Page:Rudyard Kipling's verse - Inclusive Edition 1885-1918.djvu/196

178 They wrought a deeper treason— (Led seas that served my needs!) They sold Diego Valdez To bondage of great deeds.

The tempest flung me seaward, And pinned and bade me hold The course I might not alter— And men esteemed me bold! The calms embayed my quarry, The fog-wreath sealed his eyes; The dawn-wind brought my topsails— And men esteemed me wise!

Yet, ’spite my tyrant triumphs Bewildered, dispossessed— My dream held I before me— My vision of my rest; But, crowned by Fleet and People, And bound by King and Pope— Stands here Diego Valdez To rob me of my hope.

No prayer of mine shall move him, No word of his set free The Lord of Sixty Pennants And the Steward of the Sea. His will can loose ten thousand To seek their loves again— But not Diego Valdez, High Admiral of Spain.

There walks no wind ’neath Heaven Nor wave that shall restore The old careening riot And the clamorous, crowded shore—