Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Spain, Portugal, Belgium, and Holland: Vols. XIV–XV. 1876–79. | | | | Spain: Cadiz | | The Winning of Cales | | Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) |
| | Translated by Edward Churton
WE saw a banded confraternity, | |
| By soldiers called a squadron, men whose blows | |
| Were dreaded more by friends than English foes, | |
| Holding an Easter May-game in July; | |
| All plumed, as if they meant to mount and fly: | 5 |
| What wonder if, ere fifteen days had close, | |
| This pomp of Babel vanished, as it rose, | |
| Giants and dwarfs, with all their surquedry! | |
| Oft, like a valiant bull-calf, at their drill | |
| Had stout Becerro roared; pale grew the sun | 10 |
| Beneath their smoke; earth trembled at their din: | |
| But all too late at Cales to fight or kill; | |
| The English Earl was gone; his booty won; | |
| And in grand triumph marched our grand Duke in! | | | | |
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