EMIGRANT FRENCH CLERGY

Even while I speak, the sacred roofs of France

Are shattered into dust; and self-exiled

From altars threatened, levelled, or defiled,

Wander the Ministers of God, as chance

Opens a way for life, or consonance

Of faith invites. More welcome to no land

The fugitives than to the British strand,

Where priest and layman with the vigilance

Of true compassion greet them. Creed and test

Vanish before the unreserved embrace

Of catholic humanity:— distrest

They came,— and, while the moral tempest roars

Throughout the Country they have left, our shores

Give to their Faith a fearlessresting-place.