ally
engaged in the battle? Give proof of your answer.

HERVE RIEL

BY ROBERT BROWNING

Robert Browning (1812-1889) is one of the great
poets of England. The following incident of a
simple French sailor performing a deed of heroism
appealed to Browning's dramatic sense; hence this
stirring ballad. The poem was written in 1871, when
France was suffering defeat in the Franco-Prussian
War. The proceeds from its sale (one hundred
pounds) were contributed to French war sufferers.

On the sea and at the Hogue, sixteen hundred
ninety-two,
Did the English fight the French,--woe to France!
And, the thirty-first of May, helter-skelter through the blue,
Like a crowd of frightened porpoises a shoal of sharks 5
pursue,
Came crowding ship on ship to Saint Malo on the Rance,
With the English fleet in view.

'Twas the squadron that escaped, with the victor in full
chase; 10
First and foremost of the drove, in his great ship,
Damfreville;
Close on him fled, great and small,
Twenty-two good ships in all;
And they signaled to the place-- 15
"Help the winners of a race!
Get us guidance, give us harbor, take us quick--or, quicker
still,
Here's the English can and will!"

Then the pilots of the place put out brisk and leapt on
board.
"Why, what hope or chance have ships like these to pass?"
laughed they.
"Rocks to starboard, rocks to port, all the passage scarred 5
and scored,
Shall the _Formidable_ here, with her twelve and eighty guns,
Think to make the river mouth by the single narrow way,
Trust to enter where 'tis ticklish for a craft of twenty tons,
And with flow at full beside? 10
Now, 'tis slackest ebb of tide.
Reach the mooring? Rather say,
While rock stands or water runs,
Not a ship will leave the bay!"

Then was called a council straight. 15
Brief and bitter the debate:
"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,