"Fill up your madd'ning hell-cup to the brim,
"Its witchery, fiends, will have no charm for him.
"Let loose your glowing wantons from their bowers,
"He loves, he loves, and can defy their powers!
"Wretch as I am, in his heart still I reign
"Pure as when first we met, without a stain !
"Though ruin'd-lost-my memory, like a charm
"Left by the dead, still keeps his soul from harm.
"Oh! never let him know how deep the brow
"He kiss'd at parting is dishonour'd now ;-
"Ne'er tell him how debas'd, how sunk is she,

"Whom once he lov'd once!—still loves dotingly.

"Thou laugh'st, tormentor,-what!-thou 'lt brand my

name ?

"Do, do-in vain-he'll not believe my shame"He thinks me true, that nought beneath God's sky "Could tempt or change me, and so once thought I. "But this is past-though 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!

"Nor tempt my rage-by Heaven, not half so bold

"The puny bird, that dares with teasing hum "Within the crocodile's stretch'd jaws to come!* "And so thou'lt fly, forsooth? what-give up all

"Thy chaste dominion in the Haram Hall,

"Where now to Love and now to ALLA given,
"Half mistress and half saint, thou hang'st as even
"As doth MEDINA's tomb, 'twixt hell and heaven!
"Thou 'lt fly?- as easily may reptiles run,
"The gaunt snake once hath fix'd his eyes upon;
"As easily, when caught, the prey may be
"Pluck'd from his loving folds, as thou from me.
"No, no, 'tis fix'd-let good or ill betide,

"Thou'rt mine till death, till death MOKANNA's bride! "Hast thou forgot thy oath?"

At this dread word,

The Maid, whose spirit his rude taunts had stirr'd
Through all its depths, and rous'd an anger there,
That burst and lighten'd even through her despair-
Shrunk back, as if a blight were in the breath
That spoke that word, and stagger'd pale as death.

"Yes, my sworn bride, let others seek in bowers "Their bridal place- the charnel vault was ours!

The humming-bird is said to run this risk for the purpose of picking the crocodile's teeth. The same circumstance is related of the lapwing, as a fact to which he was witness, by Paul Lucas, Voyage fait en 1714.

"The ancient story concerning the Trochilus, or humming-bird, entering with impunity into the mouth of the crocodile, is firmly believed at Java."- BARROW's Cochin- China.

"Instead of scents and balms, for thee and me

"Rose the rich steams of sweet mortality;

"Gay, flickering death-lights shone while we were wed, "And, for our guests, a row of goodly Dead, "(Immortal spirits in their time, no doubt,)

"From reeking shrouds upon the rite look'd out! "That oath thou heard'st more lips than thine repeat"That cup-thou shudderest, Lady-was it sweet? "That cup we pledg'd, the charnel's choicest wine, "Hath bound thee- -ay-body and soul all mine; "Bound thee by chains that, whether blest or curst "No matter now, not hell itself shall burst! "Hence, woman, to the Haram, and look gay, "Look wild, look-any thing but sad; yet stay"One moment more- -from what this night hath pass'd,

"I see thou know'st me, know'st me well at last. "Ha! ha! and so, fond thing, thou thought'st all true, "And that I love mankind?—I do, I do—

"As victims, love them; as the sea-dog doats

66

Upon the small, sweet fry that round him floats;

"Or, as the Nile-bird loves the slime that gives

"That rank and venomous food on which she lives?*.

"And, now thou seest my soul's angelic hue, ""Tis time these features were uncurtain'd too;"This brow, whose light-oh rare celestial light! "Hath been reserv'd to bless thy favour'd sight; "These dazzling eyes, before whose shrouded might

* "Circum easdem ripas (Nili, viz.) ales est Ibis. Ea serpentium populatur ova, gratissimamque ex his escam nidis suis refert." SOLINUS.

"Thou'st seen immortal Man kneel down and quake"Would that they were heaven's lightnings for his

sake!

"But turn and look—then wonder, if thou wilt,
"That I should hate, should take revenge, by guilt,
"Upon the hand, whose mischief or whose mirth
"Sent me thus maim'd and monstrous upon earth;
"And on that race who, though more vile they be
"Than mowing apes, are demi-gods to me!
"Here-judge if hell, with all its power to damn,
"Can add one curse to the foul thing I am!".

He rais'd his veil-the Maid turn'd slowly round, Look'd at him-shriek'd—and sunk upon the ground!

On their arrival, next night, at the place of encampment, they were surprised and delighted to find the groves all around illuminated; some artists of Yamtcheou* having been sent on previously for the purpose. On each side of the green alley, which led to the Royal Pavilion, artificial sceneries of bamboo-work† were erected, representing arches, minarets, and towers, from which hung thousands. of silken lanterns, painted by the most delicate pencils of Canton. Nothing could be more beautiful than the leaves of the mango-trees and acacias, shining in the light of the bamboo-scenery, which shed a lustre round as soft as that of the nights of Peristan.

LALLA ROOKH, however, who was too much occupied by the sad story of ZELICA and her lover, to give a thought to any thing else, except, perhaps, him who related it, hurried on through this scene of splendour to her pavilion,

"The feast of Lanterns is celebrated at Yamtcheou with more magnificence than any where else: and the report goes, that the illuminations there are so splendid, that an Emperor once, not daring openly to leave his Court to go thither, committed himself with the Queen and several Princesses of his family into the hands of a magician, who promised to transport them thither in a trice. He made them in the night to ascend magnificent thrones that were borne up by which in a moment arrived at Yaintcheou. The Emperor saw at his leisure all the solemnity, being carried upon a cloud that hovered over the city and descended by degrees; and came back again with the same speed and equipage, nobody at court perceiving his absence." The present State of China, p. 156.

swans,

† See a description of the nuptials of Vizier Alee in the Asiatic Annual Register of 1804.