<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=365928" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The End of the Feud</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">The revellers came to Castle Krag<br>And whirled in through the hall, <br>Into the lavish ballroom with<br>The Lord of Donegal, <br>He came with his wife and mistresses, <br>A merry, laughing crew, <br>To answer the call by Castle Krag <br>To end their ancient feud! </div><div style="margin:10px 0">For there by the central pillars stood<br>The Baron, John FitzHugh, <br>A smile on the ravaged, bitter lips<br>That his enemies once knew, <br>He was of a mind to end it all, <br>The bitterness, the strife, <br>And even smiled at the courtesan<br>That he'd asked to make his wife.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">She'd laughed, and fluttered her fan at him, <br>'I don't think so, my lord.<br>I'd rather share in the favours of<br>The Lord of Donegal! '<br>And so she had joined the mistresses<br>Of his neighbour, and his foe, <br>The family of O'Donnell with<br>Their feud of long ago.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">So long ago it was lost in time, <br>The generations passed, <br>But none of the bitterness had gone, <br>Some things were meant to last, <br>The wife of the Second Baron<br>Had absconded in the night, <br>With the heir to the Lord of Donegal, <br>He'd not put up a fight.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The Seventh Baron, John FitzHugh, <br>Now strolled around the floor, <br>Intent on greeting guests as he<br>Had never done before, <br>'There's wine and ale a-plenty, <br>We have venison and game, <br>Let's make it the sort of party that<br>Goes down in the Hall of Fame! '</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The orchestra struck up a tune, <br>The ladies whirled their fans, <br>And strutted with their bustles, <br>Tripped the floor and waved their hands, <br>Loosened off the stays that held<br>Confining every breast, <br>As bodices then fell apart, <br>Revealing all the rest.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The wine was flowing freely, you<br>Could see it in their eyes, <br>These revellers, who'd come to gloat, <br>The man they'd ostracized, <br>They laughed and chattered freely<br>Lurched and fell in revelry, <br>The Lord of Donegal was drunk, <br>And sat with Alice Leigh.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The Baron looked at Alice and<br>She stared him in the eyes, <br>'Is what you see acceptable, my lord, <br>Are you surprised? '<br>She placed the Lord of Donegal's<br>Right hand upon her breast, <br>As all the while the Baron stood, <br>Most pale, and quite distressed.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But out beyond the oaken doors<br>The masons were at work, <br>Building a solid wall of stone<br>That no-one could disturb, <br>While others filled the windows with<br>Their mortar and their lime, <br>And slate of seven inches thick<br>From Donegal's own mine.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">By midnight John FitzHugh had gone, <br>Was nowhere to be seen, <br>The revellers were drunk as dogs<br>And thought to leave the scene, <br>Whereon the baron, he appeared<br>On some high balcony, <br>Within the ballroom's gothic dome<br>He called to the company.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'I trust you have enjoyed the fare<br>I've given you this night, <br>What's left, you'd better make it last, <br>There's nothing else in sight! <br>You may as well just party on, <br>There's nowhere left to go, <br>The ballroom, your last resting place, <br>Fit for my ancient foe! '</div><div style="margin:10px 0">They rushed the doors, they found the wall, <br>They tried each window pane, <br>They looked for any exit but<br>Their search was quite in vain, <br>The ballroom was a prison with<br>No doors, and yet no bars, <br>They milled around the empty room<br>And stared up at the stars. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">'And now for you, a final treat, '<br>The baron bellowed down, <br>'My Lord of Donegal, I hear<br>You thought to wear the crown, <br>I have some things to crown you with, <br>Suspended in this sheet...'<br>He tugged a cord, it opened up<br>And billowed at his feet.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The cockroaches that he had bred<br>In dungeons, dark and warm, <br>Were loosed from that suspended sheet<br>And fell there, in a swarm, , <br>A million crawling roaches that<br>Festooned the ladies hair, <br>Crawled in and out of bodices<br>To screams of pure despair.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And then the lights went down, and they<br>Were screaming in their need, <br>As all those crawling roaches found<br>New places they could breed, <br>And Baron John FitzHugh went out<br>And thought to come back late, <br>The screams he'd heard were more than<br>Quite enough, to feed his hate.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">* * * * * * *</div><div style="margin:10px 0">A week went by, he took an axe<br>And smashed that masonry, <br>Remorse had come upon him and<br>He thought of Alice Leigh, <br>'If only God has spared her, I'll repent, '<br>He prayed aloud, <br>But all was silent in that room, <br>Each corpse would need a shroud.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And then the slightest movement by<br>The pillars in the hall, <br>Had caught his eye, he gave a sigh<br>And felt that he might fall, <br>For Alice Leigh was propped upright<br>And stared and stared at him, <br>'I love you still, ' he groaned, 'my dear, <br>Why did you go with him? '</div><div style="margin:10px 0">He waited for her answer, she<br>Had still not made a move, <br>She stood there in the darkness, like<br>Some beauty from the Louvre, <br>But then her lips had parted and<br>His heart stopped, in despair, <br>As roaches poured from her eyes and mouth<br>And crawled all through her hair! </div><div style="margin:10px 0">12 January 2010</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=David+Lewis+Paget">David Lewis Paget</a><div class=q> <img src="https://www.citatepedia.ro/g/32share.png" style="float:left" alt="Share"> <script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=365928" data-title="The End of the Feud de David Lewis Paget" data-description="The revellers came to Castle Krag And whirled in through the hall, Into the lavish ballroom with The Lord of Donegal, He came with his wife and mistresses, A merry, laughing crew, To answer the call by Castle Krag To end their ancient feud! ..."></div> </div> </div>

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