Not alone the foe without them
Menaced them with fire and shot,
Sickness creeping round about them,
Fever, dysentery, and rot,
Struck the rider and the stallion,
Making merry as at feast
On the pick of each battalion—
Ruthless, smiting man and beast.
None were spared and nothing holy,
For the fever claimed the best,
Now the high and now the lowly,
Now the baby at the breast,
All obeyed its mandate, drooping
In the fulness of their power,
Old and young before it stooping,
Bud and blossom, fruit and flower.
Hunger blanched their dauntless faces,
Furrowed with the lines of lack,
But with stern and stubborn paces
Still they drove the spoiler back.
Round them drew the iron tether
Tighter, but they kept their troth,
All for England's sake together—
Soldier and civilian both.
Death and ruin knock and enter,
Hearts may break and homesteads burn,
Yet from that lone faithful centre
Flashed red vengeance in return;
Guardian guns thence hurled defiance
From the brave who lightly took
All their blows in brave reliance,
Which no tempest ever shook.
Hand to hand they strove and wrestled
Stoutly for that pearl of pride,
Where mid flame and woe it nestled
Down with danger at its side.
Yet like boys released from class time,
Though the blast destroying blew,
There they played and found a pastime
While the Flag unconquered flew.
III.—LADYSMITH RELIEVED.
Then, when all seemed lost but glory
With the lustre which it gave,
And Relief an idle story
Murmured by a sealed grave;
While with pallid lips they reckoned
Darkly the enduring days
Famished, lo! Deliverance beckoned
Surely after long delays.
Wave on wave of martial beauty,
Dashed upon those deadly rocks
At the simple call of duty,
And were broken by the shocks.
Yet that chivalry of splendour,
Though baptized in blood and fire,
Had no thought of mean surrender
Never breathed the word retire.
Still they weighed the dreadful chances,
Still they gathered up their strength,
By invincible advances
Steeled to win the prize at length.
Fate-like their resolve to sever
Those gaunt bonds of grim despair,
And within the breach for ever
England's honour to repair.
Came relief at last, endeavour,
Stern, magnificent, and true,
Hoping on and fighting ever,
Forced its gory passage through.
All the rage of pent-up forces,
All the passion seeking vent
Out of vast and solemn sources,
Here renewed their sacrament;