Page:Poems that every child should know (ed. Burt, 1904).djvu/282

244 Should not the dove so white

Follow the sea-mew's flight?

Why did they leave that night

Her nest unguarded?

"Scarce had I put to sea,

Bearing the maid with me,—

Fairest of all was she

Among the Norsemen!—

When on the white sea-strand,

Waving his armèd hand,

Saw we old Hildebrand,

With twenty horsemen.

"Then launched they to the blast,

Bent like a reed each mast,

Yet we were gaining fast,

When the wind failed us;

And with a sudden flaw

Came round the gusty Skaw,

So that our foe we saw

Laugh as he hailed us.

"And as to catch the gale

Round veered the flapping sail,

'Death!' was the helmsman's hail,

'Death without quarter!'

Midships with iron keel

Struck we her ribs of steel;

Down her black hulk did reel

Through the black water!