Page:Two Mock Epics (Hanuman and Tantum Religio), Lyrics, Post Meridian Verse, The Turret Captain's Toast and other Verses.pdf/68

 Would’st test again how heavy our just wrath is,

And what the strength of free, true, apish swarthies?

Nay, bring such riff-raff countless as the sand,

Rouse up in arms against me sea and land,

Ay, the whole Universe”

He paused, beyond the royal army vivid

His eye perused the jungle: thither roaming

Thousands of eyeballs focussed in distraction:

Two awful stars were gleaming through the gloaming.

How to pourtray the next two minutes’ action?

Who has not seen, in some autumnal glade,

A sudden eddy smite the fallen leaves

And fleecy shreds that heap the dewy shade:

The dappled mass a dance demoniac weaves:

The dust-cloud with it spins—a shaft of smoke,

Now high in air the eddying spires have leapt,

And now collapsed in yonder branching oak,

And all below is like a meadow swept.

Thus all that royal host of foot and mounted,

A goodly throng, in uniforms uncounted,

Jumbled at once in one wild, motley bustle,

Seething, confused, with many a squeal and tussle,

Flinging away its arms, o’er long boots falling,

In panic flight o’er tips of scabbards sprawling,

On toward the sheltering banyan, jostled, shambled;

Then, houp-la! o’er the pendent vegetation

The whole corps d’armée in a twinkling scrambled,

Leaving below a lifeless desolation,

Save for the various arms the brushwood harbours.

Here flames a casque, there gleam two dreadful sabres;

The ground is black with boots; French horns, cockades,