POETRY. THE BATTLE OF MONCONTOUR. [The Huguenots, under Admiral Coligny, were defeated at Moncontour by the Duke of Anjou in October, 1569.] Оn, weep for Moncontour! Oh, weep for the hour On the bosoms that bled for their rights and their God! Oh, weep for Moncontour! Oh, weep for the slain, One look, one last look, to our cots and our towers, Alas! we must leave thee, dear desolate home, Farewell to thy fountains, farewell to thy shades, Farewell, and forever. The priest and the slave THE ARMADA. (1588.) [A Fragment.] ATTEND, all ye who list to hear our noble England's praise; It was about the lovely close of a warm summer day, There came a gallant merchant-ship full sail to Plymouth Bay; Her crew hath seen Castile's black fleet, beyond Aurigny's isle,(') At earliest twilight, on the waves lie heaving many a mile. His yeomen round the market cross make clear an ample space; For there behooves him to set up the standard of Her Grace. (1) The Isle of Alderney. So stalked he when he turned to flight, on that famed Picard field, Bohemia's plume, and Genoa's bow, and Cæsar's eagle shield.(') So glared he when at Agincourt in wrath he turned to bay, And crushed and torn beneath his claws the princely hunters lay. Ho! strike the flag-staff deep, Sir Knight; ho! scatter flowers, fair maids; Ho! gunners, fire a loud salute; ho! gallants, draw your blades: Thou sun, shine on her joyously; ye breezes, waft her wide; Our glorious SEMPER EADEM, the banner of our pride. The freshening breeze of eve unfurled that banner's massy fold; The parting gleam of sunshine kissed that haughty scroll of gold; Night sunk upon the dusky beach, and on the purple sea, Such night in England ne'er had been, nor e'er again shall be. From Eddystone to Berwick bounds, from Lynn to Milford Bay, That time of slumber was as bright and busy as the day; spread, High on St. Michael's Mount it shone: it shone on Beachy Head. Far on the deep the Spaniard saw, along each southern shire, Cape beyond cape, in endless range, those twinkling points of fire. The fisher left his skiff to rock on Tamar's glittering waves: The rugged miners poured to war from Mendip's sunless caves: O'er Longleat's towers, o'er Cranbourne's oaks, the fiery herald flew: IIe roused the shepherds of Stonehenge, the rangers of Beaulieu.(') (') The battle of Crécy. (2) Beaulieu Abbey is in Hampshire, and Cranbourne Chase in Dorsetshire. Longleat, in Wiltshire, the seat of the Marquis of Bath, at the time of the Armada Right sharp and quick the bells all night rung out from Bristol town, And ere the day three hundred horse had met on Clifton down; The sentinel on Whitehall gate looked forth into the night, And saw o'erhanging Richmond Hill the streak of blood-red light. Then bugle's note and cannon's roar the death-like silence broke, And with one start, and with one cry, the royal city woke. fear; And all the thousand masts of Thames sent back a louder cheer: And from the farthest wards was heard the rush of hurrying feet, And the broad streams of pikes and flags rushed down each roaring street; And broader still became the blaze, and louder still the din, As fast from every village round the horse came spurring in : And castward straight from wild Blackheath the warlike er rand went, And roused in many an ancient hall the gallant squires of Kent. Southward from Surrey's pleasant hills flew those bright couriers forth; High on bleak Hampstead's swarthy moor they started for the north; And on, and on, without a pause untired they bounded still: All night from tower to tower they sprung; they sprung from hill to hill: Till the proud peak unfurled the flag o'er Darwin's rocky dales, Till like volcanoes flared to heaven the stormy hills of Wales, was already in the possession of the Thynne family. Macaulay admired it more than any other country-house in England. |