Page:Wessex poems and other verses (IA wessexpoemsother00hard).pdf/64

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SAN SEBASTIAN

"I watched her to-day; a more comely maid,As she danced in her muslin bowed with blue,Round a Hintock maypole never gayed."—“Aye, aye; I watched her this day, too,As it happens," the Sergeant said.
"My daughter is now," he again began,"Of just such an age as one I knewWhen we of the Line, in the Foot-Guard van,On an August morning—a chosen few—Stormed San Sebastian.
"She's a score less three; so about was she—The maiden I wronged in Peninsular days. . . .You may prate of your prowess in lusty times,But as years gnaw inward you blink your bays,And see too well your crimes!
“We'd stormed it at night, by the vlanker-lightOf burning towers, and the mortar's boom:We'd topped the breach but had failed to stay,For our files were misled by the baffling gloom;And we said we'd storm by day.

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