In all the graceful gratitude of power,

For his throne's safety in that perilous hour?

Who doth not wonder, when, amidst the' acclaim
Of thousands, heralding to heaven his name
'Mid all those holier harmonies of fame,

Which sound along the path of virtuous souls,
Like music round a planet as it rolls! -
He turns away coldly, as if some gloom
Hung o'er his heart no triumphs can illume;
Some sightless grief, upon whose blasted gaze
Though glory's light may play, in vain it plays!
Yes, wretched AzIM! thine is such a grief,
Beyond all hope, all terror, all relief;

A dark, cold calm, which nothing now can break,

Or warm or brighten,

like that Syrian Lake,'

}

Upon whose surface morn and summer shed

Their smiles in vain, for all beneath is dead!

Hearts there have been, o'er which this weight of woe

Came by long use of suffering, tame and slow;

But thine, lost youth! was sudden-over thee

It broke at once, when all seem'd extacy;

life.

2 The Dead Sea, which contains neither animal nor vegetable

When Hope look'd up, and saw the gloomy Past
Melt into splendour, and Bliss dawn at last
"Twas then, ev'n then, o'er joys so freshly blown,
This mortal blight of misery came down;

Ev'n then, the full, warm gushings of thy heart
Were check'd like fount-drops, frozen as they start
And there, like them, cold, sunless relics hang,
Each fix'd and chill'd into a lasting pang!

One sole desire, one passion now remains,

To keep life's fever still within his veins,
Vengeance !-dire vengeance on the wretch who cast
O'er him and all he lov'd that ruinous blast.

For this, when rumours reach'd him in his flight

Far, far away, after that fatal night,

Rumours of armies, thronging to the' attack

Of the Veil'd Chief,- for this he wing'd him back,
Fleet as the vulture speeds to flags unfurl'd,

And came when all seem'd lost, and wildly hurl'd
Himself into the scale, and sav'd a world!

For this he still lives on, careless of all
The wreaths that glory on his path lets fall;
For this alone exists-like lightning-fire
To speed one bolt of vengeance, and expire!

H

}

But safe as yet that Spirit of Evil lives;
With a small band of desperate fugitives,
The last sole stubborn fragment, left unriven,

Of the proud host that late stood fronting heaven,

He gain'd MEROU - breath'd a short curse of blood

O'er his lost throne — then pass'd the JIHON's flood, 3

And gathering all, whose madness of belief

4

Still saw a Saviour in their down-fall'n Chief,
Rais'd the white banner within NEKSHEB's gates,
And there, untam'd, th' approaching conqueror waits.

Of all his Haram, all that busy hive,
With music and with sweets sparkling alive,
He took but one, the partner of his flight,
One, not for love-not for her beauty's light-
For ZELICA stood withering midst the gay,
Wan as the blossom that fell yesterday

From the' Alma tree and dies, while overhead
To-day's young flower is springing in its stead!'

3 The ancient Oxus.

4 A city of Transoxiania.

3

5 "You never can cast your eyes on this tree, but you meet there either blossoms or fruit; and as the blossom drops underneath on the ground, (which is frequently covered with these purple-coloured flowers,) others come forth in their stead," &c. &c.-Nieuhoff.

No, not for love-the deepest Damn'd must be
Touch'd with heaven's glory, ere such fiends as he
Can feel one glimpse of love's divinity!

But no, she is his victim; there lie all
Her charms for him

charms that can never pall,

As long as hell within his heart can stir,
Or one faint trace of heaven is left in her.

To work an angel's ruin, to behold

As white a page as Virtue e'er unroll'd
Blacken, beneath his touch, into a scroll
Of damning sins, seal'd with a burning soul
This is his triumph; this the joy accurst,
That ranks him among demons all but first!
This gives the victim, that before him lies
Blighted and lost, a glory in his eyes,

A light like that with which hell-fire illumes

The ghastly, writhing wretch whom it consumes!

6

With which the Dives have gifted him—for mark,

Over yon plains, which night had else made dark,

6 The Demons of the Persian mythology.

}

7

Those lanterns, countless as the winged lights
That spangle INDIA's fields on showery nights,
Far as their formidable gleams they shed,
The mighty tents of the beleaguerer spread,
Glimmering along the' horizon's dusky line,
And thence in nearer circles, till they shine
Among the founts and groves, o'er which the town
In all its arm'd magnificence looks down.
Yet, fearless, from his lofty battlements
MOKANNA views that multitude of tents;

Nay, smiles to think that, though entoil'd, beset,
Not less than myriads dare to front him yet; -
That friendless, throneless, he thus stands at bay,
Ev'n thus a match for myriads such as they !
"Oh! for a sweep of that dark Angel's wing,
"Who brush'd the thousands of th' Assyrian King'
"To darkness in a moment, that I might

66

People Hell's chambers with yon host to-night! "But come what may, let who will grasp the throne, "Caliph or Prophet, Man alike shall groan;

7 Carreri mentions the fire-flies in India during the rainy season. -v. his Travels.

8 Sennacherib, called by the orientals King of Moussal.-D'Herbelot.