Page:Ballads, Stevenson, 1890.djvu/64

 Hoka a moment since that stepped in the loop of the rope,

Filled with the lust of war, and alive with courage and hope.

Again to the giddy cornice Rua lifted his eyes,

And again beheld men passing in the armpit of the skies.

"Foes of my race!" cried Rua, "the mouth of Rua is true:

Never a shark in the deep is nobler of soul than you.

There was never a nobler foray, never a bolder plan;

Never a dizzier path was trod by the children of man;

And Rua, your evil-dealer through all the days of his years,

Counts it honor to hate you, honor to fall by your spears."

And Rua straightened his back. "O Vais, a scheme for a scheme!"

Cried Rua and turned and descended the turbulent stair of the stream,

Leaping from rock to rock as the water-wagtail at home

Flits through resonant valleys and skims by boulder and foam.

And Rua burst from the glen and leaped on the shore of the brook,

And straight for the roofs of the clan his vigorous way he took.

Swift were the heels of his flight, and loud behind as he went

Rattled the leaping stones on the line of his long descent.

And ever he thought as he ran, and caught at his gasping breath,

"O the fool of a Rua, Rua that runs to his death!

But the right is the right," thought Rua, and ran like the wind on the foam,

"The right is the right for ever, and home for ever home. 52