ECCLESIASTICAL SONNETS
XXXVI. EMIGRANT FRENCH CLERGY
ECCLESIASTICAL SONNETS
EVEN while I speak, the sacred roofs of France Are shattered into dust; and self-exiled From altars threatened, levelled, or defiled, Wander the Ministers of God, as chance Opens a way for life, or consonance Of faith invites. More welcome to no land The fugitives than to the British strand, Where priest and layman with the vigilance Of true compassion greet them. Creed and test Vanish before the unreserved embrace 10 Of catholic humanity:–distrest They came,–and, while the moral tempest roars Throughout the Country they have left, our shores Give to their Faith a fearless resting-place.