And the noise of the flames shall be sweet in thine ears as the sound of a lyre.

Yea, so shall thy kingdom be stablished, and so shall the signs of it be:

And the world shall know, and the wind shall speak, and the sun shall see,

That these are the works of thy servants, whose works bear witness to thee.

[Pg 196]

II

But the dusk of the day falls fruitless, whose light should have lit them on:

Sails flash through the gloom to shoreward, eclipsed as the sun that shone:

And the west wind wakes with dawn, and the hope that was here is gone.

Around they wheel and around, two knots to the Spaniard's one,

The wind-swift warriors of England, who shoot as with shafts of the sun,

With fourfold shots for the Spaniard's, that spare not till day be done.

And the wind with the sundown sharpens, and hurtles the ships to the lee,

And Spaniard on Spaniard smites, and shatters, and yields; and we,

Ere battle begin, stand lords of the battle, acclaimed of the sea.

And the day sweeps round to the nightward; and heavy and hard the waves

Roll in on the herd of the hurtling galleons; and masters and slaves

Reel blind in the grasp of the dark strong wind that shall dig their graves.

For the sepulchres hollowed and shaped of the wind in the swerve of the seas,

The graves that gape for their pasture, and laugh, thrilled through by the breeze,

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