Page:The Garden of Years.djvu/78

 Tripoli

So the frigate lay in Tripoli Bay, by the Molehead batteries pinned,

And along her flank, in a watchful rank, the guardian gun- boats grinned !

Out of the Gulf of Sidra's gales, a brig and a ketch, with

flattened sails,

Slid toward Tripoli harbor as the sun ahead went down, And, by the forts of Jussuf Bashaw pinned like prey in a

panther's paw, The captured frigate at anchor saw, in the curve of the

pirate town. And one of the pair had the peaceful air of a merchantman

landward led, And one of the two a Maltese crew, in fezzes of flaming

red; But they muttered on deck as they marked the speck of the

flag that swung on high Where the crimson bars and the silver stars had rippled

against the sky !

Then a wind came out of the cool northwest, and lifted the ketch on a heaving crest, 52