William James Rivers

“ Thro’ streaming tears; and with unsteady pace
Follow reluctant on, nor dare their steps retrace.
XXI.
Perchance their farewell glance sad memory leads
To tombs near home where they had hoped to lie;
While every throb of nature in them pleads
To shun the doom that calls them forth to die
Where no surviving hand will close the eye,
Or to its sheltering grave the body bear,
Oh! who would perish where no power is nigh
To shield the form we leave all helpless here?
E’en welcome then would be the bitterest foe we fear!
XXII.
On all it loves the spirit may look down ”

“ Perchance e’en yet to sacrifice and prayer
Some sign from heaven might come, some hope their hearts to cheer.
X.
As when to sudden march, at Moses’ call,
A nation sprang—no faltering step delayed
Of age or sex; but forthwith great and small
Their homes forsook, and marched where’er he bade;
So these respond—tho’ hopeless and dismayed,
And stood in crowds the Teocal around,
Watching their priests, as up, with solemn tread,
Now hid, now seen, from side to side they wound,
Leading aloft to death their victims gaily crowned. ”

“ The close of every Cycle was, therefore, a time of awful anxiety. Human victims wasere
^ sacrificed on their lofty pyramidal temple. Every spark of fire in the whole country, according to ancient custom, was extinguished. The people of the Aztec capital, led by their priests, marched forth at sunset in solemn procession to a mountain about six miles distant, to await on its summit their approaching doom. If the midnight hour passed as usual, the event was instantly indicated by a bonfire on the mountain. ”

“ Should fail to save one beam from all the realms of light.
IV.
When thro’ the awful gloom the voice of man,
Feebler and feebler heard, should pass away:
And living forms faint, helpless, groping, wan,
To loathsome reptiles fall an easy prey ”

“ Then answering signals blazed, whose gladdening beams
Eastward and westward, northward and southward thrown,
Roused the vast empire from its doleful dreams
To song, and festive dance, und all that mirth beseems.
XV.
At morn, the sun first lit that mountain height ”