Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
France: Vols. IX–X. 1876–79. | | | | Marseilles | | Captain Rance, 1525 | | Old French Song |
| | Anonymous translation
WHEN Bourbon saw Marseilles, | |
| Unto his troops said he, | |
| “I wonder now what captain | |
| Within that town may be? | |
| |
| “I care not half a crown | 5 |
| For any man in France, | |
| If only within that town | |
| Be not the Captain Rance.” | |
| |
| Then up the Mont Coulombe, | |
| The narrow passage through, | 10 |
| They all together clombe, | |
| And on their fingers blew. | |
| |
| Saying, with weary knees, | |
| “Let us all courage take; | |
| Should we cut down these trees, | 15 |
| We might a passage make.” | |
| |
| O noble Seigneur Rance! | |
| To you our thanks be paid | |
| For the welcome that in France | |
| You to the Bourbon made. | 20 |
| |
| With cannon-shot amain, | |
| Likewise artillery, | |
| You drove him back again, | |
| As far as Italy. | | | | |
|
|
