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VIII.

Since last she visited the spot

Some change seemed wrought within the grot: It might be only that the night

Disguised things seen by better light: That brazen lamp but dimly threw of no celestial hue;

A

ray

But in a nook within the cell

Her eye on stranger objects fell.
There arms were piled, not such as wield
The turbaned Delis in the field;
But brands of foreign blade and hilt,
And one was red-perchance with guilt!
Ah! how without can blood be spilt?

A

cup too on the board was set

That did not seem to hold sherbet.

What may this mean? she turned to see
Her Selim-« Oh! can this be he? »

IX.

His robe of pride was thrown aside,

His brow no high-crowned turban bore, But in its stead a shawl of red,

Wreathed lightly round, his temples wore : That dagger, on whose hilt the

gem

Were worthy of a diadem,
No longer glittered at his waist,
Where pistols unadorned were braced;
And from his belt a sabre swung,
And from his shoulder loosely hung
The cloak of white, the thin capote
That decks the wandering Candiote:

Beneath his golden plated vest

Clung like a cuirass to his breast;
The greaves below his knee that wound
With silvery scales were sheathed and bound.
But were it not that high command
Spake in his eye, and tone, and hand,
All that a careless eye could see
In him was some young Galiongee.

X.

« I said I was not what I seemed;

28

« And now thou seest my words were true; « I have a tale thou hast not dreamed,

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« If sooth-its truth must others rue.

My story now 'twere vain to hide,

« I must not see thee Osman's bride:

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But had not thine own lips declared

« How much of that young heart I shared,

« I could not, must not, yet have shown
« The darker secret of my own.
« In this I speak not now of love ;
« That, let time, truth, and peril prove :
But first-Oh! never wed another—
« Zuleika! I am not thy brother! »

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XI.

Oh! not my brother !—yet unsay—

« God! am I left alone on earth

« To mourn—I dare not curse—the day

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That saw my solitary birth?

Oh! thou wilt love me now no more!

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« Thou led'st me here perchance to kill: If thou hast cause for vengeance, see! My breast is offered-take thy fill! « Far better with the dead to be

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« Than live thus nothing now to thee:

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Perhaps far worse, for now I know

Why Giaffir always seemed thy foe;

« And I, alas! am Giaffir's child,

« For whom thou wert contemned, reviled. « If not thy sister—wouldst thou save,

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My life, Oh! bid me be thy slave! »

XII.

My slave, Zuleika !—nay, I'm thine:

« But, gentle love, this transport calm,

"

• Thy lot shall yet be linked with mine;

a I swear it by our Prophet's shrine,

« And be that thought thy sorrow's balm.

« So may the Koran 29 verse displayed

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Upon its steel direct my blade,

« In danger's hour to guard us both,

« As I preserve that awful oath !

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The name in which thy heart hath prided «Must change; but, my Zuleika, know, That tie is widened, not divided,

Although thy Sire's my deadliest foe.

My father was to Giaffir all

<< That Selim late was deemed to thee; « That brother wrought a brother's fall, «But spared, at least, my infancy; << And lulled me with a vain deceit That yet a like return may meet. « He reared me, not with tender help, But like the nephew of a Cain; 3°

« He watched me like a lion's whelp,

That gnaws and yet may

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My father's blood in

break his chain.

vein

every

« Is boiling; but for thy dear sake

« No present vengeance will I take;

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Though here I must no more remain.

« But first, beloved Zuleika! hear

« How Giaffir wrought this deed of fear,

XIII,

"How first their strife to rancour grew,
« If love or envy made them foes,
« It matters little if I knew;
« In fiery spirits, slights, though few
« And thoughtless, will disturb repose.
« In war Abdallah's arm was strong,
in Bosniac song,

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Remembered

yet

And Paswan's 31 rebel hordes attest

« How little love they bore such guest;

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His death is all I need relate,

The stern effect of Giaffir's hate ;

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And how my birth disclosed to me,

« Whate'er beside it makes, hath made me free,

XIV.

"When Paswan, after years of strife,
«At last for power, but first for life,
« In Widin's walls too proudly sate,
« Our Pachas rallied round the state;

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Nor last nor least in high command

« Each brother led a separate band;

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They gave their borsetails 32 to the wind,

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And mustering in Sophia's plain

« Their tents were pitched, their post assigned ;

<< To one, alas! assigned in vain!

* What need of words? the deadly bowl,

k

By Giaffir's order drugged and given,

« With venom subtle as his soul,

« Dismissed Abdallah's hence to heaven. Reclined and feverish in the bath,

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He, when the hunter's sport was up,

« But little deemed a brother's wrath

«To quench his thirst had such a cup: « The bowl a bribed attendant bore ; <«< He drank one draught,33 nor needed more! « If thou my tale, Zuleika, doubt,

« Call Haroun-he can tell it out.

XV.

«The deed once done, and Paswan's feud
«In part suppressed, though ne'er subdued,
« Abdallah's Pachalick was gained :—
« Thou know'st not what in our Divan
« Can wealth procure for worse than man-

« Abdallah's honours were obtained

"

By him a brother's murder stained;

« 'Tis true, the purchase nearly drained

« His ill got treasure, soon replaced.

« Would'st question whence? Survey the waste, « And ask the squalid peasant how

<«< His gains repay his broiling brow!—

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Why me the stern usurper spared,

Why thus with me his palace shared, << I know not. Shame, regret, remorse, «And little fear from infant's force; Besides, adoption as a son

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By him whom Heaven accorded none,

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