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But, Selim, thou must answer why1
We need so much of mystery?
The cause I cannot dream nor tell,

410

But be it, since thou say'st 'tis well;

Yet what thou mean'st by 'arms' and 'friends,'

Beyond my weaker sense extends.

I meant that Giaffir should have heard

The very vow I plighted thee;
His wrath would not revoke my word:
But surely he would leave me free.
Can this fond wish seem strange in me,
To be what I have ever been?

What other hath Zuleika seen
From simple childhood's earliest hour?

What other can she seek to see
Than thee, companion of her bower,
The partner of her infancy?
These cherished thoughts with life begun,
Say, why must I no more avow?

What change is wrought to make me shun

The truth-my pride, and thine till now?
To meet the gaze of stranger's eyes
Our law-our creed-our God denies ;
Nor shall one wandering thought of mine
At such, our Prophet's will, repine:

No! happier made by that decree,
He left me all in leaving thee.

Deep were my anguish, thus compelled".
To wed with one I ne'er beheld:

i. But-Selim why my heart's reply
Should need so much of mystery

Is more than I can guess or tell,

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430

But since thou say'st'tis so—'tis well.-[MS.] [The fourth line erased.]

ii. He blest me more in leaving thee.

Much should I suffer thus compelled.—[MS.]

I.

This wherefore should I not reveal?
Why wilt thou urge me to conceal ?1
I know the Pacha's haughty mood
To thee hath never boded good;
And he so often storms at nought,
Allah! forbid that e'er he ought!
And why I know not, but within
My heart concealment weighs like sin."
If then such secrecy be crime,

And such it feels while lurking here;
Oh, Selim! tell me yet in time,

Nor leave me thus to thoughts of fear.
Ah! yonder see the Tchocadar,1
My father leaves the mimic war;

I tremble now to meet his eye—

Say, Selim, canst thou tell me why?”

XIV.

"Zuleika-to thy tower's retreat
Betake thee-Giaffir I can greet:

And now with him I fain must prate
Of firmans, imposts, levies, state.

There's fearful news from Danube's banks,
Our Vizier nobly thins his ranks

i. This vow I should no more conceal

And wherefore should I not reveal!—[MS.]

ii. My breast is consciousness of sin

But when and where and what the crime
I almost feel is lurking here.—[MS.]

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450

"Tchocadar '—one of the attendants who precedes a man of

authority.

[See D'Ohsson's Tableau Générale, etc., 1787, ii. 159, and Plates 87, 88. The Turks seem to have used the Persian word chawki-dār, an officer of the guard-house, a policeman (whence our slang word "chokey"), for a "valet de pied," or, in the case of the Sultan, for an apparitor. The French spelling points to D'Ohsson as Byron's authority.]

For which the Giaour may give him thanks!

Our Sultan hath a shorter way

Such costly triumph to repay.

But, mark me, when the twilight drum

460

Hath warned the troops to food and sleep,

Unto thy cell with Selim come;

Then softly from the Haram creep

Where we may wander by the deep:
Our garden battlements are steep;
Nor these will rash intruder climb
To list our words, or stint our time;
And if he doth, I want not steel

Which some have felt, and more may feel.
Then shalt thou learn of Selim more
Than thou hast heard or thought before:
Trust me, Zuleika-fear not me!
Thou know'st I hold a Haram key."

"Fear thee, my Selim! ne'er till now
Did words like this- -"

"Delay not thou;
I keep the key-and Haroun's guard
Have some, and hope of more reward.
To-night, Zuleika, thou shalt hear
My tale, my purpose, and my fear :
I am not, love! what I appear."

i. Be silent thou.--[MS.]

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480

VOL. III.

N

CANTO THE SECOND.i

I.

THE winds are high on Helle's wave,
As on that night of stormy water
When Love, who sent, forgot to save
The young-the beautiful—the brave-
The lonely hope of Sestos' daughter.
Oh! when alone along the sky
Her turret-torch was blazing high,
Though rising gale, and breaking foam,

And shrieking sea-birds warned him home;
And clouds aloft and tides below,

With signs and sounds, forbade to go,
He could not see, he would not hear,
Or sound or sign foreboding fear;
His eye but saw that light of Love,
The only star it hailed above;
His ear but rang with Hero's song,
"Ye waves, divide not lovers long!"-
That tale is old, but Love anew 1

May nerve young hearts to prove as true.

i. Nov. 9th 1813.-[MS.]

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500

1. [Vide Ovid, Heroides, Ep. xix.; and the De Herone atque Leandro of Musæus.]

II.

The winds are high and Helle's tide
Rolls darkly heaving to the main ;
And Night's descending shadows hide
That field with blood bedewed in vain,
The desert of old Priam's pride;

The tombs, sole relics of his reign,
All-save immortal dreams that could beguile
The blind old man of Scio's rocky isle!

III.

Oh! yet-for there my steps have been;
These feet have pressed the sacred shore,
These limbs that buoyant wave hath borne-
Minstrel! with thee to muse, to mourn,

To trace again those fields of yore,

Believing every hillock green

Contains no fabled hero's ashes,

And that around the undoubted scene

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Thine own "broad Hellespont "1 still dashes,

Be long my lot! and cold were he

Who there could gaze denying thee!

520

1. The wrangling about this epithet, "the broad Hellespont" or the "boundless Hellespont," whether it means one or the other, or what it means at all, has been beyond all possibility of detail. I have even heard it disputed on the spot ; and not foreseeing a speedy conclusion to the controversy, amused myself with swimming across it in the mean time; and probably may again, before the point is settled. Indeed, the question as to the truth of " the tale of Troy divine" still continues, much of it resting upon the talismanic word "repos : " probably Homer had the same notion of distance that a coquette has of time; and when he talks of boundless, means half a mile; as the latter, by a like figure, when she says eternal attachment, simply specifies three weeks.

[For a defence of the Homeric àrelpwv, and for a résumé of the wrangling" of the topographers, Jean Baptiste Le Chevalier (1752-1836) and Jacob Bryant (1715-1804), etc., see Travels in Albania, 1858, ii. 179–185.]

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