h arrows sore wounded;
They laid Him down, limb-weary One, and stood about His head;
Gazed on Heaven's Lord, who, weary now, after that mighty fight,
Rested Him there a little while. Then in the murderer's sight,
The brave ones made a tomb for Him, of white stone carved it fair,
And laid the Lord of Victory within the sepulchre.

The bitter weeping goes up. The fair Body waxes chill. Then, in a very
few words the story told in "Elene" is condensed.

Then did they fell us to the ground....
In the deep pit they sank us down; yet the Lord's servants, they,
His friends did hear of me and seek, and find me on a day,
And decked with silver and with gold, in beautiful array.

The glory comes after the shame, and we hear of the healing power of the
Cross, and the honour given to it. Even as Almighty God honoured His
Mother above all womankind, the poet says, so this tree is set high
above all trees of the forest.

The command is laid upon the poet to make known his vision. There is a
compulsion whereby a poet as it were has to send abroad the fair thought
and knowledge wherewith he has been graced. To this poet is the task
assigned to tell of the Crucifixion, of the Resurrection, and the
Ascension, and of the Second Coming to judge the world.

Where is the man, the Lord will ask before that multitude,
Would for His name taste bitter death, as He upon the Rood?

By the love of His name, by the love that means martyrdom in will if not
in deed also, shall men be judged.

The comfort of his life has come to the poet. The greatest of all great
things is his.

The Rood my trust shall be.

I cannot close this chapter without saying something about the great
stone rood known as the Ruthwell Cross, because it bears upon it part of
this poem engraved in runes. The cross is at Ruthwell, in Dumfriesshire.
It is very old, probably dating from the tenth or eleventh century.
There are carvings upon it of various events in the life of Our Lord, on
the north and south sides. On the top-stone, north, is a
representation of St John with the eagle, and on the top-stone,
south, is St John with the Agnus Dei. On the east and west is carved a
vine in fruit, with animals feeding, and at each side of the
vine-tracery the runes are carved, which give the words taken from the
poem, in the Northumbrian dialect.

[Illustration: RUTHWELL CROSS [_Page 80_]

This cross used to stand in the church a