The hunters have encompassed.

They moved with timid steps,

And little runs;

Stumbling, with stifled cries;

And starting, panic-shot,

From every lurking shadow--

Behind them, terror's lifted lash:

Before them, ever crouching,

The horror of the unknown night--

While, as they moved before us,

The moonlight shivered off their shrinking shoulders

And naked, glancing limbs,

In shimmering, strange beauty.

And closely on their heels,

I, with my brothers, foremost in the file,

Marched, tethered 'twixt the plodding beasts,

Whose stolid riders sat,

Each with his javelin on the pummel couched,

In watchful silence, with dark eyes alert.

And once, nigh driven crazy

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