A FLEET with flags arrayed | |
| Sailed from the port of Brest, | |
| And the Admiral’s ship displayed | |
| The signal: “Steer southwest.” | |
| For this Admiral D’Anville | 5 |
| Had sworn by cross and crown | |
| To ravage with fire and steel | |
| Our helpless Boston Town. | |
| |
| There were rumors in the street, | |
| In the houses there was fear | 10 |
| Of the coming of the fleet, | |
| And the danger hovering near. | |
| And while from mouth to mouth | |
| Spread the tidings of dismay, | |
| I stood in the Old South, | 15 |
| Saying humbly: “Let us pray! | |
| |
| “O Lord! we would not advise; | |
| But if in thy Providence | |
| A tempest should arise | |
| To drive the French Fleet hence, | 20 |
| And scatter it far and wide, | |
| Or sink it in the sea, | |
| We should be satisfied, | |
| And thine the glory be.” | |
| |
| This was the prayer I made, | 25 |
| For my soul was all on flame, | |
| And even as I prayed | |
| The answering tempest came; | |
| It came with a mighty power, | |
| Shaking the windows and walls, | 30 |
| And tolling the bell in the tower, | |
| As it tolls at funerals. | |
| |
| The lightning suddenly | |
| Unsheathed its flaming sword, | |
| And I cried: “Stand still, and see | 35 |
| The salvation of the Lord!” | |
| The heavens were black with cloud, | |
| The sea was white with hail, | |
| And ever more fierce and loud | |
| Blew the October gale. | 40 |
| |
| The fleet it overtook, | |
| And the broad sails in the van | |
| Like the tents of Cushan shook, | |
| Or the curtains of Midian. | |
| Down on the reeling decks | 45 |
| Crashed the o’erwhelming seas; | |
| Ah, never were there wrecks | |
| So pitiful as these! | |
| |
| Like a potter’s vessel broke | |
| The great ships of the line; | 50 |
| They were carried away as a smoke, | |
| Or sank like lead in the brine. | |
| O Lord! before thy path | |
| They vanished and ceased to be, | |
| When thou didst walk in wrath | 55 |
| With thine horses through the sea! | |
| |
