The autumn's vice on dregs of life has past While roundabout the hills the snow drives fast The mercenary slips his lair And grappled in his hands there bears The solitary hope of nations thralled
Wherefore comes this titan of men? The seas lie in wait for his ships of stealth 'Cross monstrous waves of seething crests And ocean vales of uneasy rest Ne'er terror nor lust shall ever waylay
Tempestuous gales these masts will outstand And hold steadfast 'til death or land Ferried aloft the standard's face is revealed And borne upon the winds of a godless zeal
He forges on through the perpetual dark And closes in on the ancient ark Where the fame of erstwhile heroes's stored And all cherished tales of battlelore The sceptre wrench'd from the master's hand Argentine skies below he stands
Ferried aloft the standard's face is revealed And borne upon the winds of a godless zeal
He forges on through the perpetual dark And closes in on the ancient ark Where the fame of erstwhile heroes's stored And all cherished tales of battlelore The sceptre wrench'd from the master's hand Argentine skies below he stands
Primordial mores are all but lost The latter days know nothing of the cost Insipid lives of lifeless men Their doctrine's claim on penitence Doth rules the weakest minds of those not freed
Ensanguined spoils of crusades' toils are fixed To pietism's clasp on those betwixt The amalgam of gods and men Our mercenary strives to rend Anathematic bonds of theists' call, For one an all The faithless one shall never fall