Page:Rudyard Kipling's verse - Inclusive Edition 1885-1918.djvu/627

 INCLUSIVE EDITION, 1885-1918 609.

It is Her peace that ye go to break- Not mine, nor any king's.

But, touching your clamour of 'Conscience sake,' I care for none of these things.

Whether ye rise for the sake of a creed, Or riot in hope of spoil, Equally will I punish the deed, Equally check the broil; Nowise permitting injustice at all From whatever doctrine it springs But whether ye follow Priapus or Paul, I care for none of these things!"

THE BEES AND THE FLIES

A FARMER of the Augustan Age Perused in Virgil's golden page, The story of the secret won From Proteus by Cyrene's son How the dank sea-god showed the swain Means to restore his hives again. More briefly, how a slaughtered bull Breeds honey by the bellyful.

The egregious rustic put to death

A bull by stopping of its breath,

Disposed the carcass in a shed

With fragrant herbs and branches spread,

And, having well performed the charm,

Sat down to wait the promised swarm.

Nor waited long. The God of Day Impartial, quickening with his ray Evil and good alike, beheld The carcass and the carcass swelled.