Page:The Ball and the Cross.djvu/213
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The Swords Rejoined
203
tory as walking on a plain full of sharp stones, and only saved by its own charities upon earth.
If ever thou gavest hosen and shoon
Every night and all,
Sit thee down and put them on,
And Christ receive thy soul.
Every night and all,
Sit thee down and put them on,
And Christ receive thy soul.
Turnbull had no such lyrical meditations, but he was in an even worse temper.
At length they came to a pale ribbon of road, edged by a shelf of rough and almost colourless turf; and a few feet up the slope there stood grey and weather-stained, one of those big wayside crucifixes which are seldom seen except in Catholic countries.
MacIan put up his hand to his head and found that his bonnet was not there. Turnbull gave one glance at the crucifix—a glance at once sympathetic and bitter, in which was concentrated the whole of Swinburne’s poem on the same occasion.
O hidden face of man, whereover
The years have woven a viewless veil,
If thou wert verily man’s lover
What did thy love or blood avail?
Thy blood the priests mix poison of,
And in gold shekels coin thy love.
The years have woven a viewless veil,
If thou wert verily man’s lover
What did thy love or blood avail?
Thy blood the priests mix poison of,
And in gold shekels coin thy love.