Page:The poems of Emma Lazarus volume 1.djvu/139

Brimming and bubbling. Then he cast one glance
Upon his questioner, and left the well,
Crying with keen and sudden sympathy,
" Good Father, pardon me, I knew you not.
Ah ! you have travelled overmuch : your feet
Are grimed with mud and wet, your face is changed,
Your hands are dry with fever." But the knight :
" Nay, as I look on thee, I think the Lord
Wills not that I should suffer any more."
"Then you have suffered much," sighed Salvator,
With wondering pity. " You must come with me ;
My father knows of you, I told him all.
A knight and minstrel who cast by his lyre,
His health and fame, to give himself to God,
Yours is a life indeed to be desired !
If you will lie with us this night, our home
Will verily be blessed." By kindness crushed,
Wandering in sense and words, the broken knight
Resisted naught, and let himself be led
To the boy s home. The outcast and accursed
Was welcomed now by kindly human hands ;
Once more his blighted spirit was revived
By contact with refreshing innocence.
There, when the morning broke upon the world,