I finally managed to track down this poem by Edmund Blunden, reproduced below
for those that like to visit the haunted wing of off-topicality
Enjoy!
Barry
Nb thisisbasedonatrueincident
INCIDENT IN HYDE PARK, 1803
THE impulses of April, the rain-gems, the rose-cloud,
The frilling of flowers in the westering love-wind !
And here through the Park come gentlemen riding,
And there through the Park come gentlemen riding,
And behind the glossy horses Newfoundland dogs follow.
Says one dog to the other, ' This park, sir, is mine, sir.'
The reply is not wanting ; hoarse clashing and mouthing
Arouses the masters.
Then Colonel Montgomery, of the Life Guards, dismounts.
4 Whose dog is this ? ' The reply is not wanting,
>From Captain Macnamara, Royal Navy : ' My dog.'
' Then call your dog off, or by God he'll go sprawling.'
' If my dog goes sprawling, you must knock me down
after.'
' Your name ?' ' Macnamara, and yours is —' ' Montgomery.'
' And why, sir, not call your dog off ?' ' Sir, I chose
Not to do so, no man has dictated to me yet,
And you, I propose, will not change that.' ' This place,
For adjusting disputes, is not proper ' — and the Colonel,
Back to the saddle, continues, ' If your dog
Fights my dog, I warn you, I knock your dog down.
For the rest, you are welcome to know where to find me,
Colonel Montgomery ; and you will of course
Respond with the due information,' ' Be sure of it,'
Now comes the evening, green-twinkling, clear-echoing,
And out to Chalk-farm the Colonel, the Captain,
Each with his group of believers, have driven.
Primrose Hill on an April evening
Even now in a fevered London
Sings a vesper sweet; but these
Will try another music. Hark !
These are the pistols ; let us test them ; quite perfect.
Montgomery, Macnamara six paces, two faces ;
Montgomery, Macnamara — both speaking together
In nitre and lead, the style is incisive,
Montgomery fallen, Macnamara half-falling,
The surgeon exploring the work of the evening —
And the Newfoundland dogs stretched at home in the firelight.
The coroner's inquest; the view of one body ,'
And then, pale, supported, appears at Old Bailey
James Macnamara, to whom this arraignment:
You stand charged
That you
With force and arms
Did assault Robert Montgomery,
With a certain pistol
Of the value of ten shillings,
Loaded with powder and a leaden bullet,
Which the gunpowder, feloniously exploded,
Drove into the body of Robert Montgomery,
And gave
One mortal wound ;
Thus you did kill and slay
The said Robert Montgomery.
O heavy imputation ! O dead that yet speaks !
0 evening transparency, burst to red thunder !
Speak, Macnamara. He, tremulous as a windflower,
Exactly imparts what had slaughtered the Colonel,
' Insignificant the origin of the fact now before you ;
Defending our dogs, we grew warm ; that was nature ;
That heat of itself had not led to disaster.
>From defence to defiance was the leap that destroyed.
At once he would have at my deity, Honour —
" If you are offended you know where to find me."
On one side, I saw the wide mouths of Contempt,
Mouth to mouth working, a thousand vile gunmouths ;
On the other my Honour ; Gentlemen of the Jury,
1 am a Captain in the British Navy.'
Then said Lord Hood : ' For Captain Macnamara,
He is a gentleman and so says the Navy,'
Then said Lord Nelson : ' I have known Macnamara
Nine years, a gentleman, beloved in the Navy,
Not to be affronted by any man, true,
Yet as I stand here before God and my country,
Macnamara has never offended, and would not,
Man, woman, child,' Then a spring-tide of admirals,
Almost Neptune in person, proclaim Macnamara
Mild, amiable, cautious, as any in the Navy;
And Mr. Garrow rises, to state that if need be,
To assert the even temper and peace of his client,
He would call half the Captains in the British Navy.
Now we are shut from the duel that Honour
Must fight with the Law ; no eye can perceive
The fields wherein hundreds of shadowy combats
Must decide between a ghost and a living idolon —
A ghost with his army of the terrors of bloodshed,
A half-ghost with the grand fleet of names that like sunrise
Have dazzled the race with their march on the ocean.
Twenty minutes. How say you ?
Not guilty.
Then from his chair with his surgeon the Captain
Walks home to his dog, his friends' acclamations
Supplying some colour to the pale looks he had,
Less pale than Montgomery's ; and Honour rides on.
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