Page:The Five Nations.djvu/154

134 Ye stopped your ears to the warning—ye would neither look nor heed—

Ye set your leisure before their toil and your lusts above their need.

Because of your witless learning and your beasts of warren and chase,

Ye grudged your sons to their service and your fields for their camping-place.

Ye forced them glean in the highways the straw for the bricks they brought;

Ye forced them follow in byways the craft that ye never taught.

Ye hindered and hampered and crippled; ye thrust out of sight and away

Those that would serve you for honour and those that served you for pay.

Then were the judgments loosened; then was your shame revealed,

At the hands of a little people, few but apt in the field.

Yet ye were saved by a remnant (and your land's long-suffering Star),

When your strong men cheered in their millions while your striplings went to the war.