XX CATHEDRAL SERVICE, ORGAN _and_ ANTHEM. (MARGARET _among much people: the_ EVIL SPIRIT _behind_ MARGARET.) EVIL SPIRIT HOW otherwise was it, Margaret, When thou, still innocent, Here to the altar cam’st, And from the worn and fingered book Thy prayers didst prattle, Half sport of childhood, Half God within thee! Margaret! Where tends thy thought? Within thy bosom What hidden crime? Pray’st thou for mercy on thy mother’s soul, That fell asleep to long, long torment, and through thee? Upon thy threshold whose the blood? And stirreth not and quickens Something beneath thy heart, Thy life disquieting With most foreboding presence? MARGARET Woe! woe! Would I were free from the thoughts That cross me, drawing hither and thither Despite me! CHORUS _Diesira, dies illa, Solvet soeclum in favilla_! _(Sound of the organ_.) EVIL SPIRIT Wrath takes thee! The trumpet peals! The graves tremble! And thy heart From ashy rest To fiery torments Now again requickened, Throbs to life! MARGARET Would I were forth! I feel as if the organ here My breath takes from me, My very heart Dissolved by the anthem! CHORUS _Judex ergo cum sedebit, Quidquid latet, ad parebit, Nil inultum remanebit_. MARGARET I cannot breathe! The massy pillars Imprison me! The vaulted arches Crush me!—Air! EVIL SPIRIT Hide thyself! Sin and shame Stay never hidden. Air? Light? Woe to thee! CHORUS _Quid sum miser tunc dicturus, Quem patronem rogaturus, Cum vix Justus sit securus_? EVIL SPIRIT They turn their faces, The glorified, from thee: The pure, their hands to offer, Shuddering, refuse thee! Woe! CHORUS _Quid sum miser tune dicturus_? MARGARET Neighbor! your cordial! (_She falls in a swoon_.) [Illustration] [Illustration]