25 a of theicks and he mad THE REVENGE “Shall we fight or shall we fly? Good Sir Richard, tell us now, For to fight is but to die! There'll be little of us left by the time At Flores in the Azores Sir Richard Gren this sun be set." ville lay, And Sir Richard said again: "We be all And a pinnace, like a fluttered bird, came good English men. flying from far away: Let us bang these dogs of Seville, the chil"Spanish ships of war at sea! we have dren of the devil, 30 sighted fifty-three!” For I never turned my back upon Don or Then sware Lord Thomas Howard:“'Fore devil yet.” God, I am no coward; But I cannot meet them here, for my ships are out of gear, Sir Richard spoke and he laughed, and we And the half my men are sick. I must roared a hurrah, and so fly, but follow quick. The little Revenge ran on sheer into the We are six ships of the line; can we fight heart of the foe, with fifty-three?" With her hundred fighters on deck, and her ninety sick below; II For half of their fleet to the right and half Then spake Sir Richard Grenville: “I to the left were seen, 35 know you are no coward; And the little Revenge ran on through the You fly them for a moment to fight with long sea-lane between. them again. But I've ninety men and more that are VI lying sick ashore. Thousands of their soldiers looked down I should count myself the coward if I left from their decks and laughed, them, my Lord Howard, Thousands of their seamen made mock at To these Inquisition dogs and the devil the mad little craft doms of Spain.” Running on and on, till delayed By their mountain-like San Philip that, So Lord Howard passed away with five of fifteen hundred tons, 40 ships of war that day, And up-shadowing high above us with her Till he melted like a cloud in the silent yawning tiers of guns, summer heaven; Took the breath from our sails, and we But Sir Richard bore in hand all his sick I stayed. men from the land 15 Very carefully and slow, VII Men of Bideford in Devon, And while now the great San Philip hung And we laid them on the ballast down be- | above us like a cloud low: | Whence the thunderbolt will fall For we brought them all aboard, Long and loud, 45 And they blessed him in their pain, that Four galleons drew away they were not left to Spain, 20 From the Spanish fleet that day, To the thumb-screw and the stake, for the And two upon the larboard and two upon glory of the Lord. the starboard lay, | And the battle-thunder broke from them IV all. He had only a hundred seamen to work the ship and to fight, VIII And he sailed away from Flores till the But anon the great San Philip, she beSpaniard came in sight, thought herself and went, 50 With his huge sea-castles heaving upon the Having that within her womb that had weather bow. left her ill content; thous 95 And the rest they came aboard us, and And the pikes were all broken or bent, they fought us hand to hand, and the powder was all of it spent; 80 For a dozen times they came with their | And the masts and the rigging were lying pikes and musqueteers, over the side; And a dozen times we shook 'em off as a But Sir Richard cried in his English dog that shakes his ears 54 pride: When he leaps from the water to the land. “We have fought such a fight for a day and a night As may never be fought again! And the sun went down, and the stars We have won great glory, my men! 85 came out far over the summer sea, And a day less or more But never a moment ceased the fight of At sea or ashore, the one and the fifty-three. We die does it matter when? Ship after ship, the whole night long, their Sink me the ship, Master Gunner-sink high-built galleons came, her, split her in twain! Ship after ship, the whole night long, with Fall into the hands of God, not into the her battle-thunder and flame: hands of Spain!” 90 Ship after ship, the whole night long, drew XII back with her dead and her shame. 60 For some were sunk and many were shat | And the gunner said, “Ay, ay,” but the tered, and so could fight no more seamen made reply: God of battles, was ever a battle like this “We have children, we have wives, in the world before? And the Lord hath spared our lives. we yield, to let us go; For he said, “Fight on! fight on!” We shall live to fight again and to strike Though his vessel was all but a wreck; another blow." And it chanced that, when half of the short And the lion there lay dying, and they summer night was gone, 65 yielded to the foe. With a grisly wound to be dressed he had XIII left the deck, And the stately Spanish men to their But a bullet struck him that was dressing I flagship bore him then, it suddenly dead, Where they laid him by the mast, old Sir And himself he was wounded again in the Richard caught at last, side and the head, And they praised him to his face with And he said, “Fight on! fight on!” their courtly foreign grace; But he rose upon their decks, and he cried: “I have fought for Queen and Faith like a And the night went down, and the sun I valiant man and true; TOI smiled out far over the summer sea, 70 I have only done my duty as a man is And the Spanish fleet with broken sides bound to do. lay round us all in a ring; With a joyful spirit I Sir Richard GrenBut they dared not touch us again, for ville die!" they feared that we still could sting, And he fell upon their decks, and he died. So they watched what the end would be. And we had not fought them in vain, XIV But in perilous plight were we, 75 | And they stared at the dead that had been Seeing forty of our poor hundred were I so valiant and true, 105 And had holden the power and glory of And half of the rest of us maimed for life Spain so cheap In the crash of the cannonades and the That he dared her with one little ship and desperate strife: his English few; And the sick men down in the hold were Was he devil or man? He was devil for most of them stark and cold, aught they knew, XI slain, have livethe night, nd the b But they sank his body with honor down IV into the deep, Who let her in? how long has she been? And they manned the Revenge with a you-what have you heard? swarthier alien crew, 110 Why did you sit so quiet? you never have And away she sailed with her loss and spoken a word. longed for her own; O—to pray with me-yes—a lady-none When a wind from the lands they had of their spies 15 ruined awoke from sleep, But the night has crept into my heart, And the water began to heave and the and begun to darken my eyes. weather to moan, And or ever that evening ended a great gale blew, And a wave like the wave that is raised by Ah-you, that have lived so soft, what an earthquake grew, should you know of the night, 115 Till it smote on their hulls and their sails The blast and the burning shame and the bitter frost and the fright? and their masts and their flags, And the whole sea plunged and fell on I have done it, while you were asleep the shot-shattered navy of Spain, 1 you were only made for the day. And the little Revenge herself went down | I have gathered my baby together-and by the island crags now you may go your way. 20 To be lost evermore in the main. VI Nay—for it's kind of you, madam, to sit by an old dying wife. 17 But say nothing hard of my boy, I have only an hour of life. Wailing, wailing, wailing, the wind over I kissed my boy in the prison, before he went out to die. land and sea "They dared me to do it,” he said, and he And Willy's voice in the wind,“O mother, never has told me a lie. come out to me!" I whipped him for robbing an orchard once Why should he call me to-night, when he when he was but a child - 25 knows that I cannot go? “The farmer dared me to do it,” he said; For the downs are as bright as day, and he was always so wildthe full moon stares at the snow. And idle—and couldn't be idle-my Willy II -he never could rest. We should be seen, my dear; they would The King should have made him a soldier, spy us out of the town. he would have been one of his best. The loud black nights for us, and the VII storm rushing over the down, When I cannot see my own hand, but am But he lived with a lot of wild mates, and led by the creak of the chain, they never would let him be good; And grovel and grope for my son till | They swore that he dare not rob the mail, find myself drenched with the rain. and he swore that he would; 30 And he took no life, but he took one purse, and when all was done Anything fallen again? nay–what was He flung it among his fellows—“I'll none there left to fall? of it,” said my son. I have taken them home, I have numbered the bones, I have hidden them all. 10 What am I saying? and what are you? do I came into court to the judge and the you come as a spy? lawyers. I told them my tale, Falls? what falls? who knows? As the tree God's own truth-but they killed him, falls so must it lie. they killed him for robbing the mail. III VIII IX They hanged him in chains for a show- My Willy 'ill rise up whole when the we had always borne a good name-35 trumpet of judgment 'ill sound, To be hanged for a thief--and then put But I charge you never to say that I laid away-isn't that enough shame? him in holy ground. Dust to dust-low down let us hide! but they set him so high XIII That all the ships of the world could stare at him, passing by. They would scratch him up—they would God 'ill pardon the hell-black raven and hang him again on the cursed tree. horrible fowls of the air, Sin? O, yes, we are sinners, I know-let But not the black heart of the lawyer who all that be, 60 killed him and hanged him there. 40 And read me a Bible verse of the Lord's goodwill toward men“Full of compassion and mercy, the Lord”-let me hear it again; And the jailer forced me away. I had bid | “Full of compassion and mercy-longhim my last good-bye; suffering." Yes, O, yes! They had fastened the door of his cell. For the lawver is bom but to murder"O mother!" I heard him cry. the Savior lives but to bless. I couldn't get back though I tried, he had | He 'll never put on the black cap except something further to say, for the worst of the worst, 65 And now I never shall know it. The jailer | And the first may be last-I have heard forced me away. it in church—and the last may be first. Suffering—0, long-suffering—yes, as the Lord must know, Then since I couldn't but hear that cry of Year after year in the mist and the wind my boy that was dead, 45 and the shower and the snow. They seized me and shut me up: they fastened me down on my bed. “Mother, O mother!”—he called in the dark to me year after year Heard, have you? what? they have told They beat me for that, they beat me you he never repented his sin. you know that I couldn't but hear; How do they know it? are they his mother? And then at the last they found I had are you of his kin? 70 grown so stupid and still Heard! have you ever heard, when the They let me abroad again—but the crea storm on the downs began, tures had worked their will. The wind that 'ill wail like a child and the sea that 'ill moan like a man? XI Flesh of my flesh was gone, but bone of my XV bone was left Election, Election, and Reprobation—it's I stole them all from the lawyers—and all very well. you, will you call it a theft? - But I go to-night to my boy, and I shall My baby, the bones that had sucked me, not find him in hell. the bones that had laughed and had For I cared so much for my boy that the cried Lord has looked into my care, 75 Theirs? O, no! they are mine-not theirs And He means me I'm sure to be happy --they had moved in my side. with Willy, I know not where. There XIV 50 XVI XII Do you think I was scared by the bones? I And if he be lost-but to save my soul, kissed 'em, I buried 'em all - 55 that is all your desireI can't dig deep, I am old-in the night by Do you think that I care for my soul if my the churchyard wall. boy be gone to the fire? XVII 15 I have been with God in the dark-go, go, you may leave me alone If my body come from brutes, though someYou never have borne a child-you are what finer than their own, just as hard as a stone. 80 I am heir, and this my kingdom. Shall the royal voice be mute? No, but if the rebel subject seek to drag Madam, I beg your pardon! I think that me from the throne, you mean to be kind, Hold the sceptre, Human Soul, and rule But I cannot hear what you say for my thy province of the brute. Willy's voice in the wind II The snow and the sky so bright-he used | I have climbed to the snows of Age, and but to call in the dark, I gazed at a field in the Past, And he calls to me now from the church Where I sank with the body at times in and not from the gibbet-for hark! the sloughs of a low desire, Nay-you can hear it yourself—it is | But I hear no yelp of the beast, and the coming-shaking the walls - 85 Man is quiet at last Willy—the moon 's in a cloud- Good- | As he stands on the heights of his life with night. I am going. He calls. a glimpse of a height that is higher. 20 MERLIN AND THE GLEAM BY AN EVOLUTIONIST soul of a man, clean as you can, And then I will let you a better." 10 If my body come from brutes, my soul uncertain or a fable, Why not bask amid the senses while the sun of morning shines, I, the finer brute rejoicing in my hounds, and in my stable, Youth and health, and birth and wealth, and choice of women and of wines? O young Mariner, The gray Magician II 15 20 III OLD AGE was linked with thee eighty years back. Less weight now for the ladder of heaven that hangs on a star. Once at the croak of a Raven who crossed it, |
