Page:Poems and ballads, third series (IA poemsballadsthir00swin).pdf/68

Wild famine and red-shod rapine are cruel, and bitter
with blood are their feasts;
But fiercer than famine and redder than rapine the hands
and the hearts of priests.
God, God bade these to the battle; and here, on a land
by his servants trod,
They perish, a lordly blood-offering, subdued by the
hands of the servants of God.
These also were fed of his priests with faith, with the
milk of his word and the wine;
These too are fulfilled with the spirit of darkness that
guided their quest divine.
And here, cast up from the ravening sea on the mild
land's merciful breast,
This comfort they find of their fellows in worship; this
guerdon is theirs of their quest.
Death was captain, and doom was pilot, and darkness the
chart of their way;
Night and hell had in charge and in keeping the host of
the foes of day.