"Were it not impious," said the King, "to break

Our holy oath ?"—" Impious to keep it, say!"

Shrieked the exulting Priest. "Slaves, to the stake

Bind her, and on my head the
burden lay

Of her just torments:-at the
Judgment-day

Will I stand up before the golden throne

Of Heaven, and cry, To thee did
I betray

An Infidel! but for me she would have known

mildest dreams

thine own!""

Upon his neck, and kissed his mooned brow.

A piteous sight, that one so fair and young

The clasp of such a fearful death should woo

With smiles of tender joy, as beamed from Cythna now.

XIV

The warm tears burst in spite of faith and fear

From many a tremulous eye, but, like soft dews

Which feed Spring's earliest buds, hung gathered there,

Frozen by doubt, alas! they could not choose

limbs did refuse

To climb the pyre, upon the mutes

she smiled;

And with her eloquent gestures,

and the hues

Of her quick lips, even as a weary child

Wins sleep from some fond nurse with its caresses mild,

XV

She won them, though unwilling, her to bind

Near me, among the snakes. When

there had fled

One soft reproach that was most thrilling kind,

She smiled on me, and nothing then we said,

seen emotion.

XVII

And is this death?-The pyre has disappeared,

The Pestilence, the Tyrant, and the throng;

The flames grow silent-slowly there is heard

The music of a breath-suspending song,

Which, like the kiss of love when life is young,

Steeps the faint eyes in darkness sweet and deep;

With ever-changing notes it floats along,

Till on my passive soul there seemed to creep

ance fed

Looks of insatiate love; the mighty

veil

Which doth divide the living and the dead

Was almost rent, the world grew dim and pale,

All light in Heaven or Earth beside our love did fail.

XVI

Yet-yet-one brief relapse, like the

last beam

Of dying flames, the stainless air around

Hung silent and serene-a blood-red gleam

Burst upwards, huling fiercely

from the ground

that leap.

XVIII

The warm touch of a soft and tremulous hand

Wakened me then; lo! Cythna

sate reclined

Beside me, on the waved and golden sand

Of a clear pool, upon a bank o'ertwined

With strange and star-bright flowers which to the wind

Breathed divine odour; high above was spread

The emerald heaven of trees of unknown kind,

Whose moonlike blooms and bright fruit overhead

Of marble radiance, to that mighty

fountain;

And, where the flood its own bright

margin laves,

Fade fast, till, borne on sunlight's ebbing streams,

And fixed its blue and beaming

eyes on mine,

And said: "I was disturbed by tremu

lous shame

Awed by the ending of their own desire,

The armies stood; a vacancy was made

I fell in agony on the senseless ground,

I deem.

XXVIII

"These perish as the good and great of yore

Have perished, and their murderers will repent.

Yes, vain and barren tears shall flow before

Yon smoke has faded from the firmament,

Even for this cause, that ye, who must lament

The death of those that made this world so fair,

Cannot recall them now; but there

is lent

To man the wisdom of a high despair When such can die, and he live on and linger here.

XXIX

"Ay, ye may fear-not now the Pestilence,

From fabled hell as by a charm

withdrawn,

All power and faith must pass, since calmly hence

In pain and fire have unbelievers gone;

And ye must sadly turn away, and

moan

In secret, to his home each one returning,

And to long ages shall this hour be known;

And slowly shall its memory, ever burning,

Fill this dark night of things with an eternal morning.

XXX

"For me the world is grown too void and cold,

Since hope pursues immortal destiny With steps thus slow-therefore shall ye behold

How those who love, yet fear not, dare to die ;

Tell to your children this!' Then suddenly

He sheathed a dagger in his heart, and fell;

My brain grew dark in death, and yet to me

There came a murmur from the crowd to tell

Of deep and mighty change which suddenly befell.

Elysian islands bright and fortunate, Calm dwellings of the free and happy dead,

Where I am sent to lead." These winged words she said,

XXXII

And with the silence of her eloquent smile

Bade us embark in her divine canoe. Then at the helm we took our seat, the while

Above her head those plumes of dazzling hue

Into the wind's invisible stream she threw,

Sitting beside the prow: like gossa

mer

On the swift breath of morn, the vessel flew

O'er the bright whirlpools of that fountain fair,

Whose shores receded fast whilst we seemed lingering there.

XXXIII

Till down that mighty stream, dark, calm, and fleet,

Between a chasm of cedarn moun

tains riven,