these,
Victor-race in heaven, who Seraphim 755
By name are called.  They shall Paradise
And the tree of life with flaming sword
Holy maintain.  The hard-edged trembles,
The etched brand wavers, and changes its form,
Firm in their grips.  That,[3] O Lord God, 760
Ever thou wieldest, and thou the sinful,
Guilt-working foes out of the heavens,
The foolish, didst cast.  The accursed host then
Under dwellings of darkness was forced to fall
To perdition of hell.  There now in the welling 765
Endure they death-pain in the dragon’s embrace,
Enclosed in darkness. [Thee] he resisted,
Thy princely rule; therefore in misery,
Full[4] of all foulness, he guilty shall suffer,
Slavery endure.  There may he not 770
Thy word reject:  he is fast in torments,
The author of sin, in misery bound. 
If thy will it be, Ruler of angels,
That he may reign who was on the rood,
And who through Mary upon the mid-earth 775
Incarnate became in form of a child,
Prince of the angels (if he had not been
Thy Son free from sin, never so many
True wonders in world would he have wrought
In number of days.  Thou wouldst not from death 780
So gloriously him, Ruler of nations,
Have awaked ’fore the hosts, if he in glory
Through the bright [maid] were not thy Son),—­
Now, Father of angels, send forth thy sign. 
As thou didst hear the holy man, 785
Moses, in prayer, when thou, God of might,
Didst show to the earl at the noble time
Under the hill-slope the bones of Joseph,
So, Ruler of hosts, if it be thy will,
Through that bright form I’ll pray to thee 790
That to me the gold-hoard, Maker of spirits,
Thou wilt reveal, that has been from men
[So] long concealed.  Let, Author of life,
Now from this plain a winsome smoke
’Neath heaven’s expanse mount up on high 795
Playing in the air.  I’ll the better believe,
And I’ll the more firmly stablish my mind,
Undoubting trust, upon the hanged Christ,
That he be in truth the Saviour of souls,
Eternal, Almighty, Israel’s King, 800
Forever may have glory in heaven,
Rule without end the dwellings eternal.”

   [1] No lacuna in MS. Gn.^1 inserted one line, but Gn.^2 one
       word (feonda), which W. prefers.  Text as Z. (feondes),
       which Sievers approves.

   [2] ‘Mindful,’ Gm. and Gn.; ‘suffering,’ Z. [?].

   [3] Referring to the sword.

   [4] Gn., or ‘foul,’ Z.

X.