Part 3

The forest broke into a smile, And kisses gave to each twice twain, That showed them all the future plain.

There were three sisters fain to die: They wandered forth to seek the sea: They found it after summers three.

"Give us our death, thou ocean old, For here are our three crowns of gold." Then the ocean began to weep:

Three hundred kisses it gave the three, And all the past was plain to see. There were three sisters fain to die,

To find the city they sought awhile; They found it midmost of an isle.

"Give us our death, thou city old, For here are our three crowns of gold."

The city opened then and there, And covered them with kisses dear That showed them all the present clear.

XV

Canticle of the Virgin in "Sister Beatrice"[1]

I hold, to every sin, To every soul that weeps, My hands with pardon filled Out of the starry deeps.

There is no sin that lives When love hath vigil kept; There is no soul that mourns When love but once hath wept.

And tho' on many paths Of earth love lose its way, Its tears will find me out And shall not go astray.

[1] Reprinted from "Soeur Beatrice." The translation is reprinted, by kind permission of Messrs Geo. Allen & Unwin, from my version of "Sister Beatrice: and Ardiane and Barbe Bleue," published by them.