26 THE BOYS’ BROWNING.

“Not a minute more to wait!
Let the Captains all and each
Shove ashore, then blow up, burn the vessels on
the beach !
France must undergo her fate.

Vv.

“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? —
No such man of mark, and meet
With his betters to compete !
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:
“ Are you mad, you Malouins? 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 Gréve where the river
disembogues ?