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 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, Made the high virtue of the patriots fail: IX. The spear transfix'd my arm that was uplifted 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 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: 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. Yet need was none for rest or food to care, 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 XXVI. I led him forth from that which now might seem 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 XXVII. At last the tyrant cried, "She hungers, slave: 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- XXIX. A mighty crowd, such as the wide land pours 'Twas midnight now, the eve of that great day A rite to attest the equality of all Who live. So to their homes, to dream or wake, Sunk in a gulf of scorn from which none may him rear! The flood recede from which their thirst they seek to XLII. To hear, to see, to live, was on that morn Who having much, covets yet more, resembled ; XLVIII. "For this wilt thou not henceforth pardon me? 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 A Form most like the imagined habitant By winds which feed on sunrise woven, to enchant 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 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 To fever'd cheeks, a voice flow'd o'er my troubled mind. XLVI. Like music of some minstrel heavenly gifted, 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 See thee, feel thee, know thee now,- |