Page:Two Mock Epics (Hanuman and Tantum Religio), Lyrics, Post Meridian Verse, The Turret Captain's Toast and other Verses.pdf/88

 Scarce from far corners caught the text,

So loud the beat of gathering feet

From rearward trampling down the street

And shuffling forward till, at last,

No longer proof ’gainst these attacks

The foremost line of arms and backs

Gave way, and all, a torrent vast,

Like swirling rookeries in a storm

Eddying concentric round their elms,

The dusky market overwhelms,

As towards the centre drift and swarm

The motley hosts to form a crater

Round that erupting prêtre or prater.

Silent awhile at first they listen,

Till slow, but surely, access gains

To water-logged, thick-witted brains,

Some inkling of the preacher’s meaning.

Then eyes began to gleam and glisten

And hands to twitch, that overweening

Blasphemous heretic to chastise:

Some toward the rushing Mallero cast eyes

Of longing, some for firewood hankered;

Some drowned their feelings in a tankard;

Those imprecate with words articulate,

These hiccough oaths, and all gesticulate;

And one, a lank, long-fingered fellow,

With hatchet face and cheek-bones yellow,

And eyes cerulean, somewhat haggard,

And rabbit-mouth and accents mellow,—

A sort of spider-monkey blackguard,—

Mounted a stall, and shrill and fast

Piped out a Popish counterblast