There was an instant’s silence—deep and strange; In all the great cathedral rang no sound. All stared at one another open-eyed, Or at Giannolo—just as if some power Before unknown in life had seized on them With a tremendous sense of dire amaze, Not knowing what the devil it could mean; When all at once they _took_—and from them all There rose a roar of laughter like a crash Of thunder, and so near it that one seemed To miss the lightning—or, as I might say, ’Twas like a flash of sound—and then again It came re-echoed from the multitude Gathered outside, as the electric peal Resounds, repeated by the mountain tops. Yea, such a peal of laughter as the book Declares “at vespers ne’er was heard before,” And ne’er again will be at any time. * * * * * _Moral._ I pray you think upon it well. There are full many people in this world Who think that they are wondrous wise in ART, And who, as Critics, write about the same In transcendental phrase with capitals, And call it Faith, and Love, and Heaven knows what, And cannot think of it without a gasp And uttering phrases silly, mystical,— Because they are the empty, windy ones, Inflating and inflated, who but blow The bellows of the organ, yet believe That they are leaders in the Realm of Art! THE GOTH AND THE PIGEON Among the merry tales of olden time Which are still current in fair Italy Are many told in taverns or in type About the rude barbarians of the North Who cross the Alps, even as they did of yore, When they invaded fertile Lombardy, And helped themselves to all which pleased their eyes, And paid for it in iron and with blood: Those times are fled, but Northmen still are here; States fall, arts fade, but English yet abound, And Austrian-Germans and Americans Stalk proudly through the streets with Baedeker, Or Murray, with the very gait and air Of their barbarian ancestors—although They are cleaner washed and more completely shaved— Bet high upon the latter; for as once They came to rob the natives of their goods, The latter now do live by spoiling them. And thus strange things do happen in this world.