not gylty of that synne, that he wold help hire, and make it to be knowen to alle men of his mercyfulle grace; and whanne she had thus seyd, sche entered into the fuyer, and anon was the fuyer quenched and oute, and the brondes that weren brennynge, becomen white Roseres, fulle of roses, and theise weren the first Roseres and roses, bothe white and rede, that evere ony man saughe. And thus was this Maiden saved be the Grace of God. The Voiage and Travaile of Sir John Maundevile. 

 The Rose Nay Edith! spare the rose!—it lives—it lives, It feels the noon-tide sun, and drinks refresh’d The dews of night; let not thy gentle hand Tear sunder its life-fibres and destroy The sense of being!—why that infidel smile? Come, I will bribe thee to be merciful, And thou shall have a tale of other times, For I am skill’d in legendary lore, So thou wilt let it live. There was a time Ere this, the freshest sweetest flower that blooms, Bedeck’d the bowers of earth. Thou hast not heard How first by miracle its fragrant leaves Spread to the sun their blushing loveliness. There dwelt at Bethlehem a Jewish maid And Zillah was her name, so passing fair That all Judea spake the damsel’s praise. He who had seen her eyes’ dark radiance How quick it spake the soul, and what a soul Beam’d in its mild effulgence, woe was he! For not in solitude, for not in crowds, Might he escape remembrance, or avoid Her imaged form that followed every where, And fill’d the heart, and fix’d the absent eye. Woe was he, for her bosom own’d no love Save the strong ardours of religious zeal, For Zillah on her God had centered all Her spirit’s deep affections. So for her Her tribes-men sigh’d in vain, yet reverenced The obdurate virtue that destroyed their hopes. One man there was, a vain and wretched man, Who saw, desired, despair’d, and hated her. His sensual eye had gloated on her cheek Even till the flush of angry modesty Gave it new charms, and made him gloat the more. She loath’d the man, for Hamuel’s eye was bold, And the strong workings of brute selfishness Had moulded his broad features; and she fear’d The bitterness of wounded vanity That with a fiendish hue would overcast His faint and lying smile. Nor vain her fear, For Hamuel vowed revenge and laid a plot Against her virgin fame. He spread abroad Whispers that travel fast, and ill reports That soon obtain belief; that Zillah’s eye When in the temple heaven-ward it was rais’d Did swim with rapturous zeal, but there were those Who had beheld the enthusiast’s melting glance With other feelings fill’d; that ’twas a task Of easy sort to play the saint by day Before the public eye, but that all eyes Were closed at night; that Zillah’s life was foul, Yea forfeit to the law.  

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