VII.

I late have stood upon thy battle-fields; On rugged-browed Roriça, where ’gainst France Was earliest proved the strength that Britain wields, And up the dread ravines thou didst advance ’Mongst olive-groves and ilex, where enhance The perils of the way such crags as none Save mountain-goats may leap--yet drove thy lance The foeman thence. Arbutus smiled upon, And myrtles kist thy brow, revived by Victory’s sun!