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