"I meant not, AzI," soothingly she said, As on his trembling arm she lean'd her head, And, looking in his face, saw angnish there Beyond all wounds the quivering flesh can bear"I meant not thou should'st have the pain of this ;Though death, with thee thus tasted, is a bliss "Thou would'st not rob me of, didst thou but

"know

"How oft I've pray'd to God I might die so!
"But the Fiend's venom was too scant and

"slow;

"To linger on were maddening—and I thought
"If once that Veil-nay, look on it-caught
"The eyes of your fierce soldiery, I should be
"Struck by a thousand death-darts instantly.
"But this is sweeter-oh! believe me, yes-

I would not change this sad, but dear caress, "This death within thy arms I would not give "For the most smiling life the happiest live! "All, that stood dark and drear before the eye "Of my stray'd soul, is passing swiftly by; "A light comes o'er me from those looks of love, "Like the first dawn of mercy from above; "And if thy lips but tell me I'm forgiv'n, 66 Angels will echo the blest words in heaven! "But live, my Azım;-oh! to call thee mine "Thus once again! my Azım;-dream divine! "Live, if thou ever lov'dst me, if to meet "Thy ZELICA hereafter would be sweet, "Oh live to pray for her-to bend the knee "Morning and night before that Deity,

"To whom pure lips and hearts without a stain,"As thine are, AzIM, never breath'd in vain,

"And pray that he may pardon her, may take "Compassion on her soul for thy dear sake, "And, nought remembering but her love to thee, "Make her all thine, all His, eternally!

"Go to those happy fields where first we twin'd "Our youthful hearts together-every wind

"That meets thee there, fresh from the well-known "flowers,

"Will bring the sweetness of those innocent hours "Back to thy soul, and thou may'st feel again "For thy poor ZELICA as thou did'st then. "So shall thy orisons, like dew that flies "To heav'n upon the morning's sunshine, rise "With all love's earliest ardour to the skies! "And should they-but alas! my senses fail"Oh for one minute !-should thy prayers prevail"If pardon'd souls may from that World of Bliss

Reveal their joy to those they love in this,

"I'll come to thee-in some sweet dream-and "tell

"Oh heaven-I die-dear love! farewell, farewell."

Time fleeted-years on years had pass'd away, And few of those who, on that mournful day, Had stood, with pity in their eyes, to see The maiden's death, and the youth's agony, Were living still-when, by a rustic grave Beside the swift Amoo's transparent wave, An aged man, who had grown aged there By that lone grave, morning and night in prayer, For the last time knelt down—and, though the shade Of death hung darkening over him, there play'd A gleam of rapture on his eye and cheek, That brighten'd even Death-like the last streak

Of intense glory on th' horizon's brim,
When night o'er all the rest hangs chill and dim,-
His soul had seen a Vision, while he slept;
She for whose spirit he had pray'd and wept
So many years had come to him, all drest

In angel's smiles, and told him she was blest!
For this the old man breath'd his thanks, and

died,

And there, upon the banks of that lov'd tide,
He and his ZELICA sleep side by side.

THE HE story of the Veiled Prophet of Khorassan being ended, they were now doomed to hear FADLADEEN's criticisms upon it. A series of disappointments and accidents had occurred to this learned Chamberlain during the journey. In the first place, those couriers stationed, as in the reign of Shah Jehan, between Delhi and the Western coast of India, to secure a constant supply of mangoes for the Royal Table, had, by some cruel irregularity, failed in their duty; and to eat any mangoes but those of Mazagong was, of course, impossible. In the next place the elephant, laden with his fine antique porcelain, had in an unusual fit of liveliness shattered the whole set to pieces :-an irreparable loss, as many of the vessels were so exquisitely old as to have been used under the Emperors Yan and Chun, who reigned many ages before the dynasty of Tang. His Koran too, supposed to be the iden. tical copy between the leaves of which Mahomet's favourite pigeon used to nestle, had been mislaid by his Koran-bearer three whole days; not without much spiritual alarm to FADLADEEN, who, though professing to hold with other loyal and orthodox Mussulmans, that salvation could only be found in the Koran, was strongly suspected of believing in his heart, that it could only be found in his own particular copy of it. When to all these grievances is added the obstinacy of the cooks, in putting the pepper of Canara into his dishes instead of the cinnamon of Serendib, we may easily suppose that he

came to the task of criticism with, at least, a suffi cient degree of irritability for the purpose.

"In order," said he, importantly swinging about his chaplet of pearls," to convey with clearness my opinion of the story this young man has related, it is necessary to take a review of all the stories that have ever-" My good FADLADEEN!" exclaimed the Princess, interrupting him, "we really do not deserve that you should give yourself so much trouble. Your opinion of the poem we have just heard, will, I have no doubt, be abundantly edifying, without any further waste of your valuable erudition." "If that be all," replied the critic,-evidently mortified at not being allowed to show how much he knew about every thing but the subject immediately before him ;-" If that be all that is required, the matter is easily despatched." He then proceeded to analyse the poem, in that strain, (so well known to the unfortunate bards of Delhi,) whose censures were an infliction from which few recovered, and whose very praises were like the honey extracted from the bitter flowers of the aloe. The chief per sonages of the story were, if he rightly understood them, an ill-favoured gentleman, with a veil over his face--a young lady, whose reason went and came according as it suited the poet's convenience to be sensible or otherwisee ;---and a youth in one of those hideous Bucharian bonnets, who took the aforesaid gentleman in a veil for a Divinity. "From such materials," said he, "what can be expected? -after rivalling each other in long speeches and absurdities, through some thousands of lines as indigestible as the filberds of Berdaa, our friend