LXXVIII.

More hush’d, far more!—for there the wind sweeps by,

Or the woods tremble to the streams’ loud play;

Here a strange echo made my very sigh

Seem for the place too much a sound of day!

Too much my footsteps broke the moonlight, fading,

Yet arch through arch in one soft flow pervading.

And I stood still: prayer, chant had died away;

Yet past me floated a funereal breath

Of incense. I stood still—as before God and death.