"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 "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,

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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

* "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 swans, which in a moment arrived at Yamtcheou. 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.

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

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, greatly to the mortification of the poor artists of Yamtcheou, and was followed with equal rapidity by the Great Chamberlain, cursing, as he went, that ancient Mandarin, whose parental anxiety in lighting up the shores of the lake, where his beloved daughter had wandered and been lost, was the origin of these fantastic Chinese illuminations. *

"The vulgar ascribe it to an accident that happened in the family of a famous mandarin, whose daughter walking one evening upon the shore of a lake, fell in and was drowned; this afflicted father, with his family, ran thither, and, the better to find her, he caused a great company of lanterns to be lighted. All the inhabitants of the place thronged after him with torches. The year ensuing they made fires upon the shores the same day; they continued the ceremony every year, every one lighted his lantern, and by degrees it commenced into a custom."- Present State of China.

Without a moment's delay, young FERAMORZ was introduced, and FADLADEEN, who could never make up his mind as to the merits of a poet, till he knew the religious sect to which he belonged, was about to ask him whether he was a Shia or a Sooni, when LALLA ROOKH impatiently clapped her hands for silence, and the youth, being seated upon the musnud near her, proceeded:

PREPARE thy soul, young AZIM!—thou hast brav'd
The bands of GREECE, still mighty though enslav'd;
Hast fac'd her phalanx, arm'd with all its fame,
Her Macedonian pikes and globes of flame;

All this hast fronted, with firm heart and brow,

But a more perilous trial waits thee now,

Woman's bright eyes, a dazzling host of eyes
From every land where woman smiles or sighs;
Of every hue, as Love may chance to raise
His black or azure banner in their blaze;

And each sweet mode of warfare, from the flash

That lightens boldly through the shadowy lash,

To the sly, stealing splendours, almost hid,

Like swords half-sheath'd, beneath the downcast lid:

Such, AZIM, is the lovely, luminous host

Now led against thee; and, let conquerors boast

Their fields of fame, he who in virtue arms

A young, warm spirit against beauty's charms,