[Intro - distant bell, bare harp] [Verse 1] In Rouen town where winter pressed Its grey hand on the stone, A bellfounder’s daughter learned The craft her house had known. She measured clay and copper, She listened to the flame, But every man who bought the work Asked for her brother’s name. [Chorus] Ring, bell, ring, Let the high road hear. A name may fade from parchment, But the sound can travel years. [Verse 2] Her father’s hands had learned the mould, His eyes had lost their measure. The girl could read the furnace breath And judge the metal’s temper. Her brother spoke before the lords, Kept watch on roads and weather. He could not cast the bell alone, But he could hold them together. [Verse 3] Brother Martin fed the crew Beside the abbey fire. He kept the drunk beyond the door And stopped the cruel man’s hire. He knew which child had missed a meal, Which widow needed shelter, And made a boundary strong enough To keep the weak from breaking. [Chorus] Ring, bell, ring, Let the high road hear. A name may fade from parchment, But the sound can travel years. [Verse 4] Then Rouen’s people seized the bells And called the city waking. The streets grew red beneath the rain. The crowned men came for taking. They pulled the civic voices down And silenced stone with iron. A bell-ringer’s name went missing there, Though one old man still heard him. [Verse 5] A ghost stood where the furnace cooled, Visible to Ysabeau. He carried shame beside his rage And would not let them praise him. He hid the page that bore his name When the east gate failed its people. He feared the clean and noble tale More than he feared the evil. [Verse 6] “Do not make me into a saint. Do not make them into sinners. Remember what the crowd became. Remember who went missing.” So names were gathered, line by line, By hands that owed no master. The dead were not made innocent. The truth was made to last there. [Chorus] Ring, bell, ring, Let the high road hear. A name may fade from parchment, But the sound can travel years. [Verse 7] A wealthy lord named Nicolas Brought bronze wrapped up in leather. He paid too much for mending it And thought that bought forever. Ysabeau took the honest sum. She sent the rest downstream. The coins passed through a hundred hands And bought a bell no man could claim. [Verse 8] Master Gautier came with men To seize the tools and moulding. The yard was smoke and shattered wood, The frightened workers holding. The casting bar came down like fate. A brother killed to save her. When victory offered them a throne, They closed the gate and gave it back. [Bridge - quiet, rising] No kindness made them stronger. No mercy stopped the blade. They lived because they stood as one, Then paid for what they’d made. [Verse 9] The last old witness lost the name He’d carried through the weather. The ghost grew thin beside the bell And could not hold together. The sound remained. The records stayed. The mark crossed road and river. But no carved bronze and no inked page Could make a living know him. [Final Chorus - full harmony] Ring, bell, ring, Let the far roads hear. A name may fade from living mouths, But the work can carry near. Ring, bell, ring, Open bell and line. The daughter’s hand, the brother’s word, The cook’s fire, the witness’s sign. [Outro - bell fading into harp] And when the road is dark with rain, And strangers need a guide, Follow the bells that bear her mark. Her name is in the tide.
