that every Dominion and dependency was merely waiting for the first
favourable opportunity to declare its complete independence, and they
hardly troubled to conceal their opinion that Britain was hopelessly
decadent, and would never be able to wage a campaign again. Bermuda,
in view of its wonderful strategic position, had, I am convinced, been
marked down as a future German possession, when they would have
endeavoured to make a second Heligoland of it.

Nowhere could a little population be found more loyal to the
motherland than in Bermuda, or prouder of its common heritage.

A friend of mine, a lady who had never left the islands, wrote some
lines which I thought so fine that I set them to music. Her words,
though, are so much better than my setting, that I will quote them in
full.

THE SONG OF THE BERMUDIANS
THE KEEPERS OF THE WESTERN GATE

Queen of the Seas! Thou hast given us the Keys,
Proudly do we hold them, we thy Children and akin,
Though we be nor rich nor great,
We will guard the Western Gate,
And our lives shall pay the forfeit ere we let the foeman in.

Empty are our hands, for we have nor wealth nor lands,
No grain or gold to give thee, and so few a folk are we;
Yet in very will and deed,
We will serve thee at thy need,
And keep thine ancient fortalice beyond the Western Sea.