Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1878-07-28
ret Harte, I'm Scribner's for;August.
OFF SCARBOROUGH.
sEPTENIBER, 1879.

Have a carer the bailifs crisd
| From their cookie shell that lay
| OF the frigates yellow side
Tossing on Scarborough bay,
stretched away;
Take your chicks beneath your wings.
And your claws and feathers spread.
| Ere the hawk upon them springs
| Ere around Marlborough Head
beak md talons red
| How we laughed-my mate and L
On the Bon Homme Richards deck,
As we saw that convoy fly
Like a snow squall till each ieck
Melted In twilight shadows of the coast line. speck
| And scuffiing back to shore,
Scarborough bailiffs sped,
| As the Richard" with roar
OF her cannon round the Head,
Crossed her royal yards and signaed to her oonsort
Chase aheadr'
But the devil seize Landais
In that consOrt ship of France
For the shabby, lubber way
That he worked the Alliance
With his battle lanterns set.
Rose the burly EnRlishman
'GainSt her hull as black Jet
Rode the yellowsided ''Serapis," and all alone we
metz
All alone-though far at sea
Hung his consort rounding to;
All alOne-though on our lee,
Fought our .Pallas" stauueh and true,
For the first broadside around US both smoky circle
drew
And, like champions in ring,
There was cleared little space
Scarce a cable s-length to swing
Ere we gTappled In embrace,
All the world shut out around u.s. and We only face to
facet
Then aNoke all he'll below!
From that Droadside doubly crust,
For our long eighteenS in
Leaned
And on deck our men came pouring, fearing their
own guns the worst;
And as dumb we lay, till through
smoke and flame and bitter cry,
Hailed the ''Serapis:' Have you
Struck your colOrS?'' Our reply,
I'VE have not begun to ghtP' weut shouting to the
sky
Roux of Brest, Old fisher, lay
Like herring gasping here;
Bunker of Nantucket Bay
Blown from out the port dropped sheer
raised chser
AS. with his own right hand.
Our commodore made fast
The foeman'S head-gear and
The Richards mlZZsn-maSt,
And In that deathlock clinging held us there from
first to last!
Yet the foeman. gun on gun,
Through the Richard" tore a road
With his gunners hammers run
Through our ports at every load;
Till clear the blue beyond us through our yawning
tImbers showed;
Yet with entrails torn we chung
Like the Spartan to our fox,
And on deck no coward tongue
Walled the enemy's hard knocks
Nor that all below US trembled like the wreck upon
the rocks.
VIII.
Then q thought rose in my brain
As through channel mists the sun
From our tops fire like rain
Drove below decks every one
OF the enemy's ships company to hide work
gun,
And that thought took shape as
On the Richards yard lay out,
That man might do and die,
If the doing brought about
Freedom for his home and country, and his mess
mates cheering shout
Then crept out In the dark
Till hung above the hatch
OF the ''SerapiS''-a mark
For her markSmen-with match
And hand-grenade, but fingered just moment
more to snatch
One last look at the and sky!
At the lighthouse on the hill
At the harvest moon on high,
And our pine flag fiuttering still;
Then turned and down her yawning throat
launched that DEVILS Pill.
Then blank was all between
AS the flames around me spun:
had fired the magIZine?
Was the victory lost or won?
Nor knew till the fight was DER, but half my work
was done
For lay among the dead,
In the cockpit of our foe,
With a roar above my head
Till trampling TO and fro,
And lantern showed my mates face and knew
what now you know,