250 BROWNING
'Here's the English at our heels; would you have
them take in tow All that's left us of the fleet, linked together stern
and bow,
For a prize to Plymouth Sound? Better run the ships aground! '
(Ended Damfreville his speech). Not a minute more to wait ! 'Let the Captains all and each Shove ashore, then blow up, burn the vessels on
the beach ! France must undergo her fate.
Give the word ! ' But no such word Was ever spoke or heard;
For up stood, for out stepped, for in struck amid
all these A Captain? A Lieutenant? A Mate first,
second, third?
No such man of mark, and meet With his betters to compete ! But a simple Breton sailor pressed by Tourville
for the fleet, A poor coasting-pilot he, Herv Kiel the Croisickese.
And, 'What mockery or malice have we here?'
cries Herve 1 Kiel : 'Are you mad, you Malouins? Are you cowards,
fools, or rogues? Talk to me of rocks and shoals, me who took the
soundings, tell On my fingers every bank, every shallow, every swell
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