"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 maddening hell-cup to the brim,
"Its witchery, fiend, 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 ruined-lost-my memory, like a charm "Left by the dead, still keeps his soul from harm. "O! never let him know how deep the brow "He kissed at parting is dishonoured now;

"Ne'er tell him how debased, how sunk is she, "Whom once he loved-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 naught 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-cursed man or fiend, whate'er thou art, "Who found'st this burning plague-spot in my heart, "And spread'st it—O, 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 stretched 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 fixed his eyes upon; "As easily, when caught, the prey may be "Plucked 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?"—

a 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.

At this dread word,

The Maid, whose spirit his rude taunts had stirred
Through all its depths, and roused an anger there,
That burst and lightened ev'n through her despair,
Shrunk back, as if a blight were in the breath
That spoke that word, and staggered 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 looked out : "That oath thou heard'st more lips than thine repeat"That cup-thou shudderest, Lady—was it sweet? "That cup we pledged, the charnel's choicest wine, "Hath bound thee-ay-body and soul all mine; "Bound thee by chains that, whether blessed or cursed "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 passed, "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 dotes.
"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!a-

"And, now thou seest my soul's angelic hue, 'Tis time these features were uncurtained too ;"This brow, whose light-O rare celestial light!— "Hath been reserved to bless thy favored 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 maimed and monstrous upon earth; "And on that race who, though more vile they be "Than mowing apes, are demigods to me! “Here—judge if hell, with all its power to damn, “Can add one curse to the foul thing I am!".

He raised his veil-the Maid turned slowly round, Looked at him-shrieked and sunk upon the ground!

a Circum easdem ripas (Nili, viz.) ales est Ibis. Ea serpentium populatur ova, gratissimamque ex his escam nidis 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 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

a "The Feast of Lanterns is celebrated at Yamtcheou with more magnificence than anywhere 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.

૨