PAULINUS.
But to remote Northumbria’s royal hall,
Where thoughtful Edwin, tutor’d in the school
Of sorrow, still maintains a Heathen rule,
Who comes with functions apostolical?
Mark him, of shoulders curved, and stature tall,
Black hair, and vivid eye, and meagre cheek,
His prominent feature like an eagle’s beak;
A man whose aspect doth at once appal
And strike with reverence. The monarch leans
Tow’rd the pure truths this delegate propounds;
Repeatedly his own deep mind he sounds
With careful hesitation,—then convenes
A synod of his counsellors:—give ear,
And what a pensive sage doth utter, hear!