"No-he's all truth and strength and purity! Fill your madd'ning hell-cup to the brim, "Its witchery, fiends, will have no charms for him. "Let loose your glowing wantons from their bow66 ers, "He loves, he loves, and can defy their powers! "Wretch as 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 dishonour'd now"Ne'er tell him how debas'd, how sunk is she, "Whom once he lov'd--once !--still loves dotingly! "Thou laugh'st, tormentor,-what-thou'lt brand 66 my name? "Do, do-in vain-he'll not believe my shame"He thinks me true, that nought beneath God's sky "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 "Hold, fearless maniac, hold, "Nor tempt my rage-by heav'n not half so bold, "The puny bird that dares with teazing hum, "Within the crocodile's stretch'd jaws to come; "And so thou'lt fly, forsooth? what, give up all "Thy chaste dominions 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 hath once fixed his eyes upon; "As easily, when caught, the prey may be "Pluck'd from his loving folds, as thou from me. 'No, no, 'tis fix'd-let good or ill betide, "Thou'rt mine till death, till death MOKANNA'S bride! "Hast thou forgot thy oath ?"-— At this dread word The maid, whose spirit his rude taunt had stirr'd Through all its depths, and rous'd an anger there, That burst and lighten'd ev'n 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 The 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, *The ancient story concerning the Trochilus, or humming bird, entering with impunity into the mouth of the crocodile, firmly believed at Java.-Barrow's Cochin-China. 66 "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 heardst more lips than thine re "peat→→→→ "That cup-thou shudderest, lady was it sweet? "That cup we pledg'd, the charnel 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-any thing but sad;-yet stay"One moment more-from what this night hath "pass'd, "I see that thou know'st me, know'st me well at "last, "Ha! ha! and so, fond thing, thou thought'st all "true, "And that I lov'd 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 venemous food on which she "lives! * "And, now thou see'st my soul's angelic hue, "'Tis time those features were uncurtain'd too ;--"This brow, whose light-oh rare celestial light! "Hath been reserv'd to bless thy favour'd sight; "These dazzling eyes before whose shrouded might * Circum easdem ripas (Nili, viz.) ales est Ibis. Ea serpentium populatur ova, gratissimamque ex his escam nidis suis refert. Solinus. C2 "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 demi-gods to me! "Here, judge, if hell with all its power to damn, "Can add one curse to the foul thing I am!" He rais'd his veil-the maid turn'd slowly round, Look'd at him-shriek'd--and sunk upon the ground. ON their arrival next night, at the place of encampment, they were surprised and delighted to find the groves all round illuminated; some artists of Yamtcheou having been sent on previously for the purpose. On each side of the green alley, which led to the royal pavilion, artificial sceneries of bamboo-work were erected, representing arches, minarets, and towers, from which hung thousands of silken lanterns, painted by the most delicate pencils of Canton. Nothing could be more beautiful than the leaves of the mango-trees and acacias, shining in the light of the bamboo scenery, which shed a lustre round as soft as that of the nights of Peristan. LLALLA ROOKн, however, who was too much occupied by the sad story of ZELICA and her lover, to give a thought to any thing else, except, perhaps, him who related it, hurried on through this scene of splendour to the pavilion,--greatly to the mortification of the poor artists of Yamtcheou,---and was followed with equal rapidity by the great chamberlaiu, cursing, as he went, that ancient mandarin, whose parental anxiety in lighting up the shores of the lake, where his beloved daughter had wandered and been los', was the origin of these fantastic Chinese illuminations. Without a moment's delay young FERAMORZ was introduced, and FADLADEEN, who could never make up his mind as to the merits of a poet, till be knew the religious sect to which he belonged, was about to ask him whether he was a Shia or a Sooni, when LLALLA ROOKн impatientiy clapped her hands for silence, and the youth, being seated upon the musnud near her, proceeded:-- 1 |