Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895.
Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron 18001859The Battle of Naseby
MacaulayTO
With your hands, and your feet, and your raiment all red?
And wherefore doth your rout send forth a joyous shout?
And whence be the grapes of the wine-press that ye tread?
And crimson was the juice of the vintage that we trod;
For we trampled on the throng of the haughty and the strong,
Who sate in the high places and slew the saints of God.
That we saw their banners dance and their cuirasses shine,
And the man of blood was there, with his long essenced hair,
And Astley, and Sir Marmaduke, and Rupert of the Rhine.
The general rode along us to form us for the fight;
When a murmuring sound broke out, and swell’d into a shout
Among the godless horsemen upon the tyrant’s right.
The cry of battle rises along their charging line:
For God! for the cause! for the Church! for the laws!
For Charles, king of England, and Rupert of the Rhine!
His bravoes of Alsatia and pages of White-hall;
They are bursting on our flanks! Grasp your pikes! Close your ranks!
For Rupert never comes, but to conquer, or to fall.
Our left is borne before them like stubble on the blast.
O Lord, put forth thy might! O Lord, defend the right!
Stand back to back, in God’s name! and fight it to the last!
Hark! hark! what means the trampling of horsemen on our rear?
Whose banner do I see, boys? ’T is he! thank God! ’t is he, boys!
Bear up another minute! Brave Oliver is here!
Like a whirlwind on the trees, like a deluge on the dikes,
Our cuirassiers have burst on the ranks of the Accurst,
And at a shock have scatter’d the forest of his pikes.
Their coward heads, predestin’d to rot on Temple Bar;
And he—he turns! he flies! shame on those cruel eyes
That bore to look on torture, and dare not look on war!
First give another stab to make your search secure;
Then shake from sleeves and pockets their broad-pieces and lockets,
The tokens of the wanton, the plunder of the poor.
When you kiss’d your lily hands to your lemans to-day;
And to-morrow shall the fox from her chambers in the rocks
Lead forth her tawny cubs to howl about the prey.
And the fingers that once were so busy with your blades?
Your perfum’d satin clothes, your catches and your oaths?
Your stage-plays and your sonnets, your diamonds and your spades?
With the Belial of the court, and the Mammon of the Pope!
There is woe in Oxford halls, there is wail in Durham’s stalls;
The Jesuit smites his bosom, the bishop rends his cope.
And tremble when she thinks on the edge of England’s sword;
And the kings of earth in fear shall shudder when they hear
What the hand of God hath wrought for the Houses and the Word!