The gleam that brightened and the glow that warmed

Those arrassed halls sank quenched and desolate.

Out of the balefully enfolding mesh,

Life he would free from dominance of evil;

And purpose deeper than the weak-willed flesh

Bade him renounce the world, the flesh, the devil.

And as I looked upon his shattered face

Hideously fronting me in that dark room,

I saw the Prophets of the Church take place

Beside him,—they who dared the nether gloom