Darkly, sternly, and all alone,

Minotti stood o'er the altar stone:

Madonna's face upon him shone,[399]

Painted in heavenly hues above, 950

With eyes of light and looks of love;

And placed upon that holy shrine

To fix our thoughts on things divine,

When pictured there, we kneeling see

Her, and the boy-God on her knee,

Smiling sweetly on each prayer

To Heaven, as if to waft it there.

Still she smiled; even now she smiles,

Though slaughter streams along her aisles:

Minotti lifted his agéd eye, 960

And made the sign of a cross with a sigh,

Then seized a torch which blazed thereby;

And still he stood, while with steel and flame,

Inward and onward the Mussulman came.