With their swoll'n heads sunk black'ning on their breasts, Or looking pale to Heaven with glassy glare, As if they sought but saw no mercy there; As if they felt, though poison rack'd them through, Dreadful it was to see the ghastly stare, Upon that mocking Fiend, whose Veil, now rais'd, Not the long promis'd light, the brow, whose beaming On its own brood ;-no Demon of the Waste, 146 No churchyard Ghole, caught lingering in the light With lineaments so foul, so fierce as those The' Impostor, now in grinning mockery, shows :— 66 There, ye wise Saints, behold your Light, your Star— "Ye would be dupes and victims, and ye are. "Is it enough? or must I, while a thrill "Is but the trance with which Heaven's joys begin ; "That this foul visage, foul as e'er disgrac'd "Even monstrous man, is--after God's own taste; "And that-but see!- ere I have half-way said "My greetings through, the' uncourteous souls are fled. "Farewell, sweet spirits! not in vain ye die, "If EBLIS loves you half so well as I.— Ha, my young bride !—'tis well-take thou thy seat; "Nay, come-no shuddering-didst thou never meet "The dead before ?-they grac'd our wedding, sweet; "And these, my guests to-night, have brimm'd so true "Their parting cups, that thou shalt pledge one too. "But-how is this?-all empty? all drunk up? "Hot lips have been before thee in the cup, Young bride,--yet stay-one precious drop remains, Enough to warm a gentle Priestess' veins ;— Here, drink-and should thy lover's conquering arms. "Speed hither, ere thy lip lose all its charms, "Give him but half this venom in thy kiss, "And I'll forgive my haughty rival's bliss! "For me I too must die-but not like these "Vile, rankling things, to fester in the breeze; "To have this brow in ruffian triumph shown, "With all Death's grimness added to its own, "And rot to dust beneath the taunting eyes "Of slaves, exclaiming, 'There his Godship lies !' "No-cursed race-since first my soul drew breath, "They've been my dupes, and shall be e'en in death. "Thou see'st yon cistern in the shade-'tis fill'd "With burning drugs, for this last hour distill'd : 147 "There will I plunge me, in that liquid flame--"Fit bath to lave a dying Prophet's frame !"There perish, all-ere pulse of thine shall fail"Nor leave one limb to tell mankind the tale. "So shall my votaries, wheresoe'er they rave, "Proclaim that Heaven took back the Saint it gave ;"That I've but vanish'd from this earth awhile, "To come again, with bright, unshrouded smile! "So shall they build me altars in their zeal, "Where knaves shall minister, and fools shall kneel; "Where Faith may mutter o'er her mystic spell, "Written in blood-and Bigotry may swell "The sail he spreads for Heaven with blasts from hell! "So shall my banner, through long ages, be "The rallying sign of fraud and anarchy :— "And guilt, and blood, that were its bliss in life. "But, hark! their battering engine shakes the wall 66 Why, let it shake-thus I can brave them all. "No trace of me shall greet them, when they come, "And I can trust thy faith, for-thou'lt be dumb. "Now mark how readily a wretch like me, "In one bold plunge, commences Deity!" He sprung and sunk, as the last words were said-— Quick clos'd the burning waters o'er his head, And ZELICA was left-within the ring Of those wide walls the only living thing; The only wretched one, still curs'd with breath, In all that frightful wilderness of death! More like some bloodless ghost-such as, they tell, But morn is up, and a fresh warfare stirs Throughout the camp of the beleaguerers. Their globes of fire (the dread artillery lent |