hope,

And love and revel, in an hour were trampled

By human passions to a human chaos, Not yet resolved to separate elements'Tis warring still! And can the sun so rise,

So bright, so rolling back the clouds into Vapours more lovely than the unclouded sky,

With golden pinnacles, and snowy mountains,

And billows purpler than the ocean's, making

In heaven a glorious mockery of the earth,
So like we almost deem it permanent;
So fleeting, we can scarcely call it aught
Beyond a vision, 't is so transiently
Scatter'd along the eternal vault: and yet
It dwells upon the soul, and soothes the
soul,

20

And blends itself into the soul, until Sunrise and sunset form the haunted epoch Of sorrow and of love; which they who mark not,

Know not the realms where those twin

60

Bal. Hark! heard you not a sound? Myr. No, 't was mere fancy; They battle it beyond the wall, and not As in late midnight conflict in the very Chambers: the palace has become a fortress Since that insidious hour; and here, within The very centre, girded by vast courts And regal halls of pyramid proportions, Which must be carried one by one before They penetrate to where they then arrived, We are as much shut in even from the sound

Of peril as from glory.

Bal.

But they reach'd

You fell and fainted: 't was his strict command

To bear you to this hall.
Sal.

'T was not ill done: For seeming slain in that cold dizzy trance, The sight might shake our soldiers — but — 't is vain, I feel it ebbing!

Myr.

-

99

Let me see the wound; I am not quite skilless: in my native land 'Tis part of our instruction. War being

constant,

We are nerved to look on such things.

The javelin.

Myr.

Hold! no, no, it cannot be. Sal. I am sped, then!

Sar. Pania yet lives; but Sfero's fled, or

captive.

I am alone.

Myr.

Sar.

And is all lost?

140

Our walls,

Though thinly mann'd, may still hold out

against

Their present force, or aught save treachery:
But i' the field
Myr.

I thought 't was the intent
Of Salemenes not to risk a sally
Till ye were strengthen'd by the expected

succours.

Sar. I over-ruled him.

Myr. Well, the fault's a brave one. Sar. But fatal. Oh, my brother! I would

give

These realms, of which thou wert the ornament,

The sword and shield, the sole-redeeming honour,

150

To call back - But I will not weep for thee;

Thou shalt be mourn'd for as thou wouldst be mourn'd.

It grieves me most that thou couldst quit this life

Believing that I could survive what thou
Hast died for- - our long royalty of race.
If I redeem it, I will give thee blood
Of thousands, tears of millions, for atone-
ment

(The tears of all the good are thine already).

If not, we meet again soon, if the spirit Within us lives beyond: - thou readest mine,

160

And dost me justice now. Let me once clasp

heart

That yet warm hand, and fold that throbless
[Embraces the body.
To this which beats so bitterly. Now, bear
The body hence.
Soldier.
Sar.

Where?

To my proper chamber. Place it beneath my canopy, as though