118 REDEMPTION.
Hard by the Patriarch's well ; where short repose Prepared the Virgin and her holy spouse, To urge their way, with premonition sad, Up Calvary's mournful hill, by Solyma, And thence to Bethlehem's irreguous vale, Where, on a mount, the royal city stood.
Nine times the desert nioon alternate changed Her phases, falcate, full, synodic round This oblate sphere ; the tenth, in Tebeth, shone With chilling beams, when stood the Pilgrims, tired, At Bethlehem's crowded door. Place there was none ; None e'en for brief repose; the inn was full; Nor friendly voice responded to their call. Royal descendants of th' illustrious race, And at the threshhold of their royal sire, Obscure, they had not where to lay their heads. The tribe of David, num'rous, throngs the place ; Some come from wealthy Sidon, skill'd in ships, And Tyre, twin cities, which Phoenicia ruled ; Arabia next restores his wandering sons; Damascus, water' d by Chrysorrhoas, River of gold, whose fountains beamy flow With pearls and precious stones, its tribute pays ; Those Bosra sends, perite in purple dyes; Nor Edom these withholds, nor Mizraim, Made fertile by the swelling Nile. Where e'er The sons of David, Bethlehem born, had fled, Thence answ'ring to the edict, numberless They come to be enroll'd, and fill the town. From fruitless search averted, Joseph turns His weary steps without its gates, but finds No place, save a lone crib, where beasts abide.
�� �
