A Little Boy Lost

"Nought loves another as itself,     Nor venerates another so,     Nor is it possible to thought     A greater than itself to know.     "And, father, how can I love you     Or any of my brothers more?     I love you like the little bird     That picks up crumbs around the door."     The Priest sat by and heard the child;     In trembling zeal he seized his hair,     He led him by his little coat,     And all admired the priestly care.     And standing on the altar high,     "Lo, what a fiend is here!" said he:     "One who sets reason up for judge     Of our most holy mystery."     The weeping child could not be heard,     The weeping parents wept in vain:     They stripped him to his little shirt,     And bound him in an iron chain,     And burned him in a holy place     Where many had been burned before;     The weeping parents wept in vain.     Are such thing done on Albion's shore?