Broadside ballad entitled 'The Russians Are Coming! Or, the Finishing Stroke'

Transcription

THE

RUSSIANS

ARE COMING!

OR, THE

FINISHING STROKE.

The Russians are coming to Scotland they say,
Get ready old women, they're now on their way;
Be true to your colours and laugh at the joke,
The Yeomanry will give them the finishing stroke.
John Bull has an eye to the bucket I ween,
And every young woman that's over sixteen,
Must be fitted out with a bayonet and gun,
And march to the sound of the fife and the drum.

CHORUS        ?        Lord Aberdeen is a fool I declare,
                He's greatly in favour with Nicholas the Bear.
                He wants to humbug us, there is little doubt,
                But the whole nation's cry is put Aberdeen out.

The Russians are coming, they're now on their way
To take---------,---------, and---------, they say;
But never mind trifles, don't die in despair,
We'll soon put an end to the great Russian Bear.
There are ten thousand tailors whose courage won't fail,
And ten thousand women to cut off his tail,
All mounted on donkies, 'twill be a fine sight,
With bodkins and busdes laws how they will fight.

The Russians are coming?if they get the chance,
But they are all well guarded by Britain and France;
They'll make the wild Russians to weep without hope,
And bury their bones in the Bay of Sinope.
But let us be ready, prepared for to rush,
For a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush;
And if the wild Russian in Scotland arrive,
We'll meet them in ------------, and shave them alive.

The Russians are coming, says Billy to Bob,
The butcher, the baker, the tailor, the snob.
The weaver, the winder, and piecer also,
The lame and the lazy to battle must go
The quakers and lawyers, the doctors and jews,
The colliers and plough-boys, and venders of news.
The pensioners' wives will assemble, oh, fegs!
And fight like the d?l with old wooden legs.

The Russians are coming, I'd have you to know,
Neither head-ache, nor tooth ache, nor pain in the toe.
If you have but one eye, one leg, and the gout,
Shall ever prevent you to join in the rout.
To war you must go, and to battle repair,
To tickle the nose of the old Russian Bear.
We'll put down his courage, I tell you quite plain,
And play him a tune they call?" Do it again."

Pretty maidens that's willing to follow the drum,
NOW pull up your stockings, the time it is come;
And all you old ladies that are willing to list,
Can have two and ninepence shoved into your fist.
With a belt and a bayonet, and a coat scarlet red,
A fine hat and a feather to place on your head ;
And when in the battle you safely have got,
Sing fire away Mike with your tin iron pot.

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