"I will not now "Recall the moment, when on my poor Francis, "With a long look I hung! At dead of night, "Made mute by fear, we mount the secret bark, "And glide adown the stream with silent oars : "Thus thrown upon the mercy of mankind, "I wandered reckless where, till wearied out "And cold at heart, I laid me down to die : sublimity. And thou, son of man, thus saith the Lord God, speak uuto every feathered fowl, and to every beast of the field. Assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh and drink blood. Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan. And ye shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood till. ye be drunken, of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you. Thus ye shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war, saith the Lord God. Ezekiel xxxix. 17, &c.. "So by this warrior found. Him I had known "And loved, for all loved Conrade who had known him;, "Nor did I feel so pressing the hard hand Of want in Orleans, ere he parted thence "On perilous envoy. For of his small fare" "Of this enough," said Conrade, "Holy Maid ! "One duty yet awaits me to perform. "Orleans her envoy sent me, claiming aid "From her inactive sovereign. Willingly "Did I atchieve the hazardous enterprize, "Ere I do banish me from human kind, "That I re-enter Orleans, and announce 66 Thy march. 'Tis night-and hark! how dead a silence! "Fit hour to tread so perilous a path !" So saying Conrade from the tent went forth. |
