Page:Mistral - Mirèio. A Provençal poem.djvu/245

] "'Huntress Diana art thou?' prostrate falling Before the Christian maid, began they calling; 'Or yet Minerva, the all-wise and chaste?' 'Nay, nay!' the damsel answered in all haste: 'I am God's handmaid only.' And the crowd She taught until with her to Him they bowed.

"Then by the power of her young voice alone, She smote Avignon's rock; and from the stone Welled faith in so pellucid stream, that, later, Clements and Gregories in that fair water Dipped holy chalices their thirst to slake, And Rome long years did for her glory quake.

"And all Provence, regenerate, sang so clear A hymn of praise, that God was glad to hear. Hast thou not marked, when rain begins to fall, How spring the drooping trees and grasses all, How soon the foliage with joy will quiver? So fevered souls drank of this cooling river!

"Thou fair Marseilles, who openest on the sea Thy haughty eyes and gazest languidly, As though naught else were worthy to behold, And, though the winds rage, dreamest but of gold, When Lazarus preached to thee, thou didst begin Those eyes to close, and see the night within,