Page:Poems of Emma Lazarus vol 2.djvu/69

62 Some slaughtered at their hearthstones, some expelled To Moorish slavery. Cmmingly ensnared, Baited and trapped were we; their fierce monks yelled And thundered from our Synagogues, while flared The Cross above the Ark. Ah, happiest they Who fell unconquered martyrs on that day! For some (I write it with flushed cheek, bowed head). Given free choice 'twixt death and shame, chose shame, Denied the God who visibly had led Their fathers, pillared in a cloud of flame, Bathed in baptismal waters, ate the bread Which is their new Lord's body, took the name Marranos the Accursed, whom equally Jew, Moor, and Christian hate, despise, and flee. Even one no less than an Abarbanel Prized miserable length of days, above Integrity of souL Midst such who fell, Far be it, however, from my duteous love, Master, to reckon thee. Thine own lips tell How fear nor torture thy firm will could move. How thou midst panic nowise disconcerted. By Thomas of Aquinas wast converted!