Down the long gallery strangers thronged in mass,

Dane or Norwegian, huge of arm through weight

Of billows oar-subdued, with stormy looks

Wild as their waves and crags; Southerns keen-browed;

Pure Saxon youths, fair-fronted, with mild eyes

(These less than others strove for nobler place),

And Pilgrim travel-worn. Behind the rest,

And higher-ranged in marble-arched arcade,

Sat Hilda’s sisterhood. Clustering they shone,

White-veiled, and pale of face, and still and meek,