Page:Betelguese, a trip through hell.djvu/26

18 And pyres that smoulderéd for three weeks.

Spit wenches' blood thro' addling crowds

And filch each leering vyper's breath,—

Vile japes that dam all struck with dust!

Erelong unholy fugitives roam

'Mid imbosk caves and moaning dales

To piercing screes of purple gloom,

Where gurgling sighs and rasping moans,—

Each bloody vampyre's home of loam

As life-tides drip to scarlet vales,— Unshadowed haunts of darkling Doom! Add terror to the rasping groans

That roaring surfs of rubic blood

Fling to each afrite's acrid crypt.

And mildewed skulls and ashen bones

That lie before each pillaréd mount,

Speak tidings of a leprous flood.

And where giants carcants flare and sit,

The battle-crests and surging foams

That toss each swoll'n Cauldron's Count

As pyramidal realms unsunned