"Go-join his sacred ranks thou know'st "Th' unholy strife these Persians wage:— "Good Heav'n, that frown! -ev'n now thou glow'st "With more than mortal warrior's rage. "Haste to the camp by morning's light, "One victory o'er those Slaves of Fire, "Hold, hold-thy words are death—” The stranger cried, as wild he flung His mantle back, and show'd beneath The Gheber belt that round him clung. 8 Here, maiden, look-weep - blush to see "All that thy sire abhors in me! "Yes - I am of that impious race, "Those Slaves of Fire who, morn and even, 8" They (the Ghebers) lay so much stress on their cushee or girdle, as not to dare to be an instant without it." Grose's Voyage. Le jeune homme nia d'abord la chose; mais, ayant été dépouillé de sa robe, et la large ceinture qu'il portoit comme Ghebr, &c. &c. - D'Herbelot, art. Agduani. "Hail their Creator's dwelling-place "Among the living lights of heaven!? "Yes I am of that outcast few, "TO IRAN and to vengeance true, "And swear, before God's burning eye, "To break our country's chains, or die! "He, who gave birth to those dear eyes, "With me is sacred as the spot "From which our fires of worship rise! "But know'twas he I sought that night, "When, from my watch-boat on the sea, “I caught this turret's glimmering light, "And up the rude rocks desperately "I climb'd the gory vulture's nest, "And found a trembling dove within ; — "Thine, thine the victory—thine the sin 9 They suppose the Throne of the Almighty is seated in the sun, and hence their worship of that luminary. Hanway. "If Love hath made one thought his own, "That Vengeance claims first-last- alone! "Oh! had we never, never met, "Or could this heart ev'n now forget "How link'd, how bless'd we might have been, "Had fate not frown'd so dark between ! "Hadst thou been born a Persian maid, "In neighbouring valleys had we dwelt, "Had round our hearts been hourly spun, "And saw in every smile of thine 66 Returning hours of glory shine! "While the wrong'd Spirit of our Land "Liv'd, look'd, and spoke her wrongs through thee, "God! who could then this sword withstand? "Its very flash were victory! "But now estrang'd, divorc'd for ever, "Far as the grasp of Fate can sever; "Our only ties what love has wove, "Faith, friends, and country, sunder'd wide; "And then, then only, true to love, "When false to all that's dear beside! Thy father IRAN's deadliest foe Thyself, perhaps, ev'n now but no"Hate never look'd so lovely yet! "No-sacred to thy soul will be "The land of him who could forget "All but that bleeding land for thee! "When other eyes shall see, unmov'd, "Her widows mourn, her warriors fall, "Thou'lt think how well one Gheber lov'd, "And for his sake thou'lt weep for all! "But look With sudden start he turn'd And pointed to the distant wave, Where lights, like charnel meteors, burn'd Bluely, as o'er some seaman's And fiery darts, at intervals, ' grave; Flew up all sparkling from the main, I "The Mameluks that were in the other boat, when it was dark used to shoot up a sort of fiery arrows into the some measure resembled lightning or falling stars." air, which in - Baumgarten. As if each star that nightly falls, 66 Were shooting back to heaven again. My signal-lights! I must away "Both, both are ruin'd, if I stay. "Farewel-sweet life! thou cling'st in vain "Now- Vengeance! I am thine again." Fiercely he broke away, nor stopp'd, Nor look'd—but from the lattice dropp'd As if he fled from love to death. While pale and mute young HINDA stood, Nor mov'd, till in the silent flood A momentary plunge below Startled her from her trance of woe; Shrieking she to the lattice flew, "I come I come if in that tide "Thou sleep'st to-night - I'll sleep there too, "In death's cold wedlock by thy side. "Oh! I would ask no happier bed "Than the chill wave my love lies under; "Sweeter to rest together dead, "Far sweeter, than to live asunder !" |