There to the gifted eye

Make all my fortunes plain,

Mapping the mazes of futurity.

He sued for peace, for it is written there That I with him the Amreeta cup must share; Wherefore he bade me come, and by his side Sit on the Swerga-throne, his equal bride. I need not tell thee what reply was given; My heart, the sure interpreter of Heaven, His impious words belied.

Thou seest his poor revenge! So having said, One look she glanced upon her leprous stain Indignantly, and shook

Her head in calm disdain.

4.

O Maid of soul divine!

O more than ever dear,

And more than ever mine,
Replied the Glendoveer;

He hath not read, be sure, the mystic ways
Of Fate; almighty as he is, that maze
Hath mock'd his fallible sight.

Said he the Amreeta-cup? So far aright The Evil One may see; for Fate displays Her hidden things in part, and part conceals, Baffling the wicked eye

Alike with what she hides, and what reveals,
When with unholy purpose it would pry
Into the secrets of futurity.

So may it be permitted him to see
Dimly the inscrutable decree ;

For to the World below,

Where Yamen guards the Amreeta, we must go Thus Seeva hath exprest his will, even he The Holiest hath ordain'd it; there, he saith, All wrongs shall be redrest

By Yamen, by the righteous Power of Death.

5.

Forthwith the Father and the fated Maid,
And that heroic Spirit, who for them
Such flight had late essay'd,

The will of Heaven obey'd.

They went their way along the road
That leads to Yamen's dread abode.

6.

Many a day hath pass'd away
Since they began their arduous way,
Their way of toil and pain;
And now their weary feet attain
The Earth's remotest bound,
Where outer Ocean girds it round.
But not like other Oceans this;
Rather it seem'd a drear abyss,
Upon whose brink they stood.
Oh! scene of fear! the travellers hear
The raging of the flood;

They hear how fearfully it roars,
But clouds of darker shade than night
For ever hovering round those shores,
Hide all things from their sight;

The Sun

upon

that darkness pours

His unavailing light,

Nor ever Moon nor Stars display,

Through the thick shade, one guiding ray To show the perils of the way.

7.

There in a creek a vessel lay,
Just on the confines of the day,
It rode at anchor in its bay,
These venturous pilgrims to convey
Across that outer Sea.

Strange vessel sure it seem'd to be, And all unfit for such wild sea! For through its yawning side the wave Was oozing in; the mast was frail, And old and torn its only sail. How may that crazy vessel brave The billows that in wild commotion For ever roar and rave?

How hope to cross the dreadful Ocean O'er which eternal shadows dwell, Whose secrets none return to tell!

8.

Well might the travellers fear to enter!
But summon'd once on that adventure,
For them was no retreat.

Nor boots it with reluctant feet
To linger on the strand;
Aboard! aboard!

An aweful voice, that left no choice,
Sent forth its stern command,
Aboard! aboard!

The travellers hear that voice in fear, And breathe to Heaven an inward prayer, And take their seats in silence there.

9.

Self hoisted then, behold the sail Expands itself before the gale; Hands which they cannot see, let slip The cable of that fated ship; The land breeze sends her on her way, And lo! they leave the living light of day!

171

XXI.

THE WORLD'S END.

1.

SWIFT as an arrow in its flight
The Ship shot through the incumbent night;
And they have left behind

The raging billows and the roaring wind, The storm, the darkness, and all mortal fears; And lo! another light

To guide their way appears,
The light of other spheres.

2.

That instant from Ladurlad's heart and brain The Curse was gone; he feels again Fresh as in youth's fair morning, and the Maid Hath lost her leprous stain.

The Tyrant then hath no dominion here,
Starting she cried; O happy, happy hour!
We are beyond his power!

Then raising to the Glendoveer,

With heavenly beauty bright, her angel face, Turn'd not reluctant now, and met his dear embrace.