When o'er Judah's mountains wild,

The mystic star blazed bright and free,

And sweet rang the heavenly minstrelsy.

The nuns have risen through the cloister dim,

Each seeks her lonely cell;

To pray alone till the joyful hymn

On the midnight breeze shall swell;

And all are gone save two sisters fair

Who stand in the moonlight silent there.

Now hand in hand, through the shadowy aisle,