XV.

XV.

So, Willy, let me and you be wipers Of scores out with all men--especially pipers! And, whether they pipe us free fróm rats or fróm mice, If we've promised them aught, let us keep our promise!

HERVÉ RIEL.

I.

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 pursue, Came crowding ship on ship to Saint Malo on the Rance, With the English fleet in view.

II.

'Twas the squadron that escaped, with the victor in full chase; 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 signalled to the place "Help the winners of a race! Get us guidance, give us harbour, take us quick--or, quicker still, Here's the English can and will!"