# Littell's Living Age/Volume 140/Issue 1808/Trafalgar

From Macmillan's Magazine.
TRAFALGAR.
* OCTOBER 21, 1805.
* Heard ye the thunder of battle
* Low in the south and afar?
* Saw ye the flash of the death-cloud
* Crimson on Trafalgar?
* Such another day never
* England will look on again,
* Where the battle fought was the hottest,
* And the hero of heroes was slain!
* 1.
* For the fleet of France and the force of Spain were gather'd for fight,
* A greater than Philip their lord, a new Armada in might;
* And the sails were white once more in the deep Gaditanian bay,
* Where "Redoubtable" and "Bucentaure" and great "Trinidada" lay;
* Eager-reluctant to fight; for across the bloodshed to be
* Two navies beheld one prize in its glory, — the throne of the sea!
* Which were bravest, who should tell? for both were gallant and true;
* But the greatest seaman was ours, of all that sailed o'er the blue.
* 2.
* From Cadiz the enemy sallied: they knew not Nelson was there;
* His name a navy to us, but to them a flag of despair.
* From Ayamonte to Algeziras he guarded the coast,
* Till he bore from Tavira south; and they now must fight, or be lost;
* Vainly they steer'd for the Rock and the Midland sheltering sea,
* For he headed the admirals round, constraining them under his lee,
* Villeneuve of France, and Gravina of Spain: so they shifted their ground,
* They could choose, — they were more than we; and they faced at Trafalgar round;
* Banking their fleet two deep, a fortress-wall thirty-tower'd;
* In the midst, four-storied with guns, the dark "Trinidada" lower'd.
* 3.
* So with those. — But meanwhile, as against some dyke that men massively rear,
* From on high the torrent surges, to drive through the dyke as a spear,
* Eagle-eyed all in his blindness, our chief sets his double array,
* Making the fleet two spears, to thrust at the foe, anyway, …
* "Anyhow! — without orders, each captain his Frenchman may grapple perforce:
* "Collingwood first" (yet the "Victory" ne'er a whit slacken'd her course).
* "Signal for action! Farewell! we shall win, but we meet not again!"
* Then a low thunder of readiness ran from the decks o'er the main,
* And on, — as the message from masthead to masthead flew out like a flame,
* England expects every man will do his duty, — they came.
* 4.
* Silent they come; while the thirty black forts of the foemen's array
* Clothe them in billowy snow, tier speaking o'er tier as they lay;
* Flashes that came and went, as swords when the battle is rife;
* But ours stood frowningly smiling, and ready for death as for life.
* O in that interval grim, ere the furies of slaughter embrace,
* Thrills o'er each man some far echo of England; some glance of some face!
* Faces gazing seaward through tears from the ocean-girt shore;
* Features that ne'er can be gazed on again till the death-pang is o'er. …
* Lone in his cabin the admiral kneeling, and all his great heart
* As a child's to the mother, goes forth to the loved one, who bade him depart
* … O not for death, but glory! her smile would welcome him home!
* Louder and thicker the thunderbolts fall; and silent they come.
* 5.
* As when beyond Dongola the lion, whom hunters attack,
* Stung by their darts from afar, leaps in, dividing them back;
* So between Spaniard and Frenchman the "Victory" wedged with a shout,
* Gun against gun; a cloud from her decks and lightning went out;
* Iron hailing of pitiless death from the sulphury smoke;
* Voices hoarse and parch'd, and blood from invisible stroke.
* Each man stood to his work, though his mates fell smitten around,
* As an oak of the wood, while his fellow, flame-shatter'd, besplinters the ground:
* Gluttons of danger for England, but sparing the foe as he lay;
* For the spirit of Nelson was on them, and each was Nelson that day.
* 6.
* "She has struck!" he shouted. "She burns, the 'Redoubtable!' Save whom we can,
* Silence our guns!" for in him tne woman was great in the man,
* In that heroic heart each drop girl-gentle and pure,
* Dying by those he spared; and now Death's triumph was sure!
* From the deck the smoke-wreath clear'd, and the foe set his rifle in rest,
* Dastardly aiming, where Nelson stood forth, with the stars on his breast:
* "In honor I gain'd them, in honor I die with them" … Then, in his place,
* Fell. … "Hardy! 'tis over; but let them not know;" and he cover'd his face.
* Silent, the whole fleet's darling they bore to the twilight below;
* And above the war-thunder came shouting, as foe struck his flag after foe.
* 7.
* To his heart death rose: and for Hardy, the faithful, he cried in his pain, —
* "How gees the day with us, Hardy?" … "'Tis ours." Then he knew, not in vain
* Not in vain for his comrades and England he bled: how he left her secure,
* Queen of her own blue seas, while his name and example endure.
* O, like a lover he loved her I for her as water he pours
* Life-blood and life and love, given all for her sake, and for ours!
* "Kiss me, Hardy! — Thank God! I have done my duty!" And then
* Fled that heroic soul, and left not his like among men.
* Hear ye the heart of a nation
* Groan, for her saviour is gone;
* Gallant and true and tender,
* Child and chieftain in one?
* Such another day never
* England will weep for again,
* When the triumph darken'd the triumph,
* And the hero of heroes was slain.
* F. T. Palgrave.