Lalla Rookh/The Fire-Worshippers

"And this," said the Great Chamberlain, "is poetry! this flimsy manufacture of the brain, which in comparison with the lofty and durable monuments of genius is as the gold filigree-work of Zamara beside the eternal architecture of Egypt!" After this gorgeous sentence, which, with a few more of the same kind, FADLADEEN kept by him for rare and important occasions, he proceeded to the anatomy of the short poem just recited. The lax and easy kind of metre in which it was written ought to be denounced, he said, as one of the leading causes of the alarming growth of poetry in our times. If some check were not given to this lawless facility we should soon be overrun by a race of bards as numerous and as shallow as the hundred and twenty thousand Streams of Basra. They who succeeded in this style deserved chastisement for their very success;--as warriors have been punished even after gaining a victory because they had taken the liberty of gaining it in an irregular or unestablished manner. What then was to be said to those who failed? to those who presumed as in the present lamentable instance to imitate the licence and ease of the bolder sons of song without any of that grace or vigor which gave a dignity even to negligence;--who like them flung the jereed carelessly, but not, like them, to the mark;--"and who," said he, raising his voice to excite a proper degree of wakefulness in his hearers, "contrive to appear heavy and constrained in the midst of all the latitude they allow themselves, like one of those young pagans that dance before the Princess, who is ingenious enough to move as if her limbs were fettered, in a pair of the lightest and loosest drawers of Masulipatam!"

It was but little suitable, he continued, to the grave march of criticism to follow this fantastical Peri of whom they had just heard, through all her flights and adventures between earth and heaven, but he could not help adverting to the puerile conceitedness of the Three Gifts which she is supposed to carry to the skies,--a drop of blood, forsooth, a sigh, and a tear! How the first of these articles was delivered into the Angel's "radiant hand" he professed himself at a loss to discover; and as to the safe carriage of the sigh and the tear, such Peris and such poets were beings by far too incomprehensible for him even to guess how they managed such matters. "But, in short," said he, "it is a waste of time and patience to dwell longer upon a thing so incurably frivolous,--puny even among its own puny race, and such as only the Banyan Hospital for Sick Insects should undertake."

In vain did LALLA ROOKH try to soften this inexorable critic; in vain did she resort to her most eloquent commonplaces, reminding him that poets were a timid and sensitive race whose sweetness was not to be drawn forth like that of the fragrant grass near the Ganges by crushing and trampling upon them, that severity often extinguished every chance of the perfection which it demanded, and that after all perfection was like the Mountain of the Talisman,--no one had ever yet reached its summit. Neither these gentle axioms nor the still gentler looks with which they were inculcated could lower for one instant the elevation of FADLADEEN'S eyebrows or charm him into anything like encouragement or even toleration of her poet. Toleration, indeed, was not among the weaknesses of FADLADEEN:--he carried the same spirit into matters of poetry and of religion, and though little versed in the beauties or sublimities of either was a perfect master of the art of persecution in both. His zeal was the same too in either pursuit, whether the game before him was pagans or poetasters, worshippers of cows, or writers of epics.

They had now arrived at the splendid city of Lahore whose mausoleums and shrines, magnificent and numberless where Death appeared to share equal honors with Heaven would have powerfully affected the heart and imagination of LALLA ROOKH, if feelings more of this earth had not taken entire possession of her already. She was here met by messengers despatched from Cashmere who informed her that the King had arrived in the Valley and was himself superintending the sumptuous preparations that were then making in the Saloons of the Shalimar for her reception. The chill she felt on receiving this intelligence,--which to a bride whose heart was free and light would have brought only images of affection and pleasure,--convinced her that her peace was gone for ever and that she was in love, irretrievably in love, with young FERAMORZ. The veil had fallen off in which this passion at first disguises itself, and to know that she loved was now as painful as to love without knowing it had been delicious. FERAMORZ, too,--what misery would be his, if the sweet hours of intercourse so imprudently allowed them should have stolen into his heart the same fatal fascination as into hers;--if, notwithstanding her rank and the modest homage he always paid to it, even he should have yielded to the influence of those long and happy interviews where music, poetry, the delightful scenes of nature,--all had tended to bring their hearts close together and to waken by every means that too ready passion which often like the young of the desert-bird is warmed into life by the eyes alone! She saw but one way to preserve herself from being culpable as well as unhappy, and this however painful she was resolved to adopt. FERAMORZ must no more be admitted to her presence. To have strayed so far into the dangerous labyrinth was wrong, but to linger in it while the clew was yet in her hand would be criminal. Though the heart she had to offer to the King of Bucharia might be cold and broken, it should at least be pure, and she must only endeavor to forget the short dream of happiness she had enjoyed,--like that Arabian shepherd who in wandering into the wilderness caught a glimpse of the Gardens of Irim and then lost them again for ever!

The arrival of the young Bride at Lahore was celebrated in the most enthusiastic manner. The Rajas and Omras in her train, who had kept at a certain distance during the journey and never encamped nearer to the Princess than was strictly necessary for her safeguard here rode in splendid cavalcade through the city and distributed the most costly presents to the crowd. Engines were erected in all the squares which cast forth showers of confectionery among the people, while the artisans in chariots adorned with tinsel and flying streamers exhibited the badges of their respective trades through the streets. Such brilliant displays of life and pageantry among the palaces and domes and gilded minarets of Lahore made the city altogether like a place of enchantment;--particularly on the day when LALLA ROOKH set out again upon her journey, when she was accompanied to the gate by all the fairest and richest of the nobility and rode along between ranks of beautiful boys and girls who kept waving over their heads plates of gold and silver flowers, and then threw them around to be gathered by the populace.

For many days after their departure from Lahore a considerable degree of gloom hung over the whole party. LALLA ROOKH, who had intended to make illness her excuse for not admitting the young minstrel, as usual, to the pavilion, soon found that to feign indisposition was unnecessary;--FADLADEEN felt the loss of the good road they had hitherto travelled and was very near cursing Jehan-Guire (of blessed memory!) for not having continued his delectable alley of trees a least as far as the mountains of Cashmere;--while the Ladies who had nothing now to do all day but to be fanned by peacocks' feathers and listen to FADLADEEN seemed heartily weary of the life they led and in spite of all the Great Chamberlain's criticisms were so tasteless as to wish for the poet again. One evening as they were proceeding to their place of rest for the night the Princess who for the freer enjoyment of the air had mounted her favorite Arabian palfrey, in passing by a small grove heard the notes of a lute from within its leaves and a voice which she but too well knew singing the following words:--

Tell me not of joys above, If that world can give no bliss, Truer, happier than the Love Which enslaves our souls in this.

Tell me not of Houris' eyes;-- Far from me their dangerous glow. If those looks that light the skies Wound like some that burn below.

Who that feels what Love is here, All its falsehood--all its pain-- Would, for even Elysium's sphere, Risk the fatal dream again?

Who that midst a desert's heat Sees the waters fade away Would not rather die than meet Streams again as false as they?

The tone of melancholy defiance in which these words were uttered went to LALLA ROOKH'S heart;--and as she reluctantly rode on she could not help feeling it to be a sad but still sweet certainty that FERAMORZ was to the full as enamored and miserable as herself.

The place where they encamped that evening was the first delightful spot they had come to since they left Lahore. On one side of them was a grove full of small Hindoo temples and planted with the most graceful trees of the East, where the tamarind, the cassia, and the silken plantains of Ceylon were mingled in rich contrast with the high fan-like foliage of the Palmyra,--that favorite tree of the luxurious bird that lights up the chambers of its nest with fire-flies. In the middle of the lawn where the pavilion stood there was a tank surrounded by small mango-trees on the clear cold waters of which floated multitudes of the beautiful red lotus, while at a distance stood the ruins of a strange and awful-looking tower which seemed old enough to have been the temple of some religion no longer known and which spoke the voice of desolation in the midst of all that bloom and loveliness. This singular ruin excited the wonder and conjectures of all. LALLA ROOKH guessed in vain, and the all-pretending FADLADEEN who had never till this journey been beyond the precincts of Delhi was proceeding most learnedly to show that he knew nothing whatever about the matter, when one of the Ladies suggested that perhaps FERAMORZ could satisfy their curiosity. They were now approaching his native mountains and this tower might perhaps be a relic of some of those dark superstitions which had prevailed in that country before the light of Islam dawned upon it. The Chamberlain who usually preferred his own ignorance to the best knowledge that any one else could give him was by no means pleased with this officious reference, and the Princess too was about to interpose a faint word of objection, but before either of them could speak a slave was despatched for FERAMORZ, who in a very few minutes made his appearance before them--looking so pale and unhappy in LALLA ROOKH'S eyes that she repented already of her cruelty in having so long excluded him.

That venerable tower he told them was the remains of an ancient Fire-Temple, built by those Ghebers or Persians of the old religion, who many hundred years since had fled hither from the Arab conquerors, preferring liberty and their altars in a foreign land to the alternative of apostasy or persecution in their own. It was impossible, he added, not to feel interested in the many glorious but unsuccessful struggles which had been made by these original natives of Persia to cast off the yoke of their bigoted conquerors. Like their own Fire in the Burning Field at Bakou when suppressed in one place they had but broken out with fresh flame in another; and as a native of Cashmere, of that fair and Holy Valley which had in the same manner become the prey of strangers and seen her ancient shrines and native princes swept away before the march of her intolerant invaders he felt a sympathy, he owned, with the sufferings of the persecuted Ghebers which every monument like this before them but tended more powerfully to awaken.

It was the first time that FERAMORZ had ever ventured upon so much prose before FADLADEEN and it may easily be conceived what effect such prose as this must have produced upon that most orthodox and most pagan-hating personage. He sat for some minutes aghast, ejaculating only at intervals, "Bigoted conquerors!--sympathy with Fire-worshippers!" -- while FERAMORZ happy to take advantage of this almost speechless horror of the Chamberlain proceeded to say that he knew a melancholy story connected with the events of one of those struggles of the brave Fire-worshippers against their Arab masters, which if the evening was not too far advanced he should have much pleasure in being allowed to relate to the Princess. It was impossible for LALLA ROOKH to refuse;--he had never before looked half so animated, and when he spoke of the Holy Valley his eyes had sparkled she thought like the talismanic characters on the scimitar of Solomon. Her consent was therefore most readily granted; and while FADLADEEN sat in unspeakable dismay, expecting treason and abomination in every line, the poet thus began his story of the Fire-worshippers:

THE FIRE-WORSHIPPERS.

'Tis moonlight over OMAN'S SEA; Her banks of pearl and palmy isles Bask in the night-beam beauteously And her blue waters sleep in smiles. 'Tis moonlight in HARMOZIA'S walls, And through her EMIR'S porphyry halls Where some hours since was heard the swell Of trumpets and the clash of zel Bidding the bright-eyed sun farewell;-- The peaceful sun whom better suits The music of the bulbul's nest Or the light touch of lovers' lutes To sing him to his golden rest. All husht--there's not a breeze in motion; The shore is silent as the ocean. If zephyrs come, so light they come. Nor leaf is stirred nor wave is driven;-- The wind-tower on the EMIR'S dome Can hardly win a breath from heaven.

Even he, that tyrant Arab, sleeps Calm, while a nation round him weeps, While curses load the air he breathes And falchions from unnumbered sheaths Are starting to avenge the shame His race hath brought on IRAN'S name. Hard, heartless Chief, unmoved alike Mid eyes that weep and swords that strike; One of that saintly, murderous brood, To carnage and the Koran given, Who think thro' unbelievers' blood Lies their directest path to heaven,-- One who will pause and kneel unshod In the warm blood his hand hath poured, To mutter o'er some text of God Engraven on his reeking sword; Nay, who can coolly note the line, The letter of those words divine, To which his blade with searching art Had sunk into its victim's heart!

Just ALLA! what must be thy look When such a wretch before thee stands Unblushing, with thy Sacred Book,-- Turning the leaves with bloodstained hands, And wresting from its page sublime His creed of lust and hate and crime;-- Even as those bees of TREBIZOND, Which from the sunniest flowers that glad With their pure smile the gardens round, Draw venom forth that drives men mad. Never did fierce Arabia send A satrap forth more direly great; Never was IRAN doomed to bend Beneath a yoke of deadlier weight. Her throne had fallen--her pride was crusht-- Her sons were willing slaves, nor blusht, In their own land,--no more their own,-- To crouch beneath a stranger's throne. Her towers where MITHRA once had burned. To Moslem shrines--oh shame!--were turned, Where slaves converted by the sword, Their mean, apostate worship poured, And curst the faith their sires adored. Yet has she hearts, mid all this ill, O'er all this wreck high buoyant still With hope and vengeance;--hearts that yet-- Like gems, in darkness, issuing rays They've treasured from the sun that's set,-- Beam all the light of long-lost days! And swords she hath, nor weak nor slow To second all such hearts can dare: As he shall know, well, dearly know. Who sleeps in moonlight luxury there, Tranquil as if his spirit lay Becalmed in Heaven's approving ray. Sleep on--for purer eyes than thine Those waves are husht, those planets shine; Sleep on and be thy rest unmoved By the white moonbeam's dazzling power;-- None but the loving and the loved Should be awake at this sweet hour.

And see--where high above those rocks That o'er the deep their shadows fling. Yon turret stands;--where ebon locks, As glossy as the heron's wing Upon the turban of a king, Hang from the lattice, long and wild,-- 'Tis she, that EMIR'S blooming child, All truth and tenderness and grace, Tho' born of such ungentle race;-- An image of Youth's radiant Fountain Springing in a desolate mountain!

Oh what a pure and sacred thing Is Beauty curtained from the sight Of the gross world, illumining One only mansion with her light! Unseen by man's disturbing eye,-- The flower that blooms beneath the sea, Too deep for sunbeams, doth not lie Hid in more chaste obscurity. So, HINDA. have thy face and mind, Like holy mysteries, lain enshrined. And oh! what transport for a lover To lift the veil that shades them o'er!-- Like those who all at once discover In the lone deep some fairy shore Where mortal never trod before, And sleep and wake in scented airs No lip had ever breathed but theirs.

Beautiful are the maids that glide On summer-eves thro' YEMEN'S dales, And bright the glancing looks they hide Behind their litters' roseate veils;-- And brides as delicate and fair As the white jasmine flowers they wear, Hath YEMEN in her blissful clime, Who lulled in cool kiosk or bower, Before their mirrors count the time And grow still lovelier every hour. But never yet hath bride or maid In ARABY'S gay Haram smiled. Whose boasted brightness would not fade Before AL HASSAN'S blooming child.

Light as the angel shapes that bless An infant's dream, yet not the less Rich in all woman's loveliness;-- With eyes so pure that from their ray Dark Vice would turn abasht away, Blinded like serpents when they gaze Upon the emerald's virgin blaze; -- Yet filled with all youth's sweet desires, Mingling the meek and vestal fires Of other worlds with all the bliss, The fond, weak tenderness of this: A soul too more than half divine, Where, thro' some shades of earthly feeling, Religion's softened glories shine, Like light thro' summer foliage stealing, Shedding a glow of such mild hue, So warm and yet so shadowy too, As makes the very darkness there More beautiful than light elsewhere.

Such is the maid who at this hour Hath risen from her restless sleep And sits alone in that high bower, Watching the still and shining deep. Ah! 'twas not thus,--with tearful eyes And beating heart,--she used to gaze On the magnificent earth and skies, In her own land, in happier days. Why looks she now so anxious down Among those rocks whose rugged frown Blackens the mirror of the deep? Whom waits she all this lonely night? Too rough the rocks, too bold the steep, For man to scale that turret's height!--

So deemed at least her thoughtful sire, When high, to catch the cool night-air After the day-beam's withering fire, He built her bower of freshness there, And had it deckt with costliest skill And fondly thought it safe as fair:-- Think, reverend dreamer! think so still, Nor wake to learn what Love can dare;-- Love, all defying Love, who sees No charm in trophies won with ease;-- Whose rarest, dearest fruits of bliss Are plucked on Danger's precipice! Bolder than they who dare not dive For pearls but when the sea's at rest, Love, in the tempest most alive, Hath ever held that pearl the best He finds beneath the stormiest water. Yes, ARABY'S unrivalled daughter, Tho' high that tower, that rock-way rude, There's one who but to kiss thy cheek Would climb the untrodden solitude Of ARARAT'S tremendous peak, And think its steeps, tho' dark and dread, Heaven's pathways, if to thee they led! Even now thou seest the flashing spray, That lights his oar's impatient way;-- Even now thou hearest the sudden shock Of his swift bark against the rock, And stretchest down thy arms of snow As if to lift him from below! Like her to whom at dead of night The bridegroom with his locks of light Came in the flush of love and pride And scaled the terrace of his bride;-- When as she saw him rashly spring, And midway up in danger cling, She flung him down her long black hair, Exclaiming breathless, "There, love, there!" And scarce did manlier nerve uphold The hero ZAL in that fond hour, Than wings the youth who, fleet and bold, Now climbs the rocks to HINDA'S bower. See-light as up their granite steeps The rock-goats of ARABIA clamber, Fearless from crag to crag he leaps, And now is in the maiden's chamber. She loves--but knows not whom she loves, Nor what his race, nor whence he came;-- Like one who meets in Indian groves Some beauteous bird without a name; Brought by the last ambrosial breeze From isles in the undiscovered seas, To show his plumage for a day To wondering eyes and wing away! Will he thus fly--her nameless lover? ALLA forbid! 'twas by a moon As fair as this, while singing over Some ditty to her soft Kanoon, Alone, at this same witching hour, She first beheld his radiant eyes Gleam thro' the lattice of the bower, Where nightly now they mix their sighs; And thought some spirit of the air (For what could waft a mortal there?) Was pausing on his moonlight way To listen to her lonely lay! This fancy ne'er hath left her mind: And--tho', when terror's swoon had past, She saw a youth of mortal kind Before her in obeisance cast,-- Yet often since, when he hath spoken Strange, awful words,--and gleams have broken From his dark eyes, too bright to bear, Oh! she hath feared her soul was given To some unhallowed child of air, Some erring spirit cast from heaven, Like those angelic youths of old Who burned for maids of mortal mould, Bewildered left the glorious skies And lost their heaven for woman's eyes. Fond girl! nor fiend nor angel he Who woos thy young simplicity; But one of earth's impassioned sons, As warm in love, as fierce in ire As the best heart whose current runs Full of the Day-God's living fire.

But quenched to-night that ardor seems, And pale his cheek and sunk his brow;-- Never before but in her dreams Had she beheld him pale as now: And those were dreams of troubled sleep From which 'twas joy to wake and weep; Visions that will not be forgot, But sadden every waking scene Like warning ghosts that leave the spot All withered where they once have been.

"How sweetly," said the trembling maid, Of her own gentle voice afraid, So long had they in silence stood Looking upon that tranquil flood-- "How sweetly does the moonbeam smile "To-night upon yon leafy isle! "Oft, in my fancy's wanderings, "I've wisht that little isle had wings, "And we within its fairy bowers "Were wafted off to seas unknown, "Where not a pulse should beat but ours, "And we might live, love, die, alone! "Far from the cruel and the cold,-- "Where the bright eyes of angels only "Should come around us to behold "A paradise so pure and lonely. "Would this be world enough for thee?"-- Playful she turned that he might see The passing smile her cheek put on; But when she markt how mournfully His eye met hers, that smile was gone; And bursting into heart-felt tears, "Yes, yes," she cried, "my hourly fears, "My dreams have boded all too right-- "We part--for ever part--tonight! "I knew, I knew it could not last-- "'Twas bright, 'twas heavenly, but 'tis past! "Oh! ever thus from childhood's hour "I've seen my fondest hopes decay; "I never loved a tree or flower, "But 'twas the first to fade away. "I never nurst a dear gazelle "To glad me with its soft black eye "But when it came to know me well "And love me it was sure to die I "Now too--the joy most like divine "Of all I ever dreamt or knew, "To see thee, hear thee, call thee mine,-- "Oh misery! must I lose that too? "Yet go--on peril's brink we meet;-- "Those frightful rocks--that treacherous sea-- "No, never come again--tho' sweet, "Tho' heaven, it may be death to thee. "Farewell--and blessings on thy way, "Where'er thou goest, beloved stranger! "Better to sit and watch that ray "And think thee safe, tho' far away, "Than have thee near me and in danger!"

"Danger!--oh, tempt me not to boast"-- The youth exclaimed--"thou little know'st "What he can brave, who, born and nurst "In Danger's paths, has dared her worst; "Upon whose ear the signal-word "Of strife and death is hourly breaking; "Who sleeps with head upon the sword "His fevered hand must grasp in waking. "Danger!"--   "Say on--thou fearest not then, "And we may meet--oft meet again?"

"Oh! look not so--beneath the skies "I now fear nothing but those eyes. "If aught on earth could charm or force "My spirit from its destined course,-- "If aught could make this soul forget "The bond to which its seal is set, "'Twould be those eyes;--they, only they, "Could melt that sacred seal away! "But no--'tis fixt--my awful doom "Is fixt--on this side of the tomb "We meet no more;--why, why did Heaven "Mingle two souls that earth has riven, "Has rent asunder wide as ours? "Oh, Arab maid, as soon the Powers "Of Light and Darkness may combine. "As I be linkt with thee or thine! "Thy Father"-- "Holy ALLA save "His gray head from that lightning glance! "Thou knowest him not--he loves the brave; "Nor lives there under heaven's expanse "One who would prize, would worship thee "And thy bold spirit more than he. "Oft when in childhood I have played "With the bright falchion by his side, "I've heard him swear his lisping maid "In time should be a warrior's bride. "And still whene'er at Haram hours "I take him cool sherbets and flowers, "He tells me when in playful mood "A hero shall my bridegroom be, "Since maids are best in battle wooed, "And won with shouts of victory! "Nay, turn not from me--thou alone "Art formed to make both hearts thy own. "Go--join his sacred ranks--thou knowest "The unholy strife these Persians wage:-- "Good Heaven, that frown!--even now thou glowest "With more than mortal warrior's rage. "Haste to the camp by morning's light, "And when that sword is raised in fight, "Oh still remember, Love and I "Beneath its shadow trembling lie! "One victory o'er those Slaves of Fire, "Those impious Ghebers whom my sire "Abhors"-- "Hold, hold--thy words are death"-- The stranger cried as wild he flung His mantle back and showed beneath The Gheber belt that round him clung. -- "Here, maiden, look--weep--blush to see "All that thy sire abhors in me! "Yes--I am of that impious race, "Those Slaves of Fire who, morn and even, "Hail their Creator's dwelling-place "Among the living lights of heaven: "Yes--I am of that outcast few, "To IRAN and to vengeance true, "Who curse the hour your Arabs came "To desolate our shrines of flame, "And swear before God's burning eye "To break our country's chains or die! "Thy bigot sire,--nay, tremble not,-- "He who gave birth to those dear eyes "With me is sacred as the spot "From which our fires of worship rise! "But know--'twas he I sought that night, "When from my watch-boat on the sea "I caught this turret's glimmering light, "And up the rude rocks desperately "Rusht to my prey--thou knowest the rest-- "I climbed the gory vulture's nest, "And found a trembling dove within;-- "Thine, thine the victory--thine the sin-- "If Love hath made one thought his own, "That Vengeance claims first--last--alone! "Oh? had we never, never met, "Or could this heart even now forget "How linkt, how blest we might have been, "Had fate not frowned so dark between! "Hadst thou been born a Persian maid, "In neighboring valleys had we dwelt, "Thro' the same fields in childhood played, "At the same kindling altar knelt,-- "Then, then, while all those nameless ties "In which the charm of Country lies "Had round our hearts been hourly spun, "Till IRAN'S cause and thine were one; "While in thy lute's awakening sigh "I heard the voice of days gone by, "And saw in every smile of thine "Returning hours of glory shine;-- "While the wronged Spirit of our Land "Lived, lookt, and spoke her wrongs thro' thee,-- "God! who could then this sword withstand? "Its very flash were victory! "But now--estranged, divorced for ever, "Far as the grasp of Fate can sever; "Our only ties what love has wove,-- "In faith, friends, country, sundered wide; "And then, then only, true to love, "When false to all that's dear beside! "Thy father IKAN'S deadliest foe-- "Thyself, perhaps, even now--but no-- "Hate never looked so lovely yet! No--sacred to thy soul will be "The land of him who could forget "All but that bleeding land for thee. "When other eyes shall see, unmoved, "Her widows mourn, her warriors fall, "Thou'lt think how well one Gheber loved. "And for his sake thou'lt weep for all! "But look"--   With sudden start he turned  And pointed to the distant wave Where lights like charnel meteors burned  Bluely as o'er some seaman's grave; And fiery darts at intervals   Flew up all sparkling from the main As if each star that nightly falls Were shooting back to heaven again. "My signal lights!--I must away-- "Both, both are ruined, if I stay. "Farewell--sweet life! thou clingest in vain-- "Now, Vengeance, I am thine again!" Fiercely he broke away, nor stopt, Nor lookt--but from the lattice dropt Down mid the pointed crags beneath As if he fled from love to death. While pale and mute young HINDA stood, Nor moved till in the silent flood A momentary plunge below Startled her from her trance of woe;-- Shrieking she to the lattice flew, "I come--I come--if in that tide "Thou sleepest to-night, I'll sleep there too "In death's cold wedlock by thy side. "Oh! I would ask no happier bed "Than the chill wave my love lies under:-- "Sweeter to rest together dead, "Far sweeter than to live asunder!" But no--their hour is not yet come-- Again she sees his pinnace fly, Wafting him fleetly to his home, Where'er that ill-starred home may lie; And calm and smooth it seemed to win Its moonlight way before the wind As if it bore all peace within Nor left one breaking heart behind!

The Princess whose heart was sad enough already could have wished that FERAMORZ had chosen a less melancholy story; as it is only to the happy that tears are a luxury. Her Ladies however were by no means sorry that love was once more the Poet's theme; for, whenever he spoke of love, they said, his voice was as sweet as if he had chewed the leaves of that enchanted tree, which grows over the tomb of the musician, Tan-Sein.

Their road all the morning had lain through a very dreary country;--through valleys, covered with a low bushy jungle, where in more than one place the awful signal of the bamboo staff with the white flag at its top reminded the traveller that in that very spot the tiger had made some human creature his victim. It was therefore with much pleasure that they arrived at sunset in a safe and lovely glen and encamped under one of those holy trees whose smooth columns and spreading roofs seem to destine them for natural temples of religion. Beneath this spacious shade some pious hands had erected a row of pillars ornamented with the most beautiful porcelain which now supplied the use of mirrors to the young maidens as they adjusted their hair in descending from the palankeens. Here while as usual the Princess sat listening anxiously with FADLADEEN in one of his loftiest moods of criticism by her side the young Poet leaning against a branch of the tree thus continued his story:--

The morn hath risen clear and calm And o'er the Green Sea palely shines, Revealing BAHREIN'S groves of palm And lighting KISHMA'S amber vines. Fresh smell the shores of ARABY, While breezes from the Indian sea Blow round SELAMA'S sainted cape And curl the shining flood beneath,-- Whose waves are rich with many a grape And cocoa-nut and flowery wreath Which pious seamen as they past Had toward that holy headland cast-- Oblations to the Genii there For gentle skies and breezes fair! The nightingale now bends her flight From the high trees where all the night She sung so sweet with none to listen; And hides her from the morning star Where thickets of pomegranate glisten In the clear dawn,--bespangled o'er With dew whose night-drops would not stain The best and brightest scimitar That ever youthful Sultan wore On the first morning of his reign.

And see--the Sun himself!--on wings Of glory up the East he springs. Angel of Light! who from the time Those heavens began their march sublime, Hath first of all the starry choir Trod in his Maker's steps of fire! Where are the days, thou wondrous sphere, When IRAN, like a sun-flower, turned To meet that eye where'er it burned?-- When from the banks of BENDEMEER To the nut-groves of SAMARCAND Thy temples flamed o'er all the land? Where are they? ask the shades of them Who, on CADESSIA'S bloody plains, Saw fierce invaders pluck the gem From IRAN'S broken diadem, And bind her ancient faith in chains:-- Ask the poor exile cast alone On foreign shores, unloved, unknown, Beyond the Caspian's Iron Gates, Or on the snowy Mossian mountains, Far from his beauteous land of dates, Her jasmine bowers and sunny fountains: Yet happier so than if he trod His own beloved but blighted sod Beneath a despot stranger's nod!-- Oh, he would rather houseless roam Where Freedom and his God may lead, Than be the sleekest slave at home That crouches to the conqueror's creed!

Is IRAN'S pride then gone for ever, Quenched with the flame in MITHRA'S caves? No--she has sons that never--never-- Will stoop to be the Moslem's slaves While heaven has light or earth has graves;-- Spirits of fire that brood not long But flash resentment back for wrong; And hearts where, slow but deep, the seeds Of vengeance ripen into deeds, Till in some treacherous hour of calm They burst like ZEILAN'S giant palm Whose buds fly open with a sound That shakes the pigmy forests round! Yes, EMIR! he, who scaled that tower, And had he reached thy slumbering breast Had taught thee in a Gheber's power How safe even tyrant heads may rest-- Is one of many, brave as he, Who loathe thy haughty race and thee; Who tho' they knew the strife is vain, Who tho' they know the riven chain Snaps but to enter in the heart Of him who rends its links apart, Yet dare the issue,--blest to be Even for one bleeding moment free And die in pangs of liberty! Thou knowest them well--'tis some moons since Thy turbaned troops and blood-red flags, Thou satrap of a bigot Prince, Have swarmed among these Green Sea crags; Yet here, even here, a sacred band Ay, in the portal of that land Thou, Arab, darest to call thy own, Their spears across thy path have thrown; Here--ere the winds half winged thee o'er-- Rebellion braved thee from the shore.

Rebellion! foul, dishonoring word, Whose wrongful blight so oft has stained The holiest cause that tongue or sword Of mortal ever lost or gained. How many a spirit born to bless Hath sunk beneath that withering name, Whom but a day's, an hour's success Had wafted to eternal fame! As exhalations when they burst From the warm earth if chilled at first, If checkt in soaring from the plain Darken to fogs and sink again;-- But if they once triumphant spread Their wings above the mountain-head, Become enthroned in upper air, And turn to sun-bright glories there!

And who is he that wields the might Of Freedom on the Green Sea brink, Before whose sabre's dazzling light The eyes of YEMEN'S warriors wink? Who comes embowered in the spears Of KERMAN'S hardy mountaineers? Those mountaineers that truest, last, Cling to their country's ancient rites, As if that God whose eyelids cast Their closing gleam on IRAN'S heights, Among her snowy mountains threw The last light of his worship too! 'Tis HAFED--name of fear, whose sound Chills like the muttering of a charm!-- Shout but that awful name around, And palsy shakes the manliest arm.

'Tis HAFED, most accurst and dire (So rankt by Moslem hate and ire) Of all the rebel Sons of Fire; Of whose malign, tremendous power The Arabs at their mid-watch hour Such tales of fearful wonder tell That each affrighted sentinel Pulls down his cowl upon his eyes, Lest HAFED in the midst should rise! A man, they say, of monstrous birth, A mingled race of flame and earth, Sprung from those old, enchanted kings Who in their fairy helms of yore A feather from the mystic wings Of the Simoorgh resistless wore; And gifted by the Fiends of Fire, Who groaned to see their shrines expire With charms that all in vain withstood Would drown the Koran's light in blood!

Such were the tales that won belief, And such the coloring Fancy gave To a young, warm, and dauntless Chief,-- One who, no more than mortal brave, Fought for the land his soul adored, For happy homes and altars free,-- His only talisman, the sword, His only spell-word, Liberty! One of that ancient hero line, Along whose glorious current shine Names that have sanctified their blood: As LEBANON'S small mountain-flood Is rendered holy by the ranks Of sainted cedars on its banks. 'Twas not for him to crouch the knee Tamely to Moslem tyranny; 'Twas not for him whose soul was cast In the bright mould of ages past, Whose melancholy spirit fed With all the glories of the dead Tho' framed for IRAN'S happiest years. Was born among her chains and tears!-- 'Twas not for him to swell the crowd Of slavish heads, that shrinking bowed Before the Moslem as he past Like shrubs beneath the poison-blast-- No--far he fled--indignant fled The pageant of his country's shame; While every tear her children shed Fell on his soul like drops of flame; And as a lover hails the dawn Of a first smile, so welcomed he The sparkle of the first sword drawn For vengeance and for liberty! But vain was valor--vain the flower Of KERMAN, in that deathful hour, Against AL HASSAN'S whelming power.-- In vain they met him helm to helm Upon the threshold of that realm He came in bigot pomp to sway, And with their corpses blockt his way-- In vain--for every lance they raised Thousands around the conqueror blazed; For every arm that lined their shore Myriads of slaves were wafted o'er,-- A bloody, bold, and countless crowd, Before whose swarm as fast they bowed As dates beneath the locust cloud.

There stood--but one short league away From old HARMOZIA'S sultry bay-- A rocky mountain o'er the Sea-- Of OMAN beetling awfully; A last and solitary link Of those stupendous chains that reach From the broad Caspian's reedy brink Down winding to the Green Sea beach. Around its base the bare rocks stood Like naked giants, in the flood As if to guard the Gulf across; While on its peak that braved the sky A ruined Temple towered so high That oft the sleeping albatross Struck the wild ruins with her wing, And from her cloud-rockt slumbering Started--to find man's dwelling there In her own silent fields of air! Beneath, terrific caverns gave Dark welcome to each stormy wave That dasht like midnight revellers in;-- And such the strange, mysterious din At times throughout those caverns rolled,-- And such the fearful wonders told Of restless sprites imprisoned there, That bold were Moslem who would dare At twilight hour to steer his skiff Beneath the Gheber's lonely cliff. On the land side those towers sublime, That seemed above the grasp of Time, Were severed from the haunts of men By a wide, deep, and wizard glen, So fathomless, so full of gloom, No eye could pierce the void between: It seemed a place where Ghouls might come With their foul banquets from the tomb And in its caverns feed unseen. Like distant thunder, from below The sound of many torrents came, Too deep for eye or ear to know If 'twere the sea's imprisoned flow, Or floods of ever-restless flame. For each ravine, each rocky spire Of that vast mountain stood on fire; And tho' for ever past the days When God was worshipt in the blaze-- That from its lofty altar shone,-- Tho' fled the priests, the votaries gone, Still did the mighty flame burn on, Thro' chance and change, thro' good and ill, Like its own God's eternal will, Deep, constant, bright, unquenchable!

Thither the vanquisht HAFED led His little army's last remains;-- "Welcome, terrific glen!" he said, "Thy gloom, that Eblis' self might dread, "Is Heaven to him who flies from chains!" O'er a dark, narrow bridge-way known To him and to his Chiefs alone They crost the chasm and gained the towers;-- "This home," he cried, "at least is ours; "Here we may bleed, unmockt by hymns "Of Moslem triumph o'er our head; "Here we may fall nor leave our limbs "To quiver to the Moslem's tread. "Stretched on this rock while vultures' beaks "Are whetted on our yet warm cheeks, "Here--happy that no tyrant's eye "Gloats on our torments--we may die!"--

'Twas night when to those towers they came, And gloomily the fitful flame That from the ruined altar broke Glared on his features as he spoke:-- "'Tis o'er--what men could do, we've done-- "If IRAN will look tamely on "And see her priests, her warriors driven "Before a sensual bigot's nod, "A wretch who shrines his lusts in heaven "And makes a pander of his God; "If her proud sons, her high-born souls, "Men in whose veins--oh last disgrace! "The blood of ZAL and RUSTAM rolls.-- "If they will court this upstart race "And turn from MITHRA'S ancient ray "To kneel at shrines of yesterday; "If they will crouch to IRAN'S foes, "Why, let them--till the land's despair "Cries out to Heaven, and bondage grows "Too vile for even the vile to bear! "Till shame at last, long hidden, burns "Their inmost core, and conscience turns "Each coward tear the slave lets fall "Back on his heart in drops of gall. "But here at least are arms unchained "And souls that thraldom never stained;-- "This spot at least no foot of slave "Or satrap ever yet profaned, "And tho' but few--tho' fast the wave "Of life is ebbing from our veins, "Enough for vengeance still remains. "As panthers after set of sun "Rush from the roots of LEBANON "Across the dark sea-robber's way, "We'll bound upon our startled prey. "And when some hearts that proudest swell "Have felt our falchion's last farewell, "When Hope's expiring throb is o'er "And even Despair can prompt no more, "This spot shall be the sacred grave "Of the last few who vainly brave "Die for the land they cannot save!"

His Chiefs stood round--each shining blade Upon the broken altar laid-- And tho' so wild and desolate Those courts where once the Mighty sate: Nor longer on those mouldering towers Was seen the feast of fruits and flowers With which of old the Magi fed The wandering Spirits of their Dead; Tho' neither priest nor rites were there, Nor charmed leaf of pure pomegranate, Nor hymn, nor censer's fragrant air, Nor symbol of their worshipt planet; Yet the same God that heard their sires Heard them while on that altar's fires They swore the latest, holiest deed Of the few hearts, still left to bleed, Should be in IRAN'S injured name To die upon that Mount of Flame-- The last of all her patriot line, Before her last untrampled Shrine!

Brave, suffering souls! they little knew How many a tear their injuries drew From one meek maid, one gentle foe, Whom love first touched with others' woe-- Whose life, as free from thought as sin, Slept like a lake till Love threw in His talisman and woke the tide And spread its trembling circles wide. Once, EMIR! thy unheeding child Mid all this havoc bloomed and smiled,-- Tranquil as on some battle plain The Persian lily shines and towers Before the combat's reddening stain Hath fallen upon her golden flowers. Light-hearted maid, unawed, unmoved, While Heaven but spared the sire she loved, Once at thy evening tales of blood Unlistening and aloof she stood-- And oft when thou hast paced along Thy Haram halls with furious heat, Hast thou not curst her cheerful song, That came across thee, calm and sweet, Like lutes of angels touched so near Hell's confines that the damned can hear!

Far other feelings Love hath brought-- Her soul all flame, her brow all sadness, She now has but the one dear thought, And thinks that o'er, almost to madness! Oft doth her sinking heart recall His words--"for my sake weep for all;" And bitterly as day on day Of rebel carnage fast succeeds, She weeps a lover snatched away In every Gheber wretch that bleeds. There's not a sabre meets her eye But with his life-blood seems to swim; There's not an arrow wings the sky But fancy turns its point to him. No more she brings with footsteps light AL HASSAN's falchion for the fight; And--had he lookt with clearer sight, Had not the mists that ever rise From a foul spirit dimmed his eyes-- He would have markt her shuddering frame, When from the field of blood he came, The faltering speech--the look estranged-- Voice, step and life and beauty changed-- He would have markt all this, and known Such change is wrought by Love alone! Ah! not the Love that should have blest So young, so innocent a breast; Not the pure, open, prosperous Love, That, pledged on earth and sealed above, Grows in the world's approving eyes, In friendship's smile and home's caress, Collecting all the heart's sweet ties Into one knot of happiness! No, HINDA, no,--thy fatal flame Is nurst in silence, sorrow, shame;-- A passion without hope or pleasure, In thy soul's darkness buried deep, It lies like some ill-gotten treasure,-- Some idol without shrine or name, O'er which its pale-eyed votaries keep Unholy watch while others sleep.

Seven nights have darkened OMAN'S sea, Since last beneath the moonlight ray She saw his light oar rapidly Hurry her Gheber's bark away,-- And still she goes at midnight hour To weep alone in that high bower And watch and look along the deep For him whose smiles first made her weep;-- But watching, weeping, all was vain, She never saw his bark again. The owlet's solitary cry, The night-hawk flitting darkly by, And oft the hateful carrion bird, Heavily flapping his clogged wing, Which reeked with that day's banqueting-- Was all she saw, was all she heard.

'Tis the eighth morn--AL HASSAN'S brow Is brightened with unusual joy-- What mighty mischief glads him now, Who never smiles but to destroy? The sparkle upon HERKEND'S Sea, When tost at midnight furiously, Tells not of wreck and ruin nigh, More surely than that smiling eye! "Up, daughter, up--the KERNA'S breath "Has blown a blast would waken death, "And yet thou sleepest--up, child, and see "This blessed day for heaven and me, "A day more rich in Pagan blood "Than ever flasht o'er OMAN'S flood. "Before another dawn shall shine, "His head--heart--limbs--will all be mine; "This very night his blood shall steep "These hands all over ere I sleep!"--

"His blood!" she faintly screamed--her mind Still singling one from all mankind-- "Yes--spite of his ravines and towers, "HAFED, my child, this night is ours. "Thanks to all-conquering treachery, "Without whose aid the links accurst, "That bind these impious slaves, would be "Too strong for ALLA'S self to burst! "That rebel fiend whose blade has spread "My path with piles of Moslem dead, "Whose baffling spells had almost driven "Back from their course the Swords of Heaven, "This night with all his band shall know "How deep an Arab's steel can go, "When God and Vengeance speed the blow. "And--Prophet! by that holy wreath "Thou worest on OHOD'S field of death, "I swear, for every sob that parts "In anguish from these heathen hearts, "A gem from PERSIA'S plundered mines "Shall glitter on thy shrine of Shrines. "But, ha!--she sinks--that look so wild-- "Those livid lips--my child, my child, "This life of blood befits not thee, "And thou must back to ARABY. "Ne'er had I riskt thy timid sex "In scenes that man himself might dread, "Had I not hoped our every tread "Would be on prostrate Persian necks-- "Curst race, they offer swords instead! "But cheer thee, maid,--the wind that now "Is blowing o'er thy feverish brow "To-day shall waft thee from the shore; "And ere a drop of this night's gore "Have time to chill in yonder towers, "Thou'lt see thy own sweet Arab bowers!"

His bloody boast was all too true; There lurkt one wretch among the few Whom HAFED'S eagle eye could count Around him on that Fiery Mount,-- One miscreant who for gold betrayed The pathway thro' the valley's shade To those high towers where Freedom stood In her last hold of flame and blood. Left on the field last dreadful night, When sallying from their sacred height The Ghebers fought hope's farewell fight, He lay--but died not with the brave; That sun which should have gilt his grave Saw him a traitor and a slave;-- And while the few who thence returned To their high rocky fortress mourned For him among the matchless dead They left behind on glory's bed, He lived, and in the face of morn Laught them and Faith and Heaven to scorn.

Oh for a tongue to curse the slave Whose treason like a deadly blight Comes o'er the councils of the brave And blasts them in their hour of might! May Life's unblessed cup for him Be drugged with treacheries to the brim.-- With hopes that but allure to fly, With joys that vanish while he sips, Like Dead-Sea fruits that tempt the eye, But turn to ashes on the lips! His country's curse, his children's shame, Outcast of virtue, peace and fame, May he at last with lips of flame On the parched desert thirsting die,-- While lakes that shone in mockery nigh, Are fading off, untouched, untasted, Like the once glorious hopes he blasted! And when from earth his spirit flies, Just Prophet, let the damned-one dwell Full in the sight of Paradise Beholding heaven and feeling hell!

LALLA ROOKH had the night before been visited by a dream which in spite of the impending fate of poor HAFED made her heart more than usually cheerful during the morning and gave her cheeks all the freshened animation of a flower that the Bidmusk had just passed over. She fancied that she was sailing on that Eastern Ocean where the sea-gypsies who live for ever on the water enjoy a perpetual summer in wandering from isle to isle when she saw a small gilded bark approaching her. It was like one of those boats which the Maldivian islanders send adrift, at the mercy of winds and waves, loaded with perfumes, flowers, and odoriferous wood, as an offering to the Spirit whom they call King of the Sea. At first, this little bark appeared to be empty but on coming nearer--

She had proceeded thus far in relating the dream to her Ladies, when FERAMORZ appeared at the door of the pavilion. In his presence of course everything else was forgotten and the continuance of the story was instantly requested by all. Fresh wood of aloes was set to burn in the cassolets;--the violet sherbets were hastily handed round, and after a short prelude on his lute in the pathetic measure of Nava, which is always used to express the lamentations of absent lovers, the Poet thus continued:--

The day is lowering--stilly black Sleeps the grim wave, while heaven's rack, Disperst and wild, 'twixt earth and sky Hangs like a shattered canopy. There's not a cloud in that blue plain But tells of storm to come or past;-- Here flying loosely as the mane Of a young war-horse in the blast;-- There rolled in masses dark and swelling, As proud to be the thunder's dwelling! While some already burst and riven Seen melting down the verge of heaven; As tho' the infant storm had rent The mighty womb that gave him birth, And having swept the firmament Was now in fierce career for earth.

On earth 'twas yet all calm around, A pulseless silence, dread, profound, More awful than the tempest's sound. The diver steered for ORMUS' bowers, And moored his skiff till calmer hours; The sea-birds with portentous screech Flew fast to land;--upon the beach The pilot oft had paused, with glance Turned upward to that wild expanse;-- And all was boding, drear and dark As her own soul when HINDA'S bark Went slowly from the Persian shore.-- No music timed her parting oar, Nor friends upon the lessening strand Lingering to wave the unseen hand Or speak the farewell, heard no more;-- But lone, unheeded, from the bay The vessel takes its mournful way, Like some ill-destined bark that steers In silence thro' the Gate of Tears. And where was stern AL HASSAN then? Could not that saintly scourge of men From bloodshed and devotion spare One minute for a farewell there? No--close within in changeful fits Of cursing and of prayer he sits In savage loneliness to brood Upon the coming night of blood,-- With that keen, second-scent of death, By which the vulture snuffs his food In the still warm and living breath! While o'er the wave his weeping daughter Is wafted from these scenes of slaughter,-- As a young bird of BABYLON, Let loose to tell of victory won, Flies home, with wing, ah! not unstained By the red hands that held her chained.

And does the long-left home she seeks Light up no gladness on her cheeks? The flowers she nurst--the well-known groves, Where oft in dreams her spirit roves-- Once more to see her dear gazelles Come bounding with their silver bells; Her birds' new plumage to behold And the gay, gleaming fishes count, She left all filleted with gold Shooting around their jasper fount; Her little garden mosque to see, And once again, at evening hour, To tell her ruby rosary In her own sweet acacia bower.-- Can these delights that wait her now Call up no sunshine on her brow? No,--silent, from her train apart,-- As if even now she felt at heart The chill of her approaching doom,-- She sits, all lovely in her gloom As a pale Angel of the Grave; And o'er the wide, tempestuous wave Looks with a shudder to those towers Where in a few short awful hours Blood, blood, in streaming tides shall run, Foul incense for to-morrow's sun! "Where art thou, glorious stranger! thou, "So loved, so lost, where art thou now? "Foe--Gheber--infidel--whate'er "The unhallowed name thou'rt doomed to bear, "Still glorious--still to this fond heart "Dear as its blood, whate'er thou art! "Yes--ALLA, dreadful ALLA! yes-- "If there be wrong, be crime in this, "Let the black waves that round us roll, "Whelm me this instant ere my soul "Forgetting faith--home--father--all "Before its earthly idol fall, "Nor worship even Thyself above him-- "For, oh, so wildly do I love him, "Thy Paradise itself were dim "And joyless, if not shared with him!" Her hands were claspt--her eyes upturned, Dropping their tears like moonlight rain; And, tho' her lip, fond raver! burned  With words of passion, bold, profane. Yet was there light around her brow,  A holiness in those dark eyes, Which showed,--tho' wandering earthward now,--  Her spirit's home was in the skies. Yes--for a spirit pure as hers Is always pure, even while it errs; As sunshine broken in the rill Tho' turned astray is sunshine still!

So wholly had her mind forgot All thoughts but one she heeded not The rising storm--the wave that cast A moment's midnight as it past-- Nor heard the frequent shout, the tread Of gathering tumult o'er her head-- Clasht swords and tongues that seemed to vie With the rude riot of the sky.-- But, hark!--that war-whoop on the deck-- That crash as if each engine there, Mast, sails and all, were gone to wreck, Mid yells and stampings of despair! Merciful Heaven! what can it be? 'Tis not the storm, tho' fearfully The ship has shuddered as she rode O'er mountain-waves--"Forgive me, God! "Forgive me"--shrieked the maid and knelt, Trembling all over--for she felt As if her judgment hour was near; While crouching round half dead with fear, Her handmaids clung, nor breathed nor stirred-- When, hark!--a second crash--a third-- And now as if a bolt of thunder Had riven the laboring planks asunder, The deck falls in--what horrors then! Blood, waves and tackle, swords and men Come mixt together thro' the chasm,-- Some wretches in their dying spasm Still fighting on--and some that call "For GOD and IRAN!" as they fall! Whose was the hand that turned away The perils of the infuriate fray, And snatcht her breathless from beneath This wilderment of wreck and death? She knew not--for a faintness came Chill o'er her and her sinking frame Amid the ruins of that hour Lay like a pale and scorched flower Beneath the red volcano's shower. But, oh! the sights and sounds of dread That shockt her ere her senses fled! The yawning deck--the crowd that strove Upon the tottering planks above-- The sail whose fragments, shivering o'er The stragglers' heads all dasht with gore Fluttered like bloody flags--the clash Of sabres and the lightning's flash Upon their blades, high tost about Like meteor brands --as if throughout The elements one fury ran, One general rage that left a doubt Which was the fiercer, Heaven or Man! Once too--but no--it could not be-- 'Twas fancy all--yet once she thought, While yet her fading eyes could see High on the ruined deck she caught A glimpse of that unearthly form, That glory of her soul,--even then, Amid the whirl of wreck and storm, Shining above his fellow-men, As on some black and troublous night The Star of EGYPT, whose proud light Never hath beamed on those who rest In the White Islands of the West, Burns thro' the storm with looks of flame That put Heaven's cloudier eyes to shame. But no--'twas but the minute's dream-- A fantasy--and ere the scream Had half-way past her pallid lips, A death-like swoon, a chill eclipse Of soul and sense its darkness spread Around her and she sunk as dead. How calm, how beautiful comes on The stilly hour when storms are gone, When warring winds have died away, And clouds beneath the glancing ray Melt off and leave the land and sea Sleeping in bright tranquillity,-- Fresh as if Day again were born, Again upon the lap of Morn!-- When the light blossoms rudely torn And scattered at the whirlwind's will, Hang floating in the pure air still, Filling it all with precious balm, In gratitude for this sweet calm;-- And every drop the thundershowers Have left upon the grass and flowers Sparkles, as 'twere that lightning-gem Whose liquid flame is born of them! When, 'stead of one unchanging breeze, There blow a thousand gentle airs And each a different perfume bears,-- As if the loveliest plants and trees Had vassal breezes of their own To watch and wait on them alone, And waft no other breath than theirs: When the blue waters rise and fall, In sleepy sunshine mantling all; And even that swell the tempest leaves Is like the full and silent heaves Of lovers' hearts when newly blest, Too newly to be quite at rest.

Such was the golden hour that broke Upon the world when HINDA woke From her long trance and heard around No motion but the water's sound Rippling against the vessel's side, As slow it mounted o'er the tide.-- But where is she?--her eyes are dark, Are wilder still--is this the bark, The same, that from HARMOZIA'S bay Bore her at morn--whose bloody way The sea-dog trackt?--no--strange and new Is all that meets her wondering view. Upon a galliot's deck she lies, Beneath no rich pavilion's shade,-- No plumes to fan her sleeping eyes, Nor jasmine on her pillow laid. But the rude litter roughly spread With war-cloaks is her homely bed, And shawl and sash on javelins hung For awning o'er her head are flung. Shuddering she lookt around--there lay A group of warriors in the sun, Resting their limbs, as for that day Their ministry of death were done. Some gazing on the drowsy sea Lost in unconscious revery; And some who seemed but ill to brook That sluggish calm with many a look To the slack sail impatient cast, As loose it bagged around the mast.

Blest ALLA! who shall save her now? There's not in all that warrior band One Arab sword, one turbaned brow From her own Faithful Moslem land. Their garb--the leathern belt that wraps Each yellow vest --that rebel hue-- The Tartar fleece upon their caps -- Yes--yes--her fears are all too true, And Heaven hath in this dreadful hour Abandoned her to HAFED'S power;-- HAFED, the Gheber!--at the thought Her very heart's blood chills within; He whom her soul was hourly taught To loathe as some foul fiend of sin, Some minister whom Hell had sent To spread its blast where'er he went And fling as o'er our earth he trod His shadow betwixt man and God! And she is now his captive,--thrown In his fierce hands, alive, alone; His the infuriate band she sees, All infidels--all enemies! What was the daring hope that then Crost her like lightning, as again With boldness that despair had lent She darted tho' that armed crowd A look so searching, so intent, That even the sternest warrior bowed Abasht, when he her glances caught, As if he guessed whose form they sought. But no--she sees him not--'tis gone, The vision that before her shone Thro' all the maze of blood and storm, Is fled--'twas but a phantom form-- One of those passing, rainbow dreams, Half light, half shade, which Fancy's beams Paint on the fleeting mists that roll In trance or slumber round the soul.

But now the bark with livelier bound Scales the blue wave--the crew's in motion. The oars are out and with light sound Break the bright mirror of the ocean, Scattering its brilliant fragments round. And now she sees--with horror sees, Their course is toward that mountain-hold,-- Those towers that make her life-blood freeze, Where MECCA'S godless enemies Lie like beleaguered scorpions rolled In their last deadly, venomous fold! Amid the illumined land and flood Sunless that mighty mountain stood; Save where above its awful head, There shone a flaming cloud, blood-red, As 'twere the flag of destiny Hung out to mark where death would be!

Had her bewildered mind the power Of thought in this terrific hour, She well might marvel where or how Man's foot could scale that mountain's brow, Since ne'er had Arab heard or known Of path but thro' the glen alone.-- But every thought was lost in fear, When, as their bounding bark drew near The craggy base, she felt the waves Hurry them toward those dismal caves That from the Deep in windings pass Beneath that Mount's volcanic mass;-- And loud a voice on deck commands To lower the mast and light the brands!-- Instantly o'er the dashing tide Within a cavern's mouth they glide, Gloomy as that eternal Porch Thro' which departed spirits go:-- Not even the flare of brand and torch Its flickering light could further throw Than the thick flood that boiled below. Silent they floated--as if each Sat breathless, and too awed for speech In that dark chasm where even sound Seemed dark,--so sullenly around The goblin echoes of the cave Muttered it o'er the long black wave As 'twere some secret of the grave!

But soft--they pause--the current turns Beneath them from its onward track;-- Some mighty, unseen barrier spurns The vexed tide all foaming back, And scarce the oar's redoubled force Can stem the eddy's whirling course; When, hark!--some desperate foot has sprung Among the rocks--the chain is flung-- The oars are up--the grapple clings, And the tost bark in moorings swings. Just then, a day-beam thro' the shade Broke tremulous--but ere the maid Can see from whence the brightness steals, Upon her brow she shuddering feels A viewless hand that promptly ties A bandage round her burning eyes; While the rude litter where she lies, Uplifted by the warrior throng, O'er the steep rocks is borne along.

Blest power of sunshine!--genial Day, What balm, what life is in thy ray! To feel thee is such real bliss, That had the world no joy but this To sit in sunshine calm and sweet.-- It were a world too exquisite For man to leave it for the gloom, The deep, cold shadow of the tomb. Even HINDA, tho' she saw not where Or whither wound the perilous road, Yet knew by that awakening air, Which suddenly around her glowed, That they had risen from the darkness there, And breathed the sunny world again!

But soon this balmy freshness fled-- For now the steepy labyrinth led Thro' damp and gloom--mid crash of boughs, And fall of loosened crags that rouse The leopard from his hungry sleep, Who starting thinks each crag a prey, And long is heard from steep to steep Chasing them down their thundering way! The jackal's cry--the distant moan Of the hyena, fierce and lone-- And that eternal saddening sound Of torrents in the glen beneath, As 'twere the ever-dark Profound That rolls beneath the Bridge of Death! All, all is fearful--even to see, To gaze on those terrific things She now but blindly hears, would be Relief to her imaginings; Since never yet was shape so dread, But Fancy thus in darkness thrown And by such sounds of horror fed Could frame more dreadful of her own.

But does she dream? has Fear again Perplext the workings of her brain, Or did a voice, all music, then Come from the gloom, low whispering near-- "Tremble not, love, thy Gheber's here?" She does not dream--all sense, all ear, She drinks the words, "Thy Gheber's here." 'Twas his own voice--she could not err-- Throughout the breathing world's extent There was but one such voice for her, So kind, so soft, so eloquent! Oh, sooner shall the rose of May Mistake her own sweet nightingale, And to some meaner minstrel's lay Open her bosom's glowing veil, Than Love shall ever doubt a tone, A breath of the beloved one!

Though blest mid all her ills to think She has that one beloved near, Whose smile tho' met on ruin's brink Hath power to make even ruin dear,-- Yet soon this gleam of rapture crost By fears for him is chilled and lost. How shall the ruthless HAFED brook That one of Gheber blood should look, With aught but curses in his eye, On her--a maid of ARABY-- A Moslem maid--the child of him, Whose bloody banners' dire success Hath left their altars cold and dim, And their fair land a wilderness! And worse than all that night of blood Which comes so fast--Oh! who shall stay The sword, that once hath tasted food Of Persian hearts or turn its way? What arm shall then the victim cover, Or from her father shield her lover?

"Save him, my God!" she inly cries-- "Save him this night--and if thine eyes "Have ever welcomed with delight "The sinner's tears, the sacrifice "Of sinners' hearts--guard him this night, "And here before thy throne I swear "From my heart's inmost core to tear "Love, hope, remembrance, tho' they be "Linkt with each quivering life-string there, "And give it bleeding all to Thee! "Let him but live,--the burning tear, "The sighs, so sinful, yet so dear, "Which have been all too much his own, "Shall from this hour be Heaven's alone. "Youth past in penitence and age "In long and painful pilgrimage "Shall leave no traces of the flame "That wastes me now--nor shall his name "E'er bless my lips but when I pray "For his dear spirit, that away "Casting from its angelic ray "The eclipse of earth, he too may shine "Redeemed, all glorious and all Thine! "Think--think what victory to win "One radiant soul like his from sin, "One wandering star of virtue back "To its own native, heavenward track! "Let him but live, and both are Thine, "Together Thine--for blest or crost, "Living or dead, his doom is mine, "And if he perish, both are lost!"

The next evening LALLA ROOKH was entreated by her Ladies to continue the relation of her wonderful dream; but the fearful interest that hung round the fate of HINDA and her lover had completely removed every trace of it from her mind;--much to the disappointment of a fair seer or two in her train, who prided themselves on their skill in interpreting visions, and who had already remarked, as an unlucky omen, that the Princess, on the very morning after the dream, had worn a silk dyed with the blossoms of the sorrowful tree, Nilica.

FADLADEEN, whose indignation had more than once broken out during the recital of some parts of this heterodox poem, seemed at length to have made up his mind to the infliction; and took his seat this evening with all the patience of a martyr while the Poet resumed his profane and seditious story as follows:--

To tearless eyes and hearts at ease The leafy shores and sun-bright seas That lay beneath that mountain's height Had been a fair enchanting sight. 'Twas one of those ambrosial eyes A day of storm so often leaves At its calm setting--when the West Opens her golden bowers of rest, And a moist radiance from the skies Shoots trembling down, as from the eyes Of some meek penitent whose last Bright hours atone for dark ones past, And whose sweet tears o'er wrong forgiven Shine as they fall with light from heaven!

'Twas stillness all--the winds that late Had rushed through KERMAN'S almond groves, And shaken from her bowers of date That cooling feast the traveller loves. Now lulled to languor scarcely curl The Green Sea wave whose waters gleam Limpid as if her mines of pearl Were melted all to form the stream: And her fair islets small and bright With their green shores reflected there Look like those PERI isles of light That hang by spell-work in the air

But vainly did those glories burst On HINDA'S dazzled eyes, when first The bandage from her brow was taken, And, pale and awed as those who waken In their dark tombs--when, scowling near, The Searchers of the Grave appear.-- She shuddering turned to read her fate In the fierce eyes that flasht around; And saw those towers all desolate, That o'er her head terrific frowned, As if defying even the smile Of that soft heaven to gild their pile. In vain with mingled hope and fear, She looks for him whose voice so dear Had come, like music, to her ear,-- Strange, mocking dream! again 'tis fled. And oh, the shoots, the pangs of dread That thro' her inmost bosom run, When voices from without proclaim "HAFED, the Chief"--and, one by one, The warriors shout that fearful name! He comes--the rock resounds his tread-- How shall she dare to lift her head Or meet those eyes whose scorching glare Not YEMEN'S boldest sons can bear? In whose red beam, the Moslem tells, Such rank and deadly lustre dwells As in those hellish fires that light The mandrake's charnel leaves at night. How shall she bear that voice's tone, At whose loud battle-cry alone Whole squadrons oft in panic ran, Scattered like some vast caravan, When stretched at evening round the well They hear the thirsting tiger's yell.

Breathless she stands with eyes cast down Shrinking beneath the fiery frown Which, fancy tells her, from that brow Is flashing o'er her fiercely now: And shuddering as she hears the tread Of his retiring warrior band.-- Never was pause full of dread; Till HAFED with a trembling hand Took hers and leaning o'er her said, "HINDA;"--that word was all he spoke. And 'twas enough--the shriek that broke From her full bosom told the rest.-- Panting with terror, joy, surprise, The maid but lifts her wandering eyes, To hide them on her Gheber's breast! 'Tis he, 'tis he--the man of blood, The fellest of the Fire-fiend's brood, HAFED, the demon of the fight, Whose voice unnerves, whose glances blight,-- Is her own loved Gheber, mild And glorious as when first he smiled In her lone tower and left such beams Of his pure eye to light her dreams, That she believed her bower had given Rest to some wanderer from heaven!

Moments there are, and this was one, Snatched like a minute's gleam of sun Amid the black Simoom's eclipse-- Or like those verdant spots that bloom Around the crater's burning lips. Sweetening the very edge of doom! The past, the future--all that Fate Can bring of dark or desperate Around such hours but makes them cast Intenser radiance while they last! Even he, this youth--tho' dimmed and gone Each Star of Hope that cheered him on-- His glories lost--his cause betrayed-- IRAN, his dear-loved country, made A land of carcasses and slaves, One dreary waste of chains and graves! Himself but lingering, dead at heart, To see the last, long struggling breath Of Liberty's great soul depart, Then lay him down and share her death-- Even he so sunk in wretchedness With doom still darker gathering o'er him, Yet, in this moment's pure caress, In the mild eyes that shone before him, Beaming that blest assurance worth All other transports known on earth. That he was loved-well, warmly loved-- Oh! in this precious hour he proved How deep, how thorough-felt the glow Of rapture kindling out of woe;-- How exquisite one single drop Of bliss thus sparkling to the top Of misery's cup--how keenly quaft, Tho' death must follow on the draught!

She too while gazing on those eyes That sink into her soul so deep, Forgets all fears, all miseries, Or feels them like the wretch in sleep, Whom fancy cheats into a smile. Who dreams of joy and sobs the while! The mighty Ruins where they stood Upon the mount's high, rocky verge Lay open towards the ocean flood, Where lightly o'er the illumined surge Many a fair bark that, all the day, Had lurkt in sheltering creek or bay Now bounded on and gave their sails, Yet dripping to the evening gales; Like eagles when the storm is done, Spreading their wet wings in the sun. The beauteous clouds, tho' daylight's Star Had sunk behind the hills of LAR, Were still with lingering glories bright.-- As if to grace the gorgeous West The Spirit of departing Light That eve had left his sunny vest Behind him ere he winged his flight. Never was scene so formed for love! Beneath them waves of crystal move In silent swell--Heaven glows above And their pure hearts, to transport given, Swell like the wave and glow like heaven.

But ah! too soon that dream is past-- Again, again her fear returns;-- Night, dreadful night, is gathering fast, More faintly the horizon burns, And every rosy tint that lay On the smooth sea hath died away Hastily to the darkening skies A glance she casts--then wildly cries "At night, he said--and look, 'tis near-- "Fly, fly--if yet thou lovest me, fly-- "Soon will his murderous band be here. "And I shall see thee bleed and die.-- "Hush! heardest thou not the tramp of men "Sounding from yonder fearful glen?-- "Perhaps, even now they climb the wood-- "Fly, fly--tho' still the West is bright, "He'll come--oh! yes--he wants thy blood-- "I know him--he'll not wait for night!"

In terrors even to agony She clings around the wondering Chief;-- "Alas, poor wildered maid! to me "Thou owest this raving trance of grief. "Lost as I am, naught ever grew "Beneath my shade but perisht too-- "My doom is like the Dead Sea air, "And nothing lives that enters there! "Why were our barks together driven "Beneath this morning's furious heaven? "Why when I saw the prize that chance "Had thrown into my desperate arms,-- "When casting but a single glance "Upon thy pale and prostrate charms, "I vowed (tho' watching viewless o'er "Thy safety thro' that hour's alarms) "To meet the unmanning sight no more-- "Why have I broke that heart-wrung vow? "Why weakly, madly met thee now? "Start not--that noise is but the shock "Of torrents thro' yon valley hurled-- "Dread nothing here--upon this rock "We stand above the jarring world, "Alike beyond its hope--its dread-- "In gloomy safety like the Dead! "Or could even earth and hell unite "In league to storm this Sacred Height, "Fear nothing thou--myself, tonight, "And each o'erlooking star that dwells "Near God will be thy sentinels;-- "And ere to-morrow's dawn shall glow, "Back to thy sire"--   "To-morrow!--no"-- The maiden screamed--"Thou'lt never see "To-morrow's sun--death, death will be "The night-cry thro' each reeking tower, "Unless we fly, ay, fly this hour! "Thou art betrayed--some wretch who knew "That dreadful glen's mysterious clew- "Nay, doubt not--by yon stars, 'tis true-- "Hath sold thee to my vengeful sire; "This morning, with that smile so dire "He wears in joy he told me all "And stampt in triumph thro' our hall, "As tho' thy heart already beat "Its last life-throb beneath his feet! "Good Heaven, how little dreamed I then "His victim was my own loved youth!-- "Fly--send--let some one watch the glen-- "By all my hopes of heaven 'tis truth!"

Oh! colder than the wind that freezes Founts that but now in sunshine played, Is that congealing pang which seizes The trusting bosom, when betrayed. He felt it--deeply felt--and stood, As if the tale had frozen his blood, So mazed and motionless was he;-- Like one whom sudden spells enchant, Or some mute, marble habitant Of the still Halls of ISHMONIE! But soon the painful chill was o'er, And his great soul herself once more Lookt from his brow in all the rays Of her best, happiest, grandest days. Never in moment most elate Did that high spirit loftier rise:-- While bright, serene, determinate, His looks are lifted to the skies, As if the signal lights of Fate Were shining in those awful eyes! 'Tis come--his hour of martyrdom In IRAN'S sacred cause is come; And tho' his life hath past away Like lightning on a stormy day, Yet shall his death-hour leave a track Of glory permanent and bright To which the brave of after-times, The suffering brave, shall long look back With proud regret,--and by its light Watch thro' the hours of slavery's night For vengeance on the oppressor's crimes. This rock, his monument aloft, Shall speak the tale to many an age; And hither bards and heroes oft Shall come in secret pilgrimage, And bring their warrior sons and tell The wondering boys where HAFED fell; And swear them on those lone remains Of their lost country's ancient fanes, Never--while breath of life shall live Within them--never to forgive The accursed race whose ruthless chain Hath left on IRAN'S neck a stain Blood, blood alone can cleanse again!

Such are the swelling thoughts that now Enthrone themselves on HAFED'S brow; And ne'er did Saint of ISSA gaze On the red wreath for martyrs twined. More proudly than the youth surveys That pile which thro' the gloom behind, Half lighted by the altar's fire, Glimmers--his destined funeral pyre! Heaped by his own, his comrades hands, Of every wood of odorous breath. There, by the Fire-God's shrine it stands, Ready to fold in radiant death The few still left of those who swore To perish there when hope was o'er-- The few to whom that couch of flame, Which rescues them from bonds and shame, Is sweet and welcome as the bed For their own infant Prophet spread, When pitying Heaven to roses turned The death-flames that beneath him burned!

With watchfulness the maid attends His rapid glance where'er it bends-- Why shoot his eyes such awful beams? What plans he now? what thinks or dreams? Alas! why stands he musing here, When every moment teems with fear? "HAFED, my own beloved Lord," She kneeling cries--"first, last adored! "If in that soul thou'st ever felt "Half what thy lips impassioned swore, "Here on my knees that never knelt "To any but their God before, "I pray thee, as thou lovest me, fly-- "Now, now--ere yet their blades are nigh. "Oh haste--the bark that bore me hither "Can waft us o'er yon darkening sea "East--west--alas, I care not whither, "So thou art safe, and I with thee! "Go where we will, this hand in thine, "Those eyes before me smiling thus, "Thro' good and ill, thro' storm and shine, "The world's a world of love for us! "On some calm, blessed shore we'll dwell, "Where 'tis no crime to love too well; "Where thus to worship tenderly "An erring child of light like thee "Will not be sin--or if it be "Where we may weep our faults away, "Together kneeling, night and day, "Thou, for my sake, at ALLA'S shrine, "And I--at any God's, for thine!"

Wildly these passionate words she spoke-- Then hung her head and wept for shame; Sobbing as if a heart-string broke With every deep-heaved sob that came, While he, young, warm--oh! wonder not If, for a moment, pride and fame; His oath--his cause--that shrine of flame, And IRAN'S self are all forgot For her, whom at his feet he sees Kneeling in speechless agonies. No, blame him not if Hope awhile Dawned in his soul and threw her smile O'er hours to come--o'er days and nights, Winged with those precious, pure delights Which she who bends all beauteous there Was born to kindle and to share. A tear or two which as he bowed To raise the suppliant, trembling stole, First warned him of this dangerous cloud Of softness passing o'er his soul. Starting he brusht the drops away Unworthy o'er that cheek to stray;-- Like one who on the morn of fight Shakes from his sword the dews of night, That had but dimmed not stained its light.

Yet tho' subdued the unnerving thrill, Its warmth, its weakness lingered still So touching in each look and tone, That the fond, fearing, hoping maid Half counted on the flight she prayed, Half thought the hero's soul was grown As soft, as yielding as her own, And smiled and blest him while he said,-- "Yes--if there be some happier sphere "Where fadeless truth like ours is dear.-- "If there be any land of rest "For those who love and ne'er forget, "Oh! comfort thee--for safe and blest "We'll meet in that calm region yet!"

Scarce had she time to ask her heart If good or ill these words impart, When the roused youth impatient flew To the tower-wall, where high in view A ponderous sea-horn hung, and blew A signal deep and dread as those The storm-fiend at his rising blows.-- Full well his Chieftains, sworn and true Thro' life and death, that signal knew; For 'twas the appointed warning-blast, The alarm to tell when hope was past And the tremendous death-die cast! And there upon the mouldering tower Hath hung this sea-horn many an hour, Ready to sound o'er land and sea That dirge-note of the brave and free.

They came--his Chieftains at the call Came slowly round and with them all-- Alas, how few!--the worn remains Of those who late o'er KERMAN'S plains When gayly prancing to the clash Of Moorish zel and tymbalon Catching new hope from every flash Of their long lances in the sun, And as their coursers charged the wind And the white ox-tails streamed behind, Looking as if the steeds they rode Were winged and every Chief a God! How fallen, how altered now! how wan Each scarred and faded visage shone, As round the burning shrine they came;-- How deadly was the glare it cast, As mute they paused before the flame To light their torches as they past! 'Twas silence all--the youth hath planned The duties of his soldier-band; And each determined brow declares His faithful Chieftains well know theirs. But minutes speed--night gems the skies-- And oh, how soon, ye blessed eyes That look from heaven ye may behold Sights that will turn your star-fires cold! Breathless with awe, impatience, hope, The maiden sees the veteran group Her litter silently prepare, And lay it at her trembling feet;-- And now the youth with gentle care, Hath placed her in the sheltered seat And prest her hand--that lingering press Of hands that for the last time sever; Of hearts whose pulse of happiness When that hold breaks is dead for ever. And yet to her this sad caress Gives hope--so fondly hope can err! 'Twas joy, she thought, joy's mute excess-- Their happy flight's dear harbinger; 'Twas warmth--assurance--tenderness-- 'Twas any thing but leaving her.

"Haste, haste!" she cried, "the clouds grow dark, "But still, ere night, we'll reach the bark; "And by to-morrow's dawn--oh bliss! "With thee upon the sun-bright deep, "Far off, I'll but remember this, "As some dark vanisht dream of sleep; "And thou"--but ah!--he answers not-- Good Heaven!--and does she go alone? She now has reached that dismal spot, Where some hours since his voice's tone Had come to soothe her fears and ills, Sweet as the angel ISRAFIL'S, When every leaf on Eden's tree Is trembling to his minstrelsy-- Yet now--oh, now, he is not nigh.-- "HAFED! my HAFED!--if it be "Thy will, thy doom this night to die "Let me but stay to die with thee "And I will bless thy loved name, "Till the last life-breath leave this frame. "Oh! let our lips, our cheeks be laid "But near each other while they fade; "Let us but mix our parting breaths, "And I can die ten thousand deaths! "You too, who hurry me away "So cruelly, one moment stay-- "Oh! stay--one moment is not much-- "He yet may come--for him I pray-- "HAFED! dear HAFED!"--all the way In wild lamentings that would touch A heart of stone she shrieked his name To the dark woods--no HAFED came:-- No--hapless pair--you've lookt your last:--  Your hearts should both have broken then:-- The dream is o'er--your doom is cast--  You'll never meet on earth again!

Alas for him who hears her cries! Still half-way down the steep he stands, Watching with fixt and feverish eyes The glimmer of those burning brands That down the rocks with mournful ray, Light all he loves on earth away! Hopeless as they who far at sea By the cold moon have just consigned The corse of one loved tenderly To the bleak flood they leave behind, And on the deck still lingering stay, And long look back with sad delay To watch the moonlight on the wave That ripples o'er that cheerless grave.

But see--he starts--what heard he then? That dreadful shout!--across the glen From the land-side it comes and loud Rings thro' the chasm, as if the crowd Of fearful things that haunt that dell Its Ghouls and Divs and shapes of hell, And all in one dread howl broke out, So loud, so terrible that shout! "They come--the Moslems come!"--he cries, His proud soul mounting to his eyes,-- "Now, Spirits of the Brave, who roam "Enfranchised thro' yon starry dome, "Rejoice--for souls of kindred fire "Are on the wing to join your choir!" He said--and, light as bridegrooms bound To their young loves, reclined the steep And gained the Shrine--his Chiefs stood round--  Their swords, as with instinctive leap, Together at that cry accurst Had from their sheaths like sunbeams burst. And hark!--again--again it rings; Near and more near its echoings Peal thro' the chasm--oh! who that then Had seen those listening warrior-men, With their swords graspt, their eyes of flame Turned on their Chief--could doubt the shame, The indignant shame with which they thrill To hear those shouts and yet stand still?

He read their thoughts--they were his own-- "What! while our arms can wield these blades, "Shall we die tamely? die alone? "Without one victim to our shades, "One Moslem heart, where buried deep "The sabre from its toil may sleep? "No--God of IRAN'S burning skies! "Thou scornest the inglorious sacrifice. "No--tho' of all earth's hope bereft, "Life, swords, and vengeance still are left. "We'll make yon valley's reeking caves "Live in the awe-struck minds of men "Till tyrants shudder, when their slaves "Tell of the Gheber's bloody glen, "Follow, brave hearts!--this pile remains "Our refuge still from life and chains; "But his the best, the holiest bed, "Who sinks entombed in Moslem dead!"

Down the precipitous rocks they sprung, While vigor more than human strung Each arm and heart.--The exulting foe Still thro' the dark defiles below, Trackt by his torches' lurid fire, Wound slow, as thro' GOLCONDA'S vale The mighty serpent in his ire Glides on with glittering, deadly trail. No torch the Ghebers need--so well They know each mystery of the dell, So oft have in their wanderings Crost the wild race that round them dwell, The very tigers from their delves Look out and let them pass as things Untamed and fearless like themselves!

There was a deep ravine that lay Yet darkling in the Moslem's way; Fit spot to make invaders rue The many fallen before the few. The torrents from that morning's sky Had filled the narrow chasm breast-high, And on each side aloft and wild Huge cliffs and toppling crags were piled,-- The guards with which young Freedom lines The pathways to her mountain-shrines, Here at this pass the scanty band; Of IRAN'S last avengers stand; Here wait in silence like the dead And listen for the Moslem's tread So anxiously the carrion-bird Above them flaps his wing unheard!

They come--that plunge into the water Gives signal for the work of slaughter. Now, Ghebers, now--if e'er your blades Had point or prowess prove them now-- Woe to the file that foremost wades! They come--a falchion greets each brow, And as they tumble trunk on trunk Beneath the gory waters sunk, Still o'er their drowning bodies press New victims quick and numberless; Till scarce an arm in HAFED'S band, So fierce their toil, hath power to stir, But listless from each crimson hand The sword hangs clogged with massacre. Never was horde of tyrants met With bloodier welcome--never yet To patriot vengeance hath the sword More terrible libations poured!

All up the dreary, long ravine, By the red, murky glimmer seen Of half-quenched brands, that o'er the flood Lie scattered round and burn in blood, What ruin glares! what carnage swims! Heads, blazing turbans, quivering limbs, Lost swords that dropt from many a hand, In that thick pool of slaughter stand;-- Wretches who wading, half on fire From the tost brands that round them fly, 'Twixt flood and flame in shrieks expire;-- And some who grasp by those that die Sink woundless with them, smothered o'er In their dead brethren's gushing gore!

But vainly hundreds, thousands bleed, Still hundreds, thousands more succeed; Countless as toward some flame at night The North's dark insects wing their flight And quench or perish in its light, To this terrific spot they pour-- Till, bridged with Moslem bodies o'er, It bears aloft their slippery tread, And o'er the dying and the dead, Tremendous causeway! on they pass. Then, hapless Ghebers, then, alas, What hope was left for you? for you, Whose yet warm pile of sacrifice Is smoking in their vengeful eyes;-- Whose swords how keen, how fierce they knew. And burned with shame to find how few.

Crusht down by that vast multitude Some found their graves where first they stood; While some with hardier struggle died, And still fought on by HAFED'S side, Who fronting to the foe trod back Towards the high towers his gory track; And as a lion swept away By sudden swell of JORDAN'S pride From the wild covert where he lay, Long battles with the o'erwhelming tide, So fought he back with fierce delay And kept both foes and fate at bay.

But whither now? their track is lost, Their prey escaped--guide, torches gone-- By torrent-beds and labyrinths crost, The scattered crowd rush blindly on-- "Curse on those tardy lights that wind," They panting cry, "so far behind; "Oh, for a bloodhound's precious scent, "To track the way the Ghebers went!" Vain wish--confusedly along They rush more desperate as more wrong: Till wildered by the far-off lights, Yet glittering up those gloomy heights, Their footing mazed and lost they miss, And down the darkling precipice Are dasht into the deep abyss; Or midway hang impaled on rocks, A banquet yet alive for flocks Of ravening vultures,--while the dell Re-echoes with each horrible yell. Those sounds--the last, to vengeance dear. That e'er shall ring in HAFED'S ear,-- Now reached him as aloft alone Upon the steep way breathless thrown, He lay beside his reeking blade, Resigned, as if life's task were o'er, Its last blood-offering amply paid, And IRAN'S self could claim no more. One only thought, one lingering beam Now broke across his dizzy dream Of pain and weariness--'twas she, His heart's pure planet shining yet Above the waste of memory When all life's other lights were set. And never to his mind before Her image such enchantment wore. It seemed as if each thought that stained, Each fear that chilled their loves was past, And not one cloud of earth remained Between him and her radiance cast;-- As if to charms, before so bright, New grace from other worlds was given. And his soul saw her by the light Now breaking o'er itself from heaven!

A voice spoke near him--'twas the tone Of a loved friend, the only one Of all his warriors left with life From that short night's tremendous strife.-- "And must we then, my chief, die here? "Foes round us and the Shrine so near!" These words have roused the last remains Of life within him:--"What! not yet "Beyond the reach of Moslem chains!"

The thought could make even Death forget His icy bondage:--with a bound He springs all bleeding from the ground And grasps his comrade's arm now grown Even feebler, heavier than his own. And up the painful pathway leads, Death gaining on each step he treads. Speed them, thou God, who heardest their vow! They mount--they bleed--oh save them now-- The crags are red they've clambered o'er, The rock-weed's dripping with their gore;-- Thy blade too, HAFED, false at length, How breaks beneath thy tottering strength! Haste, haste--the voices of the Foe Come near and nearer from below-- One effort more--thank Heaven! 'tis past, They've gained the topmost steep at last. And now they touch the temple's walls. Now HAFED sees the Fire divine-- When, lo!--his weak, worn comrade falls Dead on the threshold of the shrine. "Alas, brave soul, too quickly fled! "And must I leave thee withering here, "The sport of every ruffian's tread, "The mark for every coward's spear? "No, by yon altar's sacred beams!" He cries and with a strength that seems Not of this world uplifts the frame Of the fallen Chief and toward the flame Bears him along; with death-damp hand The corpse upon the pyre he lays, Then lights the consecrated brand And fires the pile whose sudden blaze Like lightning bursts o'er OMAN'S Sea.-- "Now, Freedom's God! I come to Thee," The youth exclaims and with a smile Of triumph vaulting on the pile, In that last effort ere the fires Have harmed one glorious limb expires!

What shriek was that on OMAN'S tide? It came from yonder drifting bark, That just hath caught upon her side The death-light--and again is dark. It is the boat--ah! why delayed?-- That bears the wretched Moslem maid; Confided to the watchful care Of a small veteran band with whom Their generous Chieftain would not share The secret of his final doom, But hoped when HINDA safe and free Was rendered to her father's eyes, Their pardon full and prompt would be The ransom of so dear a prize.-- Unconscious thus of HAFED'S fate, And proud to guard their beauteous freight, Scarce had they cleared the surfy waves That foam around those frightful caves When the curst war-whoops known so well Came echoing from the distant dell-- Sudden each oar, upheld and still, Hung dripping o'er the vessel's side, And driving at the current's will, They rockt along the whispering tide; While every eye in mute dismay Was toward that fatal mountain turned. Where the dim altar's quivering ray As yet all lone and tranquil burned.

Oh! 'tis not, HINDA, in the power Of Fancy's most terrific touch To paint thy pangs in that dread hour-- Thy silent agony--'twas such As those who feel could paint too well, But none e'er felt and lived to tell! 'Twas not alone the dreary state Of a lorn spirit crusht by fate, When tho' no more remains to dread The panic chill will not depart;-- When tho' the inmate Hope be dead, Her ghost still haunts the mouldering heart; No--pleasures, hopes, affections gone, The wretch may bear and yet live on Like things within the cold rock found Alive when all's congealed around. But there's a blank repose in this, A calm stagnation, that were bliss To the keen, burning, harrowing pain, Now felt thro' all thy breast and brain;-- That spasm of terror, mute, intense, That breathless, agonized suspense From whose hot throb whose deadly aching, The heart hath no relief but breaking!

Calm is the wave--heaven's brilliant lights Reflected dance beneath the prow;-- Time was when on such lovely nights She who is there so desolate now Could sit all cheerful tho' alone And ask no happier joy than seeing That starlight o'er the waters thrown-- No joy but that to make her blest, And the fresh, buoyant sense of Being Which bounds in youth's yet careless breast,-- Itself a star not borrowing light But in its own glad essence bright. How different now!--but, hark! again The yell of havoc rings--brave men! In vain with beating hearts ye stand On the bark's edge--in vain each hand Half draws the falchion from its sheath; All's o'er--in rust your blades may lie:-- He at whose word they've scattered death Even now this night himself must die! Well may ye look to yon dim tower, And ask and wondering guess what means The battle-cry at this dead hour-- Ah! she could tell you--she who leans Unheeded there, pale, sunk, aghast, With brow against the dew-cold mast;-- Too well she knows--her more than life, Her soul's first idol and its last Lies bleeding in that murderous strife. But see--what moves upon the height? Some signal!--'tis a torch's light What bodes its solitary glare? In gasping silence toward the Shrine All eyes are turned--thine, HINDA, thine Fix their last fading life-beams there. 'Twas but a moment--fierce and high The death-pile blazed into the sky And far-away o'er rock and flood Its melancholy radiance sent: While HAFED like a vision stood Revealed before the burning pyre. Tall, shadowy, like a Spirit of fire Shrined in its own grand element! "'Tis he!"--the shuddering maid exclaims,-- But while she speaks he's seen no more; High burst in air the funeral flames, And IRAN'S hopes and hers are o'er!

One wild, heart-broken shriek she gave; Then sprung as if to reach that blaze Where still she fixt her dying gaze, And gazing sunk into the wave.-- Deep, deep,--where never care or pain Shall reach her innocent heart again!

*      *       *       *       *

Farewell--farewell to thee. ARABY'S daughter! (Thus warbled a PERI beneath the dark sea,) No pearl ever lay under OMAN'S green water More pure in its shell than thy Spirit in thee.

Oh! fair as the sea-flower close to thee growing, How light was thy heart till Love's witchery came, Like the wind of the south o'er a summer lute blowing, And husht all its music and withered its frame!

But long upon ARABY'S green sunny highlands Shall maids and their lovers remember the doom Of her who lies sleeping among the Pearl Islands With naught but the sea-star to light up her tomb.

And still when the merry date-season is burning And calls to the palm-groves the young and the old, The happiest there from their pastime returning At sunset will weep when thy story is told.

The young village-maid when with flowers she dresses Her dark flowing hair for some festival day Will think of thy fate till neglecting her tresses She mournfully turns from the mirror away.

Nor shall IRAN, beloved of her Hero! forget thee-- Tho' tyrants watch over her tears as they start, Close, close by the side of that Hero she'll set thee, Embalmed in the innermost shrine of her heart.

Farewell--be it ours to embellish thy pillow With everything beauteous that grows in the deep; Each flower of the rock and each gem of the billow Shall sweeten thy bed and illumine thy sleep.

Around thee shall glisten the loveliest amber That ever the sorrowing sea-bird has wept; With many a shell in whose hollow-wreathed chamber We Peris of Ocean by moonlight have slept.

We'll dive where the gardens of coral lie darkling And plant all the rosiest stems at thy head; We'll seek where the sands of the Caspian are sparkling And gather their gold to strew over thy bed.

Farewell--farewell!--Until Pity's sweet fountain Is lost in the hearts of the fair and the brave, They'll weep for the Chieftain who died on that mountain, They'll weep for the Maiden who sleeps in this wave.