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A BALLAD OF THE FRENCH

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FLEET

OCTOBER, 1746

A FLEET with flags arrayed
Sailed from the port of Brest,
And the Admiral's ship displayed
The signal: "Steer southwest."
For this Admiral D'Anville

Had sworn by cross and crown
To ravage with fire and steel

Our helpless Boston Town.

There were rumors in the street,
In the houses there was fear
Of the coming of the fleet,

And the danger hovering near.
And while from mouth to mouth
Spread the tidings of dismay,

I stood in the Old South,

Saying humbly: "Let us pray!

"O Lord! we would not advise;

But if in thy Providence

A tempest should arise

To drive the French Fleet hence,

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And scatter it far and wide,

Or sink it in the sea, We should be satisfied,

And thine the glory be."

This was the prayer I made,
For my soul was all on flame,
And even as I prayed

The answering tempest came;
It came with a mighty power,
Shaking the windows and walls,
And tolling the bell in the tower,
As it tolls at funerals.

The lightning suddenly

Unsheathed its flaming sword,
And I cried: "Stand still, and see
The salvation of the Lord!"
The heavens were black with cloud,
The sea was white with hail,
And ever more fierce and loud
Blew the October gale.

The fleet it overtook,

And the broad sails in the van
Like the tents of Cushan shook,
Or the curtains of Midian.
Down on the reeling decks
Crashed the o'erwhelming seas;
Ah, never were there wrecks
So pitiful as these!

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1877.

Like a potter's vessel broke
The great ships of the line;
They were carried away as a smoke,
Or sank like lead in the brine.
O Lord! before thy path

They vanished and ceased to be,
When thou didst walk in wrath

With thine horses through the sca! 56
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

CARMEN BELLICOSUM

IN their ragged regimentals,
Stood the old Continentals,

Yielding not,

While the grenadiers were lunging,
And like hail fell the plunging

Cannon-shot;

When the files

Of the isles,

From the smoky night encampment, bore the

banner of the rampant

Unicorn;

And grummer, grummer, grummer, rolled the

roll of the drummer

Through the morn!

Then with eyes to the front all,

And with guns horizontal,

Stood our sires;

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While the balls whistled deadly,
And in streams flashing redly
Blazed the fires:

As the roar

On the shore

Swept the strong battle-breakers o'er the green

sodded acres

Of the plain;

And louder, louder, louder, cracked the black

gunpowder,

Cracking amain !

Now like smiths at their forges
Worked the red St. George's

Cannoneers,

And the villainous saltpetre
Rang a fierce, discordant metre
Round their ears:

As the swift
Storm-drift,

With hot sweeping anger, came the horseguards'

clangor

On our flanks.

Then higher, higher, higher, burned the old

fashioned fire..

Through the ranks!

Then the bare-headed colonel
Galloped through the white infernal
Powder-cloud;

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And his broad sword was swinging,
And his brazen throat was ringing
Trumpet-loud;

Then the blue
Bullets flew,

And the trooper-jackets redden at the touch of

the leaden Rifle-breath;

And rounder, rounder, rounder, roared the iron

six-pounder,

Hurling death!

1849.

Guy Humphreys McMaster.

MONTEREY

WE were not many, we who stood
Before the iron sleet that day;

Yet many a gallant spirit would
Give half his years if but he could

Have been with us at Monterey.

Now here, now there, the shot it hailed

In deadly drifts of fiery spray,

Yet not a single soldier quailed

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When wounded comrades round them wailed

Their dying shout at Monterey.

And on, still on our column kept

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Through walls of flame its withering way;

Where fell the dead, the living stept,

Still charging on the guns which swept
The slippery streets of Monterey.

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