LALLA ROOKH had had a dream the night before, 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 Bid-musk has just passed over. She fancied that she was sailing on that Eastern Ocean, where the sea-gipsies, 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 annually 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, every thing 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, Dispers'd and wild, 'twixt earth and sky Hangs like a shatter'd 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, roll'd in masses dark and swelling, As proud to be the thunder's dwelling! While some, already burst and riven, Seem melting down the verge of heaven;

As though 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 steer'd for ORMUS' bowers,
And moor'd his skiff till calmer hours;

The sea-birds, with portentous screech,
Flew fast to land; upon the beach
The pilot oft had paus'd, with glance
Turn'd 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 tim'd her parting oar,'

Nor friends upon the lessening strand
Linger'd, to wave the unseen hand,
Or speak the farewel, heard no more ; —
But lone, unheeded, from the bay
The vessel takes its mournful way,

Like some ill-destin'd bark that steers
In silence through the Gate of Tears.

2

And where was stern AL HASSAN then?
Could not that saintly scourge of men

"The Easterns used to set out on their longer voyages with music." Harmer.

2 "The Gate of Tears, the straits or passage into the Red Sea, commonly called Babelmandel. It received this name from the old Arabians, on account of the danger of the navigation, and the number of shipwrecks by which it was distinguished; which induced them to consider as dead, and to wear mourning for all who had the boldness to hazard the passage through it into the Ethiopic ocean. Richardson.

From blood-shed and devotion spare
One minute for a farewel 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!

1

While o'er the wave his weeping daughter

Is wafted from these scenes of slaughter, -
As a young bird of BABYLON,

4

Let loose to tell of victory won,

Flies home, with wing, ah! not unstain'd
By the red hands that held her chain'd.

And does the long-left home she seeks
Light up no gladness on her cheeks?

The flowers she nurs'd- the well-known groves,
Where oft in dreams her spirit roves

પ

3 I have been told that whensoever an animal falls down dead, one or more vultures, unseen before, instantly appear."

Pennant.

4 They fasten some writing to the wings of a Bagdat, or Babylonian pigeon." - Travels of certain Englishmen.