W. Garrett Horder, comp. The Poets’ Bible: New Testament. 1895.
St. John the Baptist Beheaded in Prison (II.)
From the Parisian BreviaryN
The adultress, stung with guilt, with fury arm’d,
Fires the fierce king: ever allied
Murder and lust shall ravin side by side.
Alas, where guilty passion reigns!
Innocent hands are given to felon chains,
But that free voice which truth commands
Cannot be held with chains, nor feel the prison bands.
He has a herald voice as from the tomb;
And bids his orphan children go
That they the Lord of life by proof may know.
The axe of death prepared to meet,
The prisoner triumphs in his dungeon seat:
The tyrant trembles, conscious sin
Keeps watch with silent scourge, and sleepless eye within.
A sacrifice to Thee of endless praise,
Who dwellest in the infinite
Of unapproachable and blessèd light;
Where the Seraphic hosts do cry,
Holy, holy, holy, God Almighty;—
The Father, Spirit, and the Son,
The inconceivèd Three, the unutterable One.