John Kenyon - Sonnet Written After Having Read A. F. Rio's, Petite Chouaunerie lyrics

Call not our Bretons backward. What if rude Of speech and mien, and rude of fashion—drest; Yet dwells firm faith beneath each simple vest; With valiant heart, that scorns all servitude, But to the Right. When France's fickler blood Crouch'd to the crownëd pageant of the day, New-fangled homage These disdained to pay; But kept old vows in truth and hardihood. And with no surface-glare, no facet-light, But the rich inward lustre of the gem, When tried in shade, were yet more deeply bright. And therefore, Traveller! call not backward—Them, Found never yet, in worst extremity, Backward to bear—nor backward when to die.