In the Topsham streets where the lanterns burn
From the eve' to night it turned
The midnight sky was shrouded in white
As the snow fell silent across the town
Devil's footprints...
Cloven tracks were imprinted in snow
Through walls and over snow covered roofs
Outside the church burning tracks in the snow
What made these tracks will we ever know?
An uneasy sleep we had that night
We awoke in the morn' to a haunting sight
A trail of prints lay straight in the snow
For hundreds of miles the trail did go
We gathered together as the word spread
For 200 miles these footprints had led
Toting rakes and forks and our hunting hounds
We set off in search across frozen grounds
The tracks led to the cemetery gates
Through icy earth scorched footprints were laid
Leading over tombs and graves
Suspicious minds rumours did thrive
The vicars claimed aloud with pride
The devil roamed the country side
In search of sinners and wayward souls
To scare the folk into the sacred halls
I cast my spell unto the night
My feverish lust an ancient flight
As bells toll the midnight sins
The journey of my haunted kin
The selfless passage an endless burden
I carry the fear of a thousand winds
My steps as soft as drifting clouds
From an unbroken line of immaculate creed
Tearing across the crystalline meadows
Past withered trees and through foreboding mist
The hounds leading a furious pace
The scent of our prey quickens the chase
Onwards, downwards, follow the course
To find the route of this terrible curse
As the water widens and the river runs strong
Across the Exe, the hunt carries on
Of a devil like figure the sightings abound
The cloven hoof tracks burned in the ground
A linear trail unbroken was made
O'er hundreds of miles these tracks did not fade
The path seems endless and unforgiving
But onwards we ploughed to seek the truth
The pack moved swift as the wailing wind
On the trail of the cloven hoof
In the softest glow of the pale moonlight
I tread my path with devil's flight
As the frozen skies bleed down on me
I wear a cloak of souls like thee
A tempest of the darkest night
I gather pace the end in sight
With a Godspeed silhouette my friend
I come to rest upon the end
On the trail of the cloven hoof!
The hunt carried on 'til morning light
But of the creature, still no sight
The huntsmen thought that they had failed
Until a hedgerow halted the trail
The hounds released to end the hunt
And there the quarry stood in front
But as stories passed and time evolved
The mystery remains unsolved
As a token of my tortured soul, I leave you now to count the toll
Of the visit that I paid to thee, to warn of what you'll come to be
