4 EASTER EVE
Reading edition
“Ses meurtriers donc ses rencontraient de bon cœur”
—Alphonse Moreau.
His murderers met. Their consciences were free: The sun’s eclipse was past, the tumult stilled In Jewry, and their duty well fulfilled. Quoth Caiaphas:—It wrung my heart to see His mother’s grief, God knows! Yet blasphemy Was proven, the uprising imminent, And all the church-supporting element Demanded action, sir, of you and me. Quoth Pilate:—When this Nazarene denied Even Cæsar’s rule, reluctantly I knew My duty to the state, sir. Still, I tried, But found no way, to spare him yet stay true In loyalty.... And still, the poor lad cried, “Forgive them, for they know not what they do!”