RIDLEY AND LATIM1.K. 223
Through dense crowds Exulting led, there comes a noble^form, Majestic of demeanor, and arrayed In. sacerdotal robes. Those lips, which oft Neath some cathedral s awe-imposing arch Warned with heaven s eloquence a tearful throng, Now, in this deep adversity, essay The same blest theme. With brutal haste they check The unfinished sentence, they who used to crouch To his high fortunes, or with shouts partake His flowing bounty. Smitten on the mouth, In silent dignity of soul, he stands Unanswering, though reviled.
Lo ! at his side,
Worn out with long imprisonment, they place The venerable Latimer. With years His footsteps falter, but his soul is firm, And his fixed eye, like the first martyr s, seems To read unfolding heaven. The gazing throng, The stake, the faggot, and the cutting sneer, Are nought to him. Wrapped in his prison-garb, The scorn of low malignity is he, Whom pomp and wealth had courted, at whose voice The pious Edward wept that childlike tear, Which works the soul s salvation, and his sire, Boisterous and swoln with passion, stood reproved Like a chained lion.
Now the narrow space Twixt life and death the dial s point hath run,
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