Chapter III: Part I: Exploits Off South America

"Meekly content and tamely stay-at-home
The sea-birds seemed that piped across the waves;
And Drake, bemused, leaned smiling to his friend
Doughty and said, 'Is it not strange to know
When we return, yon speckled herring-gulls
Will still be wheeling, dipping, flashing there?
We shall not find a fairer land afar
Than those thyme-scented hills we leave behind!
Soon the young lambs will bleat across the combes,
And breezes will bring puffs of hawthorn scent
Down Devon lanes; over the purple moors
Lav'rocks will carol; and on the village greens
Around the maypole, while the moon hangs low,
The boys and girls of England merrily swing
In country footing through the flowery dance.'"

--ALFRED NOYES (_Drake_).

THE BATTLE OF THE FALKLAND ISLANDS