Explore "A "Mass" Meeting" by Ambrose Bierce on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
It was a solemn rite as e'er / Was seen by mortal man.
The celebrants, the people there, / Were all Republican.
There Estee bent his grizzled head, / And General Dimond, too, / And one -- 'twas Reddick, some one said, / Though no one clearly knew.
I saw the priest, white-robed and tall / (Assistant, Father Stow) -- / He was the pious man men call / Dan Burns of Mexico.
Ah, 'twas a high and holy rite / As any one could swear. / "What does it mean?" I asked a wight / Who knelt apart in prayer.
"A mass for the repose," he said, / "Of Colonel Markham's"What, / Is gallant Colonel Markham dead? / 'Tis sad, 'tis sad, God wot!"
"A mass" -- repeated he, and rose / To go and kneel among / The worshipers -- "for the repose / Of Colonel Markham's tongue."