The times., 1898-04-17
CURRENT VERSE
The nevenge-A ballad of The Flee

The Revenge-A Ballad of the Fleet.
At Flores in the Azores Sir Richard Grenville lay
And pinnaee, like futtered bird, came hylnS
from far away;
Spanish ship of at sea! We have slghied
ffty-threei''
Then swore Lord Thomas Howard. Fore God,
coward;
But | cannot meet them here, for my ships are
And the hall my men are sick. must ay, but
follow quick.
fifty -threef"
Then spake Sir Richard Grenville: 81 know you
no coward;
You fly them for moment to fight with them
again.
But I've ninety men and more that are lying SICK
should count myself the coward. if left them,
To these Inquisitions dogs and deyildoms of
SPAIN
So Lord Howard passed away with five ships Of
Till he melted like cloud in the silent Summer
heaven,
But Sir Richard bore in hanI all his sick men from
the land
Very carefully and slow,
Ben 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 thumbscrews and the stake. for the glory
OF the Lord.
He had only A hundred seamen to work the ship
And he sailed away from Flores tn the spaniard
came in sight,
With his huge sea-castles heavins upon the wea-
ther bow.
"ShalI We fight or shall we fly?
Good Sir Richard, tell us now,
For to fight is but to die,
There'I be little OF US left by the time this
be set
And Sir Richard said again: Eve be all good
English men.
Let bang those dogs Of Seville, the children of
For never turned my back on Don or devil yet.
Sir Richard spoke and he laughed. and roared
a hu-rah. 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 their fleet to the right and half to the left
were seen,
And the little Revenge ran on through the long
sea-lane between.
Thousands Of their soldiers looked down from
their decks and laughed,
Thousands OF their seamen made mock at the
mad little craft
Running on and on, till delayed
By their mountain-like San Philip that, Of If
teen hundred tons,
And up-shadowing high above US with her yawn-
Took the breath from our sails and we stayed.
And while. now the great San Philip hung above
like a cloud
Whence the thunderbolt will fall
Long and loud,
Four galleons drew away
From the Spanish feet that day,
And two upon the larboard and two upon the
starboard lay,
And the battle thunder broke from them all.
But anon the great San Philip. she bethought her
self and went.
Having that within her womb that had left her
i'll content;
And the rest they came aboard u.s. and they
fought us hand to hand,
For dozen times they came with their pixies and
musketeeFs
And a dozen times we shook them of as dog
that shakes his ears
Wen he leaps from the water TO the land.
And the sun went down, and the stars came out
far the Summer sea-
But never moment ceased the fight OF the one
and the hfty-three.
Ship after ship. the whole night long, their high
built galleons came.
Ship after ship, the whole night long, with her
battle-thunder and fame;
Ship after ship, the whole night long, drew
back with her dead and her shame
For some were sunk and many were shattered and
so could fight more
God OF battles. was ever a battle like this in the
world before?
For he said: Eight on, Fight oni'
Though his vessel was all but wreck;
And 1t chanced that, when half of the short
Summer night gone,
With grisly wound to be drest he had left the
deck,
But bullet struck him that was dressing it sud-
denly dead
And himself he was wounded again in the side
And he said, Fight on! fight on"
And the night went down and the sun smiled out
far the Summer sea,
And the Spanish feet with broken sides lay round
Us all in q ring;
But they dared not touch US again, for they
feared that we still could sting.
So they watched what the end would be.
And we had not fought them in vain,
But in perilous plight were We
Seeing forty OF our poor hundred were slain,
And half OF the rest of US MANNED for life
In the crash OF the eannonade and the desperate
strife;
And the sick men down in the hold were most
OF them stark and cold,
And the pixies were all broken or bent and the
powder was all Of it spent;
And the masts and the rigging were lying over
the side.
But Sir Richard cried in his English pride:
I'VE have fought such fight for day and a
As may never be fought againl
We have only one great glory, my meni
And day less more,
At or ashore,
We die-does it matter when?
Sink me the ship, Master Gunner-sink her. split
her in twain.
Fail into the hands Of God, not into the hands
of Spain!"
And the gunner said GAY! ayr but the seamen
made reply;
1--WE have children, we have wives
And the Lord hath spared our lives
We VIII make the spaniard promise, if we YIELD
to let US go;
We shall live to fight again and to strike another
And the lion there lay dying, and they yielded to
the foe.
And the the stately @ Spanish men to their flagship
Where they laid him by the mast old Sir Richard
caught at last,
And they praised him to his face with their court
But he rose upon their decks and he cried:
i have fought for Queen and Faith like valiant
have only done my duty as man is hound N
do; "
With joyful spirit l. Sir Richard GrenviIle. dier
And he fell upon their decks and he died.
And they stared at the dead that had been so
valiant and true.
And had holden the power and glory of Spain so
That he dared her with one little ship and his
English few:
Was he devil or man? He was devil for aught they
knew,
But they sank his body with honor down into the
deep, ~
And they manned the Revenge with swarthier
alien crew,
And away she sailed with her loss and Ionged for
her own; 80
When wind from the lands they had ruined
awoke from Sleep
And the water began to heave and the weather
TO moan,
And or ever that evening ended great gale
blew, ee
And wave like wave that is raised by an
earthquake grew ~
Till 1t smote on their hulls and their Sails ,I
their masts and their flags,
And WIN