| |
(From The Golden Legend)
THIS bridge is called the Devil’s Bridge, | |
| With a single arch, from ridge to ridge, | |
| It leaps across the terrible chasm | |
| Yawning beneath us, black and deep, | |
| As if in some convulsive spasm, | 5 |
| The summits of the hills had cracked, | |
| And made a road for the cataract, | |
| That raves and rages down the steep! * * * * * | |
| Never any bridge but this | |
| Could stand across the wild abyss; | 10 |
| All the rest, of wood or stone, | |
| By the Devil’s hand were overthrown. | |
| He toppled crags from the precipice, | |
| And whatsoe’er was built by day | |
| In the night was swept away: | 15 |
| None could stand but this alone. * * * * * | |
| I showed you in the valley a boulder | |
| Marked with the imprint of his shoulder; | |
| As he was bearing it up this way, | |
| A peasant, passing, cried, “Herr Jé!” | 20 |
| And the Devil dropped it in his fright, | |
| And vanished suddenly out of sight! * * * * * | |
| Abbot Giraldus of Einsiedel, | |
| For pilgrims on their way to Rome, | |
| Built this at last, with a single arch, | 25 |
| Under which, on its endless march, | |
| Runs the river, white with foam, | |
| Like a thread through the eye of a needle. | |
| And the Devil promised to let it stand, | |
| Under compact and condition | 30 |
| That the first living thing which crossed | |
| Should be surrendered into his hand, | |
| And be beyond redemption lost. * * * * * | |
| At length, the bridge being all completed, | |
| The Abbot, standing at its head, | 35 |
| Threw across it a loaf of bread, | |
| Which a hungry dog sprang after, | |
| And the rocks reëchoed with peals of laughter | |
| To see the Devil thus defeated! | |
| |
