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 | The Poetical Works of Aubrey De Vere |  |
Three days and more
They venerated that city of Sanctuaries
Where Clovis, earliest Christian king of France,
With him three thousand thousand of his iron race,
Led thither by his saintly wife, Clotilde,
The young, the pure, the beautiful, the good,
To Christ was joined in baptism. There, 'tis said,
Saint Remi preached the Passion; there King Clovis
Leaped to his feet and smote the altar steps
Thrice with his sword, and cried, ‘Had I been there
My Franks and I, that race accurst had perished!’
Upon Saint Osmond's Feast the King was crowned:
The Mass completed, through the minster swelled
Sound as of soft seas crushing sandy shores:
Next with grave feet tuned as to strains in heaven
Slowly advanced the prelate to the King:
Beside that King, steel-clad from brow to foot
And holding high the standard consecrate
Stood up the Maid Elect. The mitred man
Lodged in the monarch's grasp sceptre and globe,
Chaunting that prayer ‘Stand firmly and hold fast.’
Thus was that second prophecy fulfilled:—
‘He shall be crowned at Rheims.’
They venerated that city of Sanctuaries
Where Clovis, earliest Christian king of France,
With him three thousand thousand of his iron race,
Led thither by his saintly wife, Clotilde,
The young, the pure, the beautiful, the good,
To Christ was joined in baptism. There, 'tis said,
Saint Remi preached the Passion; there King Clovis
Leaped to his feet and smote the altar steps
Thrice with his sword, and cried, ‘Had I been there
My Franks and I, that race accurst had perished!’
Upon Saint Osmond's Feast the King was crowned:
The Mass completed, through the minster swelled
Sound as of soft seas crushing sandy shores:
Next with grave feet tuned as to strains in heaven
345
Beside that King, steel-clad from brow to foot
And holding high the standard consecrate
Stood up the Maid Elect. The mitred man
Lodged in the monarch's grasp sceptre and globe,
Chaunting that prayer ‘Stand firmly and hold fast.’
Thus was that second prophecy fulfilled:—
‘He shall be crowned at Rheims.’
| The Poetical Works of Aubrey De Vere | |