While rock stands or water runs, Not a ship will leave the bay!' IV Then was called a council straight. Brief and bitter the debate : 25 'Here's the English at our heels; would you have them take in tow All that's left us of the fleet, linked together stern and bow, For a prize to Plymouth Sound? 'Not a minute more to wait! Let the Captains all and each 30 Shove ashore, then blow up, burn the vessels on the beach! 35 France must undergo her fate. V 'Give the word!' But no such word Was ever spoke or heard; For up stood, for out stepped, for in struck amid all these A Captain? A Lieutenant? A Mate— first, second, third? With his betters to compete ! 40 But a simple Breton sailor pressed by Tourville for the fleet, A poor coasting-pilot he, Hervé Riel the Croisickese. VI And 'What mockery or malice have we here?' cries Hervé Riel: 45 'Are you mad, you Maluins? Are you cowards, fools, or rogues? Talk to me of rocks and shoals, me who took the soundings, tell On my fingers every bank, every shallow, every swell 'Twixt the offing here and Grève where the river disembogues? Are you bought by English gold? Is it love the lying's for? 50 Morn and eve, night and day, Have I piloted your bay, Entered free and anchored fast at the foot of Solidor. Burn the fleet and ruin France? That were worse than fifty Hogues! Sirs, they know I speak the truth! Sirs, believe me there's a way! Only let me lead the line, Have the biggest ship to steer, Get this" Formidable" clear, Make the others follow mine, And I lead them, most and least, by a passage I know well, Right to Solidor past Grève, And there lay them safe and sound; And if one ship misbehave, Keel so much as grate the ground, Why, I've nothing but my life, Riel. 55 60 here's my head!' cries Hervé 65 VII Not a minute more to wait. 'Steer us in, then, small and great! Take the helm, lead the line, save the squadron!' cried its chief. Captains, give the sailor place! He is Admiral, in brief. Still the north-wind, by God's grace! See the noble fellow's face As the big ship, with a bound, Clears the entry like a hound, 70 Keeps the passage as its inch of way were the wide sea's pro found! 75 See, safe through shoal and rock, How they follow in a flock, Not a ship that misbehaves, not a keel that grates the ground, Not a spar that comes to grief! ENG. POEMS - 20 The peril, see, is past, All are harbored to the last, And just as Hervé Riel hollas' Anchor!' sure as fate, Up the English come― too late! VIII So, the storm subsides to calm: 80 They see the green trees wave On the heights o'erlooking Grève. Hearts that bled are stanched with balm. 'Just our rapture to enhance, Let the English rake the bay, Gnash their teeth and glare askance As they cannonade away! Neath rampired Solidor pleasant riding on the Rance!' How hope succeeds despair on each Captain's countenance ! Out burst all with one accord, 'This is Paradise for Hell! Let France, let France's King Thank the man that did the thing!' What a shout, and all one word, 'Hervé Riel !' As he stepped in front once more, In the frank blue Breton eyes, IX Then said Damfreville, 'My friend, Though I find the speaking hard. You must name your own reward. 'Faith, our sun was near eclipse! Demand whate'er you will, France remains your debtor still. Ask to heart's content and have! or my name's not Damfreville.' Then a beam of fun outbroke X On the bearded mouth that spoke, Since on board the duty's done, 115 And from Malo Roads to Croisic Point, what is it but a run? Since 'tis ask and have, I may 120 Since the others go ashore Come! a good whole holiday! Leave to go and see my wife, whom I call the Belle Aurore!' That he asked and that he got,—nothing more. XI Name and deed alike are lost: Not a pillar nor a post In his Croisic keeps alive the feat as it befell; Not a head in white and black On a single fishing-smack, In memory of the man but for whom had gone to wrack All that France saved from the fight whence England bore the bell. Go to Paris: rank on rank Search the heroes flung pell-mell 125 130 On the Louvre, face and flank ! 135 You shall look long enough ere you come to Hervé Riel. So, for better and for worse, Hervé Riel, accept my verse! In my verse, Hervé Riel, do thou once more 139 Save the squadron, honor France, love thy wife the Belle Aurore ! ARTHUR HUGH CLOUGH 1819-1861 WHERE LIES THE LAND? WHERE lies the land to which the ship would go? And where the land she travels from? Away, On sunny noons upon the deck's smooth face, On stormy nights when wild northwesters rave, Where lies the land to which the ship would go? And where the land she travels from? Away, SAY NOT THE STRUGGLE NOUGHT AVAILETH SAY not the struggle nought availeth, 5 IC 15 5 |