No longer can I 705
endure to suffer, and conceal my knowledge concerning
the tree of life, though before I was filled
with folly, and confess the truth too late.'
11. THE FINDING OF THE CROSSES.
When she who there held sway over the heroes
understood the changed bearing of the man, she 710
straightway bade release him from his prison,
his dungeon, his narrow cell. Then quickly they
did so, and took him out of the pit with care, as
the queen had bidden them. And they resolutely 715
took their way to that place upon the hill where
the Lord was crucified on the cross, the Son of
God and Prince of the heavenly realm. Weakened
by hunger, he knew not yet clearly where through 720
the wiles of the devil the holy rood lay hid beneath
the earth, nor where it rested in its tomb, safe in a
secret place, long hidden from men.
After a little while he lifted up his voice with
unwonted power and spake in Hebrew:--'O Lord 725
Jesus, thou who dost possess the power of judgment,
thou who didst form the heaven and the earth and
the sea, the broad expanse of waters, and all created
things, by the might of thy glory; thou who didst
measure out with thine own hands all the sphere of 730
this earth and of the firmament above; thou who
dost sit in person, the King of victories, over the
most glorious angel-kind; thou who in a mantle
of light dost fare through space in surpassing
majesty, the nature of man cannot rise in the flesh 735
from the earth-tainted ways unto the bright throng
of the pure, the heralds of glory.
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