“Food, woman—food and wine, or else we tear[134] thee limb from limb.”
The woman shaking off his blood, rose,[135] raven-haired and tall,
And our stern glances quailed before one sterner far than all.
“Both food and wine,”[136] she said, “I have; I meant them for the dead,[137]
But ye are living still, and so let them be yours instead.”
The food was brought, the wine was brought out of a secret place,[138]
But each one paused aghast, and looked into his neighbor’s face;
Her haughty step and settled brow, and chill indifferent mien,
Suited so strangely with the gloom and grimness of the scene.
She glided here,[139] she glided there,[140] before our wondering eyes,