But glowing with one sullen sunless heat.
Beneath his foot nor sprouted flower nor herb,
Nor chirpt a grasshopper; above his head
Phlegethon form'd a fiery firmament;
Part were sulphurous clouds involving, part
Shining like solid ribs of molten brass;
For the fierce element, which else aspires
Higher and higher and lessens to the sky,
Below, Earth's adamantine arch rebuft.

Gebir, tho' now such languor held his limbs, Scarce aught admir'd he, yet he this admir'd ; And thus addrest him then the conscious guide. "Beyond that river lie the happy fields; From them fly gentle breezes, which when drawn Against yon crescent convex, but unite Stronger with what they could not overcome. Thus they that scatter freshness thro' the groves 100 And meadows of the fortunate, and fill With liquid light the marble bowl of Earth, And give her blooming health and sprightly force, Their fire no more diluted, nor its darts Blunted by passing thro' thick myrtle-bowers, Neither from odours rising half dissolved, Point forward Phlegethon's eternal flame; And this horizon is the spacious bow Whence each ray reaches to the world above." The hero pausing, Gebir then besought What region held his ancestors, what clouds, What waters, or what Gods, from his embrace. Aroar then sudden, as tho' rous'd, renew'd. "Come thou, if ardour urges thee and force Suffices.. mark me, Gebir, I unfold No fable to allure thee.. on! behold Thy ancestors!" and lo! with horrid gasp The panting flame above his head recoil'd, And thunder through his heart and life-blood throb'd.

110

Such sound could human organs once conceive, 120
Cold, speechless, palsied, not the soothing voice
Of friendship or almost of Deity

Could raise the wretched mortal from the dust;
Beyond man's home condition they! With eyes
Intent, and voice desponding, and unheard
By Aroar, tho' he tarried at his side,
"They know me not," cried Gebir, "O my sires,
Ye know me not! they answer not, nor hear.
How distant are they still! what sad extent
Of desolation must we overcome!

130

Aroar! what wretch that nearest us? what wretch Is that with eyebrows white and slanting brow? Listen! him yonder, who, bound down supine, Shrinks yelling from that sword there enginehung;

140

He too among my ancestors?" "O King!
Iberia bore him, but the breed accurst
Inclement winds blew blighting from north-east."
"He was a warrior then, nor fear'd the Gods?"
"Gebir! he fear'd the Demons, not the Gods,
Tho' them indeed his daily face adored,
And was no warrior; yet the thousand lives
Squander'd as stones to exercise a sling,
And the tame cruelty and cold caprice..
Oh madness of mankind! addrest, adored!
O Gebir! what are men? or where are Gods?

To soothe your folly and disgrace with praise!
Hearest thou not the harp's gay simpering air
And merriment afar? then come, advance;
And now behold him! mark the wretch accurst
Who sold his people to a rival king:
Self-yoked they stood two ages unredeem'd."

"O horror! what pale visage rises there!
Speak, Aroar! me perhaps mine eyes deceive,
Inured not, yet methinks they there descry
Such crimson haze as sometimes drowns the

moon.

160

170

What is yon awful sight? why thus appears
That space between the purple and the crown?"
"I will relate their stories when we reach
Our confines," said the guide; "for thou, O king,
Differing in both from all thy countrymen,
Seest not their stories and hast seen their fates.
But while we tarry, lo again the flame
Riseth, and murmuring hoarse, points straighter;
haste,

'Tis urgent, we must hence." "Then O adieu!"
Cried Gebir and groan'd loud: at last a tear
Burst from his eyes turn'd back, and he exclaimed:
"Am I deluded? O ye powers of hell!
Suffer me.. O my fathers! am I torn.."
He spake, and would have spoken more, but
flames

Enwrapt him round and round intense; he turn'd 180
And stood held breathless in a ghost's embrace.
"Gebir! my son! desert me not! I heard
Thy calling voice, nor fate withheld me more:
One moment yet remains; enough to know
Soon will my torments, soon will thine, expire.
O that I e'er exacted such a vow!

When dipping in the victim's blood thy hand,
First thou withdrew'st it, looking in my face
Wondering; but when the priest my will ex-
plain'd,

While tumult sweeps them ample room for play;

Throughout the land, and bid the strangers eat; Their anger thus we haply may disarm."

"O Dalica," the grateful queen replied, "Nurse of my childhood, soother of my cares, Preventer of my wishes, of my thoughts, O pardon youth, O pardon royalty! If hastily to Dalica I sued,

Fear might impell me, never could distrust.
Go then, for wisdom guides thee, take my name,
Issue what most imports and best beseems,
And sovranty shall sanction the decree."

And now Charoba was alone, her heart
Grew lighter; she sat down, and she arose,
She felt voluptuous tenderness, but felt
That tenderness for Dalica; she prais'd
Her kind attention, warm solicitude,

110

120

Every-where questions answer'd ere begun,
Every-where crowds, for every-where alarm.
Thus winter gone, nor spring (tho' near) arriv'd,
Urged slanting onward by the bickering breeze
That issues from beneath Aurora's car,
Shudder the sombrous waves; at every beam
More vivid, more by every breath impell'd,
Higher and higher up the fretted rocks
Their turbulent refulgence they display.
Madness, which like the spiral element
The more it seizes on the fiercer burns,
Harried them blindly forward, and involved
In flame the senses and in gloom the soul.
Determin'd to protect the country's gods,
And asking their protection, they adjure
Each other to stand forward, and insist
With zeal, and trample under foot the slow;
And disregardful of the Sympathies
Divine, those Sympathies whose delicate hand
Touching the very eyeball of the heart,
Awakens it, not wounds it nor inflames,
Blind wretches! they with desperate embrace
Hang on the pillar till the temple fall.
Oft the grave judge alarms religious wealth
And rouses anger under gentle words.
Woe to the wiser few who dare to cry
"People! these men are not your enemies,
Inquire their errand, and resist when wrong'd." 90
Together childhood, priesthood, womanhood,
The scribes and elders of the land, exclaim
"Seek they not hidden treasure in the tombs ?
Raising the ruins, levelling the dust,
Who can declare whose ashes they disturb!
Build they not fairer cities than our own,
Extravagant enormous apertures

For light, and portals larger, open courts
Where all ascending all are unconfin'd,
And wider streets in purer air than ours?
Temples quite plain with equal architraves
They build, nor bearing gods like ours imbost.
O profanation! O our ancestors!"

Tho' all the vulgar hate a foreign face,
It more offends weak eyes and homely age,
Dalica most, who thus her aim pursued.
"My promise, O Charoba, I perform.
Proclaim to gods and men a festival

100

* Antonius was afraid of poison: Cleopatra, to prove the injustice of his suspicions, and the ease with which a poison might be administered, shook it from her crown of flowers into his goblet: before he had raised it to his lipe, she told him, and established his confidence.

140

Moved from their order they have lost their charm.
While thus she strew'd her way with softest words,
Others grew up before her, but appear'd
A plenteous rather than perplexing choice:
She rubb'd her palms with pleasure, heav'd a sigh,
Grew calm again, and thus her thoughts revolv'd.
"But he descended to the tombs! the thought
Thrills me, I must avow it, with affright.
And wherefore? shows he not the more belov'd
Of heav'n? or how ascends he back to day?
Then has he wrong'd me? could he want a cause
Who has an army and was bred to reign?
And yet no reasons against rights he urged,
He threaten'd not, proclaim'd not; I approacht,
He hasten'd on; I spake, he listen'd; wept,
He pity'd me; he lov'd me, he obey'd;
He was a conqueror, still am I a queen."
She thus indulged fond fancies, when the sound
Of timbrels and of cymbals struck her ear,
And horns and howlings of wild jubilee.
She fear'd, and listened to confirm her fears;
One breath sufficed, and shook her refluent soul.
Smiting, with simulated smile constrain'd,
Her beauteous bosom, "O perfidious man,
O cruel foe!" she twice and thrice exclaim'd,
"O my companions, equal-aged! my throne!
My people! O how wretched to presage
This day! how tenfold wretched to endure!"
She ceast, and instantly the palace rang
With gratulation roaring into rage;
"Twas her own people. "Health to Gebir! health
To our compatriot subjects! to our queen
Health and unfaded youth ten thousand years!"
Then went the victims forward crown'd with
flowers,

150

160

Crown'd were tame crocodiles, and boys whiterobed

Guided their creaking crests across the stream.
In gilded barges went the female train,
And, hearing others ripple near, undrew
The veil of sea-green awning: if they found

180

If not, the frightful water forced a sigh.
Sweet airs of music ruled the rowing palms,
Now rose they glistening and aslant reclined,
Now they descended and with one consent
Plunging, seem'd swift each other to pursue,
And now to tremble wearied o'er the wave.
Beyond and in the suburbs might be seen
Crowds of all ages: here in triumph past
Not without pomp, tho' rais'd with rude device,
The monarch and Charoba; there a throng
Shone out in sunny whiteness o'er the reeds:
Nor could luxuriant youth, or lapsing age
Propt by the corner of the nearest street,
With aching eyes and tottering knees intent,
Loose leathery neck and wormlike lip outstretcht,
Fix long the ken upon one form, so swift
Thro' the gay vestures fluttering on the bank,
And thro' the bright-eyed waters dancing round,
Wove they their wanton wiles and disappear'd.190
Meantime, with pomp august and solemn, borne
On four white camels tinkling plates of gold,
Heralds before and Ethiop slaves behind,
Each with the sign of office in his hand,
Each on his brow the sacred stamp of years,
The four ambassadors of peace proceed.
Rich carpets bear they, corn and generous wine,
The Syrian olive's cheerful gift they bear,
With stubborn goats that eye the mountain-top
Askance, and riot with reluctant horn,
And steeds and stately camels in their train.
The king, who sat before his tent, descried
The dust rise redden'd from the setting sun:
Thro' all the plains below the Gadite men
Were resting from their labour: some surveyed
The spacious site ere yet obstructed; walls
Already, soon will roofs have interposed;
Some ate their frugal viands on the steps
Contented; some, remembering home, prefer
The cot's bare rafters o'er the gilded dome,
And sing (for often sighs too end in song)
"In smiling meads how sweet the brook's repose
To the rough ocean and red restless sands!'
Where are the woodland voices that increast
Along the unseen path on festal days,
When lay the dry and outcast arbutus
On the fane-step, and the first privet-flowers
Threw their white light upon the vernal shrine?
Some heedless trip along with hasty step
Whistling, and fix too soon on their abodes;
Haply and one among them with his spear
Measures the lintel, if so great its highth
As will receive him with his helm unlower'd.
But silence went throughout, e'en thoughts
were husht,

When to full view of navy and of camp
Now first expanded the bare-headed train.
Majestic unpresuming, unappall'd,
Onward they marcht, and neither to the right
Nor to the left, tho' there the city stood,
Turn'd they their sober eyes; and now they

reacht

Within a few steep paces of ascent

The lone pavilion of the Iberian king:

200

10

Glowing with pleasure and with palms refresht,
Now pointed at by Wisdom or by Wealth,
Bereft of beauty, bare of ornament,
Stood in the wilderness of woe, Masar.
Ere far advancing, all appear'd a plain,
Treacherous and fearful mountains, far advanced.
Her glory so gone down, at human step
The fierce hyena frighted from the walls
Bristled his rising back, his teeth unsheathed,
Drew the long growl and with slow foot retired.
Yet were remaining some of ancient race,
And ancient arts were now their sole delight.
With Time's first sickle they had markt the
hour

When at their incantation would the Moon
Start back, and shuddering shed blue blasted

light.

The rifted rays they gather'd, and immerst In potent portion of that wondrous wave, Which, hearing rescued Israel, stood erect, And led her armies thro' his crystal gates.

20

220

230

Stands on thy bleached bones and screams for

prey.

My lips can scatter them o'er every sea

Under the rising and the setting sun,

So shrivel'd in one breath as all the sands
We tread on, could not in a hundred years.
Wretched who die nor raise their sepulchre !
Therefore begone." But Dalica unaw'd,
(Tho' in her wither'd but still firm right-hand,
Held up with imprecations hoarse and deep,
Glimmer'd her brazen sickle, and enclosed
Within its figured curve the fading moon)
Spake thus aloud. "By yon bright orb of Heaven
In that most sacred moment when her beam
(Guided first thither by the forked shaft,)
Strikes thro' the crevice of Arishtah's tower