Chapter III

But, when he came to his Abbey, he found a wondrous change;
He saw no friendly faces there, for every face was strange.
The strange men spoke unto him; and he heard from all and each
The foreign tongue of the Sassenach, not wholesome Irish speech.
Then the oldest monk came forward, in Irish tongue spake he:
"Thou wearest the holy Augustine's dress, and who hath given it to thee?"
"I wear the holy Augustine's dress, and Cormac is my name,
The Abbot of this good Abbey by grace of God I am.
I went forth to pray, at the dawn of day; and when my prayers were said,
I hearken'd awhile to a little bird that sung above my head."
The monks to him made answer, "Two hundred years have gone o'er,
Since our Abbot Cormac went through the gate, and never was heard of
more.
Matthias now is our Abbot, and twenty have pass'd away.
The stranger is lord of Ireland; we live in an evil day."
"Days will come and go," he said, "and the world will pass away,
In Heaven a day is a thousand years, a thousand years are a day."