The Friends of Fallen Fortunes

The battlefield behind us,
  And night loomed on the track;
The Friends of Fallen Fortunes
  Were riding at my back.
Save those who lay face upward
  Upon the sodden plain,
Not one of all I’d trusted
  Was missing from my train.

A draggled train and blood-stained,
  With helmets dented in,
With battered, loosened armour,
  But with a cheerful grin.
No dark look bent upon me;
  I noted to my shame
That Friends of Fallen Fortunes
  Are aye the last to blame.

Not one of all I’d trusted,
  Who’d followed to their cost,
Save those who lay face upward
  On that red field I’d lost;
And here and there a soldier
  I’d trusted not at all,
Like an unexpected mourner
  At a poor man’s funeral.

And as the horses stumbled,
  And the footmen limped along,
They all joined in the chorus
  Of a good old Next Time song.
Behind us in the distance,
  By hill and lane and wood,
My ever-dwindling rear-guard
  Fell back again and stood.

They recked not wounds nor losses,
  They all seemed very kind,
From knight who rode beside me
  To boor who limped behind;
And some borne in their litters
  Through that long agony—
Their death-white, pain-drawn faces
  Had no reproach for me.

And so from noon till darkness,
  Till morning grim and grey,
The Earl’s son and the Peasant’s
  Were brothers that dark day.
I straightened in my saddle,
  And proudly glanced me round—
I still was King of Comrades,
  Whoever might be crowned!

I straightened in my saddle,
  And glanced round proudly then—
Whoe’er might reign a season,
  I held the hearts of men!
No power of gold can buy them
  While battles shall be fought—
The Friends of Fallen Fortunes
  Are never to be bought.

Through rain and marsh and hunger,
  To what their fate might bring,
The remnants of my legions
  Toiled on to join their King.
From north and south the captains
  Of scattered bands won through—
Beneath its beaten colours
  My beaten army grew.

And in the West before us—
  The West was ever thus—
More Friends of Fallen Fortunes
  Were gathering food for us;
For refuge and for succour—
  For safety, food and rest—
The best of beaten armies
  For ever seek the West.

With these men for my captains,
  When we marched east again,
Our enemies were scattered
  Like dust across the plain.
Our city lay before us,
  And as we marched along,
We joined the grand old chorus
  Of the glorious Next Time song.
And though they wear no armour,
  And bear no blade nor bill,
The Friends of Fallen Fortunes
  Are riding with me still;
And, many times defeated
  By city, field, and sea,
The Friends of Fallen Fortunes
  March on to Victory.