Classic Poem

PART II .

The stir in Cologne is greater to-day
Than all the bustle of yesterday;
Hundreds and thousands went out to see;
The irons and chains, as well as he,
Were gone, but the rope was left on the tree.

A wonderful thing! for every one said
He had hung till he was dead, dead, dead,
And on the gallows was seen, from noon
Till ten o'clock, in the light of the moon.

Moreover the Hangman was ready to swear
He had done his part with all due care;
And that certainly better hang'd than he
No one ever was, or ever could be.

Neither kith nor kin, to bear him away,
And funeral rites in secret pay,
Had he; and none that pains would take,
With risk of the law, for a stranger's sake.

So 'twas thought, because he had died so well,
He was taken away by miracle.
But would he again alive be found?
Or had he been laid in holy ground?

If in holy ground his relics were laid,
Some marvellous sign would show, they said;
If restored to life, a Friar he would be,
Or a holy Hermit certainly,
And die in the odor of sanctity.

That thus it would prove they could not doubt,
Of a man whose end had been so devout;
And to disputing then they fell
About who had wrought this miracle.

Had the Three Kings this mercy shown,
Who were the pride and honor of Cologne?
Or was it an act of proper grace,
From the Army of Virgins of British race,
Who were also the glory of that place?

Pardon, some said, they might presume,
Being a kingly act, from the Kings must come;
But others maintained that St. Ursula's heart
Would sooner be moved to the merciful part.

There was one who thought this aid divine
Came from the other bank of the Rhine;
For Roprecht there, too, had for favor applied,
Because his birthplace was on that side.

To Dusseldorff then the praise might belong,
And its Army of Martyrs, ten thousand strong;
BuThe for a Dusseldorff man was known,
And no one would listen to him in Cologne,
Where the people would have the whole wonder their own.

The Friars, who help'd him to die so well,
Put in their claim to the miracle;
Greater things than this, as their Annals could tell,
The stock of their merits for sinful men
Had done before, and would do again.

'Twas a whole week's wonder in that great town,
And in all places, up the river and down;
But a greater wonder took place of it then,
For Roprecht was found on the gallows again!