JACQUES CHRETIEN

Words: Gordon R. Dickson
Music: "Roddy McCorley" (trad.)


 They little knew of brotherhood,
 The faith of fighting men,
 Who once to prove their lie was good,
 Hanged Colonel Jacques Chrétien.
 
 One-fourth of Rochmont's fighting strength,
 One battalion of Dorsai,
 Was sent by Rochmont forth alone,
 To bleed Helmuth and die.
 
 But look, look down from Rochmont's heights,
 Upon the Helmuth plain,
 At all of Helmuth's armored force,
 By Dorsai checked or slain.
 
 Look down, look down, on Rochmont's shame,
 To hide the wrong she'd done,
 Made claim that Helmuth bribed Dorsai,
 No battle had been won.
 
 To prove that lie, the Rochmont lords,
 Arrested Jacques Chrétien,
 On charge he dealt with Helmuth's chiefs,
 For payment to his men.
 
 Commandant Arp Van Din sent word,
 "You may not judge Dorsai,
 Return our Colonel by the dawn,
 Or Rochmont town shall die!"
 
 Strong-held behind her wall, Rochmont,
 Scorned to answer them,
 Condemned, and at the daybreak hanged,
 Young Colonel Jacques Chrétien.
 
 Bright, bright the sun that morning rose,
 Upon each weaponed wall,
 But when the sun set in the west,
 Those walls were leveled all.
 
 Then soft and white the moon arose,
 On streets and roofs unstained,
 But when that moon was down once more,
 No street or roof remained.
 
 No more is there a Rochmont town,
 No more are Rochmont's men.
 But stands a Dorsai monument,
 To Colonel Jacques Chrétien.
 
 So pass the word from world to world,
 Alone still stands Dorsai,
 And while she lives no one of hers,
 By foreign wrong shall die.
 
 They little knew of brotherhood,
 The faith of fighting men,
 Who once to prove their lie was good,
 Hanged Colonel Jacques Chrétien.
 

Material copyrighted © to the author - Brought to you by the Dorsai Irregulars [www.di.org]