Page:Dreams and Images.djvu/148

 Alas! the long and wav'ring years had swept The dreams of youth away; but still remained The love, that hungered now to feel the hand Within his own of Mary's Son. The day Rose brightly in the East. At Pilate's door He met by chance a captain he had known In Jaffa, who bade him attentive wait Within the hall, amongst the soldiers there. But soon a tumult rose without the doors; The Wonder-Man was coming to be judged. Then, as the cries increased, his friend came in. "Make thou a Cross," he said, "We have but two And, if I judge aright, three shall be sent Beyond the wall this day to Calvary."

No more of shouting Fidus heard, for he Alone made ready a great Cross of wood; And, that his craftsman skill should be confessed, He made it well, both strong and workmanlike. "'Tis fit," he said, "to serve a King," and smiled At his grim jest; then went he on his way.

Out in the streets the crowd was surging on Along the way that leads to Calvary's hill. And o'er it Fidus saw his Cross; and then, Sometimes, a thorn-crowned head with waving hair Blood-clotted now, and stained a deeper hue; And Hate seemed in the air vibrating round. When sudden, like a bell that sweetly rings Above a storm, and seems a messenger Of Peace and Love, there woke upon his soul From out the sleeping past, some prophet words: "For homage goes with hate, and hate shall be