Page:Poems written during the progress of the abolition question in the United States.djvu/102

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94

THE VAUDOIS TEACHER.

'The manner in which the Waldenses and heretics disseminated their principles among the Catholic gentry, was by carrying with them a box of trinkets, or articles of dress. Having entered the houses of the gentry, and disposed of some of their goods, they cautiously intimated that they had commodities far more valuable than these—inestimable jewels, which they would show, if they could be protected from the clergy. They would then give their purchasers a bible or testament; and thereby many were deluded into heresy.'—See Reinerius Saccho's Book, A. D. 1258.

'Oh, lady fair, these silks of mine are beautiful and rare—
The richest web of the Indian loom, which Beauty's self might wear;
And those pearls are pure as thy own fair neck, with whose radiant light they vie;
I have brought them with me a weary way,—will my gentle lady buy?'

And the lady smiled on the worn old man through the dark and clustering curls,
Which veiled her brow as she bent to view his silks and glittering pearls;