But now my mind is changed, for I shall see him,
My babe in bliss: wherefore when I am gone,
Take, give her this, for it may comfort her:
It will moreover be a token to her,

That I am he."

He ceased; and Miriam Lane
Made such a voluble answer promising all,
That once again he roll'd his eyes upon her
Repeating all he wish'd, and once again
She promised.

Then the third night after this,
While Enoch slumber'd motionless and pale,
And Miriam watch'd and dozed at intervals,
There came so loud a calling of the sea,
That all the houses in the haven rang.
He woke, he rose, he spread his arms abroad,
Crying with a loud voice "A sail! a sail!

I am saved;" and so fell back and spoke no more.

So past the strong heroic soul away. And when they buried him the little port Had seldom seen a costlier funeral.

895

900

905

910

THE REVENGE

A BALLAD OF THE FLEET

I

AT Flores in the Azores Sir Richard Grenville lay,
And a pinnace like a flutter'd bird, came flying from far

away:

'Spanish ships of war at sea! we have sighted fiftythree!'

Then sware Lord Thomas Howard°: "Fore God I am

no coward;

But I cannot meet them here, for my ships are out of

gear,

5

And the half my men are sick. I must fly, but follow quick.

We are six ships of the line; can we fight with fiftythree?'

II

Then spake Sir Richard Grenville: 'I know you are no coward;

You fly them for a moment to fight with them again. But I've ninety men and more that are lying sick

ashore.

10

I should count myself the coward if I left them, my Lord Howard,

To these Inquisition dogs and the devildoms of Spain.'

III

So Lord Howard passed away with five ships of war that day,

Till he melted like a cloud in the silent summer

heaven;

But Sir Richard bore in hand all his sick men from the

land

Very carefully and slow,

Men of Bideford° in Devon,

And we laid them on the ballast down below;

For we brought them all aboard,

15

And they blest him in their pain, that they were not left to Spain,

20

To the thumbscrew° and the stake° for the glory of the Lord.

IV

He had only a hundred seamen to work the ship and to fight

And he sailed away from Flores till the Spaniard came in sight,

With his huge sea-castles heaving upon the weather

bow.

'Shall we fight or shall we fly? Good Sir Richard, tell us now, For to fight is but to die!

25

There'll be little of us left by the time this sun be set.' And Sir Richard said again, 'We be all good English

men.

Let us bang these dogs of Seville, the children of the

devil, For I never turn'd my back upon Don° or devil yet.'

V

30

Sir Richard spoke and he laugh'd, and we roar'd a hurrah, and so

The little Revenge ran on sheer into the heart of the foe, With her hundred fighters on deck, and her ninety sick below;

For half of her fleet to the right and half to the left

were seen,

35

And the little Revenge ran on thro' the long sea-lane

between.

VI

Thousands of their soldiers look'd down from their decks and laugh'd,

Thousands of their seamen made mock at the mad little

craft

Running on and on, till delay'd

By their mountain-like San Philip that, of fifteen hundred tons,

40

And up-shadowing high above us with her yawning tiers of guns,

Took the breath from our sails, and we stay'd.

VII

And while now the great San Philip hung above us like

a cloud

Whence the thunderbolt will fall

Long and loud,

Four galleons drew away

From the Spanish fleet that day,

45

And two upon the larboard and two upon the starboard lay,

And the battle-thunder broke from them all.

VIII

But anon the great San Philip, she bethought herself and went

50

Having that within her womb that had left her ill

content;

And the rest they came aboard us, and they fought us hand to hand,

For a dozen times they came with their pikes and musqueteers,

And a dozen times we shook 'em off as a dog that shakes

his ears

When he leaps from the water to the land.

55

IX

And the sun went down, and the stars came out far over the summer sea,

But never a moment ceased the fight of the one and the fifty-three.

Ship after ship, the whole night long, their high-built galleons came,

Ship after ship, the whole night long, with her battlethunder and flame;

Ship after ship, the whole night long, drew back with her dead and her shame.

60

For some were sunk and many were shatter'd, and so could fight us no more

God of battles, was ever a battle like this in the world before?

X

For he said, 'Fight on! fight on!'

Tho' his vessel was all but a wreck;

And it chanced that, when half of the short summer night was gone,

65

With a grisly wound to be drest he had left the deck, But a bullet struck him that was dressing it suddenly

dead,

And himself he was wounded again in the side and the head,

And he said 'Fight on! fight on!'