The Reckoning of Divodurum (Le Graoully)

Beneath the shattered arches where the legions used to stand, A winged serpent terror held the timber-clearing land, From sulfur hollows underneath the Roman arena floor, He nested with his viper brood and shook the valley floor, To poison every highway with a suffocating breath. Yellow dust along the road, sulfur in the gale, A ragged shadow gliding down, cold and iron-pale. Bar the wooden doorways, keep your lanterns low tonight, The dread beast of the ruins cuts across the pale moonlight! No sheriff's leaden bullet, no mercenary's spear, Can pierce the plated leather hide that feeds upon our fear! The palisades were rotting and the frontier cattle fell, While fever swept the settlement like open gates of hell, Then walked the lonely preacher down the quiet border street, With just a woven holy stole and dust upon his feet, To face the reigning predator inside the pit alone. Vipers scatter through the weeds before the pilgrim's stride, Where sulfur crumbles brittle on the limestone cavern side. Hear the chapel bell collide against the outlaw beat, A solitary wanderer commands the narrow street! No iron on his collar, no saber drawn to yield, Just raw unbending purpose stepping out into the field! He looped the sacred linen strip around the smoking jaws, And bound the thrashing monarch down beneath unbending laws, The sulfur-spewing throat was hitched and tethered in the dirt, Paraded past the silent folk without a scratch or hurt, While frozen riders watched the fallen tyrant dragged away. The yellow mist is fading in the morning river air, Driven out like prairie smoke beneath a quiet prayer. Haul him to the water's edge and drag him through the clay, The outlaw reign of pestilence is broken here today! The rushing Seille is cutting deep to pull the reptile down, To drown the ancient terror miles away from any town! They shoved the snarling devil where the cold channel rolled, Submerged beneath the riverbed and forgotten in the cold, No winged shadow stains the sky, the sulfur choke has died, The monster sleeps in river silt beneath the running tide, A sunken memory entombed where heavy currents run. The river runs dark over sulfur and stone. The highway stands clear. The Graoully drowns alone.