The original of this narrative poem was thought to have been written by a D.W. Nash around 1870, the time of the Franco-Prussian War which resulted in a crushing defeat for the French; the poem was full of foreboding about the future. In the 1918 edition, a new foreword suggested that those fears were justified and that the events of 1870 gave rise to World War I. In this new edition, the Daily Telegraph columnist Willy Poole reveals in his commentary how much of that prophecy is worthy of thought in 1995 - from the wavering of Altar and Crown, to the derision of words such as honour and truth, and to the possible lack of wisdom to yield to foreigners, for which read the EC.