Songs of Action — A Forgotten Tale

[The scene of this ancient fight, recorded by Froissart, is still called ‘Altura de los Inglesos.

’ Five hundred years later Wellington’s soldiers were fighting on the same ground.

] ‘Say, what saw you on the hill, Campesino Garcia?

’ ‘I saw my brindled heifer there, A trail of bowmen, spent and bare, And a little man on a sorrel mare Riding slow before them.

’ ‘Say, what saw you in the vale, Campesino Garcia?

’ ‘There I saw my lambing ewe And an army riding through, Thick and brave the pennons flew From the lances o’er them.

’ ‘Then what saw you on the hill, Campesino Garcia?

’ ‘I saw beside the milking byre, White with want and black with mire, The little man with eyes afire Marshalling his bowmen.

’ ‘Then what saw you in the vale, Campesino Garcia?

’ ‘There I saw my bullocks twain, And amid my uncut grain All the hardy men of Spain Spurring for their foemen.

’ ‘Nay, but there is more to tell, Campesino Garcia!

’ ‘I could not bide the end to view;

I had graver things to do Tending on the lambing ewe Down among the clover.

’ ‘Ah, but tell me what you heard, Campesino Garcia!

’ ‘Shouting from the mountain-side, Shouting until eventide;

But it dwindled and it died Ere milking time was over.

’ ‘Nay, but saw you nothing more, Campesino Garcia?

’ ‘Yes, I saw them lying there, The little man and sorrel mare;

And in their ranks the bowmen fair, With their staves before them.

’ ‘And the hardy men of Spain, Campesino Garcia?

’ ‘Hush!

but we are Spanish too;

More I may not say to you: May God’s benison, like dew, Gently settle o’er them.

’