He had only a hundred seamen to work the ship and to fight
And he sailed away from Flores till the Spaniard came in sight,
With his huge sea-castles heaving upon the weather bow.
'Shall we fight or shall we fly? 25
Good Sir Richard, tell us now,
For to fight is but to die!
There'll be little of us left by the time this sun be set.'
And Sir Richard said again, 'We be all good English men.
Let us bang these dogs of Seville,[231] the children of the
devil, 30
For I never turn'd my back upon Don[232] or devil yet.'
V
Sir Richard spoke and he laugh'd, and we roar'd a hurrah, and so
The little Revenge ran on sheer into the heart of the foe,
With her hundred fighters on deck, and her ninety sick below;
For half of her fleet to the right and half to the left were
seen, 35
And the little Revenge ran on thro' the long sea-lane between.