Sings

A stranger new arisen wait By the door of Peter's gate, And he shouted Open wide Thy sacred door, but Peter cried, No, thy home is deepest hell, Deeper than the deepest well. Then the stranger softly crew Cock-a-doodle-doodle-doo! Answered Peter: Enter in Friend; but 'twere a deadly sin Ever more to speak a word Of any unblessed earthly bird.

First Inquisitor. Be still, I hear the step of Ebremar. Yonder he comes; bright-eyed, and hollow-cheeked From fasting—see, the red light slanting down From the great painted window wraps his brow, As with an aureole.

[Ebremar enters—they all bow to him.]

First Inquisitor. My suit to you—

Ebremar. I will not hear; the Moorish girl must die. I will burn heresy from this mad earth, And—

First Inquisitor. Mercy is the manna of the world.

Ebremar. The wages of sin is death.

Second Monk. No use.

First Inquisitor. My lord, if it must be, I pray descend Yourself into the dungeon 'neath our feet And importune with weighty words this Moor, That she foreswear her heresies and save Her soul from seas of endless flame in hell.

Ebremar. I speak alone with servants of the Cross And dying men—and yet—but no, farewell.

Second Monk. No use.

Ebremar. Away! [They go.] Hear oh! thou enduring God, Who giveth to the golden-crested wren Her hanging mansion. Give to me, I pray, The burthen of thy truth. Reach down thy hands And fill me with thy rage, that I may bruise The heathen. Yea, and shake the sullen kings Upon their thrones. The lives of men shall flow As quiet as the little rivulets Beneath the sheltering shadow of thy Church, And thou shalt bend, enduring God, the knees Of the great warriors whose names have sung The world to its fierce infancy again.