Poems (Piatt)/Volume 2/A Sister of Mercy

by Sarah Piatt

A SISTER OF MERCY.

There, by the man condemned to die, she read
 Christ's promise in the Crucifixion tale.
He moaned a name———
         She dropped her cross and fled
 From the long shadow of the veil!

And, as from her loosed convent coif she shook
 Her youthful hair's free length of beauty, he
Threw from his face the scarred and sinful look,
 And followed her across the sea!

There, in a Land of Distance vague with Spring,
 She, fair as that one morning-bud she wore,
Held him her frightened hand to take—the ring
 They found upon his prison floor!

"The ring was full of poison"—so they said;
 "A Sister of Mercy left it at his side!"
The gathering crowd must know the wretch was dead,
 Nor blame his jailer that he died.

Perhaps their prisoner grey and ghastly lay;
 Perhaps the black-robed Sister, worn and bowed,
Who prayed there with that prisoner yesterday,
 Was at St. Mary's in her shroud.

Yet, in some Land of Distance full of Spring,
 Whither their Youth of Love had passed before,
He gave her hand—indeed the very ring
 They found upon his prison floor!