228 CLINTON SCOLLARD
For there shall dawn a reckoning day, Or soon or late, come as it may, Wlien those who gave the sign to slay Shall meet His face alone.
What, think ye, will their penance be
Who have wrought this monstrous crime ?
What shall whiten their blood-red hands
Of the stains of riven and ravished lands ?
How shall they answer God's stern commands At the last assize of Time ?
For though we worship no vengeance-god
Of madness and of ire. No Presence grim, with a heart of stone. Shall they not somehow yet atone ? Shall they not reap as they have sown
Of fury and of fire ?
There is a vale in the Flemish land Where the lengthening shadows spread
When day, with crimson sandals shod.
Goes home athwart the mounds of sod
That cry in silence up to God From the valley of the dead !
— Clinton Scollard.
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