Seeing that he was in the respectable part of the graveyard, Gud hastened to walk down the hill to the less respectable portion. Experience had taught him that in the part of a graveyard where rich men are buried he was likely to be annoyed by relatives who felt they had been cheated in the wills and were anxious to have resurrections performed.
As Gud strolled through the disreputable portion of the cemetery he came upon a man who was sitting on a grave and weeping bitterly.
Chapter LIX
The Gods of the Gallows ride tonight
Their shadowy faces spotted white.
The creature who watches through the bars
Hears every footfall under the stars.
The gods of the gallows need no rest—
They ride like chieftains—twelve abreast.
And now they have vanished, leaving hope,
And a thing that hangs at the end of a rope.
Under the lattice a rosebud trembles, a rosebud trembles gently....
Under the trees the shadows fall
In a silver pool by the garden wall;
Then here and there among the trees
Wind whispers rouse low litanies.
Like tiny voices of tongueless grief
That stir the silence of every leaf.
And who would know that under the lattice, under the lattice window,
Where the rosebud stirred like a startled fawn,
Two hands are creeping up the wall,
Two hands that are slim and white and small?
And who can hear the lattice open, the lattice open gently?
Now over the lip of the window sill,
A rustle of silks, the lattice closes,
No one has heard, the night is still,
Save unblossomed buds of the startled roses.
Yet were attentive ears to hearken: enemy ears to listen
Far off, far off, where the white road bends,
And the upturned cup of the blue sky ends,
They might have heard a horse's hoofs
Go clickity, clickity, clickity hack, clickity hack, clickity ...
clickity ... clickity ... hack
Wisely wondered why late at night
So speedy a horseman rode its back....
Then the echo dimmed at the edge of a wood,
And the sound and the horse were gone for good.
The creature who watches through the bars
Heard every footfall under the stars.
Beside the doorway of his cell
Imprisoned in that iron hell,
He taunted the guards of the King—the King's own guards they were—
With scarlet breeches and purple coats,
Shining buckles upon their boots.
He taunted them with sneering jests.
He sneered at the medals on their breasts;
Laughed in the haughty captain's face,
Cut short the chaplain's plea for grace,
And hummed the popular air of the day
When they read the sentence, and bade him pray.
"I promised her at our final tryst,
When our aching bodies clung and kissed,
That come what may, no matter when
I should see her to tell her I love her again."
And he laughed through the bars
In a redcoat's face,
Then he looked through the window
Up at the stars,
And saw that the dawn was taking place.
I'll be returning ere the dusk is down,
I'll be returning....
Wait for me!
I'll be returning though life claims
Allegiance under lying rames.