BALLADS OF THE FLEET BALLADS OF THE FLEET AND OTHER POEMS BY RENNELL RODD VUTHOR OF ' THE VIOLET CROWN,' ETC. WITH A PHOTOGRAVURE FRONTISPIECE EDWARD ARNOLD LONDON AND NEW YORK 1897 A U rights reserved TO MY MANY FRIENDS IN THE FINEST SERVICE IN THE WORLD WHO PROUDLY HOLD UNQUESTIONED THE INHERITANCE OF DRAKE 2030051 PREFACE THE first five poems in the present volume, together with a Ballad of the Armada, which, though later in historical sequence, was published in an earlier collection, are a partial realisation of a projected series of ballads on the great Elizabethan mariners which it has long been my ambition to write. But other calls and occupa- tions have left but little time available to be devoted to a subject which well deserves to claim our undivided attention. In dealing with the following episodes in the life of Sir Francis Drake, which have been the leisure occupation of several Egyptian summers, I have for the most part, without neglecting to consult original sources, followed the excellent narrative of my friend Mr. Julian Vlll BALLADS OF THE FLEET Corbett, who has himself approached in the spirit of a poet the romantic story of the great adventurer. He appears to me to have grasped in a masterly manner the true meaning and importance of the much-debated trial and death of Doughty, and in subscribing to his conclu- sions it is satisfactory that one's predilections should without any violence coincide with one's sense of justice. In the Appendix to the Hakluyt Society's edition of The World Encompassed, certain documents are published, purporting to be first- hand evidence, which attribute to the character and conduct of Drake a very different colour from that which popular sentiment and tradition have handed down. But Drake, like all men who have rapidly conquered popularity and success, had no lack of enemies, and we may well afford to assume that these documents are the work of detractors and malcontents who had their own reasons for seeking to blacken the great sea-captain's name, even if we do not trace them to the immediate in- spiration of John Doughty, the brother of PREFACE ix Thomas, of whom he had of course made an irreconcilable enemy. Drake had, we learn elsewhere, at a critical moment had occasion to stigmatise Francis Fletcher as " the falsest knave alive." In forming an estimate of Drake's conduct on this occasion, there are three points which appear to me conclusive. In the first place, the charges which have been brought against him are wholly alien to the nature of the man as we know him from other sources ; secondly, his conduct was never called in question upon his return home, though his opponents in the Council were many and influential ; and in the third place, John Doughty, whom he had spared, though he believed him implicated in his brother's treachery, was subsequently a fellow-conspirator with a Spanish agent in a plot against his life. Therefore, in spite of any documents which recent research has brought to light, we may be content to abide by the verdict of the men of his own time and the reasonable judgment of Dr. Johnson. X BALLADS OF THE FLEET The other poems included in the present series will, I trust, tell their own story and require no further introduction ; one only of them, the Ballad of Richard Peake, has been previously published, in the English Illustrated Magazine. R. R. CAIRO, September 1897. CONTENTS THE ELIZABETHANS PAGE I. CHILDREN OF THE SEA i II. SAN JUAN DE LUA . . . .11 III. GREENAWAY 41 IV. THE REPRISAL 49 V. THE WORLD ENCOMPASSED . . -87 THE BALLAD OF RICHARD PEAKE . . .15? HAWKWOOD 168 THE DUKE HAS FRIENDS . . . .171 QUIBERON 174 THE FIRST OF JUNE 177 Ax STRATHFIELDSAY 183 TENNYSON 185 PUMWANI 1 88 To GERALD PORTAL 194 NOTES . 197 CHILDREN OF THE SEA BALLADS OF THE FLEET CHILDREN OF THE SEA IN the Medway mouth by Chatham the King's ships lay at ease, The fleet that Tudor Henry built, who was lord of the narrow seas ; Across the bay were the shipwrights' yards where they laid the sturdy keel, And there day through rang hammer stroke, and hissed the strident steel ; And there they bent the good ship's ribs, and trimmed the taper tree, To lift the wide wings windward that bear men over 2 BALLADS OF THE FLEET The old dismasted war-hulks, whose travelling days were done, Lay moored in the quiet reaches where they blistered in the sun. And many a shore-bird there had found a cranny for its nest, And children's faces thronged the ports of those old barks at rest. In such an ark of olden days, moored hard by Chatham dock, There was lodged a sturdy man of God, one Drake of Tavistock : A stern, unyielding Western man, who held with the stern new creed, And deemed that the word was lifeless which did not prompt the deed ; The creed that yet had its evil days of blood and of fire to face Before the faith was 'stablished that has formed the English race. CHILDREN OF THE SEA 3 He had seen his homestead burning long since, and fled for life Across the Dartmoor highlands with his new-born child and wife \ What time the Western counties rose, that famous Whitsuntide, When stalwart Reformation men were on the losing side. But now was peace in all the land through Edward's ebbing days, Before the torch Queen Mary lit had set the shires ablaze ; And here of a Sunday morning, in sunshine, rain, or sleet, The rough sea-folk would gather to the chaplain of the Fleet : For they that go abroad in ships are earnest men at prayer, And they prayed as they would in their own plain way, and as yet none vexed them there. 4 BALLADS OF THE FLEET So half a score of sturdy lads grew up between the decks, And paddled in the ebbing shoals, and played at raids and wrecks Their small black boats would bear them over the reaches wide, Where the mimic billows tossed their manes when the home-wind met the tide, With quick young ^ hands for tiller and sheet alert to the pulse of the breeze, And frank young fearless laughter tuned to the tumbled seas ; While the mother would watch with anxious eyes from the deck of their floating home The track where the children guided a nutshell craft in the foam. They were nursed on the cradling water by fostering wind and wave, And as they had lived, so in after years in the sea they found their grave. CHILDREN OF THE SEA 5 There, half in wonder and half in awe, they had heard grave men debate Dark rumours of the death of kings, and tidings big with fate ; And they saw the Kentish yeomen arm, and march with pike and sword, When Wyatt mustered round his flag the servants of the Lord ; They heard of the battles lost and won, and the good blood spilt in vain, And the infant lips were taught to curse the league with Rome and Spain. So years rolled on, and the eldest-born went forth and took his chance, A 'prentice hand on a ketch that plied to the Channel ports and France. Dark days had set on England, dark days for such as Drake, And lurid through the darkness shone the fagot and the stake ; 6 BALLADS OF THE FLEET It was little enough like boyhood's dream, a dreary life at the best, With danger and toil for shipmates, and hunger oft as a guest ; It was little enough like boyhood's dream when the light on a sunset sail, To eyes that followed the outward bound, was more than a fairy tale ; To crouch chilled through on the dripping planks, and watch for the roving lights, When green seas break on the dipping prow through the endless wintry nights, When the blast drives down from Bergen, and the cloud-banks blot the moon, And the evil sea is a churning race from the chalk cliffs to the dune ; But the mariner's boy was taught his craft, and in service learned to rule, And he braced his nerve and he trained his eye in a hard and thankless school. CHILDREN OF THE SEA 7 He saw the lilied flag of Guise at Calais oust his Queen's, And the fleet of England sail with Spain to battle at Gravelines ; And in the ports of Maas and Scheldt they found no better cheer, There too the shadow of the cowl fell deeper year by year : For a great unrest had touched the time, the world's deep heart was stirred, There rang across the northern blasts a voice that would be heard, A voice that shook the ocean shores where freedom wills to dwell, From Zealand and the English cliffs to Nantes and La Rochelle : The night of years broke into dawn, and now in a broader day Men's conscience craved for warrant from those who bade obey ; 8 BALLADS OF THE FLEET And lest this dire contagion spread, and free thought breathe again, The flag of the Holy Office waved over the ports of Spain ; And through the Flemish sand-hills and up the Holland dykes The hounds of God were on the trail to flesh the Spanish pikes. But where their withering mandate fell deep slumbering passions woke, For simple men grew great of heart and turned against their yoke, And the deed of high endeavour was no more to the favoured few, But brain and heart were the measure of what every man might do. The wronged took arms and sought redress at their own risk and fee, Shook off their feet the bloody dust, and gathered in the sea ; CHILDREN OF THE SEA 9 The London merchants mounted guns, and armed the trading barque, The boatmen left their nets and lines to follow de la Mark, So corsairs swept the narrow seas, and watched the highway south, While justice in her ruder form spoke through the cannon's mouth ; Long years the trembling nations paused, the red fires smouldered low, While monarchs knew within their gates the inter- necine foe ; Till there arose in island England a Queen, by God's own grace, Who gathered in her ample heart the heart of all her race, The race which loving freedom of their own free will obeyed, Till champions mustered round her, and trust with trust repaid ; io BALLADS OF THE FLEET She saw the crisis of the age, absorbed her nation's faith, And faced a world's defiance with battle to the death. Through those dark years of doubt and stress the coaster plied her trade, The preacher's lad grew great and strong, and so the man was made. Such was the school of Francis Drake, who sowed in the years to be The seed of England's empire in the furrows of the SAN JUAN DE LUA SAN JUAN DE LUA THIS is a tale of a treason, with the fate of a world in its wake The treason of Don Alvarez and the oath of Francis Drake ! It was nigh twelve months since Captain John had beat out of Plymouth Sound With the Queen's tall ships the Jesus and the Minion southward bound ; And Drake in the little Judith had sailed in his kinsman's train, With his all on earth in the venture to trade in the Spanish Main. 14 BALLADS OF THE FLEET They met with a gale in Biscay, they had started late in the year, And the Queen's tall ship the Jesus was leaky and ill to steer ; So they halted in Grand Canary and righted their disarray, Recaulked the straining timbers and then to the South away ! They harried the Lisbon traders with Fenner's name for a plea, For the law of quick reprisals was the grim old law at sea; And the Grace of God got an English name and an English flag at the main Ere they sailed for Margarita and the ocean world of Spain. There's many a tale were well forgot, there's little enough to boast Of the work they did those winter months in the bights of the Guinea coast. SAN JUAN DE LUA 15 They did not barter their English gold for the palm- oil or the date, But the hulls that came in ballast went out with a living freight ; On an evil day, John Hawkins, you took up with an evil trade, And you set your course by a luckless star with the fruit of a bloody raid ! Though many had held it was God's work too, while in that dark Afric hell Before the inhuman altars the weak and the captive fell; While the wretch foredoomed to the slaughter might live to be sold a slave, The brand be plucked from the burning and a soul be won to save. But little recked they of doubts or fears that vexed the soul of the wise, They did as the world did round them, and they claimed their share of the prize ; 16 BALLADS OF THE FLEET And their sons shall make atonement, in the years that are to be, For the freight they bore to the New World's shore through the still Sargasso Sea. They were seven weeks in the ocean and never a a sail went by, Cramped in the lonely vastness of infinite sea and sky : But ever the stars moved eastward, and the new stars rose to ken, The awe of the waters scared them, and they longed for the paths of men : Till at last with the sunrise glimmer there rose through an opal sea A shadowy range of islands and the haze of a land on the lee ; And the mariner's boy stared wondering eyed, for the wings of the wind were furled, And the capes hung high in the still mirage of dawn on a phantom world ; SAN JUAN DE LUA 17 A land where never our island oaks had fared since the years began, Until John Hawkins taught them the path of the Englishman. Then a breeze came perfume-laden from the heart of the tropic zone, And crinkling waves tossed round them the drift of a shore unknown : And the winged fish rose on the face of the deep to skim like a cloud of spray From edge to edge of the curling blue and into the blue away ; But the sun still beckoned them westward till he sank in a blaze of fire On the fabled hills of a thousand dreams and the goal of a world's desire ; While the parting mists wreathed upwards in delicate rosy whirls, And there peered through a rift in the broken veil the peaks of the isle of pearls. c 1 8 BALLADS OF THE FLEET Now Philip in his great wisdom had laid England under a ban, And never a New World settler might trade with an Englishman. But the lust of the land was on them, the craving of men confined For a draft of the fresh spring water, the snuff of the off-shore wind, So they landed in Margarita in despite of the King of Spain, They paid their footing in honest gold and quickened their hearts again. And they saw the New World's mountains rise up from a palm-fringed shore Where ever on fangs of coral the long surf-rollers roar; Those crags that Amyas Preston and Somers are soon to scale By pathways hewn through the tangled brakes in the blinding mists and hail, SAN JUAN DE LUA 19 Up mountain walls impregnable to be conquered stair by stair Till Sant lago fall a prey to the men who grandly dare. But they skirted steep La Guayra till they came to a lonely bay, In the gulf that men called " Triste," where was none to say them nay ; And there they abode careening, refitting the masts and spars, And they learned the signs of the seasons and the march of the tropic stars. Here all was a land of marvel, the fireflies' glimmer at night, The shore where the sea-weed gardens rock under the phosphor light ; The great tree-ferns and the coco palms, and the wild lime's sweet perfume, The edge of the forest crimsoned with the great hibiscus bloom, 20 BALLADS OF THE FLEET Where clinging from each green tangle hang down like a cluster of bells Purple and pink and scarlet the frail convolvulus cells ; Where the moth-birds pause and flutter a shower of gems in the air, Dip slender bills in the waxen cups and drink of the nectar there. So a passion of high adventure came over that English crew, They had seen the New World's promise and the way that the east wind blew, They had only stood on the threshold, on the marge of the siren west, But the magic wand had touched them, and now they would never rest. From thence they began their trading the peace of the realms their plea, And the right of open harbour to all from the open sea. SAN JUAN DE LUA 21 The Spanish governors shook their heads, but they made protest in vain, And the Guinea freight was bartered in despite of the King of Spain ; For the settlers made them welcome, and came off in the night aboard, Or they claimed their rights of market at the point of the naked sword ; And it prospered those free-traders till deep in the fcsus' hold Was a smouldering fire of jewels and a shimmer of virgin gold. Then merry at heart they hoisted sail with a home- ward facing prow, For each had a share in the venture, and each was a rich man now. It was northward first, then eastward, the course that the Gulf Stream ran, Where it swept to the bend of Cuba from the elbow of Yucatan ; 22 BALLADS OF THE FLEET And there the storms broke on them, and the wave came nigh to whelm : The hulls were foul, and they made no way, and the Jesus lost her helm. Oh nerve of iron and heart of oak were set in the simple mould Of the men who sped to the unknown seas in the crazy craft of old ! They drove past misty headlands with the chill of death on their souls, And they heard the thunders breaking over uncharted shoals ; And thrice each deemed that the rest were lost, and scoured the seas in vain, And thrice each fought in a week of storm with the might of the hurricane ; They saw no sun in the daytime, and the stars at night were blind, And they sped for a week on an unknown course at the mercy of the wind ; SAN JUAN DE LUA 23 Till their desperate hearts were broken, and as men who have nought to lose, They ran right in to the hornet's nest in the port of Vera Cruz. So they moored in the outer harbour, while the ships' bells rang to prayer, And they cried on the Lord who had spared their lives to be with them even there ; For this was the way with the western folk in storm or battle or raid, They wrought with a will, and they fought with a will, and so with a will they prayed. For strong they said are the whirlwinds, and long is the arm of the foe, But the finger of God is stronger in the path where seamen go. Now it chanced that there in the haven the Indies' Plate Fleet lay, To wait for the convoy galleons that were due since many a day ; 2\ BALLADS OF THE FLEET And all Potosi's hoarded gold, and the wealth of half Peru, Lay under the guns of Captain John, of Drake, and their English few. So the governor manned his galley, and the Dons put out to greet The long-expected vanguard as he deemed of the convoy fleet ; But he found himself on an alien deck, and he stared at Captain John, And he bowed a cold obeisance, and made haste to get him gone ; While couriers sped fast inland to ride with the evil news, There were heretics and pirate craft in the port of Vera Cruz. Then stoutly smiled John Hawkins, and he said, " Sith need must be, I will hold this port of the King of Spain till my ships can face the sea : SAN JUAN DE LUA 25 " By the chance of storm and our evil star we are here in the lion's jaw ; And here, my lads, we must hold our own by the need that knows no law ! " Now the haven pass is narrow, but it widens deep inland From the isle which bars the entrance and the long low spit of sand ; So they warped their ships to the new sea-wall in the lee of the island south, Where the lead gave seven fathoms, and they held San Juan's mouth. And they landed guns on the island, they worked with might and main, And they built the fort Defiance in the jaws of the King of Spain. No moon betrayed their counsel as they laboured through the night, And dawn broke over a freshening sea with the convoy fleet in sight. 26 BALLADS OF THE FLEET There were six tall ships on the starboard line, and seven more on the port, But the English flag was waving from a spar on the island fort. So Don Alvarez de Bazan hove to outside the bar, It was he that took the London ships in the roads of Gibraltar ; Who had ordered the flag of England to be trailed in his rudder's wake, And the crews to the Holy Office for the galleys or the stake. Then a boat shot out from the haven and drew to the flagship's lee, John Hawkins sat in the stern-sheets, with his cutlass on his knee ; "To the Lord High Admiral greeting, for the peace that is between King Philip's royal majesty and my own most gracious Queen ; SAN JUAN DE LUA 27 " We be English seamen weather-bound in a port of the King of Spain, As we came in peace we would bide in peace, and in peace sail out again ; " We met with a gale off Cuba, we are leaky and out of gear, But yet, my Lord, by your evil chance we are like to be masters here. " There is one way into the haven, and that is a narrow way, And not one ship can make it if I choose to say you nay; " If the breeze should freshen to half a gale, as it blew for a week and more, You'll find no break five hundred miles in the surf on the long lee shore, " We hold the fort on the island bar, and I swear to you on my creed, I will sink you all in the narrow pass if my warrant must be my need. 28 BALLADS OF THE FLEET " But if you will pledge your honour in the name of the King of Spain You will do my ships no violence so long as we shall remain, " You will neither let nor hinder my men upon shore or sea, And leave the ward of the island fort to my captains and to me ; " If you sign these terms of treaty here under your hand and seal Ye shall pass in peace to your moorings, and all shall be to your weal ; " But if you will give me no such bond, in the name of England's Queen I give you the bond of an Englishman that ye shall not enter in ! " Then the face of Don Alvarez grew dark with an evil frown, As his captains came about him and they paced it up and down ; SAN JUAN DE LUA 29 For he held the King's commission to chase and harry and take The bodies of one John Hawkins and his kinsman Francis Drake. The day wore by debating while the freshening north wind grew, And the waves came crisply curling with a long white edge to the blue ; The shrill breeze sang in the cordage, and panic grew with the wind, He looked at the lee-shore breakers, he looked at the bond, and signed. So the stately galleons entered between the isle and the crags, While our men stood all to quarters and the Queen's ships dipped their flags. The Spaniards moored in the inner port where the laden Plate Fleet lay, The English bode by the new sea-wall, but the breeze died down with the day. 30 BALLADS OF THE FLEET Then all went well for a little while, there was change of courtesies, The men took heart of confidence and they landed on the quays ; They marvelled much at the giant ships that were nigh two thousand tons, With castles set on the poop and prow and tier over tier of guns : Not all the fleet of England could have mustered such a line, And they pledged the Dons in fellowship, and they tasted Spanish wine. It was noon on the third day after, we had half of our crews away When the sudden rattle of musket fire rang over the silent bay ; The galleons slipped a cable's length and set nearer with the tide, While a great black hulk towed seaward swang round to the Minion's side. SAN JUAN DE LUA 31 There was never a word of warning till the ships' sides clashed, and then Their boarders sprang to the ratlins and the hulk grew quick with men ; But the war drums beat to quarters, and a cry went round our ships, The crews sprang up the hatchways with " Treason ! " on their lips ; And they snatched up pike and hatchet and capstan- bar and sword, And they dashed out on the Spaniards, and they flung them overboard ; While stricken men with gaping wounds came swim- ming off from shore, And boats put back in frantic haste to the ships they reached no more. They hoisted sail in a hail of shot, and they cut the hawsers free, So the Minion and the Judith won safe to the open 32 BALLADS OF THE FLEET But the Jesus lay dismantled where the galleons ringed her round, And they opened fire at the stroke of noon in black San Juan's Sound. The land troops crossed in barges by the shoals from the haven town, They took the fort on the island, and they mowed the gunners down ; They trained her guns on the Jesus, and she fought like a wolf at bay, With the hound pack barking round her, cut off from the narrow way. They will plead reserves of conscience, and the oath that is no oath, But dearly Don Alvarez shall pay for his broken troth, For the gunners of the Jesus have laid their pieces true, And they struck him hard on the water-line, and they lacked the flagship through ; SAN JUAN DE LUA 33 The wave rushed in by the breaches, and there rose a shuddering cry From the soldiers penned in the fighting-decks to every saint in the sky, The main-mast snapped and toppled with the banner of proud Castile, The poop sank down in the churning sea, and the stem showed clean to the keel ; While far away from the Judith's deck they answered a cheer that broke, As the Admiral's great Armada went down in a cloud of smoke. " So the devil comes to his own again !" laughed grim old Captain John, And his blue eyes flashed through the powder smirch, as he roared from the poop, " Fight on !" Then the galleys filled with boarders, and ever again they came, With their muskets laid on the gunwale and their tow-pikes all aflame ; 34 BALLADS OF THE FLEET But he dropped his main and fore yard, and he blocked his decks across, And ever again the boarders went back to their shame and loss. There were four great galleons silenced when the powder was spent at last, When they loosed their fireships on him, and then the end came fast ; So he manned his boats with the rest of his crew, and they cut their desperate way To the harbour gate and the narrow strait and into the outer bay ; And there as they won to the Minion and climbed to tia&JwUtKs decks, They could see the Jesus burning in the midst of a ring of wrecks ; And all the fruits of the voyage, the silver and gems and gold, The charts they had made, and the traitor's bond, went down with the burning hold. SAN JUAN DE LUA 35 There was none that dared to follow of all they had fought so well, The kindlier sea received them and the shadow of evening fell. Day broke on a dreary ocean, San Juan was far behind, And the God of the just and unjust tethered the wings of the wind. So they hugged the reefs long days and nights, till they chanced on an inland reach, Where the surf was still, and the lead sank deep, and the wave lay asleep on the beach ; Where the smooth transparent water was clear as a film of air, Over fathom-deep weed gardens and sea things marvel- lous fair ; Where the forest pressed to the blue tide's marge, and never mayhap till then Wide wandering ships had carried the venturous lives of men. 36 BALLADS OF THE FLEET And a hundred souls of their own free will were left on the tropic shore, Since they never might win to England with the burden that they bore. Solemn was that leave-taking, where they knelt in the alien sand, Commending these their comrades into their Maker's hand; For a year and more in an alien world they had shared in weal and woe, Had breasted storm and affronted toil, and had held their own with the foe ; And those rough old dogs of the ocean were tender of heart and true, And comrade clung to his comrade staunch as captain clung to his crew ; There were salt wet tears on the furrowed cheeks that the tropic suns had tanned As they bade farewell, and they left them there to their chance in an unknown land ; SAN JUAN DE LUA 37 To an evil fate, and an unforeseen, as it proved in the years to be, When the curse of the Holy Office fell over that island sea. It was well-nigh three months later the watch on the Hoe descried The wraith of a battered warship beat in on the flood- ing tide ; Through the dismal wintry waters, through infinite trials past, Hungry and lean and spent with storm, it was Drake come home at last. And later yet in the new year's dawn came the little Minion too, Smitten with plague in the ocean and manned with a stranger crew. But the length and the breadth of England took fire at the news they brought, The treason of Don Alvarez and the fight John Hawkins fought. 38 BALLADS OF THE FLEET And Drake has got him another ship, and sworn to the Lord of Hosts He will claim redress at the cannon's mouth round all their ports and coasts, Till the treasure stores of the Indies have atoned to him fifty-fold The loss of the good ship Jesus and her men and the Guinea gold ; And so he has gathered a willing crew with the rest of his Judith's men, And they're off once more on the same old trail, and it's Westward Ho again ; And wherever the wide seas open he will brook no bar nor stay, And there's never a wave but English sails shall claim for their free highway ; Till the sceptre shall pass of ocean, and the whole of the world shall know That an English life is a sacred thing wherever a keel can go ! SAN JUAN DE LUA 39 And Captain John was on all men's lips, and his loss was England's gain, For his single ship had shattered the myth of the might of Spain. GREENAWAY GREENAWAY THE mother looked out from the window-bay, looked over the woods to the sea, And, " Where are those three bonny boys of mine ? " and " where are they gone ? " said she. The gardener's lad with the wave-tanned face looked up from the blush-rose bed, " They have taken the boat and dropped on the ebb at dawn of the day," he said. The mother turned from the window-bay, she was fair as three-months' bride, " Ah well-a-day for my three wild boys and their lust of the sea," she sighed. 44 BALLADS OF THE FLEET But deeper yet had the mother sighed, could she know what the years would bring, The gift of the sea, and the doom of the sea, and the faith of a craven king. A stone's throw under the windows by dale and covert and down The Dart winds home from its moorland source to the roads and the haven town ; And thither it was in an old sea-boat from their home at Greenaway The eager sons of the manor-house would fare for their holiday ; There were Humphry and Adrien Gilbert, with their friend from over the moor, The yeoman's son John Davies to tug at the heavy oar, And the lad that held the tiller, the fourth and youngest one, Was the heir of Walter Raleigh and the same fair mother's son. GREEN A WA Y 45 What deeds of wild adventure they have dared on that Devon stream When the fabled West was an easy quest to a boy's light-hearted dream. When the river-reach was their tropic sea, and the coast was the Spanish Main, And the blistered wreck on the ebb-tide shoal was a great galleass of Spain. And so they would come to the haven, where, moored to the laden quays, Were the ships at rest with their canvas furled from a hundred marvellous seas ; The lofty poops and the painted hulls of the beauti- ful ships of old, The carven prows and the open ports with their guns that shone like gold ; For the boys that were born and cradled where the breeze of the ocean blows, They loved those ships with the passion that only the sea child knows. 46 BALLADS OF THE FLEET And the Channel rovers knew them, the men of the western shire, And told them tales of the ocean life and the world of a boy's desire ; There was one that had sailed with Strangways, another with red Tremayne ; They could tell of the Holy Office and the rule of the monk in Spain ; Of the corsair folk in the eastern isles with the long brass guns on deck, Of the north sea spray, of a gale in the bay, of a fight, of a run, of a wreck ; Of the fur-clad folk and the frost-bound shores where the day and the night are one, And the drifting ice-floes sparkle to the gleam of the midnight sun ; But the tale that held them longest was the tale of the isles that lie Far over the great Atlantic and the land of the sunset sky; GREEN A WA Y 47 Where veiled in rumour and fable, withdrawn as a virgin bride, The world to be wooed and conquered was a quest that was still untried. Then the lips would part and the eager eyes go west- ward over the sea, " A little while, but a little while, and the time will come for me." Now back for the tide sets inland, and the mother frets in the hall, "We have far to go ere the sun be low, good hap to ye, masters all ! :> " God speed to ye, gentle worships good hap to ye, honest John, Good luck to you, young Squire Raleigh, and keep your eye on the Don ! " The mother looked out as the westering sun went under the steep moor-side, And " Where are those three bonny boys of mine ? they are long from their home," she sighed. 48 BALLADS OF THE FLEET But deeper yet had the mother sighed, could she know what the end would be, For to all save one in the after years their doom came out of the sea. THE REPRISAL THE REPRISAL Being the veracious narrative of John Killigrew, gentleman adventurer, who accompanied Captain Francis Drake on his second voyage to Darien ; done into the modern manner. OH sweetly rang the Plymouth bells on the day we put to sea, When May and June were nearly met and the new leaf on the tree ; And sweetly over Edgcumbe's isle the setting sun declined, It was Whitsun-Eve of May-time, and the May thrill in the wind. There were hats that waved and kerchiefs, a cheer rang round the quays As the fiddler played our anchors up and the new sails took the breeze. 52 BALLADS OF THE FLEET The highlands drew their mantle round, and high up on the Hoe, And nestling deep in shadowy hills red lights began to show ; But the eager heart looked never back on a world so good to leave, To the orchard lawns and the cowslip fields and the bells of Whitsun-Eve. Our captain stood on the Pasha's poop as we won to the open sea ; "Now lay her straight in the sunset track, for it's Westward Ho ! " said he. I sailed with Drake and with Oxenham, and the captain's brother John With the rest of those who ventured were aboard of the little Swan. We were three-and-seventy men and boys when the muster-log was told, And only one of the seventy-three who was thirty summers old. THE REPRISAL 53 The crew were Dart and Plymouth men, with the four I brought from Looe, Jack Basset and the Widdicombes, and my foster- brother Drew. Two years were gone since the Dragon ship sailed out with the self-same men, And Drake had won him his right of way to the Gulf of Darien ; And the little Swan got an evil name last year on the Spanish Main, For the long white wings of the tiny craft were a match for the best of Spain. The breeze was fair, with the topsails square, and never a reef we flew, And the heart of our little captain was a fire to the heart of his crew ; It passed to a proverb in after-years with the men who had loved him well You were sure of heaven with Gilbert, but with Drake you had daunted Hell ! 54 BALLADS OF THE FLEET At last we had sight of the Windwards limned like a cloud in the sky, It was five weeks out from the Lizard, and the second day of July ; And not in vain we had proved those seas and charted the reefs last year, And laid the course by the star and sun that the venture had to steer, For we saw strange sails to the eastward, and ran for a week of days Past flowery cliffs where the blue wave winds through the calm of the island maze. The men were mad to be landing, but he suffered it not to be Till our track was lost in the wildering isles, and we struck on the Carib Sea. We voided the path of traders, ran west yet awhile, and then Bore down on the midmost channel of the Gulf of Darien : THE REPRISAL 55 And we came to the hidden haven he had found two years before, We anchored under the high cliffs' lee, and at last we went ashore. We felled the forest timbers and planted a high stockade, Where they pieced the jointed pinnace under the ceiba's shade ; While we shot the mark with the arquebus, we measured swords in play, And Drake assigned the prizes that the Dons would have to pay ; The chattering monkeys swarmed to watch and swung on the climbing vine, The parrots screamed in the branches, but of man was never a sign. A week from the day we landed they had launched three handy craft, Twelve-oared and low in the water, and long with a shallow draft. 56 BALLADS OF THE FLEET Their crews were picked and a course was buoyed as the sun dropped low to the west, The Devon muscle was good to see on shoulder and arm and chest, And the cliffs of the silent haven rang to the helms- man's cries As the Minion raced t\\& Jesus and the Judith won the prize, When round the sheltering headland, traced black on the even glow, Came sailing in a barque of war with a caravel in tow! In a flash we were back to the Pashds side, and Oxenham, mighty of lung, Hailed them over the waters, for he spoke with the Spaniard's tongue ; While the gunners stood to their pieces with linstocks over the breech, But the answer came in the Devonshire with a " Plague on your foreign speech ! " THE REPRISAL 57 It was Ranee the Channel rover in Sir Edmund Horsey's barque, Grown tired of his privateering in the Downs with de la Mark ; And so he had sailed on fortune's wind right into the heart of the west ; And here was a man to our captain's hand, we were far too few at the best ; For the mettle of Drake had fired us, we were set on the wildest plan That ever perchance had dazzled the desperate dreams of man ; On the coast due east from Nombre lay a cluster of isles he knew Girded in reefs and white with shoals that had daunted an older crew ; He would hide his ships in the wooded isles, and thence with a chosen band Creep on by night in the launches under the lee of land; 58 BALLADS OF THE FLEET He would enter the port of Nombre, the great treasure- house of Spain, And carry a year's gold harvest back to his ships again. So a bond was made and a treaty signed, and the forty with Ranee were sworn To stand by Drake in the venture, and we sailed with the break of morn. We came to the fir-grown islands we sounded wary and slow Till we found a way through the sunken rocks where the ships might pass in tow, And we laid them up in a shore-locked bay that ran like a lake inland, With the world-old forest ringing the rim of its silver sand; We drew the lot and we started, night through we tugged at the oar, Seventy men in the launches, and with day drew in to the shore ; THE REPRISAL 59 We fought with the surf and conquered, we slept through the sultry noons, We woke with the shadow of evening and toiled by the waning moons ; Till the fifth sun sank in a stormy sky, and at last the launches lay Adrift on a murky midnight off the point of Nombre We knew that beyond that headland a world-famed city slept, And closer yet with a muffled stroke the four swift launches crept. Great clouds shut out the starlight, the moon would be late to rise, There was one black void of water under one black void of skies ; Far off the long surf thundered on an unseen shingle shore, And between its measured pulse-beats you felt the silence more ; 60 BALLADS OF THE FLEET And the awe of the shifting darkness wrought into each straining sense Till you heard your own heart beating in the stillness of suspense. Then eastward rose a glimmer as it might be, faint and dim, The first white touch of dawning over the ocean rim. It was only the moon belated, but "Yonder," he said, " comes day, One last pull round the headland and Drake will show the way ! " There was hardly a light in Nombre but the lamp at the haven head, And away beyond at the landing-place where the cresset fires shone red ; So we stole in under the shadow at the edge of the new sea-wall, While the moon sailed up through a cloudy bank and we heard the sentry call ; THE REPRISAL 61 There were ten men left in the launches, there were threescore sprang to the land, And we rushed to the fort at the haven mouth and tumbled the guns in the sand ; But the gunners dropped in the fosses and fled through the night unhurt, And they roused the sleepy watchmen, and the dark- ness grew alert : The great bell tolled from the belfry, it clanged with an eerie stroke, And rumour swelled to a stormy cry as the shuddering city woke ; For Drake had carried the market-place, and the guards were full in flight As I fell on their flank with Oxenham, and panic screamed in the night, We charged with a babel of horn and drum, we yelled our rallying cry, And the torches fixed on our ten-foot pikes blazed into the murky sky. 62 BALLADS OF THE FLEET So we fought our way to the treasure-house, and the guards fell back once more, The bowmen kept them at bow-shot length while we rammed through the iron door, And we stared on an Empire's ransom in the torch- light's glare, untold Wedges of silver shoulder high and the Inca's virgin gold. There were gems imbedded in rough -hewn quartz that caught the flickering gleam, There were pearls to be had for the snatching, wealth over our wildest dream ! But the great Church bell of Nombre boomed on with its call to arms, And we heard their war-drums beating and the bugles' shrill alarms, We heard the rattle of musket fire where our boats were left behind, While clouds rolled over the moon again and a chill struck into the wind ; THE REPRISAL 63 "They never must form to rally, back, lads, to the market-place ! " And lo ! as he sprang to lead us our captain fell on his face : Long since he had gotten a grisly wound, and his strength had ebbed as it bled, But our hearts stood still for a moment's space at the thought he had fallen dead ; For a sudden volley had struck the ground, and the sand splashed into our eyes As we staggered blind from the lightning-flash shot over the purple skies : Then the tropic rain burst o'er us, and our matchlock fires were drenched, Our bow-strings would not serve us, and the blazing tow was quenched ; We raised our wounded captain, and we bore him back to the quay, While he cursed us all for cravens " Will you lose this chance ? " said he. 64 BALLADS OF THE FLEET But his men with a gentle violence had forced him out of the strife, For all the gold in the west, they said, was as naught to their captain's life. So the Spanish footmen rallied, and the streets grew live with men, And we fought with the pike and the musket-butt, and we charged them one to ten. We laid our wounded under the thwarts with the spoil we had brought away, And never a man was missing as we pushed out into the bay. We climbed on board of a seventy-ton, and we cut the hawsers free, We towed her out, and we hoisted sail, and made for the open sea. While day -dawn scowled through a sullen sky, and ever our captain railed, "Had I been quit of my wound," he said, "the venture had not failed." THE REPRISAL 65 But we found good store on the captured ship of red and of amber wines, And our wounds were nigh forgotten when we came to the isle of pines. So Ranee took his share of the Nombre gold, and the barque sailed home again, And that was the first reprisal that we made in the Spanish Main. Then we sailed to Cartagena, and we ran right up the port, 'Mid clanging of bells from the churches, and thunder of guns from the fort ; And the launches dashed through the musket fire, and under the Governor's eyes Laid hands on a Cadiz transport, and carried her out a prize. He sent the prisoners back to shore in their boats for his good name's sake, For there never was gentler pirate or kindlier foe than Drake ; 66 BALLADS OF THE FLEET But he freed the slaves we had found on board at work in collar and chain, And thus we won to our service these the deadliest foes of Spain. It was first at Cartagena we were 'ware of the evil news That the men of the Holy Office had landed in Vera Cruz. They told us of our good comrades in the hands of a ruthless foe, The Judith's men and the Minion's that were left three years ago ; And they told us four great galleons had sailed in the Pasha 's track Because of the raid on Nombre, with an oath to bring us back. So we made as though we were eastward bound, and scuttled the little Swan On the rocks near Cartagena, and with nightfall we were gone. THE REPRISAL 67 We were sore at heart for the brave little craft, but our hands were all too few To work one ship with the prizes and to man the launches too. So we turned and steered for a lonely bay, far out of their mariners' ken, He had found in a deep reef-sheltered blue elbow of Darien : Long creeks run up from its shelving shore to the foot of the hills inland, Where the rain-born torrents cleave a way through the mud swamps and the sand ; Where over the banks untrodden, in mist and in fever-breath, The silent mangrove forest broods on a world of death ; Their black stems rise from the waters, their thin bent roots divide, And clutch with uncanny fingers the drift of the shifting tide ; 68 BALLADS OF THE FLEET We hid our ships in the gloomy creeks, with their topmasts stowed away, And we built us huts on the upland, with an outlook over the bay. It were long to tell of the raids we made from our lair in Plenty Cove, How we built a fort at the forest edge, and our every venture throve ; For thence the swift black launches would creep through the island maze, By the channels still uncharted to the edge of the great highways, They would board the coastwise traders becalmed on the tropic nights, They claimed sea-toll from the victualling ships and fought in a hundred fights ; But we paid the price of rashness, when at last on an evil day With a weary stroke and a bleeding crew the boats crawled back to the bay THE REPRISAL 69 With the tale of a raid too well repelled, of the few that were far too few, With the mangled bodies of Captain John and my foster-brother Drew. We dug their graves in the alien world, as a sailor's grave should be, On a spur of the hill at the forest edge where it looks to the open sea ; And we mourned as you mourn for the first to fall, and there stole on the brooding mind A thought of the lights last Whitsun-Eve and of all we had left behind. Now the slaves we had freed and friended were gone forth to the jungle folk, The fierce black tribes of the Cimaroons with the links of the chain we broke, A symbol of peace and friendship, that their great cacique might know The men of the woods and the men of the sea were at war with a common foe ; 70 BALLADS OF THE FLEET They were sprung, they claimed, from the mutineers that had once been a galley's crew, And a deadly hate of their lords of old was the only law they knew ; They had got them wives of the Indian folk, and here on the free hillside, In the tracking of game and the plunder of man, they had thriven and multiplied. So the chiefs came down to our camping ground, and the tribe abode with us there, And we learned the lore of their forest craft, and the trick of the woodman's snare. They told us priceless tidings, how the rains were near at hand, When the hill streams grew in the torrent beds and travel is barred by land, But so we would wait in our hiding-place till the dry months came again, When the plate stores cross from the southern sea to the ports on the Spanish Main ; THE REPRISAL 71 They would guide us over the jungle waste through the crags by an unknown way To the path of the laden mule-trains, and the road to Nombre Bay. So the rains came on in their season, and the hills raced down to the seas, And ever it poured on our cranky thatch, and it dripped in the night of the trees ; The weeks went by in a shadow of gloom till the camp was a dismal fen, Till the chill of the rain wrought into our souls, and the heart died out of our men. Then the gray skies broke and the sun pierced through, but the white mist rose like a shroud From the ooze and slime of the mangrove creek, and death was abroad in the cloud. And one by one in the fever camp our men dropped down and died ; There were twenty-and-nine of the seventy-three that are laid there side by side ; 72 BALLADS OF THE FLEET Till we cursed the sea and the hoarded gold, and the toil we had spent for its sake ; But stronger than death, and the fear of death, was the quenchless heart of Drake. Though his youngest brother, the lad we loved, dropped down in his strength and prime, And I saw great tears in the stern blue eyes for the first and only time, Yet he came and went with a cheery smile, he sat by each sick man's bed, He nerved the doubting surgeons, and at night bore out his dead. We dug him a grave by Captain John at the head of that line of mounds, They will rise up first on the judgment dawn when the last great muster sounds ; They will call their lads to quarters, and my foster- brother Drew Will pipe on his boatswain's whistle that the men of the Pasha knew, THE REPRISAL 73 And I pray the Lord have mercy, when the angel reads the scrolls, For the bitter death that they died out there, on those poor seamen's souls. For look you it is sweet and well in the day we come to die, To know familiar presences and kindred faces by ; To watch from sheltering windows wide the happy light that plays On pleasant scenes that seem to soothe the ebbing of our days ; To see the shadows lengthening down the quiet fields we knew, And the farewell sunset purpling the distant hills of blue; While tender voices whisper near with gently bated breath, So softly in its season falls the kindly kiss of death. 74 BALLADS OF THE FLEET But it's ill to pass in the wilderness on the bed of wattled reeds, With only the swamp to cool the fire of the fever that it breeds. Yet they that march in England's van have such grim death to face, And alien suns shall bleach the skulls of our unquiet race. The desert wastes shall gather them, the red sand choke their groans, And every tide of all the seas roll up their restless bones. So there we endured and conquered, the evil drew to an end, The murmur hushed in his greater loss, and the sick began to mend. And yet we were hardly a score in all that were strong to march and fight, When the scouts brought news from Nombre of the Plate fleet hove in sight ; THE REPRISAL 75 But thirty men of the Cimaroons marched out with their great cacique, And they suffered us bear no burdens from the day we left the creek. We struck through the gloom of the forest, where the dark arms tangle and cross, And the weird dead trunks rot slowly under their pall of moss, Where there dwells eternal silence and never the sun- light breaks The roof that tents the twilight of a sleep where no life wakes. They found us a track where no track was, and we crept on their noiseless trail Through the steamy shade and the fungus slime to the world of a fairy tale ; We climbed the Cordilleras, up steps of the mountain rills That yet ran full with the overflow from the springs in the heart of the hills ; 76 BALLADS OF THE FLEET We passed through untrodden valleys where the shrubs had an odour of balm, And the wild wood creatures dwelt unscared in the old primeval calm ; The sap of those trees ran white like milk, the wounds in the bark ran blood, The fruit hung luscious on every bough, and the ripe fruit grew by the bud ; The cotton blanched in a silky tuft, the bamboos waved their flags, The acacia pods were a sabre's length, and the wild gourd clung to the crags. We came to a break in the mountain chain at end of a weary day, A pass hewn deep in the great rock wall, and the late moon rose that way ; The upland hollow was dense with bush, and the grass rose shoulder high, There was nought to see for its forest ring but the stars far up in the sky ; THE REPRISAL 77 And lone in the jungle clearing one monster ceiba stood, The last of a race of giants of the patriarchal wood ; Its wide arms stretched to the rock's high crest, and its branches bar on bar Were the rungs of a mighty ladder that reached right up to the star ; The great lianes wound through them and drooped to the earth again, ' And myriad blooms of orchids had life from the living chain ; They pitched our camp in the mighty roots, and they waved their hands on high, And they said, "Climb up, Senores, for this is the Mountain's Eye ! " So Drake swung up through the creepers, and he scaled the ancient tree, And first of all living Englishmen had a sight of the Golden Sea. 78 BALLADS OF THE FLEET Beneath him forests lay in gloom, dim gorges wound between White crags like billows cresting in the moonlight's marble sheen. Behind the vast Atlantic rolled, and widening glim- mering west The sister ocean rose and took the moon-kiss on her breast. He clambered down with a bursting heart, and fell on his bended knee, And awe came over us all who watched, and he said, "Go up and see ! " And I went aloft through the twisted coils, and Oxenham climbed, and then The mariners each went up in turn to the last of the Pasha's men : And the mystic secret was no more hid, and the jealous lords of Spain Had veiled the face of the virgin sea, and had barred her gates in vain ! THE REPRISAL 79 We stood ringed round together, bared heads by the flickering fire, We sang the "Nunc Dimittis," and Jack Basset led the choir ; And we swore the oath of a fellowship in the shade of the ceiba tree, We would never rest till an English keel had sailed on the Golden Sea. Then we dropped down the gorges, and we came on the second day To the meeting of roads in a mountain pass, and they said, " There winds the way ! " And we looked once more on the western sea, and saw from the ridge afar The fleets of the sister ocean in the roads of Panama. The black folk sent their scouts to spy while the noon was sultry yet, And they saw the mule-trains gathered to march when the sun should set. 8o BALLADS OF THE FLEET So we chose a place in the level way and the narrow strait of the pass, Between the gates of the east and west, and hid in the jungle grass ; And there we had ease of our weariness as we lay by twos and threes Through the trance of the burning noontide in shadow of rocks and trees. They rolled us leaves of a priceless herb that grew in their hill domain, Whose fumes are better than meat and drink, a drug to the heart and brain ; And our limbs worn out with the mountain march were soothed with a sweet relief As our lips inhaled its fragrance, and our souls forgot their grief. Then the sun went down on the western sea, the stars in the east grew bright, And the fireflies lit their lanterns in the sudden tropic night ; THE REPRISAL 81 And since the moon would be late to rise each man drew on his shirt Outside of his seaman's jersey, and we lay by our arms alert. There were twenty men in the ambush with the breast- high grass for screen, On either side of the mountain track, and a bow-shot's length between. The drowsy night air hummed with life, the forest things gave tongue, While measured on the throbbing pulse the minutes dragged along. Then far and faint on rustling breaths that seemed to move in sleep, We could hear the mule bells tinkle far down the misty deep ; And ever they mounted nearer, till we heard the hide- whips crack, Till the echoes rang with the jangling chime, and the hoofs that slipped on the track, 82 BALLADS OF THE FLEET They hummed an air as they rode along, the guards at the head of the line, They rode right into the ambush, and then Drake gave the sign ; And the night was rent with a wild war-cry, the bolt rang keen from the bow, The black men sprang to the pack -mules' heads, and we all dashed out on the foe. The escort stood for one moment's space in the jungle path at bay, And then fled clattering madly back, or on to Nombre Bay. And we loosed the packs, and we lashed the mules behind them left and right, And headlong down the desperate paths they galloped through the night. But all the cost of our voyage was paid us a thousand- fold In the gems we took from the rifled packs and the red Potosi gold ; THE REPRISAL 83 And as for the silver ingots that we had no hands to bear, We stuffed them into the crannied rocks and under the tree-roots near. Then we clambered up by the hill -stream's course, though the way was dark to find, Where our feet on the dripping boulders would leave no trail behind. We were far away on the mountain's crest before the alarm had spread. When dawn broke rosy wakening out of her ocean bed; For panic grew with the morning light, gave wings to the evil news, And they landed guns from the ships of war, and they armed at Venta Cruz. And still folks say that in Panama you may hear the settlers tell How the Dragon came in his devil-ship, and he made a league with hell ; 84 BALLADS OF THE FLEET For their own guards saw the black fiends swarm and gather at his call, And they cross themselves as they tell the tale : " From such God save us all ! " But we went down by the pathless crags through the thorn-brakes' tangled coil, Where the face of the cliff was sheerest, bent under the weight of spoil ; And we came to the edge of the ocean at eve on the second day, Our hearts were glad for the salt waves' smell and beat of the tossing spray, We came to the gorge with its winding stream where our trysting-place should be, And there were our launches hidden in a sheltered arm from the sea; And there were our comrades waiting, grown hearty and hale once more, And wild at the sight of the treasure loads that our black companions bore. THE REPRISAL 85 We gave the chiefs to their hearts' desire of our arms and stores and loot, And we left them all the launches and a Spanish prize to boot ; And we got on board of our own good ship, made trial of spar and mast, Streamed all the silken pennants and shook sail out at last. We skirted Cartagena with the red cross at our main, To fire one last defiance to King Philip and to Spain ; And gaily through the tropic sea we ran before the wind, And left the name of Francis Drake and the fear of God behind. Oh sweetly rang the Sabbath bells across from shore to shore The merry August morning when we sighted home once more ; 86 BALLADS OF THE FLEET We heard them ring to matins from Cawsand and the Rame, And sweetly up the off-shore wind the homely voices came. We thundered out our last salute to the Admiral of the Port, And old John Hawkins answered with the guns in Plymouth fort. And how the folks streamed out of church, and hurried down the Hoe, And left the parson preaching, all lads in Plymouth know. So there, my sons, the tale must end of what we did afloat, You must ask good Master Walsingham what Philip's envoy wrote. They say Mendoza still protests and long he may in vain, But Spain will pause before she breaks her solemn bond again. THE WORLD ENCOMPASSED THE WORLD ENCOMPASSED IT was summer now in the world they knew, mid June and the month of mirth, But Drake was stayed in the winter's grip on the dreariest coast of earth. They had sailed in a bleak November and assembled in Mogador, He had taken a prize of the Portingals and had set her crew on shore : He had made the Brazils in April and watered in River Plate, And now two months he had sought in vain for the pass to Magellan's Strait. 90 BALLADS OF THE FLEET In fog and in heavy weather, through wildering sleet and snow, They had fought with the leaden waters in a track where no ships go, Where the storm wind howls with a human voice, where the long swell flings its spray Up cliffs where never a green leaf breaks the gloom of the wintry gray ; And still it blew from the frozen pole, and they beat in the icy breath, The Pelican and the Marygold and the barque Eliza- beth. The heart of his men was broken, and ever the discord grew, And a haunting dread of that unknown world crept over his simple crew ; Till they wrought with a grudging labour, till they answered with sullen lips, And the breath of a mutinous murmur went up from the weary ships. THE WORLD ENCOMPASSED 91 But the general watched and waited till the time should be ripe for speech ; Till the hidden evil had come to light, and the sickness craved the leech. They had won to an inlet isle-enclosed, by the reckon- ing fifty south, And the battered fleet put in at last through the reefs that barred its mouth. There were spars to be refitted, and the standing gear was worn, The hulls were foul from the long sea-way, and the sails were frayed and torn. There was never a ship sailed here but once, and now it was fifty years Since the great Magellan anchored and dealt with his mutineers ; There was never a trace of living thing in that arm of the lonely sea, But high on the cliff in the silent world stood the frame of his gallows tree ; 92 BALLADS OF THE FLEET And there, clean picked of the vultures, and washed by the driving rain, The bones of a man swung to and fro held up in a rusty chain. They stared at the silent witness of the great sea- captain's hand, And the sense of an ill-foreboding came up from that dismal strand. Now once more here at this world's far end among the boulders gray Shall a court be called for judgment in bleak St. Julian's Bay. For at last the leech has probed the wound and the bitter charge is framed, Long -hidden things shall come to light and the traitor's name be named. So Drake has called his captains and the mates and the volunteers, And Master Thomas Doughty shall be tried before his peers ; THE WORLD ENCOMPASSED 93 As ran the law in England, so ran their law at sea, Who stood within its danger might claim his due degree. The chaplain brought the book to kiss, and swore them man by man, And grimly that mid-winter morn the ocean court began. Then witness after witness rose, and they told the sordid tale Of all the arts the man had used to make the venture fail; Till the damning charge of his mutiny was established to the hilt, And that reluctant jury gave their verdict of his guilt. But he, since Drake so humbled him, replied with taunt and jest, And by his own lips' railing stood a traitor self- confessed ; 94 BALLADS OF THE FLEET There were those at home in England of the counter- plot, said he, Who knew the end of this fool's design long ere they had put to sea : King Philip had ambassadors to guard the rights of Spain, And when the watchman waketh the wolf will prowl in vain. Then the eyes of Drake grew cold and hard with the glance it was ill to meet, And he called the crews together to the least man in the fleet ; From first to last he had said no word till then for good or ill As he faced his wavering captains while his trumpet blew the ' still.' He stood erect in the midst of all with his drawn sword in his hand At the foot of Magellan's gallows by the edge of the dreary land, THE WORLD ENCOMPASSED 95 While the chill wind moaned in the gully and the waves boomed far away On the sunken reefs and the broken crags at the gate of the wintry bay. And he said : " My masters, hearken, friends old and comrades new, While I tell you all that my purpose holds and the | thing we have sailed to do. "There was no man questioned whither on the day we set to sea, I am used to be trusted all in all by the men that sail with me ; " But your discords, aye and your mutinies, have left me nigh distraught, I must have this left, my masters, though the price be dearly bought ; "I would have you know that the gentlemen shall take their place with the crew, Shall haul and draw with the seamen when their captain bids them to ; 96 BALLADS OF THE FLEET " I will brook no more division I would know who dares refuse. God's life ! am I not your master ? I will break you all if I choose ! "Let the Pashds men stand forward, yon five that were with me then, When we looked across to the unknown side from the tree in Darien. " Do you mind my oath in the camp-fire light, how I swore, God helping me, I would sail a ship with an English flag through the heart of the Golden Sea ! " Since then five years have come and gone, and now, so He hath willed, The oath that I swore in Darien shall surely be ful- filled. "For it fell in the time appointed that the Queen, whom God defend, Had heard her subjects' bitter cry from Berwick to Land's End : THE WORLD ENCOMPASSED 97 "And since the Spanish King protests his arm may not control The Holy Office in his realm, which lie be on his soul, "Since in the councils of her peers she had found small help or stay, And still unchallenged at her feet the King's defiance lay; " So in her bitter need she turned from the grave and proved, and wise, And she called a poor sea-captain who had found grace in her eyes. " And thus it chanced upon a day, a year gone by and more, There came a summons to the court from the great who guard her door. " A hand put back the arras and beckoned round the screen, And I was kneeling at the feet of England's injured Queen. 98 BALLADS OF THE FLEET " She stood against the oriel frame and looked me up and down, Who wondered how so frail a brow could bear so great a crown : '"And this is Captain Francis Drake, and that the guilty head My kinsman Philip long hath craved, and craveth still,' she said. " She won my heart with mild reproof with frowns that died in smiles, She learned the tale of all we did beyond the western isles ; "She hearkened and she never tired as I told it all again, How we stripped the mules at Nombre and scared the Spanish Main : " And then herself, with broken voice, she spake of all her woes, The peace proclaimed where no peace is, the bitter cry that rose THE WORLD ENCOMPASSED 99 " From cities where her merchant fleets lie idle by the quays With rotting sail and fouling keel debarred from half the seas, " From little havens in the cliffs, where their mothers watch in vain For the lads that the fever dungeons will never yield again, " From wretches maimed in torture cells, whose bodies show the scar Where peace has struck the craven stroke they had never brooked in war, " From those an alien judge hath doomed, and who for conscience' sake Were greater than their fear of death and English at the stake, " And womanlike she sighed and said, ' And is there none to aid ? ' And queenly with a burst of scorn, 'Are all but I afraid?' ioo BALLADS OF THE FLEET "So there and then with halting breath, but all the brain on fire, I told our glorious Lady Liege of all my heart's desire. " I told her of the great South Sea, the secret of our foe, Where unperceived of prying eyes his Plate -fleets come and go, " How there the sword he wields so well, the serried pikes of Spain, The guns that menace every sea are wrought for England's bane, " Where drowsy waves and laggard winds waft up to Panama The spoils of all the mines that sleep beneath the summer star : "And so the glorious scheme was planned to raid the Golden Sea, Now let me know who turns his back on England and on me ! THE WORLD ENCOMPASSED 101 "Still southlier yet through seas unsailed Magellan found the gate Where the sister oceans meet and mix at war in the stormy strait : " And though it shall blow ten times as wild, though the pass be blind with snow, Though its whirlpools spin with the drifted ice, where he went I will go ; " Though the foul fiend have dominion there as the seamen's fables say, Though the devil in hell would hold me back, I have sworn to find the way ; " But when we have won to the farther side, to the breeding seas of the seal, We shall sail on the gentlest ocean that ever has rocked a keel : " For these crags that freeze on the eastward face slope green to the western blue And a land breeze gently northing bears up for rich Peru. 102 BALLADS OF THE FLEET " There, where the treasure galleons ply secure from all attack, Drop down to Valparaiso and bring the bullion back, " I look to find the ransom that will more than buy again The lives of all the English lads that rot to death in Spain. " Then when the lockers burst with gems, and when the ballast hold Of every ship in this my fleet is packed with bars of gold, " We'll trust the luck of the sun's wake still, and it's Westward Ho once more, And home, my lads, by an ocean-track ship never has tried before ! " Now if I have told you only here what but I and my captains knew, It was that I learned in Venta Cruz of the harm loose tongues may do ; THE WORLD ENCOMPASSED 103 " Therefore whoso hath no stomach to bear hand in this emprise, Hath welcome and leave to take his choice as it seemeth best in his eyes ; " Let him go aboard of the Marygold let him steer for home this day, But look to it whoso chooseth that he steer no other way; " For I swear to you as God liveth, wherever my bark be blown, I will sink his ship if I meet him, though he be of my blood and bone." It was Captain Philip Wynter first of the barque Elizabeth Stept forth and clasped the general's hand, and he said, " For life and death ! " And Thomas Moon the carpenter, the oldest hand at sea, Spake up and swore a grisly oath, " Lord do so unto me, io 4 BALLADS OF THE FLEET " If ever a skulk shall turn his back while I have a head to break On the spoiling of the Philistine and my Captain Francis Drake ! " And there rose from twice a hundred throats a mighty English cheer, That voice of hearts in unison the sea-queen loves to hear. And Doughty heard it far away where he paced the lonely shore, He heard and knew his doom was sealed but the general spake once more ; He said they were timid surgeons who were loth to use the knife, He spoke of their state endangered by their jealousies and strife, Of the rule of ocean broken with brawls and mean affrays, Of the slights put on the seamen, contentions, doubt, dispraise ; THE WORLD ENCOMPASSED 105 And all that smouldering discontent had rallied round one name, And the very hand he had trusted most was the hand that fanned the flame ; Gentle and brave he had deemed him of old, of pur- pose steady and pure, Master of manifold learning, venturous, strong to endure ; But for all the love he had borne him once, yet he dared not be untrue To the Queen's high expectation and the safety of his crew, And so since warnings naught availed, and the evil might not mend, He had called a court in judgment on his own familiar friend : And there they had heard from his lips confessed the bond he had pledged to the foe, The trust betrayed and the plot to bring this scheme to its overthrow. 106 BALLADS OF THE FLEET " Henceforth," he said, " the watchman wakes, the foe has a thousand eyes, And wealth and fame, or the gallows-tree, are the end of this emprise : " Let no man look for quarter, henceforth who sails with Drake, I warn him, if the voyage fail, his life will pay the stake ; " Henceforth we are bound on a venture that is well- nigh past my wit, We have set three kings by the ears, my lads, and we needs must through with it ; " Howbeit I trust that the galleons will cruise on our trail in vain, For we shall fare by the southern pass while they watch by the western main : " But there waits one doom for treason at sea as it is on land, Who deems his crime has been worthy death let him hold forth his hand ! " THE WORLD ENCOMPASSED 107 Then a murmur rose from the listening ranks, an oath, and an angry cry, And twice a hundred clenching fists condemned the wretch to die. The crowd fell back, the general passed to where Doughty strode aloof Henceforth in all his words and deeds might no man find reproof; He had played the stake for life or death as a gambler throws the cast, And so, like a gallant gentleman, he would bear him to the last : He heard his doom with fearless eyes, he doffed his hat to say, " My cause be with the Judge of hearts until that latter day ! " He craved no grace save such an end as his gentle blood might bear, To have his dues as a Christian man, and to shrive his soul in prayer. io8 BALLADS OF THE FLEET So it came to pass on the second day that the crews were called ashore, And they spread a banquet near the strand of the best they had in store ; And there, unseen in the chill gray dawn, high up on a crest of rock, In the face of Magellan's gallows-tree, Tom Moon set up the block : They dressed an altar near at hand with the red cross banner spread, Where the chaplain, stoled and surpliced, set on the wine and bread : And Drake and Thomas Doughty knelt down there side by side, In Nature's vast and awful shrine above the yellow tide, While Master Fletcher ministered and blessed the bread and brake, And gave the cup in brotherhood to Doughty and to Drake. THE WORLD ENCOMPASSED 109 And those rough souls were awed and cowed, while moaned the rainy wind, And the deep voice of ocean boomed its measured chant behind. Then the long quarrel reconciled each kissed the other's cheek, And held his hand for a little space, but no man heard them speak. So they passed to where the feast was spread in a sheltered spot to lee, They made good cheer together there, each after his degree. But Doughty filled a cup and cried a pledge in Spanish wine, " Here's luck in all your ventures, lads, and a better end than mine ! " And in a little while he rose, and with a courtier's bow, " With your good leave, my captain," he said, " I am ready now." I io BALLADS OF THE FLEET They climbed the crest of broken hill to where the block was set, As men unmoved by craven fear, by passion or regret. And Doughty passed along the ranks with a word to each and all, And as he knelt to try the block the rain began to fall. But Drake unclasped his seaman's cloak and spread it on the ground, And bared the sword his arm alone might wield in honour bound ; The shivering blade whirled round and fell cold, cruel, swift and keen. "So perish all her enemies!" said Drake; "God save the Queen ! " He spread his cloak about the corse, and raised the severed head, The shuddering crews drew slowly back and left him with the dead : THE WORLD ENCOMPASSED m And long he gazed in that pale face he shielded from the rain, Thereafter, saith the chronicle, Drake seldom smiled again. The grave is on that bleak foreshore, and the crime is purged away, But steadfast stands while England stands her ocean law, "obey!" ii Yet many a week they lingered there till their craft were fit for sea, From stem to stern-post caulked and payed, for the fierce fight yet to be : And they double-braced the standing-gear, reshipped their spars and stores, And late in the wintry August took leave of those barren shores. It was noon on the third day after, they had sight of the ocean gate Where the long black wall of mountain is cleft by the fabled strait, 112 BALLADS OF THE FLEET They saw the headlands break the swell, the great walls yawning wide, And up the foam of shoaling reefs a path of steely tide; Thereat he streamed his banners out, and as he passed between Drake struck his topsails on the bunt in homage to the Queen ; And since his bird of wilderness had met with fortune's wind, New named henceforth the Pelican shall sail the Golden Hind. Their track wound in through narrowing gulfs with bastioned walls o'erbowed, 'Neath drifted snows on the dripping shelves and a tent of inky cloud : Fierce wind-flaws drave with an angry blast at the turns of the winding way, Bleak breaths that swept from the misted crags and lashed the freezing spray ; THE WORLD ENCOMPASSED 113 Wild currents raced through the twisting tides that washed round wilderness isles, And the shadow of night hung all day long in the deep scarred rock defiles ; And ever at even wandering fires showed glimmering through the gloom, While prisoned deep in the tunnelled caves they heard the pent seas boom ; There many a stout heart shook for dread that had feared no earthly foe, For the weird of night is an awesome thing in the paths where seamen go. There was never a creek they moored in but the penguins ran in flocks To stare at the strange intruders that climbed on their nesting rocks ; And at times the strait way broadened out till the white mists hid the shore, And they drifted on in a veil of fog till they heard the breakers roar, U4 BALLADS OF THE FLEET Then the lead would fly from the sounding-chains, and the starboard line raced free, While the larboard caught on a sunken edge of the shoal they might not see : They were fifteen days and fifteen nights in the throat of the dismal strait, And the shadow of death was near alway, but as yet they could smile at fate, For ever the eye of the master watched, and a master- hand was laid To sail and tiller and sounding gear, and a master- voice obeyed ; Till the dreary battle was all behind, and at last the deed was done, And the keel of an English ship ran out on the sea of the setting sun. They watched him drop to the ocean rim, and they felt the old sea-spell As with joy they beat to the open wave, and the long south twilight fell. THE WORLD ENCOMPASSED 115 But lo, when the dawn came gray with cloud there was no more land on the lee, And they met the tail of the western gale that is lord in the southern sea ; And a tempest rose such as never yet they had hoped for heart to brave, These men who had spent their whole hard lives at the chance of the evil wave. It flung them south and it drave them east, while the mountain tides ran past With death in the hiss of the breaking swell and death in the boom of the blast ; The sky pressed down on their bare mast poles as they scudded before the wind, As they climbed the seas and shuddered at the sheer green gulfs behind ; And swiftlier raced the following tide with the white comb reared to whelm, And they knew how nigh was the dread lee-shore, but they dared not change the helm. Il6 BALLADS OF THE FLEET The nights grew brief in that wintry world, but there broke no friendly sun Through the cumbered cloud and the drifting scud, and the night and the day seemed one. So ever they toiled at the creaking pumps and the breach that the green seas made, And ever they cried on the Lord of Storms, and their hearts were unafraid. Week after week at the tempest's will the Golden Hind ran on, Till the blast died down to a whispering breeze and a clean sun rose and shone ; And the albatross came wheeling to stare at their ribboned sail As he dropped from the calm of the upper sky in the wake of the dying gale. They rode alone in a lonely sea, it was months before they knew They would meet no more with their sister ships at the tryst in far Peru, THE WORLD ENCOMPASSED 117 For the great untraversed ocean had claimed its first- fruit prey, And never a sign from the Marygold shall be till the judgment day ; But Wynter ran with the warning wind back into the sheltered strait, And there three weeks he had lingered on, for the storm would not abate ; Till at last with a waning hope or will, grown weary of fight and foam, He turned his back on the venture and set swift sail for home. So the might of the waves was broken, and the might of the sun shone forth, And eastward stretched a broad sea-way, but the land lay west and north ; Till then they had deemed that the austral earth with a long unbroken shore Ran on to the Pole Antarctic, for such was the old sea-lore ; Ii8 BALLADS OF THE FLEET But here were the sperm whales spouting for joy that the storm was done, And the ice-floes sailing round them and the waves blue under the sun. The sick men crept from their reeking bunks, and climbed to the decks again, To see where the sister oceans met to the south of the gloomy main ; And they hailed that storm for the wind of God, for the might of its blast had borne The Hind on her path of glory a sea-league past the Horn. They steered for the shadowy land they saw low under the northern sky, To an isle unveiled by the lifting cloud, and they found good haven nigh : They laughed and sang as they scaled the cliffs, and the New World rang with mirth, And they stretched glad arms to heaven on the southermost earth on earth. THE WORLD ENCOMPASSED 119 Thenceforth since proved by every test their stubborn faith prevailed, Since earth and sky and ocean had spent their might and failed, The Hand that binds the hurricane and holds the winds in fee Made fair and smooth the untried ways across the promised sea. Beyond the gloom of ice -scarred cliffs that bound that austral land The coast trends north two thousand miles through plains of yellow sand. But they saw dark-shadowing far inland the sudden Andes rise With bleak and barren flanks that turn towards the sunset skies : For bounteous earth looks eastward there, and from her snow-capped crests Great rivers flow to meet the dawn among her fruitful breasts. 120 BALLADS OF THE FLEET But rarely some lone mountain tarn spills westward down the chain A stream that feeds its borderlands of garden in the plain ; So the ports where ships may enter are few and far between, Where some such silver thread winds down to make the desert green. f They watched the snows of Andes slide past beneath the moon, And felt the summer's breath once more blow down the mellow noon ; The eager zest of life came back, they drank a glorious air, Forgot the toil of weary months and winter's long despair. It was a fair November eve in Valparaiso Bay, Where all aboard made taut for sea the treasure- galleon lay. THE WORLD ENCOMPASSED 121 The crew were lounging o'er her sides to watch the setting sun, And sweetly fell the end of day to men whose work was done. A lazy mist hung o'er the stream and veiled the hills in blue, And up the lime -washed belfry tower the rose of evening grew. The ripple from the river ran a sheet of quivered flame, And softly on the dropping breeze the bell's low tinkle came ; When round the distant headland a dark sail hove in sight, A gallant bark stood up the bay, and swiftly fell the night. An hour more and the last red glow on ocean's margin waned, And through the pale star-clusters the queen moon rose and reigned. 122 BALLADS OF THE FLEET The Spaniards broached a cask of wine, the crew stood by to greet The ship come in from Panama with tidings from the fleet. A boat has left the stranger craft, they hailed, and one replied, And a score of sturdy Devon lads have swarmed the galleon's side ; A sudden rush has cleared the decks, and up swarmed twenty more, And the galleon's crew are overboard and striking out for shore ; But her pilot hailed them friends, not foes, a Greek long years impressed, An eager guide to steer the Hind along the unknown west. Oh never draught of wine hath seemed so sweet to parching mouth As that first cup they pledged on board the Captain of the South! THE WORLD ENCOMPASSED 123 A panic seized the little port, the townsfolk fled inland, And left their stores of Chili wine and all good things to hand. So three days more Drake lingered here and stocked the ship afresh, They had lived too long on melted snow and the bitter penguin flesh ; And the scurvy-stricken wretches laughed out for very mirth As they culled the fruits they craved for and blessed the mother earth. Then wind and current bore them north along the yellow main, And the sound of fife and hautboy was heard on board again ; For keen as lads let loose from school, with reckless jest and boast They raided every bight and bay that frets the silver coast. I2 4 BALLADS OF THE FLEET And ere they left Arica's quays with all her ingots stored, There was half-a-million ducats' worth of silver bars on board. In splendid scorn of circumstance, with desperate odds to face, They sailed those first intruders of our adventurous race; To-day a wiser, wearier world will brand them buccaneers ; They did not doubt their cause was just in those distracted years. In a little while all England's isle, like them, shall gird for fray. The first who battle with the strong must use what arms they may. But still no tidings came to hand of Wynter and his crew, So they bore away for Lima and the spoils of rich Peru. THE WORLD ENCOMPASSED 125 For every bark they had overhauled confirmed their pilot's tale, That the richest prize in all those seas lay there and due to sail. So they left the Captain of the South without a crew to drift, Henceforth the Hind must sail alone, for the race is to the swift : And fleeter than the tidings ran from shores their advent scared, They sailed beyond their ill-renown and found men unprepared. So they lay hove-to a sea-league off, and then with never a light Ran up Callao di Lima in the dead of a murky night. But the giant Cacafuego had sailed ten days before, Deep laden to the water-line with all Potosi's ore ; 126 BALLADS OF THE FLEET And while they ransacked empty hulls a wild alarum broke From clamouring bells and signal-guns, and startled Lima woke ; Red torches flitted through the gloom, men mustered on the quay, And Drake must cut his cable-tow and hurry out to But the light night breeze died down with dawn, and there the rovers lay With flapping sails struck motionless a short sea-league away ; While rumour rode with panic spur, their one ship grew to ten, And the Viceroy of Peru marched down with twice a thousand men. He has manned and armed four galleons, with the charge to take or burn The dragon in his devil-ship, or nevermore return. THE WORLD ENCOMPASSED 127 But still across a cloudless sky the slow sun climbed and crept, While like a sheet of milky glass the breathless ocean slept; And morn and morrow's morning dawned, and still like a drowsy spell On land and water, friend and foe, the trance of nature fell. And now the watchers on the Hind beheld from those clear shores Two galleys move like living things on hundred-footed oars; They heard their pulsing measured thud far off across the calm As they cleared their deck for action and sang the battle psalm. The general's cold blue eye surveyed the narrowing space between, " Now, lads," cried he, " to play the man, for God and for the Queen ! " 128 BALLADS OF THE FLEET But ere the answering cheer died down a dark flaw crimped the seas, The ripple rattled on the stem, they sniffed the coming breeze : The white sails filled, the good ship heeled, the merry land-wind blew, And as a scared swan skims the lake she shook her wings and flew. And now to crowd all canvas on and dog the Spitfire's wake, There sails no craft of Panama shall show clean heels to Drake. They tracked her north from port to port, they never lost the trace, Eight hundred weary miles of sea, and yet she baffled chase. She had lingered in Truxillo to load more treasure still, She had watered at Paita, she had touched at Guayaquil. THE WORLD ENCOMPASSED 129 It was hard on the Line on the first of March when the morning broke at last, They were 'ware of her square-rig far away, and they knew that they held her fast. So they shortened sail in the Golden Hind to wait till the end of day, And they trailed great casks and breakers at her stern to check the way. The sun was dropping down the west as they cut her fetters free, And like a greyhound slipped from leash she bounded through the sea : They hauled the chase as twilight fell one flight of arrows flew, One broadside brought the mainyard down, and the giant ship hove to. Night strode across the heaving deep, night and the unknown foe, And the richest prize that ever sailed has struck without a blow. 130 BALLADS OF THE FLEET Her captain sits at meat with Drake, a sore unwilling guest, And prize and captor side by side have set their courses west. Far off in ocean's solitude, secure from all pursuit, They overhauled the priceless freight and they found an empire's loot : There were thirteen chests of minted coin, there were pearls and gems untold, And all the ballast under decks was silver bars and gold. The admiral of the treasure fleets at Nombre waits in vain, For not one ounce of all that gold shall find its way to Spain. The cruisers sent from Lima long since had cried despair, The Dragon came they knew not whence, and was gone they knew not where. THE WORLD ENCOMPASSED 131 So all the coast rose up in arms, and, as the panic grew, The great ship came to Panama, a long month overdue ; They had met, they said, with a corsair, whose like there was none on earth, For the men at arms who served him were of England's gentlest birth ; (-0 There was never a crew so ordered, so quick to the captain's call, He lived like a prince in his state on board, and his will was a law for all. They had brought a letter signed and sealed with a haughty word from Drake, And the king's vice-regent gnashed his teeth as he read for anger's sake ; " There be English seamen here," he wrote, " of my own old fellowship, Whose limbs are chained to your galley bench, and red from the driver's whip, 132 BALLADS OF THE FLEET " Henceforth I bid you give good heed that they come to no more harm, Or I'll hang me a thousand Spaniards at the Golden Hinds yard-arm." So frigates with despatches sailed post haste from Venta Cruz, And soon Madrid and Lisbon rang with this disastrous news ; Then Sarmiento put to sea to block Magellan's Strait, And Philip's envoy found the Queen no novice in debate ; Once more El Draque had dared transgress the sea's forbidden bar, Had set the bulls of Rome at naught, perplexing peace with war ; His liege of Spain would learn forthwith whose flag these corsairs fly ! Not Cecil, but the Queen herself, returned the proud reply ; THE WORLD ENCOMPASSED 133 " For proven wrong waits due redress ; but ill-timed comes your plea When hireling bravos land and league with Desmond's Irishry : " When all the claims myself have urged for wrongs to be redressed, Still wait my kinsman's courtesy to be answered for the rest, " I have yet to learn what papal bulls run west of Finisterre To bar my people's birthright in ocean, earth, and air ! " And thus the war of words ran high with claim and counterclaim, And weeks and months rolled on for years but of Drake no tidings came. v Three thousand miles to the frozen north on a track untried of man, They had sought for the fabled outlet of the Straits of Anian ; 134 BALLADS OF THE FLEET As many a stout heart yet shall sail in the years that are to be, On the phantom quest of the drift north-west, through the heart of the iceberg sea. But ever they beat in the teeth of storms, half blind with the threshing hail, While the spray froze fast on gear and mast and starched their fretting sail ; They came to the edge of a mountain world, where clouds hung heavy and low On the gloom of the great fir forests, black under the crowning snow : The sparkle died from the merry sea, and the fogs lay dank and thick On the wan unfriendly waters, and half of his men fell sick. But the trend of the land lay westward still, and icier struck the blast, The work of three grew a toil for six, and they gave up hope at last. THE WORLD ENCOMPASSED 135 So the Hind ran south with the wind in her wake till they chanced on a kindlier land, And they set up forge and workshop, and they beached her on the strand. The gentle tribes of the Indian folk came down to their camp unscared, On a shore that the Old World's lust for gold or hunger of earth had spared : They hailed them welcome, they brought them gifts, in wonder and love and awe, And bowed at the feet of the great white gods who were come to give them law ; They brought the wand of their chief of chiefs to set in the general's hand, And with mystic rights proclaimed him the lord of the Indian's land. So the English went to their upland towns, for the fringe of the hills was near, Looked over the boundless pasture world and the untold herds of deer ; 136 BALLADS OF THE FLEET The dust of that earth was agleam with gold, the skirt of the slopes was rare With the tender growth of a northern clime, and spring was quick in the air. There was many a lad was tempted then begged hard to be left behind, For they said, "We have wandered two full years at the chance of the fickle wind. " So long we roam, and it's far to home, and weary of fight are we," But the captain frowned in silence as he led them down to the sea. He piled a cairn on the cliffs' high crest with a graven plate thereon, And Her Grace's name writ large to mark when her latest realm was won ; He called that land New Albion, with a tender thought for home, As they bade farewell to the gleaming rocks that rose through the whiter foam ; THE WORLD ENCOMPASSED 137 The wild folk watched with wondering eyes, the women crooned low wails, For the fair white gods went seaward and the Hind shook out her sails. But the sea-queen's brood shall come once more to that shore where the white cliffs are, When the sons of their children's children have followed the evening star ; Their bounds shall be either ocean, for the same divine unrest Shall drive their teeming millions to seek new fortunes west; And a great sea-city havened here shall leap to sudden fame, Re-echoing in an alien speech the great sea-captain's name. He laid his course by the Spaniard's chart, " For we'll trust to the open sea, And it's Westward Ho till the home-wind blows, as it was from the start, " said he. 138 BALLADS OF THE FLEET " We are half-way round the world, my lads, and it's half-way round once more, Till we've ploughed a track on the ocean's back that never was ploughed before. " So they dropped to the edge of the North-East Trade, and they ran west sixty days, With never a sight of shore or sail in the infinite ocean ways ; And the mariner's boy through the long night-watch would brood on his heart's desire, While the strange stars played with the dancing yards and the wake ran blue with fire ; For the craving came that the wanderer knows for the lilt of his own folk's speech, For the damp moss scents in the ancient grass and the shade of elm and beech, For the rook's loud call in the twilight fall and the thin blue smoke that weaves, The veil of mist on the red farm roof and the gold of the autumn leaves. THE WORLD ENCOMPASSED 139 But weary wide were those seas untried, and little avail to sigh For the home stars in their places and the old familiar sky. Light lie the snows on byre and thatch, and windless fall the rain, Deal gently with them, summer sun, till we get back again ! And at last they came to a mid-sea isle, and a cluster of isles beyond Swam up through the white mirage of dawn as if by a fairy's wand ; Up rose the sun, the long low swell slid landward flushed with day, And the golden message climbed the brows of an upland far away ; The flighting sea-birds overhead went clanging through the sky, But the ripple showed the white reef's edge, and they dared not venture nigh. 140 BALLADS OF THE FLEET So they left the clustering isles to dream through their drowsy moons and noons, Safe walled in the coral girdles that glass their still lagoons ; And they bore away for the Line once more till a fairway broadened free, Where the perfume -laden breezes blow through the blue Molucca sea. The bloom of the clove was harvested as they lingered to explore The garden ways of the ocean realms of Ternate and , Tidore; And they beached the Hind in a lonely isle where foot never yet, maybe, Had stirred the sand of the shell-strewn strand since the isles came up from the sea. All over its hills gigantic, weird, the silent forest grew, With tapered stems to the tented roof that never a sun looked through > THE WORLD ENCOMPASSED 141 And even at midmost noon was gloom in the branchless colonnade, Where the bats and the flying foxes were lords of the twilight shade, Where great land -crabs in the twisting roots stared out of their towering eyes, And night was quick with the shifting light of the myriad phosphor flies. So there they abode for a month intrenched with the bullion stacked on shore, Till trimmed and taut for her long run home, she slid to the deep once more. Then west and south through the infinite isles, through treacherous reefs that hide, Where the dead volcanoes cumber the drift of the parcelled tide ; They were bound for the Sunda Channel, for the chart gave free-way there, They were two days out from Celebes, and the topsail wind blew fair ; 142 BALLADS OF THE FLEET There was never a sign on the false sea's face as she struck with a grinding shock, As the keel ploughed through and the ship held fast in the crust of a sunken rock ; Oh many a time these two years back they had fought with the ague breath That chills the heart of the bravest man when he looks in the face of death j But not in their mad race past the Horn, nor the jaws of the fearsome strait, Not yet at the hand of God or man had they stood so near their fate. And then, as ever in direst need, they bent the stubborn knee, And said the brief and earnest prayer to the God who made the sea. It was all deep water round the Hind, and the warps could find no stay, And fast at the chance of a freshening breeze and a rising swell they lay ; THE WORLD ENCOMPASSED 143 So they rolled the great guns overboard, and the spoils of rich Peru, The shimmering ingots one by one went diving down the blue. No craven panic blanched their cheeks though the good ship never stirred, The ocean drill was perfect now, one voice alone demurred : What ailed you, Master Fletcher, there, brave heart in all beside, To prate about the hand of God, and the death that Doughty died ? The little captain turned in wrath and flung him on the deck, Set both his ankles in the stocks, and a posy round his neck, "Lo here sits Parson Fletcher, the falsest knave alive ! " "For till her timbers part," said he, "I'll have no croaker thrive." 144 BALLADS OF THE FLEET And so the weary day went down, and up the full moon sailed, The broken waters tinkled by, and nought their toil availed ; But tired and spent and sick at heart they watched the watches through : "We are in the hand of God," said he; "we have done what men may do." And lo, the hand was stretched to save ; as it drew towards the day The breeze that held her broadside up grew slacker, died away ; She heeled towards the deep once more, and so with never a strain, By the mercy of God, as the morning broke, slid back to her own again. Now, drawers, bring the Alicant of which we robbed the Don ! Go loose the parson from the stocks, and get his surplice on ! THE WORLD ENCOMPASSED 145 The leadsmen to the chains again, for Drake's triumphant star Shall guide us through the Flores Sea and past the eastern bar ! So on by treacherous reef and shoal, by cape and channel and sound, They groped their way through the island belt that girds the South Sea round ; Behind them sank the shadowy shores, and they came on the ocean swell Where the great tides heave untrammelled, and they knew that all was well. VI Now it fell one morn of the after-year there was stir in Plymouth fort, And the guard turned out as the daylight broke to the Admiral of the Port, For the watch on the Rame had sent him word of a warship hove in sight That beat in the teeth of the keen north-east at fall of the autumn night ; L 146 BALLADS OF THE FLEET He searched the dawn with his keen sea eyes, for there sailed neither Dutch nor Don, But veiled his tops to the English flag in the days of Admiral John. And need was then for wary eyes, for the news was fresh to hand Of galleons off the Irish coast with companies to land. The white mist rose, a bare mile off she stood in over the bay, And she bore her topsails proudly as one that had right of way : " If ever the dead came back to life," it was old John Hawkins spake, " I had sworn to that rig in a thousand ships for my kinsman's Frankie Drake." And e'en as he spake the red cross flag shook out from her taper mast, A thunder of guns broke right and left and the Hind was home at last I THE WORLD ENCOMPASSED 147 Her beardless boys were seasoned men with necks set firm, and face Tanned ruddy by the winds and suns that shape the sea-born race ; Her fluttering sails were patched and frayed, her bulwarks all a wreck, The pitch ran through her open seams and stained her splintered deck ; Her painted prow was rusty brown with the crust of alien seas, And half her ports were blind of the -guns she had dropped in Celebes : But every hand was up on deck or aloft on mast and spar To cheer the dropping anchor down behind the harbour bar. Oh golden spread the Edgcumbe woods and purpling leaned the down, And lingering wreaths of yellow furze lit up the moor- land crown , I 4 8 BALLADS OF THE FLEET The world of home lay passing fair beyond the weary seas, As all the bells began to ring and the folk ran down the quays. From house to house, from street to street, the news ran far and wide, To Dart and Tamar, east and west, and up the country-side. The dead had all been duly mourned long since, time out of mind, There was only clasp of welcome hands and mirth on board the Hind ; VII They have brought the Hind to Deptford town, they have moored her by the quay, A bridge of plank athwart her waist, she will go no more to sea. But pilgrims come from far and near and climb her poop in pride, And many a barge from Tower steps drops down there on the tide ; THE WORLD ENCOMPASSED 149 There's not a 'prentice in the Fleet but has felt a sailor born The day he saw the famous ship that found and named the Horn ; And scholars learned in the lore of great adventures past Have turned conceits and epigrams to hang about her mast. While Drake's tall lads, in silk and stuff, went swag- gering up and down, With tales that turned the staidest heads, and ale ran free in town. But now the windows all are wide, there are flags in every street, For the Queen herself has come to-day to sit with Drake at meat. The Golden Hind's great ordnance has fired the last salute, The crew are marshalled on the poop with drum and fife and flute ; ISO BALLADS OF THE FLEET The board is spread between the decks among the brazen guns, For to-day the great Queen honours the bravest of her The captain of her guard was there in doublet slashed and pearled, For Hatton's was the proud device they had carried round the world : And subtle Master Walsingham with the long thin nervous hands, Who knew the minds and manners of many folk and lands ; And there was Martin Frobisher, the pilot of the Pole, And Grenville, than whom England held no knightlier sailor soul. There sat Sir Humphry Gilbert, the untimely lost, not yet In the vengeful night of ocean scorned his storm- tossed star had set ; THE WORLD ENCOMPASSED 151 And Walter Raleigh new to court, and flushed with fortune's smile, The travelled Earl of Cumberland and Christopher Carlile ; With Sanderson, the man of maps, who drew the first sea-card, And Osborne, Mayor of London town, and the elders of his ward, Whose merchant fleets shall sail henceforth un- trammelled east or west ; And they spoke of deeds adventurous and all the world's unrest. So went she forth accompanied, that unforgotten day She flung the Spaniard's challenge back, defiant ; these were they Who first dared dream and dreaming dared while all was yet to do, To roll the bounds of empire back beyond the bounds they knew ; 152 BALLADS OF THE FLEET To bind the winds their bondsmen, and hold the tide their slave, And claim for island England dominion o'er the wave. "Now hearken, lords and gentlemen, we have heard to-day," said she, " Of the world beyond the sunset and the sea beyond the sea, " But of piracies and plunderings, of trespass, raid, and wrong, Of this we learned from Philip's self, and the tale is passing long ; " And still my kinsman claims to know whose flag this bark hath flown Which Master Drake hath dared maintain through seas he claims his own. " Now therefore to such questionings let this my answer be, Down, truant rover, down, and crave my pardon on your knee ! " THE WORLD ENCOMPASSED 153 Then he who fear had never known stood blanched before her seat, Ungirt his sword and bowed and knelt to lay it at her feet. And roundly there she rated him, and looked him up and down, With eyes that knew a true man's worth, and smiled away their frown. She bared his blade, she rose a queen, a queen to mar or make "My little pirate, rise," she cried, "and be Sir Francis Drake ! " MISCELLANEOUS THE BALLAD OF RICHARD PEAKE "A good ship I know, and a poor cabin ; and the language of a cannon : and therefore as my breeding has been rough, scorning delicacy, so must my writings be, proceeding from fingers fitter for the pike than the pen." PEAKE'S Narrative. THIS is the tale of Richard Peake, Of Tavistock in Devon, And the fight he fought in Xeres town, God rest his soul in Heaven ! I know each pool of Dart and Exe Where trout or grayling hide, I know the moors from sea to sea And where the red-deer bide ; I know a tall ship stem to stern What sail to set or strike, I know to point a culverin And how to thrust a pike. 158 THE BALLAD OF RICHARD PEAKE I know the star-way through the night And the bodings in the skies, But many a man knows more than I That is not wondrous wise. I cannot turn a silken phrase, Nor make a sonnet sing ; Yet must I write my chronicle For my good Lord the King. A western man and lowly born, And early sent to sea, So simple as my breeding was, Let this my record be. Ye have heard my Lord of Essex How he sailed to Cadiz Bay, With all King Charles' men of war Upon a Saturday. We were sixteen sail of Holland, And a hundred of the line, And I was pricked a volunteer Aboard the Convertine. We had stormed the fort and castle From rising of the sun, THE BALLAD OF RICHARD PEAKE 159 And long ere noon they landed And silenced every gun. But I was no shore soldier, And so on board must bide What time my Lord of Essex Marched up the country-side. Now it fell on the Monday morning I took my leave ashore, And walked up through the orange groves A mile might be, or more. 'Twas said the country-side was bare, The country-folk in flight, A score of miles round Cadiz town, And not a don in sight ; When suddenly a cavalier His long sword at the thrust Came spurring down the narrow way With a clatter through the dust. His steed was checked, his grip was loosed, With a flap from my blue cloak ; I clutched the rider by the heel, And caught the muffled stroke ; 160 THE BALLAD OF RICHARD PEAKE I dragged him down upon his face And stripped him where he lay, I took five silver pieces And a horse in that affray. But while he begged his life in words That lisp on English ears, There stole down through the orange groves His squad of musketeers : And when my hands were bound behind, That knight to his disgrace Took back the sword I stripped him of And slashed me in the face. With seven guards on either hand And this brave knight before, They brought me bound and bloody In through the city door ; They gored my back with halberds And spat into my face. The urchins called me heathen swine, God give them little grace ! They threw me into prison So bloodless and so weak, It needed all their leeches THE BALLAD OF RICHARD PEAKE 161 To find me strength to speak ; And vain it was my Captain sent To ransom Richard Peake. I saw our frigates hoisting sail Upon the seventh day, And through my dungeon window I watched them fade away. Two Irish monks came every noon And wasted pious breath, Abjuring me from heresy Since I must die the death ; And when a' week had passed they said It was the Governor's mind That I should thence to Xeres town To the torture, they divined. In Xeres Duke Medina lay With many a Count and Earl, And gravely these good lords were met To try the English churl. It was a pleasant sight to see Where they sat in double rows, Such ruffles and such velvet cloaks M 162 THE BALLAD OF RICHARD PEAKE And slashen sleeves and hose ! The Duke sat at the table's head With the King's golden chain I mind no finer gentlemen Than gentlemen in Spain. And there and then Medina's self Rebuked that craven knight Who struck the prisoner in the face He dared not face in fight. They plied me well with questions What guns were in the fleet ? What ship was mine ? what captain ? And I answered as was meet. They asked how strong the fort was That watches Plymouth Sound, And boastfully I lied my best As a Devon man was bound. Quoth one, " Why spared ye Cadiz ? Your fleet put back to sea ! " " Who loots," said I, " in palaces May let the almshouse be." But all this while the soldiers round Made mirth each time I spoke, THE BALLAD OF RICHARD PEAKS 163 And ugly words for English ears Went round the common folk : Until some jest rang o'er the rest, And all those nobles smiled ; Now God forbid that I should stand And hear my land reviled. I said, " Your king keeps gallant troops To wear such bands and cuffs, And they should hold in battle firm When the starch is in their ruffs. Yet were I free to pick my choice From a score of oaken sticks, I'd stand and play my quarterstaff For life or death with six." " Now, by the rood," Medina said, " A braggart though thou be, I will not take thee at thy word, But fight thou shall with three ! " And if I made so bold a face Be sure it was not pride, 164 THE BALLAD OF RICHARD PEAKS But Richard Peake of Tavistock Had heard his land belied. I deemed my death was long resolved, So basely would not die, And three to one were heavy odds For a better man than I. A halberd was my quarterstaff They knocked the blade away, The iron spike which shod the butt Stood me in stead that day. I swung the halberd round my head And felt my might again, And I took my stand for England Against the arch-foe Spain. Then out stepped three hidalgos, Steel armoured cap-a-pie, And lightly sprang into the lists With a mocking bow to me. God save my Lord though I must speak- It was a pretty fight. Three long swords thrust and feinted In front, to left, to right ; THE BALLAD OF RICHARD PEAKE 165 While round their heads the halberd swung And as they closed up near, I snapped two blades, then shortened grip And used it as a spear ; I drove it at the third one's breast, And a horrid wound it made, The iron butt went through his heart And out by the shoulder-blade. And now befell a wondrous thing, I needs must say again Earth holds no finer gentlemen Than the gentlemen of Spain Those nobles rose and clapped their hands, The Duke was first to speak, He bade no man on pain of death Lay hands on Richard Peake. They gave me gold, a band and cuffs, This cloak I wear, the ring, And sent me forth escorted well To see the Spanish King ; And in Madrid on Christmas Day I knelt before his sight, 166 THE BALLAD OF RICHARD PEAKS Resolving all his questionings With what poor wit I might. He would have had me bide in Spain To serve on shore or sea, But I've a wife by Tavy side And she's got none but me. Wherefore he pitied my estate And pardon free bestowed, With a hundred pistoles in my scrip For charges on the road. And so I bade Madrid farewell, And came without annoy Through France to Bordeaux haven, And thence took ship to Foy. Now while the Tamar winds to sea, And while the Tavy runs, God bless my old west country, And God bless all her sons ! It's not in vain we've tracked the deer By dale and moor and fen, And drunk the morning with our lips, And grown up brawny men. THE BALLAD OF RICHARD PEAKE 167 It's not in vain we swam the Sound, And tugged the heavy oar, And braced the nerve and trained the limbs That English mothers bore. And therefore when the fight goes hard, And the many meet the few, She'll still find hands to do the work That English lads must do. So here I render thanks to God, Who brought me through the sea, Across the desert, back again, My mother-land, to thee. This was the tale of Richard Peake Of Tavistock in Devon, And the fight he fought in Xeres town, God rest his soul in Heaven ! HAWKWOOD " WHO'LL ride with me," said rough Sir John, " In quest of new adventure ? The Black Prince over seas has gone, And cancelled our indenture. " The Duke of Milan sends to France Enlisting sturdy fighters, And I've a mind to break a lance Against the Saxon Reiters. " The Pisan and the Florentine Renew their ancient tussle, And Guelph outbids the Ghibelline For English blood and muscle. HA WKWOOD 169 " They say the world has softer skies Beyond the Alpine passes, Where fiercer fires light up the eyes Of more bewitching lasses ; " They say that there on summer hills The grapes grow sweet as honey, And there the threadbare trooper fills His saddle-bags with money ; " So Jock and Hal may sail for home, And swear their old loves sweeter, But I will ride the road to Rome, And see the grave of Peter." Sir John he crossed the mountain bar With a troop of fifty banners, He taught the Guelph the art of war, He taught the Ghibelline manners. Fate prospered all he took in hand, The years were full of chances, And all the laurels in the land Were wreathed for Hawkwood's lances. 170 HA WKWOOD There in an age that held the name Of free-lance in abhorrence, He won an honest soldier's fame With the sword he drew for Florence. So Arno's bank and Elsa's vale, And blue Carrara's quarries, Have heard the clink of English mail What time he rode his forays. And there he saw his eightieth year, And died a right good fellow, And there her greatest Condottier Was frescoed by Uccello ; And still beside Our Lady's door, Who holds the lily-flower, He rides on guard for evermore In the shade of Giotto's tower. THE DUKE HAS FRIENDS MY answer is fill up your glass ! With you, Sir John, the Port ! They may call him traitor if they dare, and hound him from the Court ! There's many a courtier I could name has had his fingers black With dipping after dirty coin in some one else's sack. But you and I may only know we've drawn for England's right, Behind the greatest captain that ever rode to fight ! 172 THE DUKE HAS FRIENDS Have you forgotten Eckerslau when the balls were thick as rain, And we thought the word would never come to take the field again : When the battle hung in balance, and we waited for his sign : Do you remember what you felt as he cantered down the line? His breast was all one blaze of stars, his wrists were ruffed with lace, The wind blew back his scented hair and showed his splendid face ; The bullets snarled like angry wasps, the cannon thundered loud, As he drew his rein before our ranks, and raised his hat and bowed ; "With your permission, gentlemen of the English cavalry, Myself will lead you to the charge, sound trumpet, charge ! " said he. THE DUKE HAS FRIENDS 173 And calm as in the hunting -field he wheeled his chestnut round, And all the line behind him leapt forward with a bound. Then when the fight was over, and Blenheim lost and won, And England's greatest day went down in triumph with the sun, I see him as he bowed once more in answer to our cheers, That splendid English gentleman, that prince of cavaliers ! The town may talk its head off I care not who they tell, The Duke! his health in bumpers, and the court may go to Hell ! QUIBERON SIR EDWARD HAWKE the Admiral Had trapped the French in Brest, When a gale that blew a hurricane Came driving from the west. The cruising fleet bore up awhile To shelter in Torbay The wind went round and stealthily The Frenchmen slipped away. So the quidnuncs of the coffee shops, The loafers of the Strand, And the watermen from Tower stairs Had a merry job in hand. QUIBERON 175 They made a mimic man of straw, With hose and buckled shoe, With frogged tail-coat and gold-laced hat, An Admiral of the Blue. They hauled him down to Westminster And fixed him on a pike, And there they burned in effigy The Hawke that did not strike. But while that mob in London town Proclaimed their panic spite, Between the shoals and Croisic roads He had fought his great sea-fight ; Five days he chased them southwards And east before a gale, Till 'twixt Bellisle and Quiberon They counted twenty sail. That angry sea was thick with reefs, A lee-shore loomed behind, But Hawke dashed in at headlong speed Close-reefed before the wind ; 176 QUIBERON And in the gate of Quiberon, At noon the self-same day That rabble burned his effigy, The Hawke had struck his prey. Choiseul may sell his transports now To quench his troopers' thirst, The fleet that menaced England Is shattered and dispersed ; September rang with Minden's news, October won Quebec, November's gales and Quiberon Achieved the final wreck. And the quidnuncs of the coffee shops Felt very big and brave, And swore once more that Englishmen Were born to rule the wave. THE FIRST OF JUNE THAT fight shall be remembered while sea-tides ebb and flow, That fight that fell on the first of June a hundred years ago ; What time in the mid- Atlantic, far out of the ken of shore, The flag of the double crosses was matched with the tricolor. The fleets were even ship for ship, and man for man the crews, And braver seaman never sailed than Villaret-Joyeuse. i;8 THE FIRST OF JUNE When Howe broke through his battle line, the first to join the fray, The Vengeur shook her top-sails out and raced to bar the way ; The Brunswick steering for the gap was next to gallant Howe, And driving on before the wind she struck her on the bow; The forechains held her anchor fast, she swung and could not free, So tethered in a deadly grip those two dropped off to lee. Our English blew their ports away, the shock had jammed them to, They rammed their guns with shot and chain and raked the Vengeur through. While hand to hand on the upper deck the Frenchmen swarmed to board, Redressed the balance of the fight with grape and pike and sword : THE FIRST OF JUNE 179 That long forenoon the battle raged they scarce knew how or where, Who, shrouded in a sulphur mist, fought out their duel there. Our figure-head was Brunswick's Duke, who died at Auerstadt, Now it chanced a round shot carried off the Duke's three-cornered hat. Brave Captain Harvey lay below with the wound of which he died, But as the word passed round the decks he raised him on his side, And, "God forbid King George's fleet or Admiral Howe should see The gallant Duke uncover to Villaret," says he. His strength was ebbing as he spoke, but smiling through the pain, " I shall not need," he whispered, " to wear my own again," i8o THE FIRST OF JUNE " Take my cocked hat and brush away the powder from the lace, And send for Jack the carpenter to nail it in its place." The bullets snarled and spattered thick where'er a face might show, But Jack just said "Aye, aye, sir," and touched his hat to go. They watched him crawl out on the boom, they lost him in the smoke, And through a pause of battle roar they caught his hammer's stroke. But when the breeze a moment's space blew all the forecastle clear There rose from half a thousand throats a ringing English cheer : For Jack was back at quarters begrimed and black and torn, "And the Duke does not uncover, lads, to any Frenchman born ! " THE FIRST OF JUNE 181 You know the rest, the long swell grew, the vessels strained and heeled Till the grapple parted, and away the stricken Vengeur reeled ; Her spars still swung, but rudderless she drifted o'er the seas, And lost the mastless Brunswick to close with the Ramillies. An hour more and waterlogged she rolled a helpless wreck, But still she bore the tricolor above her bloody deck. When seven ships had struck their flags and that great fight was done, When the shrouding smoke drew up and off towards the setting sun, They saw her sinking slowly down with all her dying brave, And boats put out in eager haste to succour and to save. 182 THE FIRST OF JUNE Too late, alas, to rescue all the sea winds took their cry, The cool waves washed their fevered wounds and they died as heroes die. All honour to the men who wore the tricolor cockade, All honour to the Vengeur for the splendid fight she made ! And to our own brave sailor lads all honour then as now, But when the first of June comes round and you drink to gallant Howe, Remember Jack the carpenter who held his life in scorn, If Brunswick should uncover to any Frenchman born. AT STRATHFIELDSAY THE Autumn sun went down on Strathfieldsay, An old man rode by shadowy lawn and dell, The old horse turned and took the homeward way, And sweetly evening's benediction fell. Then wreathing smoke and grove and gable-crest, Melting together in the sunset skies, Piled a fantastic fabric in the west, And touched the chord of sleeping memories. He saw it all ; there frowned the battled height, Here flowed Agueda livid in the glare, Ciudad Rodrigo blazed into the night, And cannon thundered through the misty air ; Sounds of far voices, silent long ago, Rose like faint echoes, and close by his side Familiar forms seemed flitting to and fro, While darkness gathered and the red glow died. i8 4 AT STRA THFIELDSA Y The old horse whinnied, and he bowed his head, The twilight mellowed to its own again, " All that I lived through ! and they all are dead ! Grant us Thy peace, God merciful. Amen ! " TENNYSON IN to the silent Abbey, to the heroes' burying-place, Bear him and leave him lying, peer with the peers of his race ! With the men of debate and battle, the mighty of heart or of brain, Warders of Empire's outposts, home with their own again : Fitting is their death -welcome the masks of his great compeers Wrapt in the trance of silence fitter for him than tears. 186 TENNYSON Never a sigh escort him, he has lived the tale of his days, His burial-wreath is the laurel, his dirge is a nation's praise. Why do we call him hero? Why do we bury him here? Why are all England's greatest gathered about his bier? Wandering sons she hath many, erring and loved no less, But this was the son of her heart, and his strength was his faithfulness. Singer of England's saga, back to the misty prime, Rolling a morning glamour over the night of time ; Singer of English gardens, poet of English springs, Lover of earth's dear beauty, and all elemental things. Never a girl in England, or in England over the sea, But wakes to her life's first love-dream sweetlier-souled for thee. TENNYSON 187 Never a boy's young life-blood thirsts for the dawn of deeds, But it throbs to a nobler impulse as he turns thy roll and reads. That was his lofty level, all that is hard and high, All that is purely purposed, theme of his minstrelsy : Never for easy guerdon the goodliest gift disgraced Flinging a tainted poison down to a morbid taste : Never a doubt or shadow cast on a virgin soul, But love in a pure white garment, and faith in an aureole ; Lending the mute thought language, flame to the waning fire, A voice for the dream of the simple, a song for the world's desire. For his heart was the heart of a child, and of such since time began Are those the Eternal uses to speak to the heart of man. PUMWANI COMRADES mine of Blanche and Swallow scattered now a hundred ways, Such a march we made together, once in torrid August days ! Up the mangrove creeks we laboured, where the crooked roots divide, Clutching fast the shoaling mud-banks and encroach- ing on the tide ; Gaunt and hideous rose the baobabs with their bloated stems and bare, And their gray arms stretching naked to the rank and steamy air ; PUMWAN1 189 There we slept beneath the mangoes on forsaken village sites, And drank in the cool refreshment of the wind-swept tropic nights, Till at last the word was forward ! and a noiseless camp awoke, And the line fell into order ere the blush of morning broke. Faint our track wound through the clearings, with their rank grass shoulder high, Right and left the dense black forest walling in a tropic sky ; Where the gum-vine binds the branches and the fiercely fecund soil Bars the way to human ingress, tightens tangles into coil. The thorn palm took fantastic shapes and drooped a withered skirt, The vultures rose into the blue to give the woods alert. igo PUMWANI Each followed close on his fellow's steps in the single serpent file, Like the gray baboons at the forest edge, and the line reached half a mile. The black marsh water splashed our knees, the ooze sucked down our boots, The slimy mud-fish wriggled off and hid in the tangled roots. And every man held back his breath of all three hundred men, For the dropping shots gave warning we were near the robber den. Then a bugle broke the stillness of that forest edged with eyes, Then a wild uproar of drumming and a thunder to the skies ; Tongues of flame and battle rattle, puffs of smoke along the green, Silent pauses in the volleys, and the foe we fought PUMWANI 191 Yet our little line drew closer, creeping on by slow degrees, While the rockets like winged dragons ploughed a fire track through the trees. And the minutes passed like hours, and the burning sun beat down, Till ere noon drank up the shadows we were in the rebel town. Once again the heart beat lightly and a sense of triumph grew, For the fort was well defended and great gaps were in our few. Swiftly fell the tropic evening, and, while camp fires flickered red, We drew softly off on one side and we gathered up our dead ; By a lantern's feeble flicker read the words with which we trust This our brother to God's keeping, this his body to the dust. 192 PUMWANI Dug a trench for you to lie in, you whose home was on the wave, You the white man with the dark men, your bedfellows in the grave, White and black both dead for England, with the grass mats round your heads, And we turned and left them lying in their solitary beds. So world over sleep the English, eyes of friends will never look Through that gloom of Afric forest where we buried Stoker Cook. Only gray baboons will chatter in the branches where you lie, And the quick hyena scamper through the tangle silently ; Yet such meed of due remembrance I would yield you as I may, Since you gave your life for England have her greatest more to say ? PUMWANI 193 Since last night we slept together, 'twixt the grasses and the star, And to-night you sleep for ever by the bitter chance of war. But the camp was quick with laughter, for the blood was beating high, Laugh out, life is for the living, for the dead at most a sigh. And the men whose hearts are boys' hearts set the lanterns in a ring, And the battle dawn's reaction made the peace of evening sing. So the old sea -songs came rolling till the chorus shook the trees, And the tropic stars looked wondering at the men from over seas. Then the hand-shake and the silence, and brief sleep for those who may. Let to-morrow take its chances, we have lived our lives to-day. EAST AFRICA, 1893. TO GERALD PORTAL A BLOOD-RED sky, a milky sea ; And home almost in hail, And you that walked the deck with me To watch that glory pale ! I think my eyes had never seen So grand an even sky, As that which ushered Europe in, You only reached to die. Was it there first I learned to know How much you were to me ? Though neither spoke, for that red glow Had struck the silent key. TO GERALD PORTAL 195 The torrid suns were far behind, The toil of dreary days, The breaths of poison striking blind, The wild untrodden ways : I had no doubts, I never thought Those kind and fearless eyes, Those strong unfaltering hands, were wrought Of stuff that lightly dies. O fierce dark land, unconquered still, Though doomed to our behest, How long ere thou hast drunk thy fill Of the blood of England's best ! The ship glides on, and overhead The moonless night succeeds, Henceforth whenever skies are red I may think my own heart bleeds. 1894- NOTES SAN JUAN DE LUA Though many had held it was God's work too, etc. Page 15. The experiment of introducing African negroes into the West India Islands was first suggested by the excellent bishop Las Casas, who recommended the purchase of prisoners for this object on the West African coast, where barbarous customs devoted the weaker races to human sacrifice or the orgies of cannibalism, on the plea that their servitude would save them from a horrible fate and enable them to be made Christians. It is stated that while the slave-trade gave these prisoners a material value, the customs of the dominant races were suspended. THE REPRISAL The fierce black tribes of the Cimaroons. Page 69. Cimaroons or Maroons : Sp. Cimarrones. " Eighty years ago a number of African slaves had I 9 8 BALLADS OF THE FLEET been driven by the cruelty of their masters to take to the woods, and having found favour in the eyes of the Indian women, they had now grown into two great tribes, whose terrible mission it was to rob, and kill, and torture every Spaniard on whom they could lay their hands." Corbett's Drake, p. 23. THE WORLD ENCOMPASSED And bared the sword his arm alone might wield in honour bound. Page 1 1 o. The fact that Drake himself was the executioner of Thomas Doughty, taking thus the full responsibility on his own shoulders, is recorded in the correspondence of the Spanish envoy. Mendoza, who cross-examined Wynter on the whole episode, showed a suspicious interest in his fate. They had sought for the fabled outlet of the Straits of Anian. Page 133. The name given to the supposed northern passage between the two oceans, the existence of which was an article of faith with the old mariners. Re-echoing in an alien speech the great sea-captain's name. Page 137. It is believed that the city of San Francisco occupies the site where Drake set up the pillar and inscription, NOTES 199 recording that he had taken possession of " New Albion " in the name of Queen Elizabeth. For Hattorfs was the proud device they had carried round the world. Page 150. A Golden Hind was the crest of Christopher Hatton, the Captain of the Guard, who was one of the chief promoters and shareholders in the venture. In chang- ing the name of the Pelican to the Golden Hind, Drake diplomatically identified with his enterprise one of the reigning favourites at court. THE FIRST OF JUNE The flag of the double crosses was matched with the tricolor. Page 177. The French fleet which took part in this memorable battle was the first which used the tricolor flag. The third cross was only added to the Union Jack in 1 80 1. The original flag was the red cross of St. George, to which St. Andrew's cross was added by James I. THE END Printed by R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, Edinburgh. A 000027392 o __