I had seen his castle-flag to fall half-mast
One morn as I sat looking on the sea,
When thus all England’s grief came first to me,
Who hold my childhood favour’d that I knew
So well the face that won at Waterloo.
But now ’tis other wars, and other men;—
The year that Napier sail’d, my years were ten—
Yea, and new homes and loves my heart hath found:
A priest has there usurped the ivied mound,
The bell that call’d to horse calls now to prayers,