_O multum dilecte Deo, tibi militat æther,_ _Et conjuratæ curvato poplite gentes_ _Succumbunt: recti soror eat victoria juris._ KING. Thanks to my loving brother of Castile,-- But, General, unfold in brief discourse Your form of battle and your war's success: That, adding all the pleasure of thy news Unto the height of former happiness, With deeper wage and greater dignity We may[20] reward thy blissful chivalry. GENERAL. Where Spain and Portingal do jointly knit Their frontiers, leaning on each other's bound,[21] There met our armies in their proud array; Both furnish'd well, both full of hope and fear, Both menacing alike with daring shows, Both vaunting sundry colours of device, Both cheerly sounding trumpets, drums, and fifes, Both raising dreadful clamours to the sky,[22] That valleys, hills, and rivers made rebound, And heav'n itself was frighted with the sound. Our battles both were pitch'd in squadron form, Each corner strongly fenc'd with wings of shot; But ere we join'd, and came to push of pike, I brought a squadron of our readiest shot From out our rearward, to begin the fight: They brought another wing t' encounter us: Meanwhile, our ordnance play'd on either side, And captains strove to have their valours[23] try'd. Don Pedro, their chief horsemen's colonel, Did with his cornet[24] bravely make attempt To break the order of our battle ranks; But Don Rogero, worthy man of war, March'd forth against him with our musketeers, And stopp'd the malice of his fell approach. While they maintain hot skirmish to and fro, Both battles join, and fall to handy-blows;[25] Their violent shot resembling th' ocean's rage, When, roaring loud and with a swelling tide, It beats upon the rampiers of huge rocks, And gapes to swallow neighbour-bounding lands. Now while[26] Bellona rageth here and there, Thick storms of bullets ran like winter's hail, And shiver'd lances dark[27] the troubled air. _Pede pes et cuspide cuspis;_ _Arma sonant armis, vir petiturque viro._