Poems Author:Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: SHAMUS O'BRIEN. Jist afther the war, in the year '98, As soon as the boys wor all scattered and bate, 'Twas the custom, whenever a pisant was got,... more » To hang him by thrial -- barrin' sich as was shot. There was trial by jury goin' on by daylight, And the martial-law hangin' the lavins by night. It's them was hard times for an honest gossoon : If he missed in the judges -- he'd meet a dragoon ; An' whether the sogers or judges gev sentence, The divil a much time they allowed for repentance. An' it's many's the fine boy was then in his keepin', Wid small share iv restin', or atin', or sleepin'; An' because they loved Erin, an' scorned to sell it, A prey for the bloodhound, a mark for the bullet -- Unsheltered by night, and unrested by day, They'd the heath for their barrack, revenge for their pay. An' the bravest an' hardiest boy iv them all Was Shamus O'Brien, from the town iv Glingall. His limbs were well set, an' his body was light, An' the keen-fanged hound had not teeth half so white. But his face was as pale as the face of the dead, And his cheek never wanned with the blush of the An' for all that he wasn't an ugly young bye, For the divil himself couldn't blaze with his eye, So droll an' so wicked, so dark and so bright, Like« less