but what came was a chorus of the sweetest softest tenor voices ; they called out the latin words that i could not follow , an anthem for the dead , an anthem on the mutability of all things , and at once came a full lustrous harmonizing chorus of sopranos male and female , of basses and baritones , singing heartily in splendid polyphony in answer to these lone tenors : `` i go now to the lord , for he has allowed these creatures of darkness to answer my supplications ... '' what nightmarish words were these ?