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Me, Thoieas Pbisce {loquitur). A FLEET with fla^ arrayed Sailed from the port of Brest, And the Admiral's ship displayed The signal, '■ Steer southwest.\" For this Admiral d'Anville Had sworn by cross and crown To ravage with fire and steel Our helpless Boston…","encoding":{"@type":"MediaObject","contentUrl":"https://boston.fyi/work/a-ballad-of-the-french-fleet.json","encodingFormat":"application/json"},"genre":"ballad","identifier":"urn:lemay:boston:entity:a-ballad-of-the-french-fleet","inLanguage":"en","isPartOf":{"@id":"https://boston.fyi/#archive"},"license":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain_in_the_United_States","name":"A Ballad of the French Fleet","provenance":{"@id":"https://boston.fyi/work/a-ballad-of-the-french-fleet#provenance"},"temporalCoverage":"1884","url":"https://boston.fyi/work/a-ballad-of-the-french-fleet","version":1,"workExample":[{"@type":"CreativeWork","citation":"Samuel Adams Drake, A Book of New England Legends and Folk Lore in Prose and Poetry (Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1884)","creator":{"@type":"Person","name":"unattributed — the collector names no informant"},"name":"As printed in Samuel Adams Drake (1884)"}]},{"@id":"https://boston.fyi/work/a-ballad-of-the-french-fleet#breadcrumbs","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","item":"https://boston.fyi","name":"The Boston Archive","position":1},{"@type":"ListItem","item":"https://boston.fyi/work","name":"Works","position":2},{"@type":"ListItem","item":"https://boston.fyi/work/a-ballad-of-the-french-fleet","name":"A Ballad of the French Fleet","position":3}]}]},"json_url":"https://boston.fyi/work/a-ballad-of-the-french-fleet.json","record":{"alternate_names":["A Ballad of the Frexch Fleet"],"canonical_name":"A Ballad of the French Fleet","canonical_path":"/work/a-ballad-of-the-french-fleet","created_at":"2026-09-02T23:02:31.582638Z","description":"OCTOBER, 1746. 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A FLEET with fla^ arrayed Sailed from the port of Brest, And the Admiral's ship displayed The signal, '■ Steer southwest.\" For this Admiral d'Anville Had sworn by cross and crown To ravage with fire and steel Our helpless Boston town. There were rumors in the street. In the houses there was fear Of the coming of the fleet. And the danger hovering near; 76 NEW-ENGLAND LEGENDS. And while from mouth to mouth Spread the tidings of dismay, I stood in the Old South, Saying humbly, \" Let us pray ! *' O Lord ! we would not advise ; But if in thy providence A tempest should arise To drive the French fleet hence, And scatter it far and wide, Or sink it in the sea. We should be satisfied, And thine the glory be.\" This was the prayer 1 made, For my soul was all on flame ; And even as I prayed, The answering tempest came, — It came with a mightj'- power. Shaking the windows and walls, And tolling the bell in the tower As it tolls at funerals. The fleet it overtook, And the broad sails in the van Like the tents of Cushan shook, Or the curtains of Midian. Down on the reeling decks Crashed the o'erwhelming seas ; Ah ! never were there wrecks So…","variants":[{"citation":"Samuel Adams Drake, A Book of New England Legends and Folk Lore in Prose and Poetry (Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1884)","collected_by":"Samuel Adams Drake","collected_place":"Boston and eastern Massachusetts","collected_year":1884,"source_document_id":"38f21f7a-afce-4833-a000-73a731510003","teller_person_id":null,"teller_text":"unattributed — the collector names no informant","variant_label":"As printed in Samuel Adams Drake (1884)","variant_text":"OCTOBER, 1746. Me, Thoieas Pbisce {loquitur). A FLEET with fla^ arrayed Sailed from the port of Brest, And the Admiral's ship displayed The signal, '■ Steer southwest.\" For this Admiral d'Anville Had sworn by cross and crown To ravage with fire and steel Our helpless Boston town. There were rumors in the street. In the houses there was fear Of the coming of the fleet. And the danger hovering near; 76 NEW-ENGLAND LEGENDS. And while from mouth to mouth Spread the tidings of dismay, I stood in the Old South, Saying humbly, \" Let us pray ! *' O Lord ! we would not advise ; But if in thy providence A tempest should arise To drive the French fleet hence, And scatter it far and wide, Or sink it in the sea. We should be satisfied, And thine the glory be.\" This was the prayer 1 made, For my soul was all on flame ; And even as I prayed, The answering tempest came, — It came with a mightj'- power. Shaking the windows and walls, And tolling the bell in the tower As it tolls at funerals. The fleet it overtook, And the broad sails in the van Like the tents of Cushan shook, Or the curtains of Midian. Down on the reeling decks Crashed the o'erwhelming seas ; Ah ! never were there wrecks So pitiful as these ! Tike a potter's A-essel broke The great ships of the litie ; They were carried away as a smoke. 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