Page:Ballads, Stevenson, 1890.djvu/58

 And the old men leered at the ovens and licked their lips for the food;

And the women stared at the lads, and laughed and looked to the wood.

As when the sweltering baker, at night, when the city is dead,

Alone in the trough of labor treads and fashions the bread;

So in the heat, and the reek, and the touch of woman and man,

The naked spirit of evil kneaded the hearts of the clan.

Now cold was at many a heart, and shaking in many a seat;

For there were the empty baskets, but who was to furnish the meat?

For here was the nation assembled, and there were the ovens anigh,

And out of a thousand singers nine were numbered to die.

Till, of a sudden, a shock, a mace in the air, a yell,

And, struck in the edge of the crowd, the first of the victims fell.8

Terror and horrible glee divided the shrinking clan,

Terror of what was to follow, glee for a diet of man.

Frenzy hurried the chaunt, frenzy rattled the drums;

The nobles, high on the terrace, greedily mouthed their thumbs;

And once and again and again, in the ignorant crowd below,

Once and again and again descended the murderous blow.

Now smoked the oven, and now, with the cutting lip of a shell,

A butcher of ninety winters jointed the bodies well.

Unto the carven lodge, silent, in order due,

The grandees of the nation one after one withdrew;

And a line of laden bearers brought to the terrace foot,

On poles across their shoulders, the last reserve of fruit. 46