Page:Mistral - Mirèio. A Provençal poem.djvu/240

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"Yet they recoiled;—whether it were the sight
Of us, in our salt-crusted robes bedight;
Or Trophimus' calm brow which beamed on them,
As wreathed with a celestial diadem;
Or tear-veiled Magdalene, who stood between us,—
How tenfold fairer than their sculptured Venus!

"And the old saint resumed: 'Arlesian men,
Hear ye my message first; and slay me then,
If need be. Ye have seen your goddess famed
Shiver like glass when my God was but named:
Deem not, Arlesians, that the thing was wrought
By my poor, feeble voice; for we are naught.

"'The God who laid, erewhile, your idol low
No lofty temple hath on the hill's brow;
But Day and Night see him alone up there!
And stern to sin, but generous to prayer,
Is he; and he hath made, with his own hand,
The sky, the sea, the mountains, and the land.

"'One day he saw, from his high dwelling-place,
All his good things devoured by vermin base;
Slaves who drank hatred with their tears, and had
No comforter; and Evil, priestly clad,
At altars keeping school; and, in the street,
Maids who ran out the libertines to meet.