Who are these masked impostors, feathered and bejeweled?
Whose faces speak in pearls, silver lace, and gold?
That dance about the corridors, in elegant attire;
Whose sole motive speaks: impenitent desire!
At first unmasked there is the fool, who knew not
And then there are the lovers, fools the lot
They are betrayed, and then they are shot
Or stood to be swaying from a hangman\'s knot
The feathers and pearls, the rubies and silk
Rent at the point of the red bayonet
washed crimson in blood, tears, and stinking sweat
These figures, in their intrigue, reveling...
\'Till discovery, at which they meet life\'s severing
Their faces each uniquely shocked, that they-
Who mocked the cruel before them, they fell too
And no better than a grisly invitation, come!
And join this bloody masquerade!