Ten thousand thousand dreadful eyes Were looking down in blame : I took the dead man by his hand, And called upon his name! "O God! it made me quake to see 66 Was scorching in my brain! 'My head was like an ardent coal, My wretched, wretched soul, I knew, A dozen times I groaned; the dead "And now, from forth the frowning sky, From the Heaven's topmost height, I heard a voice—the awful voice Of the blood-avenging sprite :Thou guilty man! take up thy dead And hide it from my sight!' “I took the dreary body up, And cast it in a stream, A sluggish water, black as ink, The depth was so extreme : My gentle Boy, remember this Is nothing but a dream! "Down went the corse with a hollow plunge, And vanished in the pool! Anon I cleansed my bloody hands, And washed my forehead cool, And sat among the urchins young, That evening in the school. "Oh, Heaven! to think of their white souls, And mine so black and grim! I could not share in childish prayer, "And peace went with them, one and all, But Guilt was my grim Chamberlain And drew my midnight curtains round, "All night I lay in agony, In anguish dark and deep; My fevered eyes I dared not close, For Sin had rendered unto her The keys of Hell to keep! "All night I lay in agony, From weary chime to chime, With one besetting horrid hint, That racked me all the time; "One stern tyrannic thought, that made Still urging me to go and see 66 The Dead Man in his grave! Heavily I rose up, as soon As light was in the sky, And sought the black accursed pool And I saw the Dead in the river bed, Merrily rose the lark, and shook The dewdrop from its wing; But I never marked its morning flight, I never heard it sing : For I was stooping once again “With breathless speed, like a soul in chase, I took him up and ran ; 1 There was no time to dig a grave In a lonesome wood, with heaps of leaves, "And all that day I read in school, But my thought was other-where ; As soon as the mid-day task was done, In secret I was there : And a mighty wind had swept the leaves, And still the corse was bare ! “Then down I cast me on my face, For I knew my secret then was one "So wills the fierce avenging Sprite, Ay, though he's buried in a cave, And trodden down with stones, "Oh, God! that horrid, horrid dream. The human life I take; And my red right hand grows raging hot, Like Cranmer's at the stake. |