alt reveal the things
That thou hast seen; but that same book, which none
In heaven or earth could open, but the Lamb,
None but the Lamb shall close. Awake, awake, 340
Ye who now slumber in the shades of death!
Yes! every nation shall confess the Lord;
Till all shall be fulfilled, and there shall be,
Through the wide world, "one Shepherd and one fold."
For deem not this small frith, called "the Great Sea,"[159]
That girds yon promontories, girds the world:
Without is the great ocean, the main sea,
Rocking in tempest and in solitude;
Ten thousand isles are scattered o'er the waste
Of those dark waters, and each isle and land, 350
All earth, shall be one altar; and from earth
To heaven one flame of incense, and one voice
Of prayer and praise and harmony shall rise!

So these two held communion on the shore
Of melancholy Patmos, when a sound
As of a griding chain was heard, and, lo!
A criminal is kneeling at the feet
Of the old man: God has been kind to me,
He cried, and hid his forehead with his hands.
Oh! listen to my tale, and pray for me. 360
'Twas when the Roman sentinel, who paced
The platform of the dungeon where we slept,
Had called the midnight watch, and overhead
Bright Aldebaran held his course in heaven,
Westering o'er yonder Cape, I waked, and mused
On my eventful life.
Then to my heart
Came words which I had heard from thee: I wept
Even as an infant, and I smote my breast.
The brave companion of my fortunes died-- 370
Died yesterday, stern and impenitent
As he lived, pitiless; and, left alone,
I cried for mercy, mercy of that God
Whom thou didst call thy Father; and I prayed
To Christ, and cried, Me--me--oh! pardon me!
I dare not lift my eyes. Thou, father, hear.
I am a free-born citizen of Rome,
My name, Pedanius,[160] the Decurion.
When Titus led his legions to the East,
Against the city of Jerusalem, 380
To raze it from the earth; at the last day,
When the third wall shook to the battering-rams,
Amid the shrieks of horror and despair,
Flung from the tottering battlements, a babe
Fell at my horse's feet.[161] Famished and black,
With livid lips and ghastly, on the ground
It lay; when, frantic from the