vated his critical eyebrows, and, having refreshed his faculties with a dose of that delicious opium 21 which is distilled from the black poppy of the Thebais, gave orders for the minstrel to be forthwith introduced into the presence. He The Princess, who had once in her life seen a poet from behind the screens of gauze in her Father's hall, and had conceived from that specimen no very favorable ideas of the Caste, expected but little in this new exhibition to interest her; she felt inclined, however, to alter her opinion on the very first appearance of FERAMORZ. was a youth about LALLA ROOKн's own age, and graceful as that idol of women, Crishna,22 - such as he appears to their young imaginations, heroic, beautiful, breathing music from his very eyes, and exalting the religion of his worshippers into love. His dress was simple, yet not without some marks of costliness; and the ladies of the Princess were not long in discovering that the cloth which encircled his high Tartarian cap was of the most delicate kind that the shawl-goats of Tibet supply. Here and there, too, over his vest, which was confined by a flowered girdle of Kashan, hung strings of fine pearl, disposed with an air of studied negligence:- nor did the exquisite embroidery of his sandals escape the observation of these fair critics; who, however they might give way to FADLADEEN upon the unimportant topics of religion and government, had the spirit of martyrs in everything relating to such momentous matters as jewels and embroidery. 23 For the purpose of relieving the pauses of recitation by music, the young Cashmerian held in his hand a kitar; - such as, in old times, the Arab maids of the West used to listen to by moonlight in the gardens of the Alham bra — and having premised, with much humility, that the story he was about to relate was founded on the adven tures of that Veiled Prophet of Khorassan 24 who, in the year of the Hegira 163, created such alarm throughout the Eastern Empire, made an obeisance to the Princess, and thus began: THE VEILED PROPHET OF KHORASSAN.25 IN that delightful Province of the Sun, Were ev'n the gleams, miraculously shed O'er MOUSSA's 28 cheek,29 when down the Mount he trod, All glowing from the presence of his God! On either side, with ready hearts and hands, His chosen guard of bold Believers stands; Young fire-eyed disputants, who deem their swords, On points of faith, more eloquent than words; And such their zeal, there's not a youth with brand Uplifted there, but, at the Chief's command, Would make his own devoted heart its sheath, And bless the lips that doom'd so dear a death! In hatred to the Caliph's hue of night,30 Their vesture, helms and all, is snowy white; 31 Or bows of buffalo horn and shining quivers 32 Fill'd with the stems 82 that bloom on IRAN's rivers; 33 Between the porphyry pillars, that uphold From those who kneel at Brahma's burning founts,35 And the gold ringlets of the Western Isles; But why this pageant now? this arm'd array ? What triumph crowds the rich Divan to-day With turban'd heads, of every hue and race, Bowing before that veil'd and awful face, Like tulip-beds,87 of different shape and dyes, Bending beneath the invisible West-wind's sighs! What new-made mystery now, for Faith to sign, And blood to seal, as genuine and divine, What dazzling mimicry of God's own power Hath the bold Prophet plann'd to grace this hour? Not such the pageant now, though not less proud; Yon warrior youth, advancing from the crowd, With silver bow, with belt of broider'd crape, And fur-bound bonnet of Bucharian shape,88 So fiercely beautiful in form and eye, Like war's wild planet in a summer sky; That youth to-day-a proselyte, worth hordes Of cooler spirits and less practised swordsIs come to join, all bravery and belief, The creed and standard of the heaven-sent Chief. Though few his years, the West already knows Young AZIM's fame; - beyond the Olympian snows, Ere manhood darken'd o'er his downy cheek, O'erwhelm'd in fight and captive to the Greek, 39 He linger'd there, till peace dissolv'd his chains; Oh, who could, even in bondage, tread the plains Of glorious GREECE, nor feel his spirit rise Kindling within him? who, with heart and eyes, Could walk where Liberty had been, nor see |