Tell the truth to a lord you trust,
More truth to a lord you hate.
Lie to a lady, if lie you must,
But since the nobles sit far away,
And will not heed what the people say,
Lie, lie, lie to the Council, lie to the Lords of State.
Where the low hills sit by the foggy bay,
And the ground all shakes with fire,
The high lords sit in council today,
Let them consider the price they pay,
For calling a man a liar.
With title goes a certain power,
And a much more certain schooling.
A child may play in a castle tower,
But a lord who does will see the hour
He hasn't a land worth ruling.
For there isn't a man but has his doubt
Of the worth of them that rule him,
But the good ones he will not turn out,
Unless he finds he's pushed about,
Or he thinks they're trying to fool him.
There's many a man in the lands of the East,
And a few in the West and the Middle,
Who hold a lord sits last to feast,
Thinks first of his men, their lands, their beasts,
And then of his pride a little.
Now what a man says and what a man writes
Are ruled by law and reason.
But half the cause of all our fights
Is that one man calls his Natural Rights
And another man calls treason.
Take care, all ye who sit in state,
Take care when you come to judge,
The cost of a word in anger is great,
But higher still in lasting hate
Is the cost of holding a grudge.
So tell the truth to a lord you trust,
More truth to a lord you hate.
Lie to a lady, if lie you must,
But since the nobles sit far away,
And will not heed what the people say,
Lie, lie, lie to the Council, lie to the Lords of State.
"Blanket permission to reproduce is freely granted (but if you use it in an album, I want a copy) - Astra of the Grey Shadows"