Her light sucked from her in the breaking dawn— 
     
     Never was dawn so welcome as that pale, 
     
     Faint glimmer in the cloudless, brooding sky! 
     
    
   
   
    
     Claudia, how may I tell what came to pass? 
     
    

    
     I have been mocked at when I told the tale 
     
     For a crazed dreamer punished by the gods 
     
     Because he slept on guard; but mock not thou! 
     
     I could not bear it if thy lips should mock 
     
     The vision dread of that Judean morn. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Sudden the pallid east was all aflame 
     
    

    
     With radiance that beat upon our eyes 
     
    

    
     As from noonday sun; and then we saw 
     
    

    
     Two shapes that were as the immortal gods 
     
     Standing before the tomb; around me fell 
     
    

    
     My men as dead; but I, though through my veins 
     
     Ran a cold tremor never known before, 
     
     Withstood the shock and saw one shining shape 
     
     Roll back the stone; the whole world seemed ablaze, 
     
     And through the garden came a rushing wind 
     
     Thundering a paeon as of victory. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Then that dead man came forth! Oh, Claudia, 
     
     If thou coulds’t but have seen the face of him! 
     
     Never was such a conqueror! Yet no pride 
     
     Was in it—nought but love and tenderness, 
     
     Such as we Romans scoff at; and his eyes 
     
     Bespake him royal. Oh, my Claudia, 
     
    

    
     Surely he was no Jew but very god! 
     
    
   
   
    
     6