The Comrade

"Father, I gave my gold and gear,
    Cattle and goods full tale,
To save my soul from utter dark:
    May this at all avail?"

"Son, ere I know what sin was thine
    Surely I may not say:
Yet, for the sake of thy great gifts,
    Thy Mother Church will pray."

"Father, a comrade had I once,
    Yea, truest friend to me;
Friends were we when we both were young:
    He died on the gallows-tree."

"Son, for the hot in of thy youth
    Thou shalt be freely shriven:
Yea, tho' your friend's soul burn in hell,
    Thou art indeed forgiven."

"And if that friend's soul burn in hell,
    There shall mine burn also:
And whither his dear soul hath gone
    Thither I too would go."

"Not in the place of souls accurst
    Shall we two meet again:
Surely he hath reward of Thee,
    O Christ, who died for men!"

"Mine was the neck that should have felt
    The hangman's rope that day,
And mine the feet that should have trod
    Along the shameful way."

"All for my sake that death he died
    And bore the black disgrace,
Nor spoke the word should set him free
    And bind me in his place."

"He let them bind him hand and foot,
    Gazing on me the while:
No blame in those unfearing eyes
    And that serenest smile."

"And when that stainless soul of his
    Passed upward to God's gate,
My manhood that had left me then
    Came to me all too late."

"Fain would I have flung aside
    With one releasing blow,
The worthless life he bought with his, —
    The life I hated so!"

"Yet — that my blame might be atoned
    From year to bitter year —
I, aching for the death I shunned,
    Lived out my penance here."

"Somewhere across the lonely stars
    His spirit wakeneth;
And love that gave its life for me
    Clings to me still in death."

"I think he listens for my voice
    All through the seraph-song,
And watches by the golden gate,
    Hoping I come ere long."

"I thin he waits to welcome me
    Unto God's glorious aisle, —
To greet me with those steadfast eyes
    And that serenest smile."

"Would I not give my gold and gear,
    Yea, unto seven times seven,
So I might hope to grasp again
    My comrade's hand in heaven?"