Dear royal France! I fix the happy year br At forty--seven, because that Christmas--tide br There passed through Pau the Duke of Montpensier, br Fresh from his nuptials with his Spanish bride; br And because I, unwilling, shared their pride, br As youngest of the English children there, br By offering flowers to the fair glorified br Daughter of Bourbon standing on the stair-- br A point in history. When we came at last br To this gay Paris I was doomed to love, br There were already rumours of the blast br That swept the Orleans songsters from their grove br In flight to London, after Polignac br And the true king, at their King Bourgeois' back.