ΧΙ

And the night went down, and the sun smiled out far over the summer sea,

70

And the Spanish fleet with broken sides lay round us all in a ring;

But they dared not touch us again, for they fear'd that we still could sting,

So they watch'd what the end would be.
And we had not fought them in vain,

But in perilous plight were we,

Seeing forty of our poor hundred were slain,
And half of the rest of us maim'd for life

75

In the crash of the cannonades and the desperate strife;

And the sick men down in the hold were most of them stark and cold,

And the pikes were all broken or bent, and the powder

was all of it spent;

80

And the masts and the rigging were lying over the side;

But Sir Richard cried in his English pride,

'We have fought such a fight for a day and a night As may never be fought again!

We have won great glory, my men!

And a day less or more

At sea or ashore,

We die

does it matter when?

85

Sink me the ship, Master Gunner sink her, split her

in twain!

Fall into the hands of God, not into the hands of

Spain !'

90

XII

And the gunner said 'Ay, ay,' but the seamen made reply:

'We have children, we have wives,

And the Lord hath spared our lives.

We will make the Spaniard promise, if we yield, to let

us go;

We shall live to fight again and to strike another

blow.'

95

And the lion there lay dying, and they yielded to the foe.

XIII

And the stately Spanish men to their flagship bore him then

Where they laid him by the mast, old Sir Richard caught at last,

And they praised him to his face with their courtly foreign grace;

But he rose upon their decks, and he cried:

100

'I have fought for Queen and Faith like a gallant man and true;

I have only done my duty as a man is bound to do: With a joyful spirit I Sir Richard Grenville die!" And he fell upon their decks, and he died.

XIV

And they stared at the dead that had been so valiant and true,

105

And had holden the power and glory of Spain so cheap

That he dared her with one little ship and his English few;

Was he devil or man? He was devil for aught they knew,

But they sank his body with honour down in the deep, And they mann'd the Revenge with a swarthy alien

crew,

110

And away she sail'd with her loss and long'd for her

own;

When a wind from the lands they had ruin'd awoke from sleep,

And the water began to heave and the weather to moan,
And or ever that evening ended a great gale blew,
And a wave like the wave that is raised by an earth-
quake grew,

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Till it smote on their hulls and their sails and their masts and their flags,

And the whole sea plunged and fell on the shot-shatter'd navy of Spain,

And the little Revenge herself went down by the island

crags

To be lost evermore in the main.

ROBERT BROWNING

'HOW THEY BROUGHT THE GOOD NEWS

FROM GHENT TO AIX.”

[16-]

I SPRANG to the stirrup, and Joris, and he; I galloped, Dirck galloped, we galloped all three; "Good speed!" cried the watch, as the gate-bolts undrew;

"Speed!" echoed the wall to us galloping through; Behind shut the postern, the lights sank to rest, And into the midnight we galloped abreast.

5

Not a word to each other; we kept the great pace Neck by neck, stride by stride, never changing our place;

I turned in my saddle and made its girths tight,

Then shortened each stirrup, and set the pique° right, 10 Rebuckled the cheek-strap, chained slacker the bit, Nor galloped less steadily Roland a whit.

15

'Twas moonset at starting; but while we drew near Lokeren, the cocks crew and twilight dawned clear; At Boom, a great yellow star came out to see; At Düffeld, 'twas morning as plain as could be; And from Mecheln° church-steeple we heard the halfchime,

O

So Joris broke silence with, "Yet there is time!"

At Aershot, up leaped of a sudden the sun,
And against him the cattle stood black every one,
To stare through the mist at us galloping past,
And I saw my stout galloper Roland at last,
With resolute shoulders, each butting away
The haze, as some bluff river headland its spray:

25

And his low head and crest, just one sharp ear bent
back
For my voice, and the other pricked out on his track;
And one eye's black intelligence, ever that glance
O'er its white edge at me, his own master, askance!
And the thick heavy spume-flakes which aye and anon
His fierce lips shook upwards in galloping on.

O

30

By Hasselt, Dirck groaned; and cried Joris, "Stay

spur!

Your Roos galloped bravely, the fault's not in her, We'll remember at Aix" - for one heard the quick

wheeze

Of her chest, saw the stretched neck and staggering

knees,

And sunk tail, and horrible heave of the flank,

As down on her haunches she shuddered and sank.

So, we were left galloping, Joris and I,

Past Looz and past Tongres,° no cloud in the sky; The broad sun above laughed a pitiless laugh,

35

'Neath our feet broke the brittle bright stubble like chaff;

40

Till over by Dalhem° a dome-spire sprang white,
And "Gallop," gasped Joris," for Aix is in sight!"