He gained MEROU-breathed a short curse of blood
O'er his lost throne - then passed the JIHON's flood,1
And gathering all, whose madness of belief
Still saw a Savior in their down-fallen Chief,
Raised the white banner within NEKSHEB's gates,2
And there, untamed, the' 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 lightNo, 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 O, not for love-the deepest Damned must be Touched 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 unrolled
Blacken, beneath his touch, into a scroll
Of damning sins, sealed with a burning soul
This is his triumph; this the joy accursed,
That ranks him among demons all but first:

1 The ancient Oxus.

2 A city of Transoxiana.

3 "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-colored flowers,) others come forth in their stead," &c. &c. - Nieuhoff.

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!

But other tasks now wait him tasks that need All the deep daringness of thought and deed With which the Dives 1 have gifted him—for mark, Over yon plains, which night had else made dark, Those lanterns, countless as the winged lights That spangle INDIA's fields on showery nights,2— 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 armed magnificence looks down. Yet, fearless, from his lofty battlements MOKANNA Views that multitude of tents;

Nay, smiles to think that, though entoiled, 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. "O for a sweep of that dark Angel's wing, "Who brushed the thousands of the Assyrian King 3 "To darkness in a moment, that I might "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;

1 The Demons of the Persian mythology.

3

2 Carreri mentions the fire-flies in India during the rainy season. - See his Travels.

3 Sennacherib, called by the Orientals King of Monssal. - D'Herbelot.

"Let who will torture him, Priest

King

Caliph

"Alike this loathsome world of his shall ring "With victims' shrieks and howlings of the slave,"Sounds that shall glad me ev'n within my grave!" Thus to himself but to the scanty train Still left around him, a far different strain : "Glorious Defenders of the sacred Crown

"I bear from Heaven, whose light nor blood shall drown

"Nor shadow of earth eclipse; -before whose gems "The paly pomp of this world's diadems,

"The crown of GERASHID, the pillared throne "Of PARVIZ,1 and the heron crest that shone,2 "Magnificent, o'er ALI's beauteous eyes,3 "Fade like the stars when morn is in the skies: "Warriors, rejoice—the port to which we've passed "O'er Destiny's dark wave, beams out at last! "Victory's our own 'tis written in that Book "Upon whose leaves none but the angels look, "That ISLAM's sceptre shall beneath the power "Of her great foe fall broken in that hour, "When the moon's mighty orb, before all eyes, "From NEKSHEB's Holy Well portentously shall rise!

1 Chosroes. For the description of his Throne or Palace, see Gibbon and D'Herbelot.

There were said to be under this Throne or Palace of Khosrou Parviz a hundred vaults filled with "treasures so immense that some Mahometan writers tell us, their Prophet, to encourage his disciples, carried them to a rock, which at his command opened, and gave them a prospect through it of the treasures of Khosrou." Universal History.

2 "The crown of Gerashid is cloudy and tarnished before the heron tuft of thy turban." From one of the elegies or songs in praise of Ali, written in characters of gold round the gallery of Abbas's tomb. See Chardin.

3 The beauty of Ali's eyes was so remarkable, that whenever the Persians would describe any thing as very lovely, they say it is Ayn Hali, or the Eyes of Ali. - Chardin.

"Now turn and see ! 99

They turned, and, as he spoke,

A sudden splendor all around them broke,
And they beheld an orb, ample and bright,
Rise from the Holy Well,' and cast its light
Round the rich city and the plain for miles,2
Flinging such radiance o'er the gilded tiles
Of many a dome and fair-roofed imaret

As autumn suns shed round them when they set.
Instant from all who saw the' illusive sign
A murmur broke - "Miraculous! divine!"
The Gheber bowed, thinking his idol star
Had waked, and burst impatient through the bar
Of midnight, to inflame him to the war;
While he of MOUSSA's creed saw, in that ray,
The glorious Light which, in his freedom's day,
Had rested on the Ark,3 and now again
Shone out to bless the breaking of his chain.

"To victory!" is at once the cry of all-
Nor stands MoKANNA loitering at that call
But instant the huge gates are flung aside,
And forth, like a diminutive mountain-tide
Into the boundless sea, they speed their course
Right on into the MOSLEM's mighty force.

1 We are not told more of this trick of the Impostor, than that it was "une machine, qu'il disoit être la Lunc." According to Richardson, the miracle is perpetuated in Nekscheb. "Nakshab, the name of a city in Transoxiania, where they say there is a well, in which the appearance of the moon is to be seen night and day."

2 "Il amusa pendant deux mois le peuple de la ville de Nekhscheb, en faisant sortir toutes les nuits du fond d'un puits un corps lumineux semblable à Lune, qui portoit sa lumière jusqu'à la distance de plusieurs milles." - D'Herbelot. Hence he was called Sazendéhmah, or the Moon-maker. 3 The Shechinah, called Sakînat in the Koran.-See Sale's Note, chap. ii.

The watchmen of the camp,-who, in their rounds, Had paused, and ev'n forgot the punctual sounds Of the small drum with which they count the night,1 To gaze upon that supernatural light,—

Now sink beneath an unexpected arm,

2

And in a death-groan give their last alarm. "On for the lamps, that light yon lofty screen, "Nor blunt your blades with massacre so mean; "There rests the CALIPH-speed-one lucky lance "May now achieve mankind's deliverance." Desperate the die-such as they only cast, Who venture for a world, and stake their last. But Fate's no longer with him-blade for blade Springs up to meet them thro' the glimmering shade, And, as the clash is heard, new legions soon Pour to the spot, like bees of KAUZEROON 3 To the shrill timbrel's summons, till, at length, The mighty camp swarms out in all its strength, And back to NEKSHEB's gates, covering the plain With random slaughter, drives the' adventurous train;

Among the last of whom the Silver Veil

Is seen glittering at times, like the white sail
Of some tossed vessel, on a stormy night,
Catching the tempest's momentary light!

1 The parts of the night are made known as well by instruments of music, as by the rounds of the watchmen with cries and small drums. See Burder's Oriental Customs, vol. i. p. 119.

2 The Serrapurda, high screens of red cloth, stiffened with cane, used to enclose a considerable space round the royal tents. Notes on the Bahardanush.

The tents of Princes were generally illuminated. Norden tells us that the tent of the Bey of Girge was distinguished from the other tents by forty lanterns being suspended before it. See Harmer's Observations on Job. 3 "From the groves of orange-trees at Kauzeroon the bees cull a celebrated honey."Morier's Travels,