trow.
It were best to be merry!" She yawned very wide,
And the Spaniard furtively smiled at her side.
'Twas only a woman to flatter and kiss,
'Twould be easy to manage a creature like this!

Hard-headed and wise, sat the gaunt English Queen,
Her words were unyielding, her purse it was mean--
The Spanish Ambassador
Writhed like a matador!
Beaten and wounded, he played to her vanity.
--It was tucked out of sight--and with Spanish profanity
He cursed all the Protestants under his breath,
And committed them gently to burnings and death;
But never an inch did Elizabeth yield,
And the messenger saw that his mission was sealed,
In that far-off day.
And Elizabeth laughed
In a curious way
That was subtle with craft:
"Under favour, you may
Tell your master in Spain, that my country comes first.
I am England, and English, its best and its worst.
Tell him my subjects I love as my children,
Tell him they thirst but their mouths will be filled when
They meet him at sea.
Give that greeting from me."

Back to Madrid went that Spanish Ambassador,
Broken and bruised like a bull-beaten matador,
And he bowed very low
(It was etiquette so)
And he cried, "Oh, that Queen is the devil in sooth.
A fool, Sire, 'twas thought, for she danced so uncouth!
But her bargains are hard as her heart and her hand,
As her dreary dominions, her men and her land!
And never be gulled by her feminine vanity,
'Tis only a pose, all her vacant inanity!
Let us man an armada to crush her and raid her,
To send her to hell to the demons who made her!"

And they came, as you know:
Heavy ships big and slow
In a lumbering way, in a blundering way
In that Tudor day.
Proudly up channel their galleons swept,
Swiftly our pinnaces hustled and leapt
At their rear. Dogs tracking their prey
And biting and snapping
And snarling and yapping,
Delighted and fierce at the chance of a fray.

God! How the Spaniards fled in a panic
When our fire-ships had neared them,
And blazed them, and seared them,
Wrapping their hulks in red flamings Satanic!
God, how they scattered,
Slipped anchor, and shattered,
Sails tattered,
Masts battered,
Up to the north whilst a mighty s