No deed they've done, nor deed shall do,
Ere I have heard and doomed it too:
I form the plan-decree the spoil-
'Tis fit I oftener share the toil.
But now too long I've held thine ear;
Time presses-floats my bark-and here
We leave behind but hate and fear.
To-morrow Osman with his train
Arrives-to-night must break thy chain :
And would'st thou save that haughty Bey,-
Perchance his life who gave thee thine,—
With me this hour away-away!
But yet, though thou art plighted mine,
Would'st thou recall thy willing vow,
Appalled by truths imparted now,
Here rest I-not to see thee wed:
But be that peril on my head!"
Zuleika, mute and motionless,
Stood like that Statue of Distress,
When, her last hope for ever gone,
The Mother hardened into stone;
All in the maid that eye could see
Was but a younger Niobé.
But ere her lip, or even her eye,
Essayed to speak, or look reply,
Beneath the garden's wicket porch
Far flashed on high a blazing torch!
Another-and another-and another-1
"That thought has more of hell than had the former.
Another, and another, and another!"
The Revenge, by Edward Young, act iv.
(Modern British Drama, 1811, ii. 17) Į
"Oh! fly-no more-yet now my more than brother!"
Far, wide, through every thicket spread
The fearful lights are gleaming red;
Nor these alone-for each right hand
Is ready with a sheathless brand.
They part-pursue-return, and wheel
With searching flambeau, shining steel;
And last of all, his sabre waving,
Stern Giaffir in his fury raving:
And now almost they touch the cave—
Oh! must that grot be Selim's grave?
Dauntless he stood-" "Tis come-soon past-
One kiss, Zuleika-'tis my last :
But yet my band not far from shore
May hear this signal, see the flash;
Yet now too few-the attempt were rash:
No matter-yet one effort more."
Forth to the cavern mouth he stept;
His pistol's echo rang on high,
Zuleika started not, nor wept,
Despair benumbed her breast and eye!— "They hear me not, or if they ply
Their oars, 'tis but to see me die;
That sound hath drawn my foes more nigh.
Then forth my father's scimitar,
Thou ne'er hast seen less equal war I
Farewell, Zuleika !-Sweet! retire:
Yet stay within-here linger safe,
At thee his rage will only chafe.
Stir not-lest even to thee perchance
Some erring blade or ball should glance,
Fear'st thou for him ?-may I expire
If in this strife I seek thy sire !
No-though by him that poison poured;
No-though again he call me coward!
But tamely shall I meet their steel?
No-as each crest save his may feel!"
One bound he made, and gained the sand:
Already at his feet hath sunk
The foremost of the prying band,
A gasping head, a quivering trunk:
Another falls-but round him close
A swarming circle of his foes;
From right to left his path he cleft,
And almost met the meeting wave:
His boat appears-not five oars' length-
His comrades strain with desperate strength- 1030
Oh! are they yet in time to save ?
His feet the foremost breakers lave;
His band are plunging in the bay,
Their sabres glitter through the spray;
Wet-wild-unwearied to the strand
They struggle-now they touch the land!
They come 'tis but to add to slaughter-
His heart's best blood is on the water.
Escaped from shot, unharmed by steel,
Or scarcely grazed its force to feel,
Had Selim won, betrayed, beset,
To where the strand and billows met;
į, Or grazed by wounds he scorned to feel.--[MS,\
There as his last step left the land,
And the last death-blow dealt his hand-
Ah! wherefore did he turn to look i
For her his eye but sought in vain?
That pause, that fatal gaze he took,
Hath doomed his death, or fixed his chain.
Sad proof, in peril and in pain,
How late will Lover's hope remain !
His back was to the dashing spray;
Behind, but close, his comrades lay,
When, at the instant, hissed the ball-
"So may the foes of Giaffir fall!"
Whose voice is heard? whose carbine rang?
Whose bullet through the night-air sang,
Too nearly, deadly aimed to err?
'Tis thine-Abdallah's Murderer!
i. Three MS. variants of these lines were rejected in turn before the text was finally adopted
{ Ah! wherefore did he turn to look
I know not why he turned to look
Since fatal was the gaze he took?
So far escaped from death or chain,
To search for her and search in vain:
Sad proof in peril and in pain
How late will Lover's hope remain.
(2) Thus far escaped from death or chain
Ah! wherefore did he turn to look?
For her his eye must seek in vain,
Since fatal was the gaze he took.
Sad proof, etc.-
(3) Ah! wherefore did he turn to look
So far escaped from death or chain?
Since fatal was the gaze he took
For her his eye but sought in vain,
Sad proof, etc.-
A fourth variant of lines 1046, 1047 was inserted in a revise dated
That glance he paused to send again
To her for whom he dies in vain,
The father slowly rued thy hate,
The son hath found a quicker fate:
Fast from his breast the blood is bubbling,
The whiteness of the sea-foam troubling-
If aught his lips essayed to groan,
The rushing billows choked the tone!
Morn slowly rolls the clouds away;
Few trophies of the fight are there:
The shouts that shook the midnight-bay
Are silent; but some signs of fray
That strand of strife may bear,
And fragments of each shivered brand;
Steps stamped; and dashed into the sand
The print of many a struggling hand
May there be marked; nor far remote
A broken torch, an oarless boat;
And tangled on the weeds that heap
The beach where shelving to the deep
There lies a white capote !
'Tis rent in twain-one dark-red stain The wave yet ripples o'er in vain :
But where is he who wore?
Ye! who would o'er his relics weep,
Go, seek them where the surges sweep
Their burthen round Sigæum's steep
And cast on Lemnos' shore:
The sea-birds shriek above the prey,
O'er which their hungry beaks delay,
As shaken on his restless pillow,
His head heaves with the heaving billow;
į, O'er which their talons yet delay.—[MS. erased.]
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