This page has been validated.
SISTER MARIE
"She screamed, and up the marble stair
Flew like a creature of the wood,
And as the hunters on the hare
They turned—the chase was in their blood.
"Their shouts came to her like the call
Of baying hounds upon her track,
The turret roof she reached—the wall—
No hiding there—no going back.
"Loud came the soldiers, but she prayed
No mercy from her fellows there;
Death was more kind—she stood and swayed
On the high wall above the glen.
"A moment faltered—then she sprang
To the sweet air and God's embrace,
And where she fell, the little stream
Flowed soft across her dying face.
"So on the wall a cross is made
Lest we forget for her to pray,
For in God's sight she is afraid
Who took her own sweet life away."
32
