, the Quirinal
Proudly rises; in the distance
Towers up the Capitolium
In the violet autumn haze.

Through the Boscareccio's verdant
Alleys swept the shining white robe
Of His Holiness, who kindly
To the Abbess and the maiden
Here had granted audience.
And the Abbess gained assurance,
That her lawsuit would be taken
Into prompt consideration.
Then to Margaretta turning.
Said the Pope: "None of the pilgrims
Ever leave Rome without comfort;
So I, as the soul's physician,
Must prevent another fainting."
And he whispered to a servant:
"Go and fetch the chapel-master."

Werner came: to stately manhood
In this southern clime he'd ripened
Since he left, a hopeless suitor,
The old castle in the Rhine-land.
Life's wild whirlpool, since that morning,
Had well tossed him hither thither.
Willingly I would relate here,
How he went to many countries;
How o'er land and sea he travelled;
How he with the Knights of Malta
Cruised against the Turkish corsairs;
Till at last a fate mysterious
Unto Rome had duly brought him.
But my song becomes impatient;
Like a driver who is snapping
At the door his whip, 'tis calling:
"Onward! On to the conclusion!"
Werner came; bewildered gazed he
Twice, yes thrice, at Margaretta,
Gazed at her in utter silence;
But his glances did express more
Than a printed folio volume.
'Twas the glance with which Ulysses
Sitting by the suitors' corpses
Gazed upon his consort, from whom
He by twenty years of wandering
And of suffering had been parted.

Innocentius the Eleventh
Was kind-hearted, a discerner
Of men's hearts. Most kindly said he:
"Those whom Providence united
In His goodness and His wisdom,
Shall no more be separated.
Yesterday when in St. Peter's,
And to-day here in the garden,
I have come to the conviction,
That there is a case here waiting
For my papal interference.
"'Tis indeed a mighty power
Love, a power all subduing;
Than light even more ethereal,
Doth it penetrate all barriers,
And the chair of Peter also
Is not safe from its invasion
When it asks us for our help.
"But it is a ple