Nor pass unpraised, the robe and veil divine,

twine.

But chiefly Dido, to the coming ill
Devoted, strives in vain her vast desires to fill:
She views the gifts; upon the child then turns
Insatiable looks, and gazing burns.

To ease a father's cheated love he hung
Upon Æneas, and around him clung;

Then seeks the queen; with her his arts he tries;
She fastens on the boy enamour'd eyes,
Clasps in her arms, nor weens (O lot unblest!)
How great a god, incumbent o'er her breast,
Would fill it with his spirit. He to please
His Acidalian mother, by degrees
Blots out Sichæus, studious to remove
The dead, by influx of a living love,
By stealthy entrance of a perilous guest
Troubling a heart that had been long at rest.

Now when the viands were withdrawn, and ceased The first division of the splendid feast, While round a vacant board the chiefs recline, Huge goblets are brought forth; they crown the wine, Voices of gladness roll the walls around; Those gladsome voices from the courts rebound; From gilded rafters many a blazing light Depends, and torches overcome the night. The minutes fly-till at the queen's command, A bowl of state is offered to her hand; Then she, as Belus wont, and all the line From Belus, filled it to the brim with wine; Silence ensued. "O Jupiter, whose care Is hospitable dealing, grant my prayer! Productive day be this of lasting joy

The whilst the rest their anthem-book repeat
The Alma Redemptoris did he hear;
And as he durst he drew him near and near,
And hearkened to the words and to the note,
Till the first verse he learned it all by rote.

This Latin knew he nothing what it said,
For he too tender was of age to know;
But to his comrade he repaired, and prayed
That he the meaning of this song would show,
And unto him declare why men sing so;
This oftentimes, that he might be at ease,
This child did him besceeh on his bare knees.

Song do I learn, — small grammar I have got.'

And is this song fashioned in reverence
Of Jesu's Mother?' said this innocent;
'Now, certès, I will use my diligence
To con it all ere Christmas-tide be spent;
Although I for my primer shall be shent,
And shall be beaten three times in an hour,
Our Lady I will praise with all my power.'
His schoolfellow, whom he had so besought,
As they went homeward taught him privily
And then he sang it well and fearlessly,
From word to word according to the note
Twice in a day it passed through his throat;
Homeward and school ward whensoe'er he went,
On Jesu's Mother fixed was his intent.

Through all the Jewry (this before said I)
This little child, as he came to and fro,
Full merrily then would he sing and cry,
O Alma Redemptoris! high and low:
The sweetness of Christ's Mother pierced so
His heart, that her to praise, to her to pray,
He cannot stop his singing by the way.

The Serpent, Satan, our first foe, that hath

His wasp's nest in Jew's heart, upswelled-O woe,
O Hebrew people!' said he in his wrath,
Is it an honest thing! Shall this be so?
That such a boy where'er he lists shall go
In your despite, and sing his hymns and saws,
Which is against the reverence of our laws!'

From that day forward have the Jews conspired
Out of the world this innocent to chase;
And to this end a homicide they hired,
That in an alley had a privy place,

And, as the child 'gan to the school to pace,
This cruel Jew him seized, and held him fast
And cut his throat and in a pit him cast.

I say that him into a pit they threw,

A loathsome pit, whence noisome scents exhale;
O cursed folk! away, ye Herods new!
What may your ill intentions you avail?
Murder will out; certès it will not fail;
Know, that the honour of high God may spread,
The blood cries out on your accursed deed.

O Martyr 'stablished in virginity!
Now may'st thou sing for aye before the throne,
Following the Lamb celestial," quoth she,
"Of which the great Evangelist, Saint John,
In Patmos wrote, who saith of them that
go
Before the Lamb singing continually,
That never fleshly woman they did know.

Now this poor widow waiteth all that night
After her little child, and he came not;
For which, by earliest glimpse of morning light,
With face all pale with dread and busy thought,
She at the school and elsewhere him hath sought,
Until thus far she learned, that he had been
In the Jews' street, and there he last was seen.

With mother's pity in her breast enclosed
She goeth, as she were half out of her mind,
To every place wherein she hath supposed
By likelihood her little son to find;
And ever on Christ's Mother meek and kind
She cried, till to the Jewry she was brought,
And him among the accursed Jews she sought.
She asketh, and she piteously doth pray
To every Jew that dwelleth in that place
To tell her if her child had passed that way;
They all said Nay; but Jesu of his grace
Gave to her thought, that in a little space
She for her son in that same spot did cry
Where he was cast into a pit hard by.

O thou great God that dost perform thy laud
By mouths of innocents, lo! here thy might;
This gem of chastity, this emerald,
And eke of martyrdom this ruby bright,
There, where with mangled throat he lay upright,
The Alma Redemptoris 'gan to sing
So loud, that with his voice the place did ring.

The Christian folk that through the Jewry went
Come to the spot in wonder at the thing;
And hastily they for the Provost sent;
Immediately he came, not tarrying,
And praiseth Christ that is our heavenly King,
And eke his mother, honour of mankind:
Which done, he bade that they the Jews should bind

This child with piteous lamentation then
Was taken up, singing his song alwày;
And with procession great and pomp of men
To the next Abbey him they bare away;
His mother swooning by the body lay;

and scarcely could the people that were near ve this second Rachel from the bier.

T

t and shameful death to every one
Provost doth for those bad Jews prepare
That of this murder wist, and that anon:
b. wickedness his judgment cannot spare;
W... w..) do evil, evil shall he bear;

Tem therefore with wild horses did he draw,
A.. after that he hung them by the law.

I has bier this innocent doth lie

ce the altar while the Mass doth last: The Abbot with his convent's company T-a sped themselves to bury him full fast; Art, waen they holy water on him cast, Y:ke this child when sprinkled was the water, A sang, O Alma Redemptoris Mater!

threat is cut unto the bone, I trow,'

& this young child, and by the law of kind have died, yea many hours ago;

B: Jesus Christ, as in the books ye find,
Wthat his glory last, and be in mind;
Ar the worship of his Mother dear,
ay I sang, O Alma! loud and clear.

Tswell of mercy, Jesu's Mother sweet,
A tay knowledge I have loved alwày;
At the hour when I my death did meet
she came, and thus to me did say,
in thy dying sing this holy lay,"

As ye have heard; and soon as I had sung
Mcght she laid a grain upon my tongue.
Wherefore I sing, nor can from song refrain,
amour of that blissful Maiden free,
Tfrom my tongue off-taken is the grain;
And after that thus said she unto me;
*My little child, then will I come for thee
Sas the grain from off thy tongue they take:
Be not dismayed, I will not thee forsake!"'
Tbly Monk, this Abbot-him mean I,
Ted then his tongue, and took away the grain;
And he gave up the ghost full peacefully;
Ad, when the Abbot had this wonder seen,

la salt tears trickled down like showers of rain;
A1: on his face he dropped upon the ground,
And will he lay as if he had been bound.

the whole convent on the pavement lay, Weeping and praising Jesu's Mother dear;