Saturday, December 30, 2006

The Battle of Lepanto

What happened at the Battle of Lepanto in August 1571? Here's a version by a Catholic writer using GK Chesterton's ballad Lepanto to spice things up.

Cervantes on his galley sets the sword back in the sheath
(Don John of Austria rides homeward with a wreath.)
And he sees across a weary land a straggling road in Spain,
Up which a lean and foolish knight forever rides in vain,
And he smiles, but not as Sultans smile, and settles back the blade . . . .
(But Don John of Austria rides home from the Crusade.)
Check out what had just happened at Nicosia and Famagusta on Cyprus.

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