The Coldest Winter in Memory...

The lyrics to this song seem fitting for today.  Song and lyrics by Al Stewart.

Coldest Winter in Memory

Al Stewart

The coldest winter in memory was 1709,
The sea froze off the coast of France all along the Neptune line.
By the lost town of Dunwich the shore was washed away,
They say you hear the church bells still as they toll beneath the waves.

Come all you earthly princes, wheresoever you may be,
From the Sun King in the court of France to the Czar in Muscovy.
Take heed of Charles of Sweden, the Lion of the North,
On the cracked earth of summer with his army he goes forth.

Guardian angels wherever you may be,
reach down and keep my soul for me.

I was there amongst that number, I heard the trumpets strain,
I saw the host of banners spread across the Polish plain.
Those who stood against us, they soon were swept away,
They may have the numbers but it's Charles shall have the day.

We cut our way through forests, crossed on frozen streams,
They fell away before us like a murmur in a dream.
And they burned the land around us as snow was closing in,
And the arms of winter took us as we fired against the wind.

Guardian angels wherever you may be,
reach down and keep my soul for me.

Through all the courts of Europe there's a rumor from the East,
The kings have come to battle and it's Charles who's known defeat.
They'll shake their heads and wonder at how this came to be,
But it's nights without a shelter that have made an end for me.

Now Charles is fled to Turkey, left his men afar,
And they'll be marched through Moscow now as prisoners of the Czar.
And had I but known last summer what I know understand,
I'd have never set my foot inside this bleak and bitter land.

Guardian angels wherever you may be,
reach down and keep my soul for me.

The coldest winter in memory was 1709,
The sea froze off the coast of France all along the Neptune line.
By the lost town of Dunwich the shore was washed away,
They say you hear the church bells still as they toll beneath the waves.