If it would have its wrong observed by God.

I did spring up, attempt to thrust aside

That ice-block 'twixt the sun and me, lay low

The neutralizer of all good and truth."A

"Yet, shame thus rank and patent, I struck, bare,

At foe from head to foot in magic mail,

And off it withered, cobweb armoury

Against the lightning! 'Twas truth singed the lies

And saved me."B

A: The Ring and the Book—Pompilia, 1591-1596.