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ANCIENT PORTUGUESE BALLADS. 259
The white foam curls along the prow ; the brave fleet seeks the seas.
Don Juan held his course before the favoring gale,
At midday to the watchman he gave a roaring hail.
" Get higher to the mast-head ! " he shouted strong and loud.
The sailor quickly mounted the thin and shaking shroud.
" Sail ho, sail ho," he shouted, " a mighty fleet's ahead,
Across the whole horizon the line of ships is spread."
A Spanish renegade commanded that proud fleet Who by his beard had sworn Don Juan to defeat. Don Juan trusted Christ and made a solemn vow, The cross within his arms, and standing on the prow. Oh, Son of Virgin Mary, give us the heart to fight Those dogs of heathen pride, and scatter them in flight.
The midday sun was bright, when the two fleets grappled
close, And from the roaring cannon a blinding smoke arose, The bullets crashed in splinters and shattered plank and
beam. To the sea the scuppers poured a hot and crimson stream. The bleeding corpses lay in heaps upon the reeking decks, With tattered sails and rudderless the ships were drifting
wrecks.
The Turkish captain's galley swung helpless on the sea. Of its three hundred sailors were left but forty-three, Along its shattered gunwales the masts and hamper drag, And weltering in the wake trails its dishonored flag. The Turkish fleet was beaten, and fled with sail and oar, Until it reached the harbor and anchored by the shore. |
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