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 Hervé Riel.

Hervé Riel.

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 St. Malo on the Rance,

With the English fleet in view.

’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 harbor, take us quick,—or, quicker still,

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