Page:Pleasant Memories of Pleasant Lands.djvu/261

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

CALAIS.

��CREST-fallen we came, And coldly dripping from the salt-sea wave, Into the gates of Calais. As our eye Turned backward, musing on the things that were, We thought of thee, Philippa, and thy tear Of intercession, and the joy it brought To mournful homes.

Edward was fired with wrath.

" Bring forth," he said, " The hostages, and let their death instruct This contumacious city."

Forth they came,

The rope about their necks, those patriot men, Who nobly chose an ignominious doom To save their country s blood. Famine and toil And the long siege had worn them to the bone ; Yet from their eye spoke that heroic soul Which scorns the body s ill. Father and son Stood side by side, and youthful forms were there, By kindred linked, for whom the sky of life Was bright with love. Yet no repining sigh

�� �