He gently stroked the lamb and then the pain

Was gone from out its piteous pleading eyes.

And, lo, the man felt hot tears on his cheeks.

The Cross was raised, and faint the outline stood

’Twixt Fidus and the lurid, murky sky

That threatened from afar a terror dark.

Then swift it came, for all of darkness dread

That air could hold, fell down upon the earth.

The stumbling crowd in panic slunk away;

But Fidus groped through darkness to the Cross.