Classic Poem

When death hath done his part, and in his tomb
Shut up the world, the judgment shall begin.
Mano, awaking as from death, found doom
And judgment waiting him, as if for sin,
Instead of joy of dear-bought victory.
For rising dizzily that room within,
Where stood the lady and the may thereby,
(The lady who had brought him back to life,
Being herself saved through his courage high,
The may who first had drawn him to the strife,
Then staunched his bleeding wounds with healing skill)
Behold, amid the gloom of shadows rife,
Grave forms he sees, which half the chamber fill,
And fix upon him their regardful eyes:
First among whom, and ominous of ill,
Gerbert himself he gins to recognise;
Round whom his ministers in station stand,
All summoned by the clash, the groans and cries —
He now Sir Mano sternly bore in hand,
And, as the ruler over all supreme,
The cause of quarrel asked with grim demand
Then those two women all the tale to him
Rehearsed from first to last with eager tongue,
Their woes that like a sea of blood did swim;
And told how seeking vengeance on great wrong,
They bade that knight become the instrument
Of death on him who there lay dead along.
All which was heard with visage still unbent
By Gerbert, and in silence drear and cold,
Such silence as the tale to distance sent,
And severed it from those by whom 'twas told:
Until incredible as phantasy
E'en to themselves appeared their sufferings old,
And their new deed as done but wickedly. —
Such was the effect of silence long and drear,
More terrible than closest scrutiny
Then questioned he, redoubling thus their fear;
And though with very truth they made reply,
In no wise gained they way into his ear:
Anon he waved his hand, as putting by
Their story, and pronounced his stern award.
— — " Ye, even as yourselves do testify
" Have slain a man by treachery at board,
Of him alleging wrongs inordinate,
Which drew upon him your unsparing sword.
" Have ye aproached to justice to delate
One of those injuries that ye complain,
Seeking the open order of the state?
" Not so: I know not aught that now ye feign:
Nor, were it so, would there from thence ensue
The extenuation of a murder plain.
" But this I know, that by a sentence true
Thy father died, who seconded the raid
Of bold Crescentius and his desperate crew:
" And after him thy brother forfeit paid:
The third, thy other brother, living still,
By mercy respited, in bonds is laid.
" Now in return ye have not spared to kill
The judge, who spared your side the extremest cost,
Through two attackers brought with wicked skill.
" I therefore judge your lives in forfeit lost
To violated law for murderous deed,
Though of strict right I waive the uttermost:
" For judgment's arrow mercy's point shall lead;
Nor used is all the law's severity,
If on you both for sentence stand decreed
The cloister's dimness, to that day ye die. "
— — " Then praised be thou, my soul's mediciner!
" I would not otherwise, nor doom deny:
" I would not purge the thick wax of thine ear,
Nor scale thine eyes to justice, " loud did cry
That lady blooming in her sweetest year
" Nothing was left to me except to die
Beside my lover fallen from life's delight;
But thou hast given me life in misery. "
Then hand in hand those two passed out of sight,
Thrust by the guards, to meet their life-long doom:
And Mano there was left in bloody plight
To whom thus Gerbert spake: while from the gloom
Of his deep presence steadfastness and pain
In revolution, like moved light, did come:
" Thou too, in whom I trusted, I am fain
To meet thee now with sorrow, and rebuke:
For thou hast broken service with loose rein,
" dishonouring me, to whom thou most shouldst look,
In my high office: death is thine by right,
Who hast to death thy fellow servant struck
" Oh, Mano, camest thou like a thief by night,
And, with another joined, settedst thy steel
Against a single man in unfair fight?
" Not so, not so; this I both know and feel:
But thou hast taken taint: and this time first
The new-found wounds I call not honour's seal
" I say not that the best becomes the worst
In thee, though thee the best of all I know
That have with me the road of days traversed:
" But hence thou must from out this city go. "
— Then Mano, laughing loudly, cried, " A friend!
I have a friend to hold in weal or woe!
" A man to be right faithful to the end!
In judgment undeceived, and knowing good
Where others evil falsely apprehend!
" Unerring as the hands upon the Rood
That measured the two thieves! I had a friend
Who was aforetime fair and mild of mood:
" Faithful was he to many to the end:
Of judgment clear: in many knowing good
Where others sought but ill to apprehend:
" For will and deed he rightly understood. —
Only in me this Vicar of God's throne
No mirror showed of perfect rectitude. "
Then Gerbert sternly said, " If there be one
Trusted for worth, who less than worth is found
In high designs, there is one way alone:
" His former service falls not to the ground,
But he has run his length: yet to upbraid
Needs not, to break old friendship with such wound. "
Then Mano laughed again, and fiercely said,
" Servant of servants, if by villany
In combat I took odds, being afraid, " —
— " I said not so, " said Gerbert — " Nay, then I
Of all that thou mayest think, put by the rest;
And thy deep reasons seek not curiously. "
Thus with a high look locked he in his breast
Reproach, defiance, anger; all but pride:
Which only from some taunt was not repressed
And certanly pope Gerbert on his side
Was neither friend nor judge: betwixt the two
From friendship failed he, justice to o'erride
Friendship against appearance would be true,
Justice would search a cause from end to end;
The one not look, the other all things view
But the half pardon but insults the friend
Whom the half sentence wrongs: wholly to quit,
Or not at all, doth judgment's seat commend
This fault did Gerbert in that hour commit,
When he, misjudging, balanced judgment's sway
With other thought in his deep working wit
And thus of policy he wrought decay,
When Mano now, unlet by any one,
Out of the fatal chamber took his way,
Destined no more to prop the Roman throne.