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Ho, Warder! Hear! One knocketh at your gate!

Ho, Warder, yet again! I knock and wait.

A third time, ye within! I call ye forth;

Or counts your lord the stranger nothing worth?

Enough! I hear. What stranger and wherefrom?

Go, rouse your masters. 'Tis to them I come,

Bearing great news. And haste, for even now

Night's darkling chariot presseth to the brow

Of heaven, and wayfarers like us must find

Quick anchorage in some resthouse for our kind.

Let one come forth who bears authority;

A woman, if God will; but if it be

A man, 'twere seemlier. With a woman, speech

Trembles and words are blinded. Man can teach

Man all his purpose and make clear his thought.