Old Thurold, heavy-hearted at this case
From Rome with Mano to Spoletum rode,
And more than he enraged with his disgrace,
At evening gained with him my poor abode,
Wherein with sickness sharp I lay immured:
Where, when the old knight had all that history showed,
With glittering eyes obedience he abjured
Thenceforth to gerbert; deeming it foul wrong
That had to his dear Mano shame procured
— " Certes the French pope speaks with German tongue
Quoth he, " and wary is he, as it seems:
And such the man must be who goes along
" The priestly path that leads to Rome from Rheims:
Hostile to Normans must such man be found;
Yet may he not be safe, as now he deems,
" Doing despite to us upon God's ground. "
But Mano said, " In silence it is best
To feel the smarting of a cureless wound.
" For not with Gerbert can I ease my breast
In open quarrel and plain enmity.
Nor would past friendship from remembrance wrest:
" For know (if I here separate from thee),
That to have lost his fellowship is grief
Beyond the reach of wrathful mind to me;
" To me, perhaps to him: and this mischief
Can never be recured; now hence must I
My noble father, be I loth or lief:
" Nor doubt I where my voyage next must lie;
For now the thought of thy deceived trust
Comes to me, guiding whither I should hie.
" I go to seek thy daughter, as is just,
Diantha, whom from Italy I led,
Who fled the Norman court through evil lust,
" As to our bitter scorn by all is said
Thou blamest not my doing in that case,
But mine it is to go, most honoured head,
" To find what may be left against disgrace. "
Then they shook hands: and Thurold one word spake,
Turning away his high but fallen face:
" Son, thou hast wrung my heart before it break. "
But Mano turned to go. Then from my chair
Rose I, and cried, " I go with thee for make,
" And still with thee by grace of God will fare,
Whither thou goest: and from land to land
What lot to thee be cast, the same to share. "
Then Mano smiled, and gave to me his hand,
Saying, " To have thee with me betters me
More than much else in this my waniand,
" Did but thy body with thy mind agree. "
— " My sickness is of mind: weary am I
To see the working of man's misery,
" And of this sickness sore if I should die,
" For now the end of all things is at hand:
The Antichrist is come, who comes before;
Then of the just the graves shall empty stand,
" And last the General Judgment opens door. "
Thus answered I, feeling full near to death,
In haste to leave the Babylonian shore,
Deeming the earth then drawing her last breath
Ah, I live still; and still the Antichrist
Reigns in the world, not passing underneath:
And still the dead sleep on in sealed cist.