Page:Traits and Trials.pdf/154

148

"I have gone east—I have gone west:    I served in that brave band Which fought beneath the pyramids,     In Egypt's ancient land.

"I saw the Nile swell o'er its banks    And bury all around; And when it ebbed, the fertile land     Was like fair garden ground.*

"I saw the golden Ganges, next,    No meadow is so green As the bright fields of verdant rice     Beside its waters seen.

"There grows the mournful peepul tree,†    Whose boughs are scattered o'er The door-way of the warrior's house,     When he returns no more.

"I followed where our colours led,    In many a hard-won day; From ocean to the Pyrenees,     Old England fought her way.