■' 'Twill hoiU (.site said) until they break the bone. "My King, you have one instant to prepare!" She said no more, because the thrust was there. Oft have 1 heard that tale of Scotland'B King, The poet, the Kate the Bar-lass; men will sing For aye the deed one ,moment brings to birth (Such moments are the reason, of cur earth). 'Brave Belgium, Bar-lass of the Western world, Who, when the treacherous Prussian tyrant kurl'd His hordes against our peace, thrust a slight hand, So firm, to bolt our portals and withstand. Whatever prove the glory of the affray, Thine arm, thy heart, thine act have woo the day! —Mary Duclaux. Melun, August 9, 1914. —From 'The Times.'