The Death of Themistocles Author:John Nichol Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Biarritz. 1879. Through the night, electric lances darting, Stands the lighthouse boldly, grand and free ; Sentinel of calms and tempests, starting Sil... more »ent signals over shore and sea : O'er the woodlands, and the waters throwing Colours, shifting as the shifting years : Now with argent lustre broadly glowing, Red as battle now it reappears. Star of Earth, thy warning lights are wheeling Through the darkness: from above, on me, Shine the stars of Heaven, the deeps revealing Changeless as the white eternity. Just after the sunset, yesterday, When the last of the crowd had passed away, I went to the little church to pray. They had jostled me so, the rabble rout, That my radical zeal was half worn out: I wished them cleaner and less devout. My spirit was clouded with discontent, And the faith I had was nearly spent, When I came, like a thief impenitent, Weary and foiled in the weary race, To hide myself from my own disgrace, And steal some comfort from the place. Nothing for naught, in the world, they say, And little they get who have little to pay : But the chapel was open all the day. The choir was as free as the aisles of a wood, And I found, when under its shade I stood, That the air of the church was doing me good. In the silence, after the city's smoke, My spirit grew calmer, and thoughts awoke From sleep, that I fancied dead.—I spoke. " Perchance they were not unwisely bold Who called this God's house—the men of old— Does the Shepherd wait within the fold ?" So, up the choir, with footsteps faint, In the fading light of each shining saint, I wondered if He would hear my plaint. There was something surely in kneeling where A thousand hearts had left their care, That helped to contradict despair. " No hope ...« less