Page:The Five Nations.djvu/28

 CRUISERS

our mother the Frigate, bepainted and fine,

Made play for her bully the Ship of the Line;

So we, her bold daughters by iron and fire,

Accost and decoy to our masters' desire.

Now pray you consider what toils we endure,

Night-walking wet sea-lanes, a guard and a lure;

Since half of our trade is that same pretty sort

As mettlesome wenches do practise in port.

For this is our office: to spy and make room,

As hiding yet guiding the foe to their doom;

Surrounding, confounding, to bait and betray

And tempt them to battle the seas' width away.

The pot-bellied merchant foreboding no wrong

With headlight and sidelight he lieth along,

Till, lightless and lightfoot and lurking, leap we

To force him discover his business by sea.

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