Just then, a day-beam through the shade Broke tremulous but, ere the maid

Can see from whence the brightness steals,
Upon her brow she shuddering feels
A viewless hand, that promptly ties
A bandage round her burning eyes ;
While the rude litter where she lies,
Uplifted by the warrior throng,
O'er the steep rocks is borne along.

!

Blest power of sunshine! genial Day,
What balm, what life is in thy ray
To feel thee is such real bliss,
That had the world no joy but this,
To sit in sunshine calm and sweet,
It were a world too exquisite
For man to leave it for the gloom,
The deep, cold shadow of the tomb !
Ev'n HINDA, though she saw not where
Or whither wound the perilous road,
Yet knew by that awakening air,
Which suddenly around her glow'd,

R

That they had ris'n from darkness then,

And breath'd the sunny world again!

But soon this balmy freshness fled

For now the steepy labyrinth led

Through damp and gloom-'mid crash of boughs, And fall of loosen'd crags that rouse

The leopard from his hungry sleep,

Who, starting, thinks each crag a prey,

And long is heard from steep to steep,

Chasing them down their thundering way !
The jackal's cry—the distant moan
Of the hyæna, fierce and lone;

And that eternal, saddening sound

Of torrents in the glen beneath,

As 'twere the ever-dark Profound

That rolls beneath the Bridge of Death!

All, all is fearful — ev'n to see,

To gaze on those terrific things

She now but blindly hears, would be

Relief to her imaginings!"

Since never yet was shape so dread,

But Fancy, thus in darkness thrown,

And by such sounds of horror fed,

Could frame more dreadful of her own.

But does she dream? has Fear again
Perplex'd the workings of her brain,
Or did a voice, all music, then

Come from the gloom, low whispering near

"Tremble not, love, thy Gheber's here?"

She does not dream

all sense, all ear,

She drinks the words, "Thy Gheber's here." 'Twas his own voice - she could not err

Throughout the breathing world's extent

There was but one such voice for her,
So kind, so soft, so eloquent!
Oh! sooner shall the rose of May
Mistake her own sweet nightingale,

And to some meaner minstrel's lay
Open her bosom's glowing veil, 4
Than Love shall ever doubt a tone,

A breath of the beloved one!

"The nightin

4 A frequent image among the oriental poets. gales warbled their enchanting notes, and rent the thin veils of the rose-bud and the rose . Jami.

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Though blest, 'mid all her ills, to think
She has that one beloved near,

Whose smile, though met on ruin's brink,
Hath power to make ev'n ruin dear,-
Yet soon this gleam of rapture, crost
By fears for him, is chill'd and lost.
How shall the ruthless HAFED brook
That one of Gheber blood should look,
With aught but curses in his eye,
On her a maid of ARABY

A Moslem maid the child of him,

Whose bloody banner's dire success Hath left their altars cold and dim,

And their fair land a wilderness !

And, worse than all, that night of blood
Which comes so fast oh! who shall stay

The sword, that once hath tasted food
Of Persian hearts, or turn its way?
What arm shall then the victim cover,
Or from her father shield her lover?

"Save him, my God!" she inly cries —

"Save him this night and if thine eyes

"Have ever welcom'd with delight "The sinner's tears, the sacrifice

"Of sinners' hearts-guard him this night, "And here, before thy throne, I swear "From my heart's inmost core to tear

"Love, hope, remembrance, though they be "Link'd with each quivering life-string there,

"And give it bleeding all to Thee! "Let him but live, the burning tear, "The sighs, so sinful yet so dear,

"Which have been all too much his own, "Shall from this hour be Heaven's alone.

"Youth pass'd in penitence, and age "In long and painful pilgrimage,

"Shall leave no traces of the flame

"That wastes me now nor shall his name

"E'er bless my lips, but when I pray

"For his dear spirit, that away

"Casting from its angelic ray

"Th' eclipse of earth, he too may shine
"Redeem'd, all glorious and all Thine!
"Think-think what victory to win
"One radiant soul like his from sin;