"A thousand ages in Thy sight
Are like an evening gone,
Short as the watch that ends the night
Before the rising sun."
"She can't see. Lift her higher!" sang out a voice—Brother Royle's.
By happy chance at the edge of the group stood tall good-natured Alderman Chope, who had impersonated Alfred the Great. The Brethren begged his shield from him and mounted Corona upon it, all holding it by its rim while they chanted—
"The busy tribes of flesh and blood,
With all their hopes and fears,
Are carried downward by the flood
And lost in following years.
"Time, like an ever-rolling stream,
Bears all its sons away;
They fly forgotten, as a dream
Dies at the opening day.
"O God! our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come;
Be Thou our guard while troubles last
And our perpetual home!"
"The busy tribes of flesh and blood,
With all their hopes and fears,
Are carried downward by the flood
And lost in following years.
"Time, like an ever-rolling stream,
Bears all its sons away;
They fly forgotten, as a dream
Dies at the opening day.
"O God! our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come;
Be Thou our guard while troubles last
And our perpetual home!"
Corona lifted her voice and sang with the old men; while among the excited groups the swallows skimmed boldly over the meadow, as they had skimmed every summer's evening before and since English History began.
CONCLUSION.
Brother Copas walked homeward along the river-path, his gaunt hands gathering his Beauchamp robe behind him for convenience of stride. Ahead of him and around him the swallows circleted over the water-meads or swooped their breasts close to the current of Mere. Beside him strode his shadow, and lengthened as the sun westered in a haze of potable gold. In the haze swam evening odours of mints, grasses, herbs of grace and virtue named in old pharmacopœias as most medicinal for man, now forgotten, if not nameless.
The sunset breathed benediction. To many who walked homeward that evening it seemed in that benediction to enwrap the centuries of history they had so feverishly been celebrating, and to fold them softly away as a garment. But Brother Copas heeded it not. He was eager to reach St. Hospital and carry report to his old friend.