Since on board the duty’s done,

And from Malo Roads to Croisic Point, what is it but a run?

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.

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

In memory of the man but for whom had gone to rack

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!

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