Page:Departmental Ditties and Ballads and Barrack-Room Ballads, Kipling, 1899.djvu/300

116 "I draw the gliding fog-bank as a snake is drawn from the hole;

"They bellow one to the other, the frighted ship-bells toll,

"For day is a drifting terror till I raise the shroud with my breath,

"And they see strange bows above them and the two go locked to death.

"But whether in calm or wrack-wreath, whether by dark or day,

"I heave them whole to the conger or rip their plates away,

"First of the scattered legions, under a shrieking sky,

"Dipping between the rollers, the English Flag goes by.

"The dead dumb fog hath wrapped it—the frozen dews have kissed—

"The naked stars have seen it, a fellow-star in the mist.

"What is the Flag of England? Ye have but my breath to dare,

"Ye have but my waves to conquer. Go forth, for it is there!"