the merchandise that no man ever found.

_Chorus:_ Marchaunt Adventurers!
Marchaunt Adventurers!

Marchaunt Adventurers, O, whither are ye bound?--
All for Eldorado and the great new Sky-line,
All to seek the merchandise that no man ever found.

II

Marchaunt Adventurers, O, what'ull ye bring home again?--
Wonders and works and the thunder of the sea!
Whom will ye traffic with?--The King of the Sunset!
What shall be your pilot then?--A wind from Galilee.
Nay, but ye be marchaunts, will ye come back empty-handed?--
Ay, we be marchaunts, though our gain we ne'er shall see.
Cast we now our bread upon the waste wild waters.
After many days, it shall return with usury.

_Chorus:_ Marchaunt Adventurers!
Marchaunt Adventurers!

What shall be your profit in the mighty days to be?--
Englande!--Englande!--Englande!--Englande!--
Glory everlasting and the lordship of the sea!

And there, framed in the lilac patch of sky
That ended the steep street, dark on its light,
And standing on those glistering cobblestones
Just where they took the sunset's kiss, I saw
A figure like foot-feathered Mercury,
Tall, straight and splendid as a sunset-cloud.

Clad in a crimson doublet and trunk-hose,
A rapier at his side; and, as he paused,
His long fantastic shadow swayed and swept
Against my feet.

A moment he looked back,
Then swaggered down as if he owned a world
Which had forgotten--did I wake or dream?--
Even his gracious ghost!

Over his arm
He swung a gorgeous murrey-coloured cloak
Of Ciprus velvet, caked and smeared with mud
As on the day when--did I dream or wake?
And had not all this happened once before?--
When he had laid that cloak before the feet
Of Gloriana! By that mud-stained cloak,
'Twas he! Our Ocean-Shepherd! Walter Raleigh!
He brushed me passing, and with one vigorous thrust
Opened the door and entered. At his heels
I followed--into the Mermaid!--through three yards
Of pitch-black gloom, then into an old inn-parlour
Swimming with faces in a mist of smoke
That up-curled, blue, from long Winchester pipes,
While--like some rare old picture, in a dream
Recalled--quietly listening, laughing,