StoryTitle("caps", "The Ballad of Saint Felix") ?>
PoemStart() ?>
PagePoem(108, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "It was in sunny Italy", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Where skies are blue and fair, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Where little birds sing all the day, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And flowers scent the air.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But sorrow was through all the land, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And bloody deeds, and strife, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "For the cruel heathen Emperor ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Was slaying Christian life.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And Nola of Campania ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Was full of soldiers grim, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Who sought where good Saint Felix dwelt, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "To be the death of him,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "For he, the Bishop, old and wise, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Was famous far and near,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And to the troubled Christian folk", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "His name was passing dear. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Saint Felix would not run away, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "But thought no shame to hide ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Until the bloody storm passed o'er, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And he might safely bide.", "") ?>
PagePoem(109, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And so he doffed his Bishop's robe, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And donned a Pilgrim's dress, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "With hat and staff and sandal-shoon, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "So none his name would guess. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Now as Saint Felix, bent and gray, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Was tottering down the street,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "A band of soldiers, fierce and wild, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "The old man chanced to meet. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0DQ", "", "\"Ho! Pilgrim,\" cried the Captain stern, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Who stopped him with his sword, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"Answer me truly, or thy life", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Shall pay the lying word.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0DQ", "", "\"We sought for Felix at his home, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "We find him not, alas!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Say, hast thou met him, for within ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "The hour he did pass?", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"Say, hast thou met him? Tell us true, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Or thou shalt lose thy head.\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Saint Felix looked him in the eyes, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2DQ", "", "\"I met him not,\" he said.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "So then the soldiers let him pass,—", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "But he had spoken truth,—", "") ?>
PagePoem(110, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And hurried forward on their search, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "A fruitless quest, in sooth!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And good Saint Felix hastened too, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "As quickly as he might,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "For they would guess full soon, he knew. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "How he had tricked their sight.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And truly, ere his oaken staff ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Had helped his feeble feet ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To win a mile, he heard their shouts ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "A-nearing down the street.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "He heard the clashing of their swords, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Their voices' cruel roar,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Alack! the chase was almost done, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "For he could speed no more.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "All breathless, worn, and clean forspent ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "He looked about him there;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "He spied a tiny ray of hope, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And made a little prayer. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "There was a broken, ruined wall ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "That crumbled by the road, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And through a cleft Saint Felix crept, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And in a corner bode.", "") ?>
PagePoem(111, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "It was a sorry hiding-place,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "That scarce could hope to 'scape ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The keen sight of those bloody men, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "For murder all agape.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But lo! in answer to his prayer ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Made in the Holy Name, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To help Saint Felix in his need ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "A little spider came.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And there across the narrow hole ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Through which Saint Felix fled, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The spider spun a heavy web ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Out of her silken thread.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "So fast she spun, so faithfully, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "That when the soldiers came ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To pause beside the ruined wall ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And shout the Bishop's name, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "They found a silken curtain there ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Wherethrough they could not see; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And \"Ho!\" they said, \"he is not here, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Look, look! it cannot be;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0DQ", "", "\"No one has passed this spider's web ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "For many and many a day,", "") ?>
PagePoem(112, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "See, men, how it is thick and strong;\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And so they went away.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And this is how Saint Felix fared ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "To 'scape the threatened doom, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Saved by a little spider's web, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Spun from her wondrous loom. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "For when the soldiers all had passed ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "It luckily befell,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Among the ruins of the walls ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "He found a half-dug well.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And there he hid for many months, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Safe from the eager eyes", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Of all those cruel soldier-men ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And money-seeking spies.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And on the eve when this thing happed, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "It chanced a Christian dame", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Was passing by the ruined wall ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Calling her Bishop's name.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "For well she knew he must be hid, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And came to bring him food; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And so he answered from the well, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Saint Felix, old and good.", "") ?>
PagePoem(113, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And for the many weary months ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "She came there, day by day, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "All stealthily to bring him bread, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "So no one guessed the way. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And when at last the peace was made, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Saint Felix left his well.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "What welcome of his folk he had ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "There are no words to tell!", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>