THE DYNASTS
SPIRIT OF THE PITIES
What are these fleets that cross the sea From British ports and bays
To coasts that glister southwardly Behind the dog-day haze ?
RUMOURS (chanting) SEMICHORUS I
They are the shipped battalions sent To bar the bold Belligerent
Who stalks the Dancers Land. Within these hulls, like sheep a-pen, Are packed in thousands fighting-men
And colonels in command.
SEMICHORUS II
The fleet that leans each aery fin Far south, where Mondego mouths in, Bears Wellesley and his aides therein,
And Hill, and Crauford too ; With Torrens, Ferguson, and Fane, And majors, captains, clerks, in train, And those grim needs that appertain—
The surgeons—not a few ! To them, add near twelve thousand souls In linesmen that the list enrolls, Borne onward by those sheeted poles
As war*s red retinue /
SEMICHORUS I
The fleet that clears St. Helen's shore Holds Burrard, Hope, ill-omened Moore,
Clinton and Paget; while The transports that pertain to those Count six-score sail, whose planks enclose
Ten thousand rank and file. 248