The Return Of Sir Richard Grenville

 

Robert E. Howard  

One slept beneath the branches dim,

Cloaked in the crawling mist,

And Richard Grenville came to him

And plucked him by the wrist.

No nightwind shook the forest deep

Where the shadows of Doom were spread,

And Solomon Kane awoke from sleep

And looked upon the dead.

He spake in wonder, not in fear:

"How walks a man who died?

"Friend of old times, what do ye here,

"Long fallen at my side?"

"Rise up, rise up," Sir Richard said,

"The hounds of doom are free;

"The slayers come to take your head

"To hang on the ju-ju tree.

"Swift feet press the jungle mud

"Where the shadows are grim and stark,

"And naked men who pant for blood

"Are racing through the dark."

And Solomon rose and bared his sword,

And swift as tongue could tell,

The dark spewed forth a painted horde

Like shadows out of Hell.

His pistols thundered in the night,

And in that burst of flame

He saw red eyes with hate alight,

And on the figures came.

His sword was like a cobra's stroke

And death hummed in its tune;

His arm was steel and knotted oak

Beneath the rising moon.

But by him sang another sword,

And a great form roared and thrust,

And dropped like leaves the screaming horde

To writhe in bloody dust.

Silent as death their charge had been,

Silent as night they fled;

And in the trampled glade was seen

Only the torn dead.

And Solomon turned with outstretched hand,

Then halted suddenly,

For no man stood with naked brand

Beneath the moon-lit tree.