Jenny: I Sing of Warfare and a Man at War

The Guttersnipe continued to work as she thought. She rolled an apple out of her hand into the basket, seeing, as it fell, not the clover-dappled grass beneath her, but the spangling light of the solarium in Vortigern's house, hearing her own voice as she read.

"Soldiers," she said, "brave as you are to no end, if you crave to face the last fight with me, and no doubt of it, how matters stand for us each one can see. The gods by whom this kingdom stood are gone, gone from the shrines and altars. You defend a city lost in flames. Come, let us die, we'll make a rush into the thick of it. The conquered have one safety: hope for none."