75

Clears the entry like a hound,

Keeps the passage, as its inch of way were the wide sea's profound!

See, safe thro' 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!

The peril, see, is past.

80 All are harbored to the last,

85

90

95

100

And just as Hervé Riel hollas "Anchor!" sure as fate,
Up the English come,-too late!

So, the storm subsides to calm:

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;
Not a symptom of surprise

In the frank blue Breton eyes,—
Just the same man as before.

Then said Damfreville, "My friend,
I must speak out at the end,

105 Though I find the speaking hard;
Praise is deeper than the lips:
You have saved the king his ships;
You must name your own reward.
Faith, our sun was near eclipse!

110 Demand whate'er you will,

115

France remains your debtor still.

Ask to heart's content, and have! or my name's not Damfreville."

Then a beam of fun outbroke

On the bearded mouth that spoke,

As the honest heart laughed through Those frank eyes of Breton blue:"Since I needs must say my say,

Since on board the duty's done,

:

And from Malo Roads to Croisic Point, what is it but a run! 120 Since 'tis ask and have, I may

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.

125 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,

130 In memory of the man but for whom had gone to wrack

135

All that France saved from the fight whence England bore the

bell.

Go to Paris: rank on rank

Search the heroes flung pell-mell

On the Louvre, face and flank!

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

Save the squadron, honor France, love thy wife the Belle Aurore!

HELPS TO STUDY

Notes and Questions

Find on your map: Saint Malo, le
Croisic (St. Croisic), Plymouth
Sound, Paris.

What forfeit did Hervé Riel propose in case he failed to pilot the ships safely in?

5

THE BUGLE SONG (From "The Princess")

ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON

The splendor falls on castle walls
And snowy summits, old in story;
The long light shakes across the lakes,
And the wild cataract leaps in glory.

Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying;
Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.

O, hark! O, hear! how thin and clear,
And thinner, clearer, farther going!

10

15

O, sweet and far from cliff and scar,
The horns of Elfland, faintly blowing!
Blow, let us hear the purple glens replying;
Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.

O, love, they die in yon rich sky;

They faint on hill or field or river.
Our echoes roll from soul to soul,

And grow forever and forever.

Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying;
And answer, echoes, answer, dying, dying, dying.

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

By thirty hills I hurry down,
Or slip between the ridges,
By twenty thorps, a little town,
And half a hundred bridges.

Till last by Philip's farm I flow
To join the brimming river,

For men may come and men may go,
But I go on forever.

I chatter over stony ways,
In little sharps and trebles;
I bubble into eddying bays,
I babble on the pebbles.

With many a curve my banks I fret
By many a field and fallow,
And many a fairy foreland set

With willow-weed and mallow.

I chatter, chatter, as I flow
To join the brimming river,

For men may come and men may go,
But I go on forever.

I wind about, and in and out,

With here a blossom sailing,
And here and there a lusty trout,
And here and there a grayling.

And here and there a foamy flake
Upon me, as I travel

With many a silvery water-break
Above the golden gravel,

And draw them all along, and flow
To join the brimming river,
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on forever.