Page:Poems Shore.djvu/204

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Beatrice of Swabia
All that the demon, on whose brows may yet
His golden crown turn into scorching steel,
Robbed you of in the rose light of your dawn.

SCENE III

Loria and Ruggiero, rowing through the enemy's fleet
at night, hear voices talking in it

Hush! He's the devil, who is ever nigh
When least we look for him. I was just as now,
When we lay idly off the Moorish coast
And thought he was a hundred miles away,
Bound for the plunder of the Grecian Isles.
And suddenly, by Heaven, the darkness roared
A thundering "Aragon and Sicily!"
And in a moment blazed around our fleet
A ring of fiery stars, and by their light
A swarthy swarm of eyes glared into ours
So close they seemed to touch. Thirty brave ships
Were lost to Anjou on that night, and blood
Poured out like water.
Poured out like water.2nd Voice. How did you escape?
1st Voice. We set up their own war-cry and let fly
Their signals—so got safely out from them.

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