15. At little pleasant Pornic church, It chanced, the pavement wanted repair, Was taken to pieces: left in the lurch, A certain sacred space lay bare, And the boys began research. 16. 'T was the space where our sires would lay a saint, A benefactor, a bishop, suppose; A baron with armor-adornments quaint; A dame with chased ring and jewelled rose, Things sanctity saves from taint : 17. So we come to find them in after-days, When the corpse is presumed to have done with gauds Of use to the living, in many ways; For the boys get pelf, and the town applauds, And the church deserves the praise. 18. They grubbed with a will: and at length — cor They found no gauds they were prying for, No ring, no rose, but—who would have guessed?— A double Louis-d'or! 19. Here was a case for the priest: he heard, Marked, inwardly digested, laid Finger on nose, smiled, "A little bird Chirps in my ear": then, "Bring a spade, Dig deeper!" - he gave the word. 20. And lo! when they came to the coffin-lid, 21. Louis-d'ors, some six times five; And duly double, every piece. Now, do you see? With the priest to shrive, 22. With Heaven's gold gates about to ope, With friends' praise, gold-like, lingering still, What instinct had bidden the girl's hand grope For gold, the true sort―"Gold in Heaven, I hope; But I keep earth's, if God will!" 23. Enough! The priest took the grave's grim yield: The parents, they eyed that price of sin As if thirty pieces lay revealed On the place to bury strangers in, The hideous Potter's Field. 24. But the priest bethought him: "Milk that's spilt' -You know the adage! Watch and pray! Saints tumble to earth with so slight a tilt! 25. Why I deliver this horrible verse? As the text of a sermon, which now I preach: Evil or good may be better or worse In the human heart, but the mixture of each Is a marvel and a curse. 26. The candid incline to surmise of late That the Christian faith may be false, I find; For our Essays-and-Reviews' debate Begins to tell on the public mind, And Colenso's words have weight: |