And should the youth, whom soon those eyes shall

warm,

Indeed resemble thy dead lover's form,

So much the happier wilt thou find thy doom,

As one warm lover, full of life and bloom,
Excels ten thousand cold ones in the tomb.

Nay, nay, no frowning, sweet! those eyes were made
For love, not anger, I must be obey'd."

66

'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 maddening 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 that I am, in his heart still I 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
He kiss'd at parting is dishonor'd 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,

sky

that nought beneath God's

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 –

Nor tempt my rage!

"Hold, fearless maniac, hold,
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? 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.

That burst and lighten'd even through her despair,

Shrunk 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; thou shudderest, lady; was it sweet?

That cup,

That cup we pledged, the charnel's choicest wine,
Hath bound thee, aye, 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 — anything 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 true,
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 uncurtained too, This brow, whose light — oh, rare celestial light! Hath been reserved 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 mowing apes, are demigods to me!
Here judge if hell, with all its powers to damn,
Can add one curse to the foul thing I am!".