"Give us a song!" the soldiers cried,
The outer trenches guarding,
When the heated guns of the camps allied
Grew weary of bombarding.
The dark Redan, in silent scoff, 5
Lay grim and threatening under;
And the tawny mound of the Malakoff
No longer belched its thunder.
There was a pause. A guardsman said,
"We storm the forts to-morrow:10
Sing while we may; another day
Will bring enough of sorrow."
They lay along the battery's side,
Below the smoking cannon—
Brave hearts from Severn and from Clyde 15
And from the banks of Shannon.
They sang of love and not of fame;
Forgot was Britain's glory;
Each heart recalled a different name,
But all sang Annie Laurie.
Voice after voice caught up the song, 5
Until its tender passion
Rose like an anthem, rich and strong—
Their battle-eve confession.
Dear girl, her name he dared not speak,
But as the song grew louder,10
Something upon the soldier's cheek
Washed off the stains of powder.
Beyond the darkening ocean burned
The bloody sunset's embers,
While the Crimean valleys learned 15
How English love remembers.
And once again a fire of hell
Rained on the Russian quarters,
With scream of shot, and burst of shell,
And bellowing of the mortars!20
And Irish Nora's eyes are dim
For a singer dumb and gory;
And English Mary mourns for him
Who sang of Annie Laurie.
Sleep, soldiers! Still in honored rest
Your truth and valor wearing;
The bravest are the tenderest—
The loving are the daring.
1. At what time of day did the singing take place? Why, do you suppose, did the British soldiers sing Annie Laurie? Repeat some of the lines of that song.
2. What and where are the Severn, the Clyde, and the Shannon?
3. Who was Florence Nightingale? How was she connected with the Crimean War?
CABIN BOY AND ADMIRAL
Sir Cloudesley Shovel (1650?-1707) was the cabin boy of this story. He went to sea when quite young, and by his ability and courage won constant promotion, finally becoming admiral. In the sea fight between the English and French at La Hogue in 1692 (see Browning's "Hervé Riel," page 307) Shovel's was the first English ship to break through the enemy's line.
It was a gray autumn evening more than two hundred
years ago, in the reign of King Charles II. There was
the moan of a rising storm over the North Sea, and the
lowering sky, the flying streamers of cloud, and the great
leaden waves, heaving sullenly far as the eye could reach,5
warned even the bravest sailor that it was a day to keep
safe in port. For what ship could live in such a sea as
that?
Yet the English fleet, far from keeping in port, was
beating seaward against wind and wave. On the quarter deck 10
of the flagship stood Admiral Sir John Narborough—the
first seaman in England—who thirty-five years before
had been a cabin boy. His daring and dauntless courage
had earned for him the name of "Gunpowder Jack,"
and that dark autumn day was to test how well the bold
name fitted him. But he had been tried many a time, and
tempest and sea and the fire of the enemy could not make 5
his stout heart quail.
Suddenly his grave face lighted up and his stern gray
eyes sparkled with joy. Far away along the eastern sky he
saw a bristling line of tall masts with a flag which he knew
well floating over them. The shadow of a smile of scorn 10
changed for a moment the expression of the admiral's
face. For a moment only. There was no time for smiles.
There was mighty work to be done. The floating flag told
that the Dutch were coming; and that day must see the
enemy of England swept from the sea or England herself 15
forget her ancient glory.