Page:The Five Nations.djvu/30

 So, widdershins circling the bride-bed of death,

Each fleereth her neighbour and signeth and saith:—

"What see ye? Their signals, or levin afar?

"What hear ye? God's thunder, or guns of our war?

"What mark ye? Their smoke, or the cloud-rack outblown?

"What chase ye? Their lights, or the Daystar low down?"

So, times past all number deceived by false shows,

Deceiving we cumber the road of our foes,

For this is our virtue: to track and betray;

Preparing great battles a sea's width away.

Now peace is at end and our peoples take heart,

For the laws are clean gone that restrained our art;

Up and down the near headlands and against the far wind

We are loosed (O be swift!) to the work of our kind!