The doomed lovers Jehane and Robert de Marny flee with a small escort through a convincingly portrayed rain-swept countryside, to reach the safety of English-held Gascony.
Morris used the name of an English knight Sir Robert de Marny, who was born in Essex and fought at Poitiers but who did not die in the manner recited.
'—[1] And the forlorn conclusion, following Robert's brutal slaying by Godmar and his men: She shook her head and gazed awhile At her cold hands with a rueful smile, As though this thing had made her mad.
[2] Against a dreary background of leafless dripping trees, rain and mud, the focus is on the Frenchwoman Jehane, her physical and emotional exhaustion as she is faced with impossible choices, her sudden ferocity as she responds to threats of rape, and her "strangely childlike" manner as she makes a final decision that will mean immediate death for her lover and her own execution as a witch or collaborator when returned to Paris.
[3] The American poet Amelia Josephine Burr (1878–1968) composed a sequel poem to "The Haystack in the Floods" under the title of "Jehane", written in broadly similar style.