Page:Dreams and Images.djvu/145

The Shadow swept across the boyish face—
The Shadow Fidus once had seen before;
And he was silent, for in awe he stood
When that mysterious shade shut off the light
That shone out from the radiant brow.
The Shadow was not fear, nor dread of death;
But dread of something worse than death could bring.
It was as if a lily, broken, bent,
But yet unsullied, now was stained with filth
By impious hand; more cruel far than death
The marring of the whiteness death had spared:
Or like a stream, that through its mountain bed
Had raced unfettered, toward the amber sea,
And o'er the rapids and the pebbles dashed
Clear, cold and placid when the mouth is reached;
Then, death unfeared before it, ready now
To give back to the ocean all it gave,
Into its pureness poured a stream so dark
That tainted all its life, when life was lost.
'Twas thus the Shadow seemed; but soon it passed,
And smiling boyhood turned a happy face
The while he said: "So thou wouldst build His throne?
But dost thou know the form that throne will take?"

"'T will be a throne," Fidus replied, "so high
That all may see Him, while from it He reigns,
And know that He has come unto His own."

"Aye," quick the Boy made answer, "it shall be
Uplifted high that every man may see;
Not Jews alone but even ye of Rome;
And men from Britain too, on farthest shore
Of Rome's great Empire: they shall see and know