S. Elizabeth's Leper

"My lord, there came unto the gate     One, in such pitiful estate,     So all forlorn and desolate,     Ill-fed, ill-clad, of ills compact;     A leper too,--his poor flesh wracked     And dead, his very bones infect;     Of all God's sons none so abject.     I could not, on the Lord's own day,     Turn such a stricken one away.     In pity him I took, and fed,     And happed him in our royal bed."     "A leper!--in our bed!--Nay then,     My Queen, thy charities do pass     The bounds of sense at times!    A bane     On such unwholesome tenderness!     Dost nothing owe to him who shares     Thy couch, and suffers by thy cares?     He could have slept upon the floor,     And left you still his creditor.     A leper!--in my bed!--God's truth!     Out upon such outrageous ruth!"     He strode in anger towards the bed,     And lo!--         The Christ, with thorn-crowned head,         Lay there in sweet sleep pillowed.