Page:Comus and other poems - Milton (1906).djvu/85

  When Faith and Love which parted from thee never,
 * Had ripen'd thy just soul to dwell with God,
 * Meekly thou didst resign this earthy load
 * Of Death, call'd Life; which us from Life doth sever.

Thy Works and Alms and all thy good Endeavour
 * Staid not behind, nor in the grave were trod;
 * But as Faith pointed with her golden rod,
 * Follow'd thee up to joy and bliss for ever.

Love led them on, and Faith who knew them best
 * Thy hand-maids, clad them o're with purple beams
 * And azure wings, that up they flew so drest,

And speak the truth of thee on glorious Theams
 * Before the Judge, who thenceforth bid thee rest
 * And drink thy fill of pure immortal streams.

  Avenge O Lord thy slaughter'd Saints, whose bones
 * Lie scatter'd on the Alpine mountains cold,
 * Ev'n them who kept thy truth so pure of old
 * When all our Fathers worship't Stocks and Stones,

Forget not: in thy book record their groanes
 * Who were thy Sheep and in their antient Fold
 * Slayn by the bloody Piemontese that roll'd
 * Mother with Infant down the Rocks. Their moans

The Vales redoubled to the Hills, and they
 * To Heav'n. Their martyr'd blood and ashes sow
 * O're all th'Italian fields where still doth sway

The triple Tyrant: that from these may grow
 * A hunder'd-fold, who having learnt thy way
 * Early may fly the Babylonian wo.

 Rh