It is sometimes necessary to lie damnably in the interests of the nation. - Hilaire Belloc

And you, Archers and Barrack-room companions of war, of high birth or of low, who stand before the good town of Orleans, be off, in the name of God, to your own Country. King of England, if you will not do so, I am a Leader in War and in what ever place I may find your folk in France I will turn them out willy nilly, and who will not obey I shall kill and who will obey I shall spare. Nor believe that you can hold aught of the Realm of France. No, by God, the Son of Mary! Charles the King will hold it, the right heir. For God the King of Heaven wills it so, as the Maid has revealed to him. He will come at last into Paris with a goodly company. If you will not hearken to the words of God by the mouth of the Maid, in whatever place we find you we will strike great swinges and make such a rough-and-tumble as has not been raised in France this thousand years. Then shall we see which has better right from the God of Heaven, we or you!

The accursed power which stands on Privilege
(And goes with Women, and Champagne and Bridge)
Broke — and Democracy resumed her reign:
(Which goes with Bridge, and Women and Champagne).

Upon being asked by a Reader whether the verses contained in this book were true. And is it True? It is not True. And if it were it wouldn’t do, For people such as me and you Who pretty nearly all day long Are doing something rather wrong. Because if things were really so, You would have perished long ago, And I would not have lived to write The noble lines that meet your sight, Nor B. T. B. survived to draw The nicest things you ever saw. H. B.