Page:The ascent of man by Blind, Mathilde.djvu/107

 Famine follows—what they ploughed and planted
 * The unhappy peasants shall not reap;

Sickening of strange meats and fever haunted,
 * To their graves they prematurely creep.

"Hence"—I cried in unavailing pity—
 * "Let us flee these scenes of monstrous strife,

Seek the pale of some imperial city
 * Where the law rules starlike o'er man's life."

Straightway floating o'er blue sea and river,
 * We were plunged into a roaring cloud,

Wherethrough lamps in ague fits did shiver
 * O'er the surging multitudinous crowd.

Piles of stone, their cliff-like walls uprearing,
 * Flashed in luminous lines along the night;

Jets of flame, spasmodically flaring,
 * Splashed black pavements with a sickly light;

Fabulous gems shone here, and glowing coral,
 * Shimmering stuffs from many an Eastern loom,