"Listen," he cried, "listen. It is St. Fabricius addressing the
Proconsul Flavius:
Achève, fais dresser l'appareil souhaité
De ma mort, ou plutôt de ma félicité.
Le Roi des Rois, du haut de son céleste trône,
Déjà me tend la palme et tresse ma couronne.
"Do you think it would be better if he said:
Achève, fais dresser l'appareil souhaité
De ma mort, ou plutôt de ma félicité.
Je vois le Roi des Rois me tendre la couronne,
Quel n'en est le prix quand c'est Dieu qui la donne!
"Doubtless these latter lines are more correct than the others, but they are less vigorous, and a poet should never sacrifice meaning to metre.
Le Roi des Rois, du haut de son céleste trône,
Déjà me tend la palme et tresse ma couronne."
This time, as he declaimed the verses, he went through the corresponding gestures of tendering a gift and plaiting a garland.
"It is better so," he added, "better so!"
Jean, in some surprise, said yes, it was certainly better.
"Certainly better, yes," cried the old poet, smiling with the happy innocence of a little child.