XXIX

1670

I saw my countenance reflected there;And then my youth fell on me like a wind Descending on still waters-my thin hair Was prematurely gray, my face was lined With channels, such as suffering leaves behind, Not age; my brow was pale, but in my cheek And lips a flush of gnawing fire did find Their food and dwelling; though mine eyes might speak A subtle mind and strong within a frame thus weak.

XXX

And though their lustre now was spent and faded,
Yet in my hollow looks and withered mien
The likeness of a shape for which was braided
The brightest woof of genius, still was seen-

1675

One who, methought, had gone from the world's scene, And left it vacant-'twas her lover's face

1680

It might resemble her-it once had been The mirror of her thoughts, and still the grace Which her mind's shadow cast, left there a lingering trace.

XXXI

What then was I? She slumbered with the dead.
Glory and joy and peace, had come and gone.
Doth the cloud perish, when the beams are fled

Which steeped its skirts in gold? or, dark and lone,
Doth it not through the paths of night unknown,

On outspread wings of its own wind upborne

Pour rain upon the earth? The stars are shown, When the cold moon sharpens her silver horn Under the sea, and make the wide night not forlorn.

XXXII

Strengthened in heart, yet sad, that aged man
I left, with interchange of looks and tears,
And lingering speech, and to the Camp began

My way. O'er many a mountain-chain which rears
Its hundred crests aloft, my spirit bears

1685

1690

1695

My frame; o'er many a dale and many a moor,
And gaily now meseems serene earth wears

The blosmy spring's star-bright investiture,

A vision which aught sad from sadness might allure.

XXXIII

My powers revived within me, and I went

As one whom winds waft o'er the bending grass,
Through many a vale of that broad continent.

At night when I reposed, fair dreams did pass
Before my pillow;-my own Cythna was,

1700

1705

Not like a child of death, among them ever;
When I arose from rest, a woful mass

That gentlest sleep seemed from my life to sever, As if the light of youth were not withdrawn for ever. 1710

XXXIV

Aye as I went, that maiden who had reared
The torch of Truth afar, of whose high deeds
The Hermit in his pilgrimage had heard,

Haunted my thoughts.-Ah, Hope its sickness feeds
With whatso'er it finds, or flowers or weeds!
Could she be Cythna?-Was that corpse a shade

Such as self-torturing thought from madness breeds?
Why was this hope not torture? Yet it made
A light around my steps which would not ever fade.

CANTO V

I

OVER the utmost hill at length I sped,

A snowy steep:-the moon was hanging low
Over the Asian mountains, and outspread
The plain, the City, and the Camp below,
Skirted the midnight Ocean's glimmering flow;
The City's moonlit spires and myriad lamps,
Like stars in a sublunar sky did glow,

1715

1720

1725

And fires blazed far amid the scattered camps, Like springs of flame, which burst where'er swift Earthquake

stamps.

II

All slept but those in watchful arms who stood,
And those who sate tending the beacon's light,
And the few sounds from that vast multitude
Made silence more profound.-Oh, what a might
Of human thought was cradled in that night!

1730

How many hearts impenetrably veiled

Beat underneath its shade, what secret fight Evil and good, in woven passions mailed,

1735

Waged through that silent throng; a war that never failed!

III

And now the Power of Good held victory,

So, through the labyrinth of many a tent,

Among the silent millions who did lie
In innocent sleep, exultingly I went;

1740

The moon had left Heaven desert now, but lent
From eastern morn the first faint lustre showed
An armed youth-over his spear he bent
His downward face.-'A friend!' I cried aloud,
And quickly common hopes made freemen understood.

1745

IV

I sate beside him while the morning beam
Crept slowly over Heaven, and talked with him
Of those immortal hopes, a glorious theme!

Which led us forth, until the stars grew dim:
And all the while, methought, his voice did swim

As if it drowned in remembrance were

Of thoughts which make the moist eyes overbrim: At last, when daylight 'gan to fill the air,

1750

He looked on me, and cried in wonder-"Thou art here!' 1755

Then, suddenly, I knew it was the youth

In whom its earliest hopes my spirit found;

But envious tongues had stained his spotless truth,
And thoughtless pride his love in silence bound,
And shame and sorrow mine in toils had wound,
Whilst he was innocent, and I deluded;

The truth now came upon me, on the ground
Tears of repenting joy, which fast intruded,

Fell fast, and o'er its peace our mingling spirits brooded.

VI

Thus, while with rapid lips and earnest eyes

We talked, a sound of sweeping conflict spread

As from the earth did suddenly arise;

From every tent roused by that clamour dread, Our bands outsprung and seized their arms-we sped Towards the sound: our tribes were gathering far.

1760

1765

1770

Those sanguine slaves amid ten thousand dead Stabbed in their sleep, trampled in treacherous war The gentle hearts whose power their lives had sought to spare.

VII

Like rabid snakes, that sting some gentle child

Who brings them food, when winter false and fair 1775 Allures them forth with its cold smiles, so wild They rage among the camp;-they overbear The patriot hosts-confusion, then despair Descends like night-when 'Laon!' one did cry:

1781

Like a bright ghost from Heaven that shout did scare The slaves, and widening through the vaulted sky, Seemed sent from Earth to Heaven in sign of victory.

VIII

In sudden panic those false murderers fled,
Like insect tribes before the northern gale:

But swifter still, our hosts encompassèd
Their shattered ranks, and in a craggy vale,

1785

Where even their fierce despair might nought avail,

Hemmed them around!-and then revenge and fear
Made the high virtue of the patriots fail:

One pointed on his foe the mortal spear

I rushed before its point, and cried, 'Forbear, forbear!'

IX

The spear transfixed my arm that was uplifted
In swift expostulation, and the blood

1790

Gushed round its point: I smiled, and-Oh! thou gifted

With eloquence which shall not be withstood,
Flow thus!'-I cried in joy, 'thou vital flood,

Until my heart be dry, ere thus the cause

For which thou wert aught worthy be subduedAh, ye are pale,-ye weep, your passions pause,"Tis well! ye feel the truth of love's benignant laws.

X

1795

1800

'Soldiers, our brethren and our friends are slain. Ye murdered them, I think, as they did sleep! Alas, what have ye done? the slightest pain Which ye might suffer, there were eyes to weep, But ye have quenched them-there were smiles to steep Your hearts in balm, but they are lost in woe; And those whom love did set his watch to keep Around your tents, truth's freedom to bestow, Ye stabbed as they did sleep-but they forgive ye now.

ΧΙ

1806

'Oh wherefore should ill ever flow from ill,
And pain still keener pain for ever breed?
We all are brethren-even the slaves who kill
For hire, are men; and to avenge misdeed
On the misdoer, doth but Misery feed

1810

With her own broken heart! O Earth, O Heaven!
And thou, dread Nature, which to every deed
And all that lives or is, to be hath given,

1815

Even as to thee have these done ill, and are forgiven!

XII

'Join then your hands and hearts, and let the past Be as a grave which gives not up its dead

To evil thoughts.'-A film then overcast

My sense with dimness, for the wound, which bled
Freshly, swift shadows o'er mine eyes had shed.

When I awoke, I lay mid friends and foes,

And earnest countenances on me shed

1820

1825

The light of questioning looks, whilst one did close My wound with balmiest herbs, and soothed me to repose;

XIII

And one whose spear had pierced me, leaned beside,
With quivering lips and humid eyes;-and all

Seemed like some brothers on a journey wide

1830

Gone forth, whom now strange meeting did befall
In a strange land, round one whom they might call
Their friend, their chief, their father, for assay

Of peril, which had saved them from the thrall
Of death, now suffering. Thus the vast array
Of those fraternal bands were reconciled that day.

XIV

Lifting the thunder of their acclamation,
Towards the City then the multitude,
And I among them, went in joy-a nation
Made free by love;-a mighty brotherhood
Linked by a jealous interchange of good;

1835

1840

A glorious pageant, more magnificent

Than kingly slaves arrayed in gold and blood, When they return from carnage, and are sent

In triumph bright beneath the populous battlement.

1845

XV

Afar, the city-walls were thronged on high,
And myriads on each giddy turret clung,
And to each spire far lessening in the sky

Bright pennons on the idle winds were hung;

As we approached, a shout of joyance sprung

1850

At once from all the crowd, as if the vast

And peopled Earth its boundless skies among

The sudden clamour of delight had cast,

When from before its face some general wreck had passed.

XVI

Our armies through the City's hundred gates
Were poured, like brooks which to the rocky lair

1855

Of some deep lake, whose silence them awaits,
Throng from the mountains when the storms are there:
And, as we passed through the calm sunny air

A thousand flower-inwoven crowns were shed,
The token flowers of truth and freedom fair,
And fairest hands bound them on many a head,
Those angels of love's heaven, that over all was spread.

XVII

I trod as one tranced in some rapturous vision:
Those bloody bands so lately reconciled,
Were, ever as they went, by the contrition
Of anger turned to love, from ill beguiled,
And every one on them more gently smiled,
Because they had done evil:-the sweet awe

1860

1865

Of such mild looks made their own hearts grow mild, And did with soft attraction ever draw

Their spirits to the love of freedom's equal law.

1871