So glared he when, at Agincourt, in wrath he turned to bay, 25 And crush'd and torn beneath his claws the princely hunters lay.

Ho! strike the flagstaff deep, Sir Knight! ho! scatter flowers, fair maids!

Ho! gunners! fire a loud salute: ho! gallants, draw your blades:
Thou sun, shine on her joyously! ye breezes, waft her wide!
Our glorious SEMPER EADEM! the banner of our pride!

30

The freshening breeze of eve unfurled that banner's massy fold, The parting gleam of sunshine kissed that haughty scroll of gold:

Night sank upon the dusky beach, and on the purple sea;

Such night in England ne'er had been, nor ne'er again shall be. From Eddystone to Berwick bounds, from Lynn to Milford

Bay,

35

That time of slumber was as bright and busy as the day;
For, swift to east, and swift to west, the ghastly war-flame

spread

High on St. Michael's Mount it shone-it shone on Beachy Head: Far on the deep the Spaniards saw, along each southern shire, Cape beyond cape, in endless range, those twinkling points of fire.

40

The fisher left his skiff to rock on Tamar's glittering waves, The rugged miners poured to war from Mendip's sunless caves; O'er Longleat's towers, o'er Cranbourne's oaks, the fiery herald flew,

He roused the shepherds of Stonehenge-the rangers of Beaulieu. Right sharp and quick the bells rang out all night from Bristol town;

45

And ere the day three hundred horse had met on Clifton Down.
The sentinel on Whitehall gate look'd forth into the night,
And saw, o'erhanging Richmond Hill, the streak of blood-red
light:

Then bugle's note and cannon's roar the death-like silence broke,
And with one start, and with one cry, the Royal City woke; 50
At once, on all her stately gates, arose the answering fires;
At once, the wild alarum clashed from all her reeling spires;
From all the batteries of the Tower pealed loud the voice of fear,
And all the thousand masts of Thames sent back a louder cheer:

And from the furthest wards was heard the rush of hurrying

feet,

55

And the broad streams of pikes and flags dash'd down each roaring street:

And broader still became the blaze, and louder still the din,
As fast from every village round the horse came spurring in;
And eastward straight from wild Blackheath the warlike errand
went;

And roused in many an ancient hall the gallant squires of Kent:60 Southward, from Surrey's pleasant hills, flew those bright couriers forth;

High, from bleak Hampstead's swarthy moor, they started for the north;

And on, and on, without a pause, untired they bounded still; All night from tower to tower they sprang; they sprang from

hill to hill;

Till the proud Peak unfurl'd the flag o'er Darwin's rocky

dales;

65

Till, like volcanoes, flared to heaven the stormy hills of Wales; Till twelve fair counties saw the blaze on Malvern's lonely height;

Till streamed in.crimson on the wind the Wrekin's crest of light;
Till broad and fierce the star came forth, on Ely's stately fane,
And town and hamlet rose in arms o'er all the boundless plain ; 70
Till Belvoir's lordly terraces the sign to Lincoln sent,
And Lincoln sped the message on o'er the wide vale of Trent ;
Till Skiddaw saw the fire that burned on Gaunt's embattled pile,
And the red glare on Skiddaw roused the burghers of Carlisle.

NOTES.

TheArmada was sent by Philip II. of Spain to crush England, the great Protestant power. It sailed from Lisbon, May 19th, 1588, and consisted of 132 ships of war, and very many transports; 8,766 sailors, 2,088 galley-slaves (as rowers), 21,855 soldiers, 1,355 noble volunteers, and 150 monks, headed by the Vicar of the Inquisition. The Duke of Medina-Sidonia commanded. Mexico had been conquered by

Cortes, 1519-21. Spain received an
immense wealth of gold, &c.,
from it.

5 Summer's day. The Armada
entered the English channel on
July 19th.
Plymouth, a Devonshire seaport.
Castile, a Spanish kingdom united
with Arragon, by the marriage of
Ferdinand and Isabella, in 1474.
Black Fleet. The ships were
painted black.

THE BATTLE OF PLASSEY.-SIR E. CREASY.

Plassey is a village on the Hooghly, between 80 and 90 miles above Calcutta. The Battle of Plassey was fought June 23, 1757, between Clive, on the English side, and Surajah Dowlah, the Nabob of Bengal, on the other. It was the foundation of the British Empire in India. Clive had only about 3,000 men, of whom about 1,000 were English. Surajah Dowlah had 40,000 infantry and 15,000 cavalry.

1. CLIVE was left without any assurance of aid from his wily confederates, and saw that he must depend solely on his own strategy and the valour of his troops, and that he must begin by acting on the defensive against the enormous superiority of the numbers about to be hurled against him. He took every possible measure of precaution, calmly folded his arms, and waited resolutely for the attack.

2. On it came like the meeting of many waters. From the various openings and entrances to the camp, long lines of warriors poured forth in continued streams, with the roll of drums, the clash of cymbals, the waving of banners, the glitter and the din of arms. A splendid cavalry, supplied by the more northern provinces, with bright helmets and breastplates, and horses richly caparisoned, formed the two wings of the army, and spread themselves over the plain. Between the files of infantry were huge movable batteries-stages raised upon wheels six feet above the ground, bearing both artillery and ammunition, and drawn by forty or fifty yoke of white oxen of the largest size.

3. Behind each of these stages walked a majestic elephant, ready to push or pull, or assist with his strength and intelligence. The cannon were generally of heavy metal, but some lighter pieces were moved rapidly to the front by a small body of Frenchmen, and planted on the brink of a tank near the grove, so as to

bear directly on the English. Dense masses of horse and foot hurried forward to support these guns, while the rest of the army advanced in columns to the attack, extending in a long curve beyond the extreme right of the defenders, and threatening, like some gigantic serpent, to envelop them in its deadly embrace. Clive viewed undismayed the approach of this mighty armament.

4. It was a sight never to be forgotten when that mere handful of brave men rushed forward to charge the immense multitude opposed to them. They had grown weary of waiting, and chafed at the long restraint in which they had been held; but in that supreme moment there was no trace of fatigue or discontent, nor was there any difference now between those who had been for, and those who had been against, fighting; and so, with a burst of cheering that carried victory in its very sound, with rattle of musketry and bright gleam of levelled bayonets, the little army of England swept down like an irresistible torrent on the enemy.

But the battle was already won:

5. Surajah Dowlah,1 cowardly as he was cruel, had exhibited throughout the morning the weakness and vacillation of his character, and as the day wore on seemed to lose what small share of intelligence he had ever possessed. At first, he had issued imperative orders to exterminate the Infidels at a single blow, and when he found that it was not so easy to exterminate them, and that hour after hour his troops failed to penetrate their hedge of steel, and fell back in confusion before their fire, he passed through all the gradations from insolent presumption to abject fear, till, as he saw Meer Jaffier2 retiring from the field, and heard the cheers of the advancing English, the one instinct of self-preservation swallowed up every other feeling, and, mounting a