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Then, suddenly, I knew it was the youth In whom its earliest hopes my spirit found; But envious tongues had stain'd his spotless truth, And thoughtless pride his love in silence bound, And shame and sorrow mine in toils had wound, Whilst he was innocent, and I deluded; The truth now came upon me, on the ground Tears of repenting joy, which fast intruded, Fell fast, and o'er its peace our mingling spirits brooded

VI.

Thus, while with rapid lips and earnest eyes We talk'd, a sound of sweeping conflict spread, As from the earth did suddenly arise;

From every tent, roused by that clamor dread, Our bands outsprung and seized their arms-we sped

Towards the sound: our tribes were gathering far, Those sanguine slaves amid ten thousand dead Stabb'd in their sleep, trampled in treacherous war, The gentle hearts whose power their lives had sought to spare.

VII.

Like rabid snakes, that sting some gentle child
Who brings them food, when winter false and fair
Allures them forth with its cold smiles, so wild
They rage among the camp:-they overbear
The patriot hosts-confusion, then despair
Descends like night-when "Laon!" one did cry:
Like a bright ghost from Heaven that shout did

scare

The slaves, and widening through the vaulted sky, Seem'd sent from Earth to Heaven in sign of victory. VIII.

In sudden panic those false murderers fled,
Like insect tribes before the northern gale:
But swifter still, our hosts encompassed
Their shatter'd ranks, and in a craggy vale,
Where even their fierce despair might naught avail.
Hemm'd them around!-and then revenge and
fear

Made the high virtue of the patriots fail:
One pointed at his foe the mortal spear-
Irush'd before its point, and cried, "Forbear, forbear!"

IX.

The spear transfix'd my arm that was uplifted
In swift expostulation, and the blood

Gush'd round its point: I smiled, and-" Oh! thou gifted

ye

With eloquence which shall not be withstood, Flow thus!"-I cried in joy, "thou vital flood, Until my heart be dry, ere thus the cause For which thou wert aught worthy be subduedAh, ye are pale,-ye weep,-your passions pause,— Tis well! feel the truth of love's benignant laws. X. "Soldiers, our brethren and our friends are slain: Ye murder'd them, I think, as they did sleep! Alas, what have ye done? the slightest pain Which ye might suffer, there were eyes to weep; ye have quench'd them-there were smiles to steep

But

Your hearts in balm, but they are lost in woe; And those whom love did set his watch to keep Around your tents truth's freedom to bestow, Ye stabb'd as they did sleep-but they forgive ye

now.

XI.

"O wherefore should ill ever flow from ill,
And pain still keener pain for ever breed?
We all are brethren-even the slaves who kill
For hire, are men! and to avenge misdeed
On the misdoer, doth but Misery feed
With her own broken heart! O Earth, O Heaven!
And thou, dread Nature, which to every deed
And all that lives, or is, to be hath given,

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And one whose spear had pierced me, lean'd beside

With quivering lips and humid eyes;—and all Seem'd like some brothers on a journey wide Gone forth, whom now strange meeting did befall In a strange land, round one whom they might call

Their friend, their chief, their father, for assay Of peril, which had saved them from the thrall Of death, now suffering. Thus the vast array Of those fraternal bands were reconciled that day. XIV.

Lifting the thunder of their acclamation, Towards the City then the multitude, And I among them, went in joy—a nation Made free by love,-a mighty brotherhood Link'd by a jealous interchange of good; A glorious pageant, more magnificent Than kingly slaves array'd in gold and blood; When they return from carnage, and are sent In triumph bright beneath the populous battlement.

XV.

Afar, the City walls were throng'd on high, And myriads on each giddy turret clung, And to each spire far lessening in the sky, Bright pennons on the idle winds were hung; As we approach'd a shout of joyance sprung At once from all the crowd, as if the vast And peopled Earth its boundless skies among The sudden clamor of delight had cast, When from before its face some general wreck had past.

XVI.

Our armies through the City's hundred gates Were pour'd, like brooks which to the rocky lair Of some deep lake, whose silence them awaits, Throng from the mountains when the storms are

there;

And as we past through the calm sunny air, A thousand flower-inwoven crowns were shed, The token flowers of truth and freedom fair, And fairest hands bound them on many a head, Those angels of love's heaven, that over all was spread.

XVII.

I trod as one tranced in some rapturous vision:
Those bloody bands so lately reconciled,
Were, ever as they went, by the contrition
Of anger turn'd to love from ill beguiled,
And every one on them more gently smiled,
Because they had done evil :-the sweet awe
Of such mild looks made their own hearts grow
mild,

And did with soft attraction ever draw

Even as to thee have these done ill, and are forgiven. Their spirits to the love of freedom's equal law.

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Yet need was none for rest or food to care,
Even though that multitude was passing great,
Since each one for the other did prepare
All kindly succor-Therefore to the gate
Of the Imperial House, now desolate,
I past, and there was found aghast, alone,
The fallen Tyrant!-silently he sate
Upon the footstool of his golden throne,

XXIV.

She stood beside him like a rainbow braided Within some storm, when scarce its shadow vast From the blue paths of the swift sun have faded; A sweet and solemn smile, like Cythna's, cast One moment's light, which made my heart beat fast,

O'er that child's parted lips-a gleam of bliss, A shade of vanish'd days,- -as the tears past Which wrapt it, even as with a father's kiss I press'd those softest eyes in trembling tenderness

XXV.

The sceptred wretch then from that solitude
I drew, and of his change compassionate,
With words of sadness soothed his rugged mood.
But he, while pride and fear held deep debate,
With sullen guile of ill-dissembled hate
Glared on me as a toothless snake might glare:
Pity, not scorn I felt, though desolate
The desolator now, and unaware
The curses which he mock'd had caught him by the
hair.

XXVI.

I led him forth from that which now might seem
A gorgeous grave: through portals sculptured deep
With imagery beautiful as dream
We went, and left the shades which tend on sleep
Over its unregarded gold to keep
Their silent watch.-The child trod faintingly,
And as she went, the tears which she did weep
Glanced in the starlight; wilder'd seemed she,

Which, starr'd with sunny gems, in its own lustre shone. And when I spake, for sobs she could not answer me.

XXI.

Alone, but for one child, who led before him
A graceful dance: the only living thing
Of all the crowd, which thither to adore him
Flock'd yesterday, who solace sought to bring
In his abandonment!-she knew the King
Had praised her dance of yore, and now she wove
Its circles, aye weeping and murmuring
'Mid her sad task of unregarded love,

XXVII.

At last the tyrant cried, "She hungers, slave:
Stab her, or give her bread!"-It was a tone
Such as sick fancies in a new-made grave
Might hear. I trembled, for the truth was known,
He with this child had thus been left alone,
And neither had gone forth for food,--but he
In mingled pride and awe cower'd near his throne,
And she, a nursling of captivity,

That to no smiles it might his speechless sadness move. Knew naught beyond those walls, nor what such

XXII.

She fled to him, and wildly clasp'd his feet When human steps were heard:-he moved nor spoke,

Nor changed his hue, nor raised his looks to meet The gaze of strangers-our loud entrance woke The echoes of the hall, which circling broke The calm of its recesses,-like a tomb Its sculptured walls vacantly to the stroke Of footfalls answered, and the twilight's gloom, Lay like a charnel's mist within the radiant dome.

XXIII.

The little child stood up when we came nigh; Her lips and cheeks seem'd very pale and wan, But on her forehead, and within her eye Lay beauty, which makes hearts that feed thereon Sick with excess of sweetness; on the throne She lean'd;-the King with gather'd brow, and lips Wreathed by long scorn, did inly sneer and frown With hue like that when some great painter dips His pencil in the gloom of earthquake and eclipse.

change might be.

XXVIII.

And she was troubled at a charm withdrawn Thus suddenly; that sceptres ruled no moreThat even from gold the dreadful strength was

gone,

Which once made all things subject to its power-
Such wonder seized him, as if hour by hour
The past had come again; and the swift fall
Of one so great and terrible of yore,
To desolateness, in the hearts of all
Like wonder stirr'd, who saw such awful change
befall.

XXIX.

A mighty crowd, such as the wide land pours
Once in a thousand years, now gather'd round
The fallen tyrant;-like the rush of showers
Of hail in spring, pattering along the ground,
Their many footsteps fell, else came no sound
From the wide multitude: that lonely man
Then knew the burthen of his change, and found,
Concealing in the dust his visage wan,
Refuge from the keen looks which thro' his bosom ran.

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'Twas midnight now, the eve of that great day
Whereon the many nations at whose call
The chains of earth like mist melted away,
Decreed to hold a sacred Festival,

A rite to attest the equality of all

Who live. So to their homes, to dream or wake,
All went. The sleepless silence did recall
Laone to my thoughts, with hopes that make

Sunk in a gulf of scorn from which none may him rear! The flood recede from which their thirst they seek to

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XLII.

To hear, to see, to live, was on that morn
Lethean joy! so that all those assembled
Cast off their memories of the past outworn ;
Two only bosoms with their own life trembled,
And mine was one,-and we had both dissembled;
So with a beating heart I went, and one,

Who having much, covets yet more, resembled ;
A lost and dear possession, which not won,

XLVIII.

"For this wilt thou not henceforth pardon me?
Yes, but those joys which silence will requite
Forbid reply-why men have chosen me,
To be the Priestess of this holiest rite
I scarcely know, but that the floods of light
Which flow over the world, have borne me hither
To meet thee, long most dear; and now unite
Thine hand with mine, and may all comfort wither

He walks in lonely gloom beneath the noonday sun. From both the hearts whose pulse in joy now beat

XLIII.

To the great Pyramid I came: its stair
With female quires was throng'd: the loveliest
Among the free, grouped with its sculptures rare;
As I approach'd, the morning's golden mist,
Which now the wonder-stricken breezes kist
With their cold lips, fled, and the summit shone
Like Athos seen from Samothracia, drest
In earliest light by vintagers, and one
Sate there, a female Shape upon an ivory throne.
XLIV.

A Form most like the imagined habitant
Of silver exhalations sprung from dawn,

By winds which feed on sunrise woven, to enchant
The faiths of men: all mortal eyes were drawn,
As famish'd mariners through strange seas gone
Gaze on a burning watch-tower, by the light
Of those divinest lineaments-alone

With thoughts which none could share, from that fair sight

together.

XLIX

If our own will as others' law we bind, If the foul worship trampled here we fear; If as ourselves we cease to love our kind!"— She paused and pointed upwards-sculptured there Three shapes around her ivory throne appear; One was a Giant, like a child asleep On a loose rock, whose grasp crush'd, as it were In dream, sceptres and crowns; and one did keep Its watchful eyes in doubt whether to smile or weep;

L.

A Woman sitting on the sculptured disk
Of the broad earth, and feeding from one breast
A human babe and a young basilisk;
Her looks were sweet as Heaven's when loveliest
In Autumn eves:-The third Image was drest
In white wings swift as clouds in winter skies,
Beneath his feet, 'mongst ghastliest forms, represt
Lay Faith, an obscene worm, who sought to rise,

I turn'd in sickness, for a veil shrouded her coun- While calmly on the Sun he turn'd his diamond eyes

tenance bright.

XLV.

And, neither did I hear the acclamations,

Which from brief silence bursting, fill'd the air
With her strange name and mine, from all the nations
Which we, they said, in strength had gather'd there
From the sleep of bondage; nor the vision fair
Of that bright pageantry beheld, but blind
And silent, as a breathing corpse did fare,
Leaning upon my friend, till like a wind

To fever'd cheeks, a voice flow'd o'er my troubled mind.

XLVI.

Like music of some minstrel heavenly gifted,
To one whom fiends enthral, this voice to me;
Scarce did I wish her veil to be uplifted,
I was so calm and joyous.—I could see
The platform where we stood, the statues three
Which kept their marble watch on that high shrine,
The multitudes, the mountains, and the sea;

As when eclipse hath past, things sudden shine To men's astonish'd eyes most clear and crystalline.

XLVII.

At first Laone spoke most tremulously: But soon her voice the calmness which it shed Gather'd, and-"Thou art whom I sought to see, And thou art our first votary here," she said: "I had a dear friend once, but he is dead!And of all those on the wide earth who breathe, Thou dost resemble him alone-I spread This veil between us two, that thou beneath Shouldst image one who may have been long lost in death.

LI.

Beside that Image then I sate, while she Stood, 'mid the throngs which ever ebb'd and flow'd Like light amid the shadows of the sea Cast from one cloudless star, and on the crowd That touch which none who feels forgets, bestow'd; And whilst the sun return'd the stedfast gaze Of the great Image as o'er Heaven it glode, That rite had place; it ceased when sunset's blaz Burn'd o'er the isles; all stood in joy and deep

amaze.

When in the silence of all spirits there Laone's voice was felt, and through the air Her thrilling gestures spoke, most eloquently fair.

1.

"Calm art thou as yon sunset! swift and strong
As new-fledged Eagles, beautiful and young,
That float among the blinding beams of morning;
And underneath thy feet writhe Faith, and Folly,
Custom, and Hell, and mortal Melancholy-
Hark! the Earth starts to hear the mighty warning
Of thy voice sublime and holy;
Its free spirits here assembled,

See thee, feel thee, know thee now,-
To thy voice their hearts have trembled,
Like ten thousand clouds which flow
With one wide wind as it flies!
Wisdom! thy irresistible children rise
To hail thee, and the elements they chain
And their own will to swell the glory of thy train.

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