HE is coming! he is coming! | |
| Like a bridegroom from his room, | |
| Came the hero from his prison | |
| To the scaffold and the doom. | |
| There was glory on his forehead, | 5 |
| There was lustre in his eye, | |
| And he never walked to battle | |
| More proudly than to die: | |
| There was colour in his visage, | |
| Though the cheeks of all were wan, | 10 |
| And they marvelled as they saw him pass, | |
| That great and goodly man! | |
| |
| He mounted up the scaffold, | |
| And he turned him to the crowd; | |
| But they dared not trust the people, | 15 |
| So he might not speak aloud. | |
| But he looked upon the heavens, | |
| And they were clear and blue, | |
| And in the liquid ether | |
| The eye of God shone through: | 20 |
| Yet a black and murky battlement | |
| Lay resting on the hill, | |
| As though the thunder slept within— | |
| All else was calm and still. | |
| |
| The grim Geneva ministers | 25 |
| With anxious scowl drew near, | |
| As you have seen the ravens flock | |
| Around the dying deer. | |
| He would not deign them word nor sign, | |
| But alone he bent the knee; | 30 |
| And veiled his face for Christ’s dear grace | |
| Beneath the gallows-tree. | |
| Then radiant and serene he rose, | |
| And cast his cloak away; | |
| For he had ta’en his latest look | 35 |
| Of earth, and sun, and day. | |
| |
| A beam of light fell o’er him, | |
| Like a glory round the shriven, | |
| And he climbed the lofty ladder | |
| As it were the path to heaven. | 40 |
| Then came a flash from out the cloud, | |
| And a stunning thunder roll, | |
| And no man dared to look aloft, | |
| For fear was on every soul. | |
| There was another heavy sound, | 45 |
| A hush and then a groan; | |
| And darkness swept across the sky— | |
| The work of death was done! | |
| |
