O stroke that, when he died,
Smote through the realm,--our best, our fairest ta'en!
For now the wound accurst
Lights up death's fury-thirst;--
Yet the allaying cup, in all that pain,
Untouch'd, untasted he gives o'er
To one who lay, and watch'd with eyes that craved it more:--

7

'Take it,' he said, ''tis thine;
Thy need is more than mine';--
And smiled as one who looks through death to life:
--Then pass'd, true heart and brave,
Leal from birth to grave:--
For that curse-laden roar of mortal strife,
With God's own peace ineffable fill'd,--
In that eternal Love all earthly passion still'd.

In 1585 Elizabeth, who was then aiding the United Provinces in their
resistance to Spain, sent Sir Philip Sidney (born 1554) as governor of
the fortress of Flushing in Zealand. The Earl of Leicester, chosen by
the Queen's unhappy partiality to command the English force, named Sidney
(his nephew) General of the horse. He marched thence to Zutphen in
Guelderland, a town besieged by the Spaniards, in hopes of destroying a
strong reinforcement which they were bringing in aid of the besiegers.
The details of the rash and heroic charge which followed may be read in
Motley's _History of the United Netherlands_, ch. ix.

St. 1 _Guelderland_; in this province the Rhine divides before entering
the sea: 'gliding through a vast plain.'--_South-Fen_; Zutphen, on the
Yssel (Rhine).

St. 3 _The bands from Epirus_; Crescia, the Epirote chief, commanded a
body of Albanian cavalry.--_The waning Dudley star_; Leicester, who was
near the end of his miserable career.--_Astrophel_; Sidney celebrated his
love for Penelope Devereux, Lady Rich, in the series of Sonnets and
Lyrics named _Astrophel and Stella_:--posthumously published in
1591.--After, or with Shakespeare's Sonnets, this series seems to me to
offer the most powerful picture of the passion of love in the whole range
of our poetry.

St. 4 _Saker_; early name for field-piece.--_The Six Hundred_; The Crimea
in ancient days was named _Chersonesus Taurica_.

St. 5 _Black Norris_; had been at variance with Sir W. Stanley before the
engagement. Morris was one of twelve gallant brothers, whose complexion
followed that of their mother, named by Elizabeth 'her own
crow.'--_North_; was lying bedrid from a wound in the leg, but could not
resist volunteering at Zutphen, and rode up 'with one boot on and one
boo