Fly to the desert, fly with me!

Our Arab tents are rude for thee;

But oh, the choice what heart can doubt, Of tents with love, or thrones without?

'Our rocks are rough, but smiling there
The acacia waves her yellow hair,
Lonely and sweet, nor loved the less
For flowering in a wilderness.

Our sands are bare, but down their slope The silvery-footed antelope

As gracefully and gaily springs

As o'er the marble courts of kings.

Then come

thine Arab maid will be

The loved and lone acacia-tree,
The antelope, whose feet shall bless
With their light sound thy loneliness.

"Oh, there are looks and tones that dart
An instant sunshine through the heart,-
As if the soul that minute caught
Some treasure it through life had sought;

As if the very lips and eyes,
Predestined to have all our sighs,
And never be forgot again,

Sparkled and spoke before us then!

'So came thine every glance and tone,

When first on me they breathed and shone;

New, as if brought from other spheres,

Yet welcome as if loved for years.

Then fly with me,- if thou hast known
No other flame, nor falsely thrown
A gem away, that thou hadst sworn
Should ever in thy heart be worn.

'Come, if the love thou hast for me
Is pure and fresh as mine for thee,-
Fresh as the fountain under ground,
When first 't is by the lapwing found.

6 But if for me thou dost forsake
Some other maid, and rudely break
Her worshipp'd image from its base,
To give to me the ruin'd place,—

'Then, fare thee well—I'd rather make
My bower upon some icy lake
When thawing suns begin to shine,
Than trust to love so false as thine!'

There was a pathos in this lay

That, e'en without enchantment's art, Would instantly have found its way Deep into Selim's burning heart; But breathing, as it did, a tone To earthly lutes and lips unknown, With every chord fresh from the touch Of Music's Spirit,—'t was too much! Starting, he dash'd away the cup,

Which all the time of this sweet air His hand had held, untasted, up,

As if 't were fix'd by magic there,—

And naming her, so long unnamed,

So long unseen, wildly exclaim'd, 'O Nourmahal! O Nourmahal!

Hadst thou but sung this witching strain, I could forget forgive thee all, And never leave those eyes again.'

The mask is off-the charm is wrought-
And Selim to his heart has caught,
In blushes, more than ever bright,
His Nourmahal, his Haram's Light!
And well do vanish'd frowns enhance
The charm of every brighten'd glance;
And dearer seems each dawning smile
For having lost its light awhile;
And, happier now for all her sighs,
As on his arm her head reposes,
She whispers him with laughing eyes,

'Remember, love, the Feast of Roses!'

ous

FADLADEEN, at the conclusion of this light rhapsody, took occasion to sum up his opinion of the young Cashmerian's poetry,- of which, he trusted, they had that evening heard the last. Having recapitulated the epithets "frivolous "—"inharmoni"nonsensical," he proceeded to say that, viewing it in the most favourable light, it resembled one of those Maldivian boats to which the Princess had alluded in the relation of her dream,— a slight, gilded thing, sent adrift without rudder or ballast, and with nothing but vapid sweets and faded flowers on board. The profusion, indeed, of flowers and birds which this poet had ready on all occasions,

not to mention dews, gems, etc., was a most oppressive kind of opulence to his hearers; and had the unlucky effect of giving to his style all the glitter of the flower-garden without its method, and all the flutter of the aviary without its song. In addition to this, he chose his subjects badly, and was always most inspired by the worst parts of them. The charms of paganism, the merits of rebellion,-—— these were the themes honoured with his particular enthusiasm; and, in the poem just recited, one of his most palatable passages was in praise of that beverage of the Unfaithful, wine;"being, perhaps," said he, relaxing into a smile, as conscious of his own character in the Haram on this point, 'one of those bards whose fancy owes all its illu

66

mination to the grape, like that painted porcelain, so curious and so rare, whose images are only visible when liquor is poured into it." Upon the whole, it was his opinion, from the specimens which they had heard, and which, he begged to say, were the most tiresome part of the journey, that - whatever other merits this well-dressed young gentleman might possess poetry was by no means his proper avocation: "and indeed," concluded the critic, "from his fondness for flowers and for birds, I would venture to suggest that a florist or a birdcatcher is a much more suitable calling for him than a poet."

They had now begun to ascend those barren mountains which separate Cashmere from the rest of India; and as the heats were intolerable, and the time of their encampments limited to the few hours necessary for refreshment and repose, there was an end to all their delightful evenings, and Lalla Rookh saw no more of Feramorz. She now felt that her short dream of happiness was over, and that she had nothing but the recollection of its few blissful hours, like the one draught of sweet water that serves the camel across the wilderness, to be her heart's refreshment during the dreary waste of life that was before her. The blight that had fallen upon her spirits soon found its way to her cheek, and her ladies saw with regret — though not without some suspicion of the cause - that the beauty of their mistress, of which they were almost