University of Virginia Library

XVI.

The legend was told in the days of old,
How the fifty wise men met;
And in strength divine, Saint Katherine
Was before the tribunal set.
And she spake of the gods, (if gods they be,
Whom we neither may love nor fear,)
That have eyes indeed, but cannot see,
That have ears, but cannot hear:
And their power and their hate we may well contemn,
Who can neither do good nor ill;
And they that make them are like to them,
In spite of their boasted skill:
How the Cæsar sat on the judgment-seat,
And called for the flame and the steel;
And bade them bind her hands and feet
Upon the tormenting wheel:
But the lightning flashed, and the thunder rolled,
By the God of Vengeance sent,
And the fire descended, as once of old,
And the wheel in pieces rent;
And beautiful angels came down from on high,
As in death she calmly lay,
And bare her corpse to Mount Sinai
In Arabia far away:
And they laid her within the rock-hewn cave,
For the days of her strife were o'er:
And the church that arose above that grave
Shall be famous evermore!