57

DESTRUCTION OF SENNACHERIB 1

LORD BYRON

The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold, And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold; And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea, When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.

Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green,
That host with their banners at sunset were seen:
Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown,
That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.

For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,
And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed;
And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,
And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still!

And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide,

But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride;
And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf,
And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf.

And there lay the rider distorted and pale,
With the dew on his brow and the rust on his mail:
And the tents were all silent, the banners alone,
The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown.

1. Sennacherib, king of Assyria in the 7th century B. C., waged war against Hezekiah, king of Judah. The Assyrian army so greatly outnumbered the Jewish that the downfall of Judah seemed certain. Sennacherib, however, defied not only Hezekiah but also Hezekiah's God. "And it came to pass that night that the angel of the Lord went out and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred and four score and five thousand; and when they arose early in the morning, behold they were all dead corpses." For the full account read Kings 18 and 19.

3

And the widows of Ashur 2 are loud in their wail,
And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal; 3
And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,
Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!

58

THE REVENGE 1

A BALLAD OF THE FLEET

ALFRED TENNYSON

I

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

away:

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

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

no coward;

But I cannot meet them here, for my ships are out of gear, And the half my men are sick. I must fly, but follow quick.

We are six ships of the line; 2 can we fight with fiftythree?"

2. Ashur. One of the principal cities of Assyria.

3. Baal. One of the principal gods of the Assyrians.

1. In the fall of 1591 a few English ships under Lord Howard were sent to Flores in the Azores to intercept and capture some Spanish ships laden with treasure. Many of the English soldiers became sick; and when the Spanish treasure-ships appeared escorted by fifty-three war vessels, Lord Howard thought discretion the better part of valor and gave the signal for flight. Sir Richard Grenville, in command of the Revenge, refused to leave his sick and wounded ashore, and, by the time these were got on board, found his ship in imminent danger. Scorning to run from the Spaniards, he tried to escape through their line, but had the wind taken out of his sails by the great San Philip. The fight of the one with the fifty-three followed. An account of the fight of the Revenge was written by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1591.

II

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

You fly them for a moment to fight with them again.
But I've ninety men and more that are lying sick ashore.
I should count myself the coward if I left them, my Lord
Howard,

To these Inquisition dogs and the devildoms of Spain."

III

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

Till he melted like a cloud in the silent summer heaven; But Sir Richard bore in hand all his sick men from the

land

Very carefully and slow,

Men of Bideford in Devon,

And we laid them on the ballast down below;

For we brought them all aboard,

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

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

IV

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

And he sailed away from Flores till the Spaniard came

in sight,

With his huge sea-castles heaving upon the weather bow. "Shall we fight or shall we fly?

Good Sir Richard, tell us now,

For to fight is but to die!

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

men.

Let us bang these dogs of Seville, the children of the devil, For I never turn'd my back upon Don or devil yet."

V

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

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

below;

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

were seen,

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

VI

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

Thousands of their seamen made mock at the mad little craft

Running on and on, till delay'd

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

And up-shadowing high above us with her yawning tiers

of guns,

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

VII

And while now the great San Philip hung above us like a cloud

Whence the thunderbolt will fall

Long and loud,

Four galleons 3 drew away

From the Spanish fleet that day,

And two upon the larboard and two upon the starboard

lay,

And the battle-thunder broke from them all.

VIII

But anon the great San Philip, she bethought herself and

went

Having that within her womb that had left her ill content; And the rest they came aboard us, and they fought us hand to hand,

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

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

his ears

When he leaps from the water to the land.

IX

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3.

Galleons. Sailing vessels of the 15th and following centuries, often having three or four decks.