Page:The poems of Edmund Clarence Stedman, 1908.djvu/382

THE CARIB SEA No bearded Capitan,

Since first their woes began

(The orphaned niñas prate),

Cost them so dear!

From Maracaibo's Bay

Anon put out

A frigate to waylay

This ranger dark.

It crossed the Mer du Nord,

And, off San Salvador,

Stayed, with defiance stout,

Francisca's barque.

They grappled stern and prow

Till the guns kissed!

Girt like her rovers, now

She bids them board:

The first her blade had shorn

Was her own brother born.

Blindly she smote, nor wist

Whose life-stream poured.

Yet, as he fell, one ball

His sure aim sped.

Her lips the battle-call

Essay in vain.

Then deathful stroke on stroke,

Curses and powder-smoke,

And blood like water shed

Above the twain!

No quarter give or take!

The decks are gore;

Fresh gaps the Spaniards make,

Charging anew: 352