Poems by Jean Ingelow, In Two Volumes, Volume II. | Page 5

of fame
Th' Armada. After
space old England's few;
And after that our dancing cockle-shells,

The volunteers. They took some pride in us,
For we were nimble, and
we brought them powder,
Shot, weapons. They were short of these.
Ill found,
Ill found. The bitter fruit of evil thrift.
But while
obsequious, darting here and there,
We took their messages from ship
to ship,
From ship to shore, the moving majesties
Made Calais
Roads, cast anchor, all their less
In the middle ward; their greater
ships outside
Impregnable castles fearing not assault.
So did we read their thought, and read it wrong,
While after the
running fight we rode at ease,
For many (as is the way of Englishmen)

Having made light of our stout deeds, and light
O' the effects
proceeding, saw these spread
To view. The Spanish Admiral's mighty
host,
Albeit not broken, harass'd.
Some did tow
Others that we had plagued, disabled, rent;
Many full
heavily damaged made their berths.
Then did the English anchor out of range.
To close was not their
wisdom with such foe,
Rather to chase him, following in the rear.

Ay, truly they were giants in our eyes
And in our own. They took
scant heed of us,
And we looked on, and knew not what to think,

Only that we were lost men, a lost Isle,

In every Spaniard's mind,

both great and small.
But no such thought had place in Howard's soul,
And when 't was
dark, and all their sails were furled,
When the wind veered a few
points to the west,
And the tide turned ruffling along the roads,
He
sent eight fireships forging down to them.
Terrible! Terrible!
Blood-red pillars of reek
They looked on that vast host and troubled it,

As on th' Egyptian host One looked of old.
Then all the heavens were rent with a great cry,
The red avengers
went right on, right on,
For none could let them; then was ruin, reek,
flame;
Against th' unwieldy huge leviathans
They drave, they fell
upon them as wild beasts,
And all together they did plunge and grind,

Their reefed sails set a-blazing, these flew loose
And forth like
banners of destruction sped.
It was to look on as the body of hell

Seething; and some, their cables cut, ran foul
Of one the other, while
the ruddy fire
Sped on aloft. One ship was stranded. One
Foundered,
and went down burning; all the sea
Red as an angry sunset was made
fell
With smoke and blazing spars that rode upright,
For as the
fireships burst they scattered forth
Full dangerous wreckage. All the
sky they scored
With flying sails and rocking masts, and yards

Licked of long flames. And flitting tinder sank
In eddies on the
plagued mixed mob of ships
That cared no more for harbour, and
were fain
At any hazard to be forth, and leave
Their berths in the
blood-red haze.
It was at twelve
O' the clock when this fell out, for as the eight

Were towed, and left upon the friendly tide
To stalk like evil angels
over the deep
And stare upon the Spaniards, we did hear
Their
midnight bells. It was at morning dawn
After our mariners thus had
harried them
I looked my last upon their fleet,--and all,
That night

had cut their cables, put to sea,
And scattering wide towards the
Flemish coast
Did seem to make for Greveline.
As for us,
The captains told us off to wait on them,
Bearers of
wounded enemies and friends,
Bearers of messages, bearers of store.
We saw not ought, but heard enough: we heard
(And God be thanked)
of that long scattering chase
And driving of Sidonia from his hope,

Parma, who could not ought without his ships
And looked for them to
break the Dutch blockade,
He meanwhile chafing lion-like in his lair.

We heard--and he--for all one summer day,
Fenning and Drake and
Raynor, Fenton, Cross,
And more, by Greveline, where they once
again
Did get the wind o' the Spaniards, noise of guns.
For coming
with the wind, wielding themselves
Which way they listed (while in
close array
The Spaniards stood but on defence), our own
Went at
them, charged them high and charged them sore,
And gave them
broadside after broadside. Ay,
Till all the shot was spent both great
and small.
It failed; and in regard of that same want
They thought it
not convenient to pursue
Their vessels farther.
They were huge withal,
And might not be encountered one to one,

But close conjoined they fought, and poured great store
Of ordnance
at our ships, though many of theirs,
Shot thorow and thorow, scarce
might keep afloat.
Many were captured fighting, many sank.
This news they brought
returned perforce, and left
The Spaniards forging north. Themselves
did watch
The river mouth, till Howard, his new store
Gathered,
encounter coveting, once more
Made after them with Drake.
And lo! the wind
Got up to help us. He yet flying north
(Their
doughty Admiral) made all his wake
To smoke, and would not end to
fight, but strewed
The ocean with his wreckage. And the wind

Drave him before it, and the storm was fell,
And he went up to th'

uncouth northern sea.
There did our mariners leave him. Then did joy

Run like a sunbeam over the land, and joy
Rule in the stout heart of
a regnant