Via Crucis

Sample piece from Via Crucis

Strange company to keep, Sir Knight,
though the eyes are fixed dead ahead,
and the horse is caught in mid-stride
at the impregnable instant of return,
beneath the battlements. Here is the paradox:
for outside of the streaming hour
neither Devil nor Death has demesne.
Noseless Death, the importunate suitor,
mounted hard alongside, and behind
like pestilence, the Devil's faecal smell.

Below is the familiar device, set as a milestone:
the A a gallows under which the D has taken refuge.