5.

Seven miserable days had Kailyal there,

From earliest dawn till evening watch'd the deep;
Six nights within the chamber of the rock,
Had laid her down, and found in prayer
That comfort which she sought in vain from sleep.
But when the seventh night came,
Never should she behold her father more,
The wretched Maiden said in her despair;
Yet would not quit the shore,

Nor turn her eyes one moment from the sea:
Never before

Had Kailyal watch'd it so impatiently,
Never so eagerly had hoped before,

As now when she believed, and said all hope was o'er.

6.

Beholding her, how beautiful she stood,
In that wild solitude,

Baly from his invisibility

Had issued then, to know her cause of woe;
But that in the air beside her, he espied
Two Powers of Evil for her hurt allied,
Foul Arvalan and dreadful Lorrinite.
Walking in darkness him they could not see,
And marking with what demon-like delight
They kept their innocent prey in sight,
He waits, expecting what the end may be.

7.

She starts; for lo! where floating many a rood, A Monster, hugest of the Ocean brood,

Weltering and lifeless, drifts toward the shore. Backward she starts in fear before the flood, And, when the waves retreat,

They leave their hideous burthen at her feet.

8.

She ventures to approach with timid tread, She starts, and half draws back in fear, Then stops, and stretches out her head, To see if that huge Beast indeed be dead. Now growing bold, the Maid advances near, Even to the margin of the ocean-flood. Rightly she reads her Father's victory, And lifts her joyous hands exultingly To Heaven in gratitude.

Then spreading them toward the Sea, While pious tears bedim her streaming eyes, Come! come! my Father, come to me, Ereenia, come! she cries,

Lo! from the opening deep they rise, And to Ladurlad's arms the happy Kailyal flies.

9.

She turn'd from him, to meet with beating heart, The Glendoveer's embrace.

Now turn to me, for mine thou art! Foul Arvalan exclaim'd; his loathsome face

Came forth, and from the air,

In fleshly form, he burst.

Always in horror and despair,

Had Kailyal seen that form and face accurst, But yet so sharp a pang had ne'er

Shot with a thrill like death through all her frame, As now when on her hour of joy the Spectre came.

10.

Vain is resistance now,

The fiendish laugh of Lorrinite is heard ;
And at her dreadful word,

The Asuras once again appear,
And seize Ladurlad and the Glendoveer.

11.

Hold your accursed hands!

A voice exclaim'd, whose dread commands Were fear'd through all the vaults of Padalon; And there among them, in the midnight air, The presence of the mighty Baly shone. He, making manifest his mightiness,

Put forth on every side an hundred arms, And seized the Sorceress; maugre all her charms, Her and her fiendish ministers he caught With force as uncontroulable as fate; And that unhappy Soul, to whom The Almighty Rajah's power availeth not Living to avert, nor dead to mitigate His righteous doom.

12.

Help, help, Kehama! Father, help! he cried,
But Baly tarried not to abide

That mightier Power; with irresistible feet

He stampt and cleft the Earth; it open'd wide, And gave him way to his own Judgement-seat. Down, like a plummet, to the World below He sunk, and bore his prey

To punishment deserved, and endless woe.

151

XVIII.

KEHAMA'S DESCENT.

1.

THE Earth, by Baly's feet divided, Closed o'er his way as to the Judgement-seat He plunged and bore his prey.

Scarce had the shock subsided,

When, darting from the Swerga's heavenly heights, Kehama, like a thunderbolt, alights.

In wrath he came, a bickering flame

Flash'd from his eyes which made the moonlight dim,
And passion forcing way from every limb,
Like furnace-smoke, with terrors wrapt him round.
Furious he smote the ground;

Earth trembled underneath the dreadful stroke,
Again in sunder riven;

He hurl'd in rage his whirling weapon down.
But lo! the fiery sheckra to his feet
Return'd, as if by equal force re-driven,
And from the abyss the voice of Baly came:
Not yet, O Rajah, hast thou won

The realms of Padalon!

Earth and the Swerga are thine own,
But, till Kehama shall subdue the throne
Of Hell, in torments Yamen holds his son.