'Forsake the Christ thou sawest transfigured, him

Who trod the sea and brought the dead to life?

What should wring this from thee!'—ye laugh and ask.

What wrung it? Even a torchlight and a noise,

The sudden Roman faces, violent hands,

And fear of what the Jews might do! Just that,

And it is written, 'I forsook and fled:'

There was my trial, and it ended thus.

Ay, but my soul had gained its truth, could grow:

Another year or two,—what little child,