Page:Peterson's Magazine 1842, Volume I.pdf/125

102

would she have given could she have remained in her father's palace, faithful in heart to him she loved, faithful until death should perhaps unite her to him forever.

Yes ! she loved an unknown being, perhaps only a common officer in her father's troops. Yet whatever his rank might be, she felt assured he was by nature noble. That one look at his manly form had left a conviction on her of his loftiness of soul which nothing could dissipate.

Her father noticed her increasing despondency, but attributed it to the natural feelings of one about to leave her home, and enter upon a new and untried sphere. He therefore only rallied her on her melancholy, and strove to dissipate it by describing to her the magnificent preparations which were making for her in the palace of her future lord. Ah ! little did her father know how his words increased the agony of her heart. At length the fatal day came when the princess was to set forth to her affianced husband. Gorgeous was the cavalcade, glad were the shouts of the populace, and splendid were the jewels in which she was decked- but she went forth like a lamb to the sacrifice, and she wept amid all her magnificenee. Her attendants strove to console her but it was in vain. Oh ! how she wished, as she drew nearer to the end of her journey, that she had told all to her father, and thrown herself on his mercy but a moment's reflection convinced her that it would have been useless, and that the Rajah would have deemed it madness for her to love a common soldier of his army. So the heart-broken Haidai could only weep more and more bitterly. It was a golden evening when the cavalcade reached the plain before the capital of her husband's father, where the most magnificent preparations had been made to greet the bride. A costly pavilion, blazing withjewels and gold, had been pitched just outside the gates of the city. This pavilion was surrounded by high officers of state, and troops of gallant cavalry, their bright sabres glistening in the setting sun. A vast concourse of people filled up the outskirts of the crowd, while triumphal music filled the air with harmony. It seemed indeed as if the whole city had been poured forth to greet their future queen-as, if all that power and splendor and wealth could do, had been done, to render her reception worthy of her peerless beauty. But all this magnificence only increased the agony of Haidai's heart, by calling up more forcibly the conviction of her sacrifice. As the cavalcade proceeded, the troops around the pavilion parted, leaving a passage for the bride and her attendants up to the door. With trembling steps Haidai alighted, as the cymbals struck up, and her favorite attendant whispered in her ear that her princely lover awaited her just within the door of the pavilion. She dared not look up, but mechanically obeying the intimation, she moved forward, amid the sound of music,

and the shouts of the populace. She reached the door of the pavilion- she tottered across the threshold-but when she had gone thus far her attendant suddenly left her side, and she became conscious that the curtain, which closed the entrance to the pavilion, had been dropped behind her. It needed nothing to tell her that she was alone with her future lord ; and she felt as if she would sink fainting to the earth. As a quick footstep met her ear she made a last effort to look up. What caused that cry of mingled wonder and delight ? Why did she, who had so lately shrunk from this interview, spring forward to the arms of one who approached her ? Why-but that she recognized in her princely lord the unknown soldier who had rescued her in the pass Djeerade. Our tale is done. It requires little explanation. The young prince had more than once visited the Rajah's court in disguise, in order that he might behold his future bride ; and it was while on one of those visits that intelligence had been received of her capture. He joined the party sent to her rescue as a volunteer and incognito ; and we have seen how he succeeded in personally saving her from the hands of her rapacious captor. It was easy for him to disguise his connexion with the expedition, which he did. That night the two lovers sat together in the palace of the prince, with hands linked in each others, gazing out on the moonlit river, that lay like a sheet of silver, beneath the balcony. With her bridal gems around her, and the light of happiness in her eyes, Haidai sat listening to her lover's narration, repeated for the twentieth time. And often as he told how her beauty had won his heart long ago, her cheek would flush, and with a smile of gladness wreathing her lovely mouth, she would turn for a moment from her lover's face, and look out across the sleeping waters. But it would be only for a moment. Had you seen her then, you would have said indeed that mortal painter could not do justice to the surpassing loveliness of the INDIAN BRIDE.

SONNET. To one who has been long in city pent, "Tis very sweet to look into the fair And open face of heaven,-to breathe a prayer Full in the smile of the blue firmament. Who is more happy, when, with heart's content, Fatigued he sinks into some pleasant lair Of wavy grass, and reads a debonair And gentle tale of love and languishment ? Returning home at evening, with an ear, Catching the notes of Philomel- an eye Watching the sailing cloudlet's bright career, He mourns that day so soon has glided by : E'en like the passage of an angel's tear That falls through the clear ether silently.- KEATS.