The Legend of Saint Alexis, Part I [pp. 145-158]

THE
CATHOLIC WORLD.
VOL. XLII. NOVEMBER, i885. No. 248.
... 2 *~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
THE LEGEND OF SAINT ALEXIS.
IN Rome long since upon Mount Aventine
There stood a marble palace vast and fair,
'Mid gardens rich in mulberry and vine,
With columned atrium and Parian stair,,
Statued by godlike forms at either side,
Ancestral chiefs, a Roman noble's pride.
That stock was ancient when great Caesar fell;
Ancient when Hannibal with gloomy brow
From Zama rode, till then invincible;
Ancient when Cincinnatus left his plough;
Ancient when Liberty in crimson dyed
Leaped forth, re-virgined, from a virgin's side
Virginia's bleeding'neath her father's knife:
And when the state in days of Gracchus reeled,
By rapine torn or fratricidal strife
Ill fruit of that Licinian Law repealed,
And Rome's free peasant, famed in peace and war,
Gave place to slaves, base scum from realms afar,
Then too the Euphemian race held high its head
Above the custom new and mist of error;
The native husbandmen with freedom's tread
Walked still its fields; in gladness not in terror
Their young, fair daughters, rising froIn the board,
Greeted the entrance of an unfeared lord.
Copyright. Rev. I. T. HECKER. 1885.