Page:Redemption, a Poem.djvu/254

 248 REDEMPTION.

And Juda's tribes amuses with his tricks,

Wrought by Beelzebub, to lure his dupes.

Have ye not heard the piercing echos roll

Along fair Jordan's vale, with peans hymn'd,

1 Hosanna to the Son of David ! King !'

Nor he rebuke the impious clamor raised ?

What shouts are those, which now, on every breeze

Borne, clang the ear, and Israel fill with dread ?

1 Jesus Messias is ! our Priest and King !

Blessed is he, who cometh in Lord !'

See with what mock'ry' of regal state he comes;

His path with ivy, myrtle, palm leaves, strown,

His brow with laurels crown'd, inwove with flowers,

And countless multitudes meanwhile the ground

Thick clothe with robes, and hoarse with praising sing.

I tell ye, Princes, that this Pest must die !

This to devise when, and by what best means,

With wile, intrigue, or subtilty arcane,

You now are suinmon'd to debate. No friend

Of Caesar here will plead excuse ; who would

Be Caesar's friend, or Israel's, let him speak,

If he some counsel to this end may show."

The chief Priest, wrathful, thus prologue began, Then sat. Stifled their rage was, him who heard, By strenu'ous effort, and main force kept down, Struggling for vent, with moans and hissing taunts, Gibes, groans; signs of fierce wrath, not all suppress'd. As subterranean fires, closely pent, With restless heavings chafe the troubled ground, Till from some mountain's grisly brow they spume, Roll down its sides, o'erspread the fertile fields, Consume green forests, tumbling torrents dry,

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