Page:Two Mock Epics (Hanuman and Tantum Religio), Lyrics, Post Meridian Verse, The Turret Captain's Toast and other Verses.pdf/118

 The mouldering rim, and gazed aghast,

With breaking eyes ensphered, and sighs,

Into that vacuous cavern vast

That yawned beneath them like the last

Dark home of all, as dead and dusty

With scurf and mould and all things musty

Impregnated, it seemed to kill

The very breath of life and will:

Then to their pens and desks they wandered

Unsteady, tried the nibs and pondered,

Or dashed off bulls to confraternities

Of whom they knew some secret scandal

With covert menace to disband all

The brotherhood; by all th’ eternities

Conjuring them to dub up handsome

Their spiritual sire to ransom:

One such, enough to make you rap your chins,

Had reached the leader of the Capuchins

In Sondrio, the aforesaid Fulks

Or Fuchs, and put him in the sulks,

The which encyclical has whirled us

Too once more ’mid brave Sondrio’s elders.

The Capucini form a body,

Or corporation, dressed in shoddy

Of coarse brown colour, and a hood,

A girdle and a small calotta

Or skull cap: they’ve a bowl for food

The which they beg while doing good:

Complexion mostly terra cotta,

But sometimes ruddy, round and burnished,

In which case with a paunch they’re furnished

Rough as a chestnut’s trunk and bulky,