If ever other prince than ours wield sceptre o'er that main, Where Howard, Blake, and Frobisher, the Armada smote of Spain; Where Blake, in Cromwell's iron sway, swept tempest-like the seas, From North to South, from East to West, resistless as the breeze; Where Russell bent great Louis' power, which bent before to none, And crushed his arm of naval strength, and dimmed his Rising Sun-- One prayer, one only prayer is mine--that, ere is seen that sight, Ere there be warning of that woe, I may be whelmed in night!
If ever other keel than ours triumphant plough that brine, Where Rodney met the Count de Grasse, and broke the Frenchman's line, Where Howe, upon the first of June, met the Jacobins in fight, And with Old England's loud huzzas broke down their godless might; Where Jervis at St Vincent's felled the Spaniards' lofty tiers, Where Duncan won at Camperdown, and Exmouth at Algiers-- One prayer, one only prayer, is mine--that, ere is seen that sight, Ere there be warning of that woe, I may be whelmed in night!
But oh! what agony it were, when we should think on thee, The flower of all the Admirals that ever trod the sea! I shall not name thy honoured name--but if the white-cliffed Isle Which reared the Lion of the deep, the Hero of the Nile, Him who, 'neath Copenhagen's self, o'erthrew the faithless Dane, Who died at glorious Trafalgar, o'er-vanquished France and Spain, Should yield her power, one prayer is mine--that, ere is seen that sight, Ere there be warning of that woe, I may be whelmed in night!
"Have you any idea who that fresh gentleman-commoner is?" said I to Savile, who was sitting next to me at dinner, one day soon after the beginning of term. We had not usually in the college above three or four of that privileged class, so that any addition to their table attracted more attention than the arrival of the vulgar herd of freshmen to fill up the vacancies at our own. Unless one of them had choked himself with his mutton, or taken some equally decided mode of making himself an object of public interest, scarcely any man of "old standing" would have even inquired his name.
"Is he one of our men?" said Savile, as he scrutinised the party in question. "I thought he had been a stranger dining with some of them. Murray, you know the history of every man who comes up, I believe--who is he?"