Page:Lalla Rookh - Moore - 1817.djvu/54

 Thou laugh'st, tormentor,--what!--thou it brand my name? "Do, do--in vain--he'll not believe my shame-- "He thinks me true, that naught beneath God's sky "Could tempt or change me, and--so once thought I. "But this is past--tho' worse than death my lot, "Than hell--'tis nothing while he knows it not. "Far off to some benighted land I'll fly, "Where sunbeam ne'er shall enter till I die; "Where none will ask the lost one whence she came, "But I may fade and fall without a name. "And thou--curst man or fiend, whate'er thou art, "Who found'st this burning plague-spot in my heart, "And spread'st it--oh, so quick!--thro' soul and frame, "With more than demon's art, till I became "A loathsome thing, all pestilence, all flame!-- "If, when I'm gone"--"Hold, fearless maniac, hold, "Nor tempt my rage--by Heaven, not half so bold "The puny bird that dares with teasing hum "Within the crocodile's stretched jaws to come! "