ECCLESIASTICAL SONNETS
XLII. GUNPOWDER PLOT
ECCLESIASTICAL SONNETS
FEAR hath a hundred eyes that all agree To plague her beating heart; and there is one (Nor idlest that!) which holds communion With things that were not, yet were ‘meant’ to be. Aghast within its gloomy cavity That eye (which sees as if fulfilled and done Crimes that might stop the motion of the sun) Beholds the horrible catastrophe Of an assembled Senate unredeemed From subterraneous Treason’s darkling power: 10 Merciless act of sorrow infinite! Worse than the product of that dismal night, When gushing, copious as a thunder-shower, The blood of Huguenots through Paris streamed.