ve Riel.' The subject of the poem and
its generous treatment surely manifolded the good-will of the gift.
An English poet restored to France its 'Forgotten Worthy.' An
Englishman sang the praises of a French sailor's balking the
English fleet. One of the nation whose boast it is that her heroes
need no other motive for their noble deeds than 'England expects
every man to do his duty' showed that in France, too--whose
citizens were accused of seeking glory and vainglory as their
dearest gain--was a man who could act out Nelson's words with no
thought of Nelson's end--a 'peerage or Westminster Abbey'--but just
do his duty because it lay before him, and put aside with a smile
the reward offered him for doing it; a real man, an honor to the
nation and the navy of which he was part."

"The facts of the story had been forgotten and were denied at St.
Malo, but the reports to the French Admiralty at the time were
looked up and the facts established. Browning's only alteration is
that Herve Riel's holiday to see his wife, 'La Belle Aurore,' was
to last, not a day only, but his lifetime."

"Herve Riel" was written at Le Croisic, the home of the hero. It is
a small fishing village near the mouth of the Loire.

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 thro' 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.

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 signaled to the place,
'Help the winners of a race!
Get us guidance, give us harbor, take us quick--or, quicker still,
Here's the English can and will!'

III

Then the pilots of the place put out brisk and leapt on board;
'Why, what hope or chance have ships like these to pass?' laughed
they:
'Rocks to starboard, rocks to port, all the passage scarred and scored,
Shall the _Formidable_ here with her twelve and eighty guns
Think to make the river-mouth by the single narrow way,
T