That when their tasks were ended of the day,

He who the dungeon where the sufferer lay

Kept, unto them consented to afford

A brief communion with their dying lord.

XV.

Admitted there, from cries and loud lament,

Untimely now, they scarcely could refrain:

Fain would they with their shrieks the vault have rent;

They knelt beside him,—kissed his hands, the chain

That on his wasted limbs did still remain;