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

I was there amongst that number
I heard the trumpets strain
I saw the host of banners
Spread across the Polish plain
Those tht served against us
They soon were swept away
They may have the numbers
But Charles shall have the day
Guardian angels, wherever you may be
Reach down and keep my soul for me

We cut our way through forests
We crossed on frozen streams
They fell away before us
Like a murmur in a dream
They burned the land around us
While snow was closing in
The hands of winter took us
As we fired against the wind

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 T
Hat have made an end of me

Guardian angels wherever you may be
Reach down and keep my soul for me

[Guitar bridge]
Now Charles is fled to Turkey
He's left his men afar
And we'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
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

[Instrumental outro]