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SONGS AND BALLADS
Mark those numbers pale and horrid— Those were once my sailors bold !
Lo ! each hangs his drooping forehead, While his dismal tale is told.
' I by twenty sail attended
Did this Spanish town affright: Nothing then its wealth defended
But my orders not to fight. Oh ! that in this rolling ocean
I had cast them with disdain, And obey'd my heart's warm motion,
To have quell'd the pride of Spain !
' For resistance I could fear none,
But with twenty ships had done What thou, brave and happy Vernon,
Hast achieved with six alone. Then the Bastimentos never
Had our foul dishonour seen, Nor the sea the sad receiver
Of this gallant train had been.
' Thus, like thee proud Spain dismaying,
And her galleons leading home, Though condemn'd for disobeying,'
I had met a traitor's doom; To have fallen, my country crying,
He has play'd an English part, Had been better far than dying,
Of a griev'd and broken heart.
'•Unrepining at thy glory,
Thy successful arms we hail; But remember our sad story,
And let Hosier's wrongs prevail. Sent in this foul clime to languish,
Think what thousands fell in vain, Wasted with disease and anguish,
Not in glorious battle slain.
' Hence with all my train attending,
From their oozy tombs below, Through the hoary foam ascending,
Here I feed my constant woe; |
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