ENSIGN EPPS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2161, 15 May 1886, Page 1 (Supplement)

ENSIGN EPPS.

BY JOHN BOTI.E (SKILLY. -Ensign Epps, *t the battle of Flanders, , Sowed a seed of glory find duty , That flowers and flames in light and beauty f Like a crimson lily with a heart of (fold, To-day, when the wars of Ghent are old , And buried^ .as deep as their dead comt ,' tnande^s. . E^isign Epps was the colour-bearer — 'No matter on what side, Philip or Earl ; ' Their cause was the shell— bis deed was the pearl. ' Scarce more than a lad, ' he had been a sharer 1 That day in the wildest work of the field, ' ' Ue was wounded and spent, and the fight ', was lost ; His comrades were slain or a scattered host, But, stainless and scatheless out of the strife r He had carried his colours safer than life. ' ( By the river's brink, without a weapon or shield, 'He faced the victors. The thick heart- * mist He dashed from his eyes, and the silk he i , kissed , Ere he held it aloft in the setting sun, ' , As proudly as if the fight was won, 'And he smiled when they ordered him to yield. , Ensign Epps, with his broken blade, . Cat the silk from the gilded staff, Which ho poised like a spear till the charge was made, .And hurled at the leader with a laugh. 'Then round his breast like the scarf of * love, 'j He tied the colours his heart above, And plunged in his armour into the tide, < And there, in lm dress of honour, he died. fWhere are the lessons your kinglings teach ? , And what is the toxt of your proud commanders ! Oat of the centuries heroes teach 'With the scroll of a deed, with the word of a story ' Of one man's truth and of all men's glory.