nd bleed

Under their stings and slime; and bleed he did
For years, till hope into heart-sickness grew,
And he sought other seas and service new,
And his bright sword in alien laurels hid--

Nor even so found gratitude, but came
Back to his England, bankrupt, save of praise,
To eat his heart, through weary wishful days,
And shape his strength to bearing of his shame,

Till, slow but sure, drew on a better time,
And Statesmen owned the check of public will;
And, at the last, light pierced the shadow chill
That fouled his honour with the taint of crime.

And then they gave him back the knightly spurs
Which he had never forfeited--the rank
From which he ne'er by ill-deserving sank,
More than the Lion sinks for yelp of curs.

Justice had lingered on its road too long:
The Lion was grown old; the time gone by,
When for his aid we vainly raised a cry,
To save our flag from shame, our decks from wrong.

The infamy is _theirs_, whose evil deed
Is past undoing; yet not guiltless we,
Who, penniless, that brave old man could see,
Restored to honour, but denied its meed.

A Belisarius, old and sad and poor,
To _our_ shame, not to _his_--so he lived on,
Till man's allotted fourscore years were gone,
And scarcely then had leave to 'stablish sure

Proofs of _his_ innocence, and _their_ shame,
That had so wronged him; and, this done, came death,
To seal the assurance of his dying breath,
And wipe the last faint tarnish from his name.

At last his fame stands fair, and full of years
He seeks that judgment which his wrongers all
Have sought before him--and above his pall
His flag, replaced at length, waves with his peers.

He did not live to see it, but he knew
His country with one voice had set it high;
And knowing this he was content to die,
And leave to gracious Heaven what might ensue.

Ashes to ashes! Lay the hero down,
No nobler heart e'er knew the bitter lot
To be misjudged, maligned, accused, forgot--
Twine martyr's palm among his victor's crown.[26]

[26] These lines, by Mr. Tom Taylor, were published in "Punch."

"Victor and Martyr." Those are the words fittest to be inscribed on the
monument that will be set up in the hearts of Englishmen in honour of
the Earl of Dundonald. Entering life with great powers of mind and great
physical endowments for his only fortune, he mad