The star of the north. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1849-1866, 1859-06-22
U boife po etrp.
TIE LAST WITCH BURNING.
BY WALTER THoRNBURY.

The pointing children hooteo ner,
Even the beggar's bitch
Bit at her as she trembling went
To de-s'the poisoning witch"
Patched cloaks hocked with soft scarlet
The poor as we'll as rich [hoods'
They struck her as men do thief,
Pelting the blackening mud
They would not stay to file the bridge,
But dragged her through h the flood
Old bedrid hags from windows screamed
Longing to drink her blood.
Looking across the fields you saw
Black lines, that widened out,
OF ploughmen running I; OH the wind
Came curse and groan and shout:
But, God !! 10 hear no single sob
Or sigh from all that rout
She Wasped for mercy. Ask the dog
To spare the siranging life
That in the vixen means and barks
Deep in the tumbling strife;
Or ask the Indian chief 10 give
Mercy wheE blood is rife.
Old Elspelh, with her lean arms crossed
Humby upon her breast,
Walks painfully with bleeding feet,
A rope strains round her chest;
Sickly her watery eyes upturn
To the gallows further west
Her Golf is off, her ragged hair,
Snow-streaked with wintry years;
Floats out when any gust OF wind
Brings billowing storms OF cheers
The rolling mob still screech and roar,
No bloodshot eve drops tears.
She kissed Bible,-close she kept
The volume TO her lips;
oh then arose flame of yells
As when wars red eclipse
Passes. The eaping hangman then
Cried out for "stronger whips"
Yet all this time the mounting larks
Sang far from human toil,-
Miles, mites around the ripening corn
Was in the golden boil
The bee upon the blue flower swings
In restles, happy moil.
With stolid care across the moor
The distant death-be!l rung,
And drowning it five thousand screamed
The ribald dirge that's sung
When the great King Devil has his own,
And another witch is hung.
Twas pitiful TO see them bind
Those shrunk limbs to the stake
Her idiot sisters thankful smiles
Approve the pains they take,
And all the cruel. mocking care
With which the sticks they break.
A calcined collar round her neck
The ha rfa faced hanoman fits
An iron chain around her waist
And round her ankles knits,
As ready for the fire his man
The beach log cleaves and splits.
They thrust the cruel arrowy flame
Into the billet heaps,
Its fiery. serpent quivering tongues
Make eager hungry leaps;
The poor old creature stretched her hands
To swarm them. No one weeps!
The savage tiger fire is lit,
A thnnder.cloud of smoke,
In one ribb'd column tall and black,
Rose thirty feet, then broke
II bloited out The setting sun
As with burial cloak.
You hear from thickness of the cloud
The humble of prayer,
And 10 shrek, swift, dagger keen
Sprang up and stabbed the air,
Then Just one burning hand that strove
To wave and beckon there.
- sIIence came upon the crowd,
Asvhen the softening spring
Breaks up the icy northern seas,
Melting ring after ring :,
Then, rising Ger their guilty heads,
The lark sought Heavens King.
Was It ths sinners pleading soul
That 10 mp to those skies,
High, hiuI1 above the burning light
And sea 81 brutal eyes,
The storms ard sddies round the stake
OF brutal wild-beast cries.
An, hour ago Now but ring
OF ashes silvetE white,
And filmy sparks tAat broke in blooms
OF ftful scarlet liglk
When scudding wind4 With fiery. gush,
Drove the children let apd fight.
And chief amongst the slafslIng crowd
A child laughed with those bands--
She was the maid the hag bewiHhed
Upon the lairds own lands
And when she saw the ash blow fed
She clapped her little hands.
Thank God, ihe frightened, cruel folk
Meier lit that fire again;
None. wore that calcined collar more, -.
With its gripping, tlifottling STRAIN -
tTwas a cruel deed, and only sweet
To the bigpt's bIighted brain.
-zBsntley's Miscellany