"Obey'd!-tis well-yes, I deserve it all"On me, on me Heaven's vengeance cannot fall "Too heavily-but AZIM, brave and true "And beautiful-must he be ruin'd too? "Must he too, glorious as he is, be driven "A renegade like me from Love and Heaven ? "Like me?-weak wretch, I wrong him-not like me; "No-he's all truth and strength and purity!

"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

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

r

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!-through 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 stretch'd jaws to come!* "And so thou'lt fly, forsooth P-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 fixed-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 ev'n through her despairShrunk 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! "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?

*The ancient story concerning the Trochilus, or hum. ming-bird, entering with impunity into the mouth of the crocodile, is firmly believed at Java.-Barrow's Cochinchina.

"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 truc, "And that I love mankind!—I do, I do

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

Circum easdem ripas (Nili, viz.) ales est Ibis. Ea te pentium populatur ova, gratissimanique ex his escam Lidis suis refert.-Solinus.

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 pur pose. On each side of the green alley, which led to the Royal Pavilion, artificial sceneries of bamboowork 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 oc cupied 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 morti. fication of the poor artists of Yamtcheou,-and was followed with equal rapidity by the Great Chamber. lain, 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 illumi.

nations.

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, and let conquerers boast
Their fields of fame, he who in virtue arms
A young, warm spirit against beauty's charms,
Who feels her brightness, yet defies her thrall,
Is the best, bravest conqueror of them all.

Now, through the Haram chambers, moving lights
And busy shapes proclaim the toilet's rites;-
From room to room the ready handmaids hie,
Some skill'd to wreath the turban tastefully,
Or hang the veil, in negligence of shade,
O'er the warm blushes of the youthful maid,
Who, if between the folds but one eye shone,
Like SEBA'S Queen could vanquish with that one:
While some bring leaves of Henna, to imbue
The fingers' ends with a bright roseate huet
So bright, that in the mirror's depth they seem
Like tips of coral branches in the stream:

"Thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes."-Sol. Song.

"They tinged the ends of her fingers scarlet with Henna, so that they resembled branches of coral."— Story of Prince Futtun in Bahardanush.