No far he fled - indignant fled
The pageant of his country's shame;
While every tear her children shed

Fell on his soul like drops of flame⚫
And, as a lover hails the dawn

Of a first smile, so welcom'd he
The sparkle of the first sword drawn
For vengeance and for liberty!

But vain was valour - vain the flower
Of KERMAN, in that deathful hour,
Against AL HASSAN's whelming power.—
In vain they met him, helm to helm,
Upon the threshold of that realm

He came in bigot pomp to sway,

And with their

In vain for every lance they rais'd,
Thousands around the conqueror blaz'd;
For every arm that lin❜d their shore,
Myriads of slaves were wafted o'er,—
A bloody, bold, and countless crowd,
Before whose swarm as fast they bow'd
As dates beneath the locust cloud.

There stood -but one short league away
From old HARMOZIA'S sultry bay -
A rocky mountain, o'er the Sea

Of OMAN beetling awfully; *

* This mountain is my own creation, as the "stupendous chain," of which I suppose it a link, does not extend quite so far as the shores of the Persian Gulf.

A last and solitary link

Of those stupendous chains that reach
From the broad Caspian's reedy brink

Down winding to the Green Sea beach.
Around its base the bare rocks stood,
Like naked giants, in the flood,

As if to guard the Gulf across;
While, on its peak, that brav'd the sky,
A ruin'd Temple tower'd, so high
That oft the sleeping albatross *
Struck the wild ruins with her wing,
And from her cloud-rock'd slumbering
Started- -to find man's dwelling there
In her own silent fields of air!
Beneath, terrific caverns gave
Dark welcome to each stormy wave
That dash'd, like midnight revellers, in;-
And such the strange, mysterious din

At times throughout those caverns roll'd,

And such the fearful wonders told

Of restless sprites imprison'd there,

That bold were Moslem, who would dare,

"This long and lofty range of mountains formerly divided Media from Assyria, and now forms the boundary of the Persian and Turkish empires. It runs parallel with the river Tigris and Persian Gulf, and almost disappearing in the vicinity of Gomberoon (Harmozia), seems once more to rise in the southern districts of Kerman, and following an easterly course through the centre of Meckraun and Balouchistan, is entirely lost in the deserts of Sinde."- KINNIER'S Persian Empire.

* These birds sleep in the air. They are most common about the Cape of Good Hope.

At twilight hour, to steer his skiff
Beneath the Gheber's lonely cliff. *

On the land side, those towers sublime,
That seem'd above the grasp of Time,
Were sever'd from the haunts of men
By a wide, deep, and wizard glen,
So fathomless, so full of gloom,

No eye could pierce the void between:
It seem'd a place where Gholes might come
With their foul banquets from the tomb,
And in its caverns feed unseen.
Like distant thunder, from below,
The sound of many torrents came,
Too deep for eye or ear to know
If 'twere the sea's imprison'd flow,
Or floods of ever-restless flame.
For, each ravine, each rocky spire
Of that vast mountain stood on fire; †
And, though for ever past the days

When God was worshipp'd in the blaze

* "There is an extraordinary hill in this neighbourhood, called Kohé Gubr, or the Guebre's mountain. It rises in the form of a lofty cupola, and on the summit of it, they say, are the remains of an Atush Kudu or Fire Temple. It is superstitiously held to be the residence of Deeves or Sprites, and many marvellous stories are recounted of the injury and witchcraft suffered by those who essayed in former days to ascend or explore it." — POTTINGER'S Beloochistan. †The Ghebers generally built their temples over subterraneous fires.

Though fled the priests, the votaries gone,

Still did the mighty flame burn on,*

Through chance and change, through good and ill,
Like its own God's eternal will,

Deep, constant, bright, unquenchable!

Thither the vanquish'd HAFED led
His little army's last remains;
"Welcome, terrific glen!" he said,

"Thy gloom, that EBLIS' self might dread,
"Is Heav'n to him who flies from chains!"
O'er a dark, narrow bridge-way, known
To him and to his Chiefs alone,

They cross'd the chasm and gain'd the towers, -
"This home," he cried, "at least is ours;

"Here we may bleed, unmock'd by hymns
"Of Moslem triumph o'er our head;
"Here we may fall, nor leave our limbs
"To quiver to the Moslem's tread.
"Stretch'd on this rock, while vultures' beaks
"Are whetted on our yet warm cheeks,

"Here - happy that no tyrant's eye

"Gloats on our torments

we may die!"

* "At the city of Yezd, in Persia, which is distinguished by the appellation of the Darûb Abadut, or Seat of Religion, the Guebres are permitted to have an Atush Kudu or Fire Temple (which, they assert, has had the sacred fire in it since the days of Zoroaster) in their own compartment of the city; but for this indulgence they are indebted to the avarice, not the tolerance, of the Persian government, which taxes them at twenty-five rupees each man."-POTTINGER'S Beloochistan.

'Twas night when to those towers they came,
And gloomily the fitful flame,

That from the ruin'd altar broke,

Glared on his features, as he spoke :

""Tis o'er - what men could do, we've done

If IRAN will look tamely on,

"And see her priests, her warriors driven
"Before a sensual bigot's nod,

"A wretch who shrines his lusts in heaven,
“And makes a pander of his God;
"If her proud sons, her high-born souls,
"Men in whose veins- oh last disgrace!
"The blood of ZAL and RUSTAM* rolls, —

'If they will court this upstart race,
“And turn from MITHRA's ancient ray,
"To kneel at shrines of yesterday;
"If they will crouch to IRAN's foes,

"Why, let them — till the land's despair
"Cries out to Heav'n, and bondage grows
"Too vile for ev'n the vile to bear!
"Till shame at last, long hidden, burns
"Their inmost core, and conscience turns
"Each coward tear the slave lets fall
"Back on his heart in drops of gall.
"But here, at least, are arms unchain'd,
“And souls that thraldom never stain’d;-
"This spot, at least, no foot of slave
"Or satrap ever yet profan'd;

"And though but few—though fast the wave

* Ancient heroes of Persia. "Among the Guebres there are some who boast their descent from Rustam."-STEPHEN'S Persia.