8.Trembling with hope, the adventurous man descendedThe sea-green light of dayNot far along the vault extended;But where the slant reflection ended,Another light was seenOf red and fiery hue,That with the water blended,And gave the secrets of the Tombs to view.9.Deep in the marble rock, the HallOf Death was hollowed out, a chamber wide,Low-roof’d, and long; on either side,Each in his own alcove, and on his throne,The Kings of old were seated: in his handEach held the sceptre of command,From whence, across that scene of endless night,A carbuncle diffused its everlasting light.10.So well had the embalmers done their partWith spice and precious unguents, to imbueThe perfect corpse, that each had still the hueOf living man, and every limb was stillSupple and firm and full, as when of yoreIts motion answered to the moving will.The robes of royalty which once they wore,Long since had mouldered off and left them bare:Naked upon their thrones behold them there,Statues of actual flesh, . . a fearful sight!Their large and rayless eyesDimly reflecting to that gem-born light,Glaz’d, fix’d, and meaningless, . . . yet, open wide,Their ghastly balls beliedThe mockery of life in all beside.11.But if, amid these Chambers drear,Death were a sight of shuddering and of fear,Life was a thing of stranger horror here.For at the farther end, in yon alcove,Where Baly should have lain, had he obey’dMan’s common lot, behold Ereenia laid.Strong fetters link him to the rock; his eyeNow rolls and widens, as with effort vainHe strives to break the chain,Now seems to brood upon his misery.Before him couch’d there layOne of the mighty monsters of the deep,Whom Lorrinite encountering on the way,There station’d, his perpetual guard to keep;In the sport of wanton power, she charm’d him there,As if to mock the Glendoveer’s despair.Upward his form was human, save that hereThe skin was cover’d o’er with scale on scaleCompact, a panoply of natural mail.His mouth, from ear to ear,Weapon’d with triple teeth, extended wide,And tusks on either side;A double snake below, he roll’dHis supple lengths behind in many a sinuous fold.12.With red and kindling eye, the Beast beholdsA living man draw nigh,And, rising on his folds,In hungry joy awaits the expected feast,His mouth half-open, and his teeth unsheath’d.Then on he sprung, and in his scaly armsSeiz’d him, and fasten’d on his neck, to suck,With greedy lips, the warm life-blood: and sureBut for the mighty power of magic charms,As easily as, in the blithesome hourOf spring, a child doth crop the meadow flower,Piecemeal those clawsHad rent their victim, and those armed jawsSnapt him in twain. Naked Ladurlad stood,Yet fearless and unharm’d in this dread strife,So well Kehama’s Curse had charm’d his fated life.13.He too, . . . for anger, rising at the sightOf him he sought, in such strange thrall confin’d.With desperate courage fir’d Ladurlad’s mind, . . .He, too, unto the fight himself addrest,And grappling breast to breast,With foot firm-planted stands,And seiz’d the monster’s throat with both his hands.Vainly, with throttling grasp, he prestThe impenetrable scales;And lo! the guard rose up, and round his foe,With gliding motion, wreath’d his lengthening coils,Then tighten’d all their folds with stress and strain.Nought would the raging Tyger’s strength availIf once involv’d within those mighty toils;The arm’d Rhinoceros, so clasp’d, in vainHad trusted to his hide of rugged mail,His bones all broken, and the breath of lifeCrush’d from the lungs, in that unequal strife.Again, and yet again, he sought to breakThe impassive limbs; but when the monster foundHis utmost power was vain,A moment he relax’d in every round,Then knit his coils again with closer strain,And, bearing forward, forced him to the ground.14.Ereenia groan’d in anguish at the sightOf this dread fight: once more the GlendoveerEssay’d to break his bonds, and fearFor that brave spirit who had sought him here,Stung him to wilder strugglings. From the rockHe rais’d himself half up, . . with might and mainPluck’d at the adamantine chain;And now, with long and unrelaxing strain,In obstinate effort of indignant strength,Labour’d and strove in vain;Till his immortal sinews fail’d at length;And yielding, with an inward groan, to fate,Despairingly, he let himself againFall prostrate on his prison-bed of stone,Body and chain alike with lifeless weight.15.Struggling they lay in mortal frayAll day, while day was in our upper sphere,For light of day,And natural darkness never entered here;All night, with unabated might,They waged the unremitting fight.A second day, a second night,With furious will they wrestled still.The third came on, the fourth is gone;Another comes, another goes,And yet no respite, no repose;But day and night, and night and day,Involv’d in mortal strife they lay;Six days and nights have past away,And still they wage, with mutual rage,The unremitting fray.With mutual rage their war they wage,But not with mutual will;For when the seventh morning came,The monster’s worn and wearied frameIn this strange contest fails;And weaker, weaker, every hourHe yields beneath strong Nature’s power,For now the Curse prevails.16.Sometimes the Beast sprung up to bearHis foe aloft; and, trusting thereTo shake him from his hold,Relax’d the rings that wreath’d him round;But on his throat Ladurlad hung,And weigh’d him to the ground;And if they sink, or if they float,Alike with stubborn clasp he clung,Tenacious of his grasp;For well he knew with what a power,Exempt from Nature’s laws,The Curse had arm’d him for this hour;And in the monster’s gasping jaws,And in his hollow eye,Well could Ladurlad now descryThe certain signs of victory.17.And now the guard no more can keepHis painful watch; his eyes, opprest,Are fainting for their natural sleep;His living flesh and blood must rest,The Beast must sleep or die.Then he, full faint and languidly,Unwreathes his rings and strives to fly,And still retreating, slowly trailsHis stiff and heavy length of scales.But that unweariable foe,With will relentless, follows still;No breathing time, no pause of fightHe gives, but presses on his flight;Along the vaulted chambers, and the ascentUp to the emerald-tinted light of day,He harasses his way,Till lifeless, underneath his grasp,The huge Sea-Monster lay.18.That obstinate work is done! Ladurlad cried,One labour yet remains!And thoughtfully he eyedEreenia’s ponderous chains;And with vain effort, half-despairing, triedThe rivets deep in-driven. Instinctively,As if in search of aid, he look’d around:Oh, then, how gladly, in the near alcove,Fallen on the ground its lifeless Lord beside,The crescent scymitar he spied,Whose cloudy blade, with potent spells imbued,Had lain so many an age unhurt in solitude.19.Joyfully springing thereHe seiz’d the weapon, and with eager strokeHew’d at the chain; the force was dealt in vain,For not as if through yielding airPast the descending scymitar,Its deaden’d way the heavy water broke;Yet it bit deep. Again, with both his hands,He wields the blade, and dealt a surer blow.The baser metal yieldsTo that fine edge, and lo! the GlendoveerRises and snaps the half-sever’d links, and standsFreed from his broken bands.XVII.BALY.1.This is the appointed night,The night of joy and consecrated mirth,When, from his judgement-seat in Padalon,By Yamen’s throne,Baly goes forth, that he may walk the EarthUnseen, and hear his nameStill hymn’d and honour’d by the grateful voiceOf humankind, and in his fame rejoice.Therefore from door to door, and street to street,With willing feet,Shaking their firebrands, the glad children run;Baly! great Baly! they acclaim,Where’er they run they bear the mighty name;Where’er they meet,Baly! great Baly! still their choral tongues repeat.Therefore at every door the votive flameThrough pendant lanthorns sheds its painted light,And rockets hissing upward through the sky,Fall like a shower of starsFrom Heaven’s black canopy.Therefore, on yonder mountain’s templed height,The brazen cauldron blazes through the night.Huge as a Ship that travels the main seaIs that capacious brass; its wick as tallAs is the mast of some great admiral.Ten thousand votaries bringCamphor and ghee to feed the sacred flame;And while, through regions round, the nations seeIts fiery pillar curling high in heaven,Baly! great Baly! they exclaim,For ever hallowed be his blessed name!Honour and praise to him for ever more be given!2.Why art not thou among the festive throng,Baly, O Mighty One! to hear thy fame?Still as of yore, with pageantry and songThe glowing streets along,They celebrate thy name;Baly! great Baly! stillThe grateful habitants of Earth acclaim,Baly! great Baly! stillThe ringing walls and echoing towers proclaim.From yonder mountain the portentous flameStill blazes to the nations as before;All things appear to human eyes the same,As perfect as of yore;To human eyes, . . but how unlike to thine!Thine which were wont to seeThe Company divine,That with their presence came to honour thee!For all the blessed ones of mortal birthWho have been cloth’d with immortality,From the eight corners of the Earth,From the Seven Worlds assembling, allWont to attend thy solemn festival.Then did thine eyes beholdThe wide air peopled with that glorious train,Now may’st thou seek the blessed ones in vain,For Earth and Air are now beneath the Rajah’s reign.3.Therefore the Mighty One hath walk’d the EarthIn sorrow and in solitude to-night.The sound of human mirthTo him is no delight;He turns away from that ungrateful sight,Hallowed not now by visitants divine,And there he bends his melancholy wayWhere, in yon full-orb’d Moon’s refulgent light,The Golden Towers of his old City shineAbove the silver sea. The mighty ChiefThere bent his way in grief,As if sad thoughts indulged would work their own relief.4.There he beholds upon the sandA lovely Maiden in the moonlight stand.The land-breeze lifts her locks of jet,The waves around her polish’d ancles play,Her bosom with the salt sea-spray is wet;Her arms are crost, unconsciously, to foldThat bosom from the cold,While statue-like she seems her watch to keep,Gazing intently on the restless deep.5.Seven miserable days had Kailyal there,From earliest dawn till evening, watch’d the deep;Six nights within the chamber of the rock,Had laid her down, and found in prayerThat comfort which she sought in vain from sleep.But when the seventh night came,Never should she behold her Father more,The wretched Maiden said in her despair;Yet would not quit the shore,Nor turn her eyes one moment from the sea:Never beforeHad Kailyal watch’d it so impatiently,Never so eagerly had hop’d before,As now when she believ’d, and said, all hope was o’er.6.Beholding her, how beautiful she stood,In that wild solitude,Baly from his invisibilityHad issued then, to know her cause of woe;But that, in the air beside her, he espiedTwo Powers of Evil for her hurt allied,Foul Arvalan and dreadful Lorrinite.The Mighty One they could not see,And marking with what demon-like delightThey kept their innocent prey in sight,He waits, expecting what the end may be.7.She starts; for lo! where floating many a rood,A Monster, hugest of the Ocean brood,Weltering and lifeless, drifts toward the shore.Backward she starts in fear before the flood,And, when the waves retreat,They leave their hideous burthen at her feet.8.She ventures to approach with timid tread,She starts, and half draws back in fear,Then stops, and stretches on her head,To see if that huge beast indeed be dead.Now growing bold, the Maid advances near,Even to the margin of the ocean-flood.Rightly she reads her Father’s victory,And lifts her joyous hands, exultingly,To Heaven in gratitude.Then spreading them toward the Sea,While pious tears bedim her streaming eyes,Come! come! my Father, come to me!Ereenia, come! she cries.Lo! from the opening deep they rise,And to Ladurlad’s arms the happy Kailyal flies.9.She turn’d from him, to meet, with beating heart,The Glendoveer’s embrace.Now turn to me, for mine thou art!Foul Arvalan exdaim’d; his loathsome faceCame forth, and from the air,In fleshly form, he burst.Always in horror and despair,Had Kailyal seen that form and face accurst,But yet so sharp a pang had ne’erShot with a thrill like death through all her frame,As now when on her hour of joy the Spectre came.10.Vain is resistance now,The fiendish laugh of Lorrinite is heard;And, at her dreadful word,The Asuras once again appear,And seize Ladurlad and the Glendoveer.11.Hold your accursed hands!A Voice exclaim’d, whose dread commandsWere fear’d through all the vaults of Padalon;And there among them, in the midnight air,The presence of the mighty Baly shone.He, making manifest his mightiness,Put forth on every side an hundred arms,And seiz’d the Sorceress; maugre all her charms,Her and her fiendish ministers he caughtWith force as uncontroulable as fate;And that unhappy Soul, to whomThe Almighty Rajah’s power availeth notLiving to avert, nor dead to mitigateHis righteous doom.12.Help, help, Kehama! Father, help! he cried;But Baly tarried not to abideThat mightier Power; with irresistible feetHe stampt and cleft the Earth; it opened wide,And gave him way to his own judgement-seat.Down, like a plummet, to the World belowHe sunk, and bore his preyTo righteous punishment, and endless woe.XVIII.KEHAMA’S DESCENT.1.The Earth, by Baly’s feet divided,Clos’d o’er his way as to the judgement-seatHe plunged and bore his prey.Scarce had the shock subsided,When, darting from the Swerga’s heavenly heights,Kehama, like a thunderbolt, alights.In wrath he came, a bickering flameFlash’d from his eyes which made the moonlight dim,And passion forcing way from every limb,Like furnace-smoke, with terrors wrapt him round.Furious he smote the ground;Earth trembled underneath the dreadful stroke,Again in sunder riven;He hurl’d in rage his whirling weapon down.But lo! the fiery sheckra to his feetReturn’d, as if by equal force re-driven,And from the abyss the voice of Baly came:Not yet, O Rajah, hast thou wonThe realms of Padalon!Earth and the Swerga are thine own,But, till Kehama shall subdue the throneOf Hell, in torments Yamen holds his son.2.Fool that he is! . . in torments let him lie!Kehama, wrathful at his son, replied.But what am IThat thou should’st brave me? . . kindling in his prideThe dreadful Rajah cried.Ho! Yamen! hear me. God of Padalon,Prepare thy throne,And let the Amreeta cupBe ready for my lips, when I anonTriumphantly shall take my seat thereon,And plant upon thy neck my royal feet.3.In voice like thunder thus the Rajah cried,Impending o’er the abyss, with menacing handPut forth, as in the action of command,And eyes that darted their red anger down.Then drawing back he let the earth subside,And, as his wrath relax’d, survey’d,Thoughtful and silently, the mortal Maid.Her eye the while was on the farthest sky,Where up the etherial heightEreenia rose and past away from sight.Never had she so joyfullyBeheld the coming of the Glendoveer,Dear as he was and he deserv’d to be,As now she saw him rise and disappear.Come now what will, within her heart said she,For thou art safe, and what have I to fear?4.Meantime the Almighty Rajah, lateIn power and majesty and wrath array’d,Had laid his terrors byAnd gaz’d upon the Maid.Pride could not quit his eye,Nor that remorseless nature from his frontDepart; yet whoso had beheld him thenHad felt some admiration mix’d with dread,And might have saidThat sure he seem’d to be the King of Men;Less than the greatest that he could not be,Who carried in his port such might and majesty.5.In fear no longer for the Glendoveer,Now toward the Rajah Kailyal turn’d her eyesAs if to ask what doom awaited her.But then surprise,Even as with fascination, held them there,So strange a thing it seem’d to see the changeOf purport in that all-commanding brow,That thoughtfully was bent upon her now.Wondering she gaz’d, the while her Father’s eyeWas fix’d upon Kehama haughtily;It spake defiance to him, high disdain,Stern patience, unsubduable by pain,And pride triumphant over agony.6.Ladurlad, said the Rajah, thou and IAlike have done the work of Destiny,Unknowing each to what the impulse tended;But now that over Earth and Heaven my reignIs stablish’d, and the ways of Fate are plainBefore me, here our enmity is ended.I take away thy Curse. . . As thus he said,The fire which in Ladurlad’s heart and brainWas burning, fled, and left him free from pain.So rapidly his torments were departed,That at the sudden ease he started,As with a shock, and to his headHis hands up-fled,As if he felt through every failing limbThe power and sense of life forsaking him.7.Then turning to the Maid, the Rajah cried,O Virgin, above all of mortal birthFavour’d alike in beauty and in worth,And in the glories of thy destiny,Now let thy happy heart exult with pride,For Fate hath chosen theeTo be Kehama’s bride,To be the Queen of Heaven and Earth,And of whatever Worlds besideInfinity may hide . . . For I can seeThe writing which, at thy nativity,All-knowing Nature wrought upon thy brain,In branching veins, which to the gifted eyeMap out the mazes of futurity.There is it written, Maid, that thou and I,Alone of human kind a deathless pair,Are doom’d to shareThe Amreeta-drink divineOf immortality. Come, Maiden mine!High-fated One, ascend the subject sky,And by Kehama’s sideSit on the Swerga throne, his equal bride.8.Oh never, . . never . . Father! Kailyal cried;It is not as he saith, . . it cannot be!I! . . I, his bride!Nature is never false; he wrongeth her!My heart belies such lines of destiny.There is no other true interpreter!9.At that reply Kehama’s darkening browBewray’d the anger which he yet supprest.Counsel thy daughter; tell her thou art nowFree from thy Curse, he said, and bid her bowIn thankfulness to Fate’s benign behest.Bid her her stubborn will restrain,For Destiny at last must be obey’d,And tell her, while obedience is delay’d,Thy Curse will burn again.10.She needeth not my counsel, he replied,And idly, Rajah, dost thou reason thusOf Destiny! for though all other thingsWere subject to the starry influencings,And bow’d submissive to thy tyranny,The virtuous heart, and resolute will are free.Thus in their wisdom did the Gods decreeWhen they created man. Let come what will,This is our rock of strength; in every ill,Sorrow, oppression, pain and agony,The spirit of the good is unsubdued,And, suffer as they may, they triumph still.11.Obstinate fools! exclaim’d the Mighty One,Fate and my pleasure must be done,And ye resist in vain!Take your fit guerdon till we meet again!So saying, his vindictive hand he flungTowards them, fill’d with curses; then on highAloft he sprung, and vanish’d through the Sky.XIX.MOUNT CALASAY.1.The Rajah, scattering curses as he rose,Soar’d to the Swerga, and resum’d his throne.Not for his own redoubled agony,Which now through heart and brain,With renovated pain,Rush’d to its seat, Ladurlad breathes that groan,That groan is for his child; he groan’d to seeThe lovely one defil’d with leprosy,Which, as the enemy vindictive fled,O’er all her frame with quick contagion spread.She, wondering at events so passing strange,And fill’d with hope and fear,And joy to see the Tyrant disappear,And glad expectance of her Glendoveer,Perceiv’d not in herself the hideous change.His burning pain, she thought, had forced the groanHer father breath’d; his agonies aloneWere present to her mind; she claspt his knees,Wept for his Curse, and did not feel her own.2.Nor when she saw her plague, did her good heart,True to itself, even for a moment fail.Ha, Rajah! with disdainful smile she cries,Mighty and wise and wicked as thou art,Still thy blind vengeance acts a friendly part.Shall I not thank thee for this scurf and scaleOf dire deformity, whose loathsomeness,Surer than panoply of strongest mail,Arms me against all foes? Oh, better so,Better such foul disgrace,Than that this innocent faceShould tempt thy wooing! That I need not dread;Nor ever impious foeWill offer outrage now, nor farther woeWill beauty draw on my unhappy head;Safe through the unholy world may Kailyal go.3.Her face in virtuous prideWas lifted to the skies,As him and his poor vengeance she defied;But earthward, when she ceas’d, she turn’d her eyes,As if she sought to hideThe tear which in her own despite would rise.Did then the thought of her own GlendoveerCall forth that natural tear?Was it a woman’s fear,A thought of earthly love, which troubled her?Like yon thin cloud amid the moonlight skyThat flits before the windAnd leaves no trace behind,The womanly pang past over Kailyal’s mind.This is a loathsome sight to human eye,Half-shrinking at herself, the Maiden thought,Will it be so to him? Oh surely not!The immortal Powers, who seeThrough the poor wrappings of mortality,Behold the soul, the beautiful soul, within,Exempt from age and wasting malady,And undeform’d, while pure and free from sin.This is a loathsome sight to human eye,But not to eyes divine,Ereenia, Son of Heaven, oh not to thine!4.The wrongful thought of fear, the womanly painHad past away, her heart was calm again.She rais’d her head, expecting now to seeThe Glendoveer appear;Where hath he fled, quoth she,That he should tarry now? Oh had she knownWhither the adventurous Son of Heaven was flown,Strong as her spirit was, it had not borneThe awful thought, nor dar’d to hope for his return.5.For he in search of Seeva’s throne was gone,To tell his tale of wrong;In search of Seeva’s own abodeThe daring one began his heavenly road.O wild emprize! above the farthest skiesHe hop’d to rise!Him who is thron’d beyond the reach of thought,The Alone, the Inaccessible, he sought.O wild emprize! for when in days of yore,For proud pre-eminence of power,Brama and Veeshnoo, wild with rage, contended,And Seeva, in his might,Their dread contention ended;Before their sightIn form a fiery column did he tower,Whose head above the highest height extended,Whose base below the deepest depth descended.Downward, its depth to sound,Veeshnoo a thousand years explor’dThe fathomless profound,And yet no base he found:Upward, to reach its head,Ten myriad years the aspiring Brama soar’d,And still, as up he fled,Above him still the Immeasurable spread.The rivals own’d their lord,And trembled and ador’d.How shall the Glendoveer attainWhat Brama and what Veeshnoo sought in vain?6.Ne’er did such thought of lofty daring enterCelestial Spirit’s mind. O wild adventureThat throne to find, for he must leave behindThis World, that in the centre,Within its salt-sea girdle, lies confin’d;Yea the Seven Earths that, each with its own ocean,Ring clasping ring, compose the mighty round.What power of motion,In less than endless years shall bear him there,Along the limitless extent,To the utmost bound of the remotest spheres?What strength of wingSuffice to pierce the Golden FirmamentThat closes all within?Yet he hath past the measureless extent,And pierced the Golden Firmament;For Faith hath given him power, and Space and TimeVanish before that energy sublime.Nor doth Eternal Night,And outer Darkness, check his resolute flight;By strong desire through all he makes his way,Till Seeva’s Seat appears, . . behold Mount Calasay!7.Behold the Silver Mountain! round aboutSeven ladders stand, so high, the aching eye,Seeking their tops in vain amid the sky,Might deem they led from earth to highest heaven.Ages would pass away,And Worlds with age decay,Ere one whose patient feet from ring to ringMust win their upward way,Could reach the summit of Mount Calasay.But that strong power that nerv’d his wing,That all-surmounting will,Intensity of faith and holiest love,Sustain’d Ereenia still,And he hath gain’d the plain, the sanctuary above.8.Lo, there the Silver Bell,That, self-sustain’d, hangs buoyant in the air!Lo! the broad Table there, too brightFor mortal sight,From whose four sides the bordering gems uniteTheir harmonizing rays,In one mid fount of many-colour’d light.The stream of splendour, flashing as it flows,Plays round, and feeds the stem of yon celestial Rose.Where is the Sage whose wisdom can declareThe hidden things of that mysterious flower,That flower which serves all mysteries to bear?The sacred triangle is there,Holding the Emblem which no tongue may tell.Is this the Heaven of Heavens, where Seeva’s self doth dwell?9.Here first the GlendoveerFelt his wing flag, and paus’d upon his flight.Was it that fear came over him, when hereHe saw the imagin’d throne appear?Not so, for his immortal sightEndur’d the Table’s light;Distinctly he beheld all things around,And doubt and wonder rose within his mindThat this was all he found.Howbeit he lifted up his voice and spake.There is oppression in the World below;Earth groans beneath the yoke; yea, in her woe,She asks if the Avenger’s eye is blind?Awake, O Lord, awake!Too long thy vengeance sleepeth. Holy One!Put thou thy terrors on for mercy’s sake,And strike the blow, in justice to mankind!10.So as he pray’d, intenser faith he felt,His spirit seem’d to meltWith ardent yearnings of increasing love;Upward he turn’d his eyesAs if there should be something yet above;Let me not, Seeva! seek in vain! he cries,Thou art not here, . . for how should these contain thee?Thou art not here, . . for how should I sustain thee?But thou, where’er thou art,Canst hear the voice of prayer,Canst hear the humble heart.Thy dwelling who can tell,Or who, O Lord, hath seen thy secret throne?But thou art not alone,Not unapproachable!O all-containing Mind,Thou who art every where,Whom all who seek shall find,Hear me, O Seeva! hear the suppliant’s prayer!11.So saying, up he sprung,And struck the Bell, which self-suspended, hungBefore the mystic Rose.From side to side the silver tongueMelodious swung, and far and wideSoul-thrilling tones of heavenly music rung.Abash’d, confounded,It left the Glendoveer; . . yea all astoundedIn overpowering fear and deep dismay;For when that Bell had sounded,The Rose, with all the mysteries it surrounded,The Bell, the Table, and Mount Calasay,The holy Hill itself, with all thereon,Even as a morning dream before the dayDissolves away, they faded and were gone.12.Where shall he rest his wing, where turn for flight,For all around is Light,Primal, essential, all-pervading Light!Heart cannot think, nor tongue declare,Nor eyes of Angel bearThat Glory unimaginably bright;The Sun himself had seem’dA speck of darkness there,Amid that Light of Light!13.Down fell the Glendoveer,Down through all regions, to our mundane sphereHe fell; but in his earA voice, which from within him came, was heard,The indubitable wordOf Him to whom all secret things are known:Go, ye who suffer, go to Yamen’s throne.He hath the remedy for every woe;He setteth right whate’er is wrong below.XX.THE EMBARKATION.1.Down from the Heaven of Heavens Ereenia fellPrecipitate, yet imperceptibleHis fall, nor had he cause nor thought of fear;And when he came within this mundane sphere,And felt that Earth was near,The Glendoveer his azure wings expanded,And, sloping down the skyToward the spot from whence he sprung on high,There on the shore he landed.2.Kailyal advanced to meet him,Not moving now as she was wont to greet him;Joy in her eye and in her eager pace;With a calm smile of melancholy prideShe met him now, and, turning half aside,Her warning hand repell’d the dear embrace.Strange things, Ereenia, have befallen us here,The Virgin said; the Almighty Man hath readThe lines which, traced by Nature on my brain,There to the gifted eyeMake all my fortunes plain,Mapping the mazes of futurity.He sued for peace, for it is written thereThat I with him the Amreeta cup must share;Wherefore he bade me come, and by his sideSit on the Swerga-throne, his equal bride.I need not tell thee what reply was given;My heart, the sure interpreter of Heaven,His impious words belied.Thou seest his poor revenge! So having said,One look she glanced upon her leprous stainIndignantly, and shookHer head in calm disdain.3.O Maid of soul divine!O more than ever dear,And more than ever mine,Replied the Glendoveer;He hath not read, be sure, the mystic waysOf Fate; almighty as he is, that mazeHath mock’d his fallible sight.Said he the Amreeta-cup? So far arightThe Evil One may see; for Fate displaysHer hidden things in part, and part conceals,Baffling the wicked eyeAlike with what she hides, and what reveals,When with unholy purpose it would pryInto the secrets of futurity.So may it be permitted him to seeDimly the inscrutable decree;For to the world below,Where Yamen guards the Amreeta, we must go;Thus Seeva hath exprest his will, even heThe Holiest hath ordain’d it; there, he saith,All wrongs shall be redrestBy Yamen, by the righteous Power of Death.4.Forthwith the Father and the fated Maid,And that heroic Spirit, who for themSuch flight had late essay’d,The will of Heaven obey’d.They went their way along the roadThat leads to Yamen’s dread abode.5.Many a day hath past awaySince they began their arduous way,Their way of toil and pain;And now their weary feet attainThe Earth’s remotest boundWhere outer Ocean girds it round.But not like other Oceans this,Rather it seem’d a drear abyss,Upon whose brink they stood.Oh, scene of fear! the travellers hearThe raging of the flood;They hear how fearfully it roars,But clouds of darker shade than nightFor ever hovering round those shores,Hide all things from their sight.The Sun upon that darkness poursHis unavailing light;Nor ever Moon nor Stars display,Through the thick shade, one guiding rayTo shew the perils of the way.6.There, in a creek, a vessel lay.Just on the confines of the day,It rode at anchor in its bay,These venturous pilgrims to conveyAcross that outer Sea.Strange vessel sure it seem’d to be,And all unfit for such wild sea!For through its yawning side the waveWas oozing in; the mast was frail,And old and torn its only sail.How shall that crazy vessel braveThe billows, that in wild commotionFor ever roar and rave?How hope to cross the dreadful Ocean,O’er which eternal shadows dwell,Whose secrets none return to tell!7.Well might the travellers fear to enter!But summon’d once on that adventure,For them was no retreat.Nor boots it with reluctant feetTo linger on the strand;Aboard! aboard!An awful voice, that left no choice,Sent forth its stern command,Aboard! aboard!The travellers hear that voice in fear,And breathe to Heaven an inward prayer,And take their seats in silence there.8.Self-hoisted then, behold the sailExpands itself before the gale;Hands, which they cannot see, let slipThe cable of that fated ship;The land breeze sends her on her way,And lo! they leave the living light of day!XXI.THE WORLD’S END.1.Swift as an arrow in its flightThe Ship shot through the incumbent night;And they have left behindThe raging billows and the roaring wind,The storm, the darkness, and all mortal fears;And lo! another lightTo guide their way appears,The light of other spheres.2.That instant, from Ladurlad’s heart and brainThe Curse was gone; he feels againFresh as in Youth’s fair morning, and the MaidHath lost her leprous stain.The dreadful Man hath no dominion here,Starting she cried; O happy, happy hour!We are beyond his power!Then raising to the Glendoveer,With heavenly beauty bright, her angel face,Turn’d not reluctant now, and met his dear embrace.3.Swift glides the Ship, with gentle motion,Across that calm and quiet ocean;That glassy sea, which seem’d to beThe mirror of tranquillity.Their pleasant passage soon was o’er,The Ship hath reach’d its destin’d shore;A level belt of ice which bound,As with an adamantine mound,The waters of the sleeping Ocean round.Strange forms were on the strandOf earth-born spirits slain before their time;Who, wandering over sea and sky and land,Had so fulfill’d their term; and now were metUpon this icy belt, a motley band,Waiting their summons, at the appointed hourWhen each before the judgement-seat must stand,And hear his doom from Baly’s righteous power.4.Foul with habitual crimes, a hideous crewWere there, the race of rapine and of blood.Now, having overpast the mortal flood,Their own deformity they knew,And knew the meed that to their deeds was due.Therefore in fear and agony they stood,Expecting when the evil MessengerAmong them should appear. But with their fearA hope was mingled now;O’er the dark shade of guilt a deeper hueIt threw, and gave a fiercer characterTo the wild eye and lip and sinful brow.They hop’d that soon Kehama would subdueThe inexorable God, and seize his throne,Reduce the infernal World to his command,And, with his irresistible right hand,Redeem them from the vaults of Padalon.5.Apart from these a milder company,The victims of offences not their own,Look’d when the appointed Messenger should come;Gathered together some, and some aloneBrooding in silence on their future doom.Widows whom, to their husbands’ funeral fire,Force or strong error led, to share the pyre,As to their everlasting marriage-bed:And babes, by sin unstain’d,Whom erring parents vow’dTo Ganges, and the holy stream profan’dWith that strange sacrifice, rite unordain’dBy Law, by sacred Nature unallow’d:Others more hapless in their destiny,Scarce having first inhaled this vital breath,Whose cradles from some treeUnnatural hands suspended,Then left, till gentle Death,Coming like Sleep, their feeble moanings ended;Or for his prey the ravenous Kite descended;Or, marching like an army from their caves,The Pismires blacken’d o’er, then bleach’d and bare
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