"A challenge fair! We meet then there," Rejoin'd the Prince of the Powers of the Air; "The Bondsman is mine by right. Let the whole city come at thy call: And great and small, in face of them all, I will have him in thy despite!" So having said, he tarried not To hear the Saint's reply. "Beneath the sign which Constantine," Said Basil, "beheld in the sky, We strive, and have our strength therein, Therein our victory!" IX. THE Church is fill'd, so great the faith Are waiting there in trembling prayer Emmelia and her sisterhood In sackcloth clad, with ashes strewn Before the steps of the altar, Beside him Cyra stood, in weal Not to be sever'd from his side, Dishevell'd were her raven locks, At the altar Basil took his stand; Sure trust was seen, and conscious power, At his command the Chorister Ten thousand voices join'd to raise And hearts were thrill'd and eyes were fill'd And when they ceased, and Basil's hand The whole huge multitude was hush'd The Sun was high in a bright blue sky, A sound as of a tempest rose, In the sound of the storm came the dreadful Form; Day-light had sicken'd at his sight; "I come hither," said the Demon, Mine is he, body and soul. The fatal signature appear'd To all the multitude, Distinct as when the accursed pen "I ask for justice! I prefer I appeal to the Law, and the case "If there be justice here, "What to my rightful claim, That I should not seize the Bondsman, "Hold there!" cried Basil, with a voice That arrested him on his way, When from the screen he would have swoopt To pounce upon his prey; Thou canst not sue "Hold there, I say! A sorry legalist were he Upon this Bond by law ! Who could not in thy boasted plea "The Deed is null, for it was framed A thing unlawful in itself; A wicked instrument, ... Not to be pleaded in the Courts. . . "This were enough; but, more than this, "The man, thou sayest, thy Bondsman is; A marriage with this Christian woman here, "That act being publicly perform'd |