Midnight: Plymouth: England
Two men: strangers, stood together
As the clock struck not twelve
But thirteen times: amazed
They commented to each other
Then went their separate ways
Captain Jarvis awoke early one morning
Got up and got dressed
Found his groom at the front door
His horse saddled and ready
"I had a feeling you would need your horse!"
The feeling had been so strong
He couldn't stay in bed
Had to get up and get ready
Strange as it was the Captain rode off
Allowing his horse to choose where it went
Soon they were at the ferry landing
Down by the river: where a man was waiting
" I couldn't rest in my bed Sir as I had a feeling
I was wanted to ferry someone across!"
The captain and horse got on and went across
Again he let the horse take him where it would
After some time they were in a large country town
The Captain inquired about the town: "anything of interest?"
"Just a trial of a man for murder." a man replied
Having nothing better to do he went to the court house
There the judge was asking the prisoner
"Have you anything to say for yourself?"
"I have nothing to say Sir except that I am innocent
There is only one man in the world who could prove it
But I know not where he lives
Some weeks ago we stood together
In the town of Plymouth when it was midnight
We both heard the clock strike thirteen
Instead of twelve and remarked
How strange it was that the clock
Should strike thirteen at the midnight hour!"
The captain stood and shouted from the rear of the room
"I am here, I am here!
I was the man who stood at midnight
Beside the great Plymouth clock and
Heard it strike thirteen instead of twelve!
It is true: I identify him as the man.
At the time of the murder he was with me
At Plymouth and we remarked to each other
How strange it was that the clock
Should strike thirteen at the midnight hour!"
The condemned man was immediately set free
Proved innocent by Captain Jarvis' testimony!
Angels, by awakening the groom and ferryman
Impressing them with an urgency they couldn't understand
And by leading the horse: had brought that one man
Into the courtroom at the precise moment he was needed!
How the angels must have loved it!
"It must have been an angel"
By Marjorie Lewis Lloyd
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