ge's banner floats abaft
Her lowering carronade.
A flash! and lo, her thunder speaks,
Her iron tempest flies
Beneath her bows, and seaward breaks,
And hissing sinks and dies.

Thunder replied to thunder; then
The ships rasped side by side,
The battle-hungry Breton men
A boarding sally tried,
But the stern steel of Britain flashed,
And spite of Breton vaunt
The lads of Morbihan were dashed
Back on the _Surveillante_.

Then was a grim encounter seen
Upon the seas that day.
Who yields when there is strife between
Britain and Brittany?
Shall Lesser Britain rule the waves
And check Britannia's pride?
Not while her frigate's oaken staves
Still cleave unto her side!

But hold! hold! see, devouring fire
Has seized the stout _Quebec_.
The seething sea runs high and higher,
The _Surveillante's_ a wreck.
Their cannon-shot has breached our side,
Our bolts have fired the foe.
Quick, to the pumps! No longer bide!
Below, my lads! below!

The yawning leak is filled, the sea
Is cheated of its prey.
Now Bretons, let the Britons see
The heart of Brittany!
Brothers, we come to save, our swords
Are sheathed, our hands are free.
There is a fiercer fight toward,
A fiercer foe than we!

A long sea-day, till sank the sun,
Briton and Breton wrought,
And Great and Little Britain won
The noblest fight ere fought.
It was a sailors' victory
O'er pride and sordid gain.
God grant for ever peace at sea
Between the Britains twain!

FOOTNOTES:

[47] For the criticism on Villemarque's work see H. Gaidoz and P.
Sebillot, "Bibliographie des Traditions et de la Litterature
populaire de la Bretagne" (in the _Revue Celtique_, t. v, pp.
277 ff.). The title _Barzaz-Breiz_ means "The Breton Bards,"
the author being under the delusion that the early forms of the
ballads he collected and altered had been composed by the
ancient bards of Brittany.

[48] Once a part of the forest of Broceliande. It has now
disappeared.

[49] _Barzaz-Breiz_, p. 335. Sebillot (_Traditions de la
Haute-Bretagne_, t. i, p. 346) says that he could gain nothing
regarding this incident at the village of Saint-Cast but "vague
details."

CHAPTER IX: THE BLACK ART AND ITS MINISTERS

Sorcery is a very present power in most isolated communities, and in
the civilized portions of Brittany i