Chronicles and Characters :: :: University of Virginia Library

Now, since, after the fashion then in vogue,
He wrote it in form of a dialogue,
Not averring, as he did, the dream to be true,
In all else, as he wrote it, I write it for you:

VOICE OUTSIDE THE GATE.
“Peter, Peter, open the Gate!

129

VOICE WITHIN.
I know thee not. Thou knockest late.

FIRST VOICE.
Late! yet, Peter, look, and see
Who calleth.

SECOND VOICE.
Nay, I know not thee.
What art thou?

FIRST VOICE.
Peter, Peter, ope
The Gate!

SECOND VOICE.
What art thou?

FIRST VOICE.
The dead Pope.

SECOND VOICE.
The Pope? what is it?

FIRST VOICE.
In men's eye
Thy successor, late, was I.
What was thine was given to me.

130

SECOND VOICE.
Martyrdom and misery?

FIRST VOICE.
Nay, but power to bind and loose.
In thy name have I burn'd Jews
And heretics, and all the brood
Of unbelief . . .

VOICES FAR WITHIN.
Avenge our blood,
Lord!

FIRST VOICE.
And in thy name have blest
Kings and Emperors; confest
Earth's Spiritual Head, while there
I sat ruling in thy chair.

VOICES FAR WITHIN.
Woe! because the kings of earth
Were with her in her wicked mirth!

FIRST VOICE.
In thy name, and for thy cause,
I made peace and war, set laws
To lawgivers . . .

131

VOICES FAR WITHIN.
And all nations
Drunk with the abominations
Of her witchcraft!

FIRST VOICE.
In thy name,
And for thy cause, to sword and flame
I gave sinners; and to those
That fear'd the friends, and fought the foes,
Of him from all mankind selected
To keep thy name and cause respected,
Riches and rewards I gave,
And the joy beyond the grave.

VOICES FAR WITHIN.
Souls of men, too, chaffering lies,
Did she make her merchandise.

FIRST VOICE.
By all means have I upheld
Thy patrimony—nay, 'tis swell'd.

VOICES FAR WITHIN.
For herself she glcrified
In the riches of her pride.

132

FIRST VOICE.
Wherefore, Peter, ope the Gate!
If my knocking now be late,
Little time, in truth, had I
—I, the Pope, who stand and cry!
For other cares than those that came
Upon me, in thy cause and name,
Holding up the heavy keys
Of Heaven, and Hell.

SECOND VOICE.

If so, if these
Thou hast in keeping, wherefore me
Callest thou? Thou hast the key.
Truly thou hast waited late!
Open, then, thyself, The Gate.”

And here the Monk breaks off, to state,
With befitting reflections by the way,
With what great joy the Pope, no doubt,
Soon as he heard the stern voice say
Those words, began to search about
Among his garments, for the key;
Which, strange to say, 'twould seem that he
Had not bethought him of before.
And how that joy, from more to more,
Wax'd most (the historian of his dream
Observes, as he resumes the theme)

133

“When, after search grown desperate,
A key he found,—just as his need
Seem'd at the worst,—a key, indeed!
But, ah vain hope! for, however the Pope
Tried the key in the fasten'd Gate,
Turning it ever with might and main
This way, that way, every way at last,
Forwards—backwards—round again—
Till his joy is turn'd to sheer dismay at last,
And his failing force will no longer cope
With the stubborn Gate,—it declines to ope.
A key, indeed! but not, alas,
The Key.”

Who shall say what key it was?
The Monk, who here, I must believe,
Is laughing at us in his sleeve,
(Like any vulgar story-teller,
Fabling forms to vent his spleen)
Surmises that it must have been
The key of the Pope's own cellar.