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