Al Stewart - The coldest winter in memory

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