XVII.

XXIII. • But I, alas ! am both unknown and old,

u So in the populous City, a young maiden And though the woof of wisdom I know well

Has baffled havoc of the

prey

which he To dye in hues of language, I am cold

Marks as his own, whene'er with chains o'erladen In seeming, and the hopes which inly dwell,

Men make them arms to hurl down tyranny, My manners note that I did long repel;

False arbiter between the bound and free;
But Laon's name to the tumultuous throng

And o'er the land, in hamlets and in towns
Were like the star whose beams the waves compel The multitudes collect tumultuously,
And tempests, and his soul-subduing longue

And throng in arms; but tyranny disowns
Were as a lance to quell the mailed crest of wrong. Their claim, and gathers strength around its trembling

thrones. XVIII.

XXIV. • Perchance blood need not flow, if thou at length « Blood soon, although unwillingly, to shed Wouldst rise, perchance the very

slaves would spare The free cannot forbear-the Queen of Slaves, Their brethren and themselves; great is the strength

'The hood-wink'd Angel of the blind and dead, Of words—for lately did a maiden fair,

Custom, with iron mace points to the graves Who from her childhood has been taught to bear When her own standard desolately waves The tyrant's heaviest yoke, arise, and make

Over the dust of Prophets and of Kings. Her sex the law of truth and freedom hear,

Many yet stand in her array- she paves And with these quiet words—' for thine own sake

Her path with human hearts,' and o'er it flings I prithee spare me;—did with ruth so take

The wildering gloom of her immeasurable wings. XIX.

XXV. • All hearts, that even the torturer who had hound

There is a plain beneath the City's wall, Her meek calm frame, ere it was yet impaled,

Bounded by misty mountains, wide and vast, Loosen'd her weeping then; nor could be found

Millions there lift at Freedom's thrilling call One human hand to harm her-unassail'd

Ten thousand standards wide, they load the blast Therefore she walks through the great City, veild

Which bears one sound of many voices past, In virtue's adamantine eloquence,

And startles on his throne their sceptred foe: 'Gainst scorn, and death and pain thus trebly maild,

lle sits amid his idle pomp aghast, And blending in the smiles of that defence,

And that his power bath past away, doth knowThe Serpent and the Dove, Wisdom and Innocence.

Why pause the victor swords to seal his overthrow ? XX.

XXVI. • The wild-eyed women throng around her path :

« The tyrant's guards resistance yet maintain : From their luxurious dungeons, from the dust

Fearless, and fierce, and hard as beasts of blood; Of meaner thralls, from the oppressor's wrath,

They stand a speck amid the peopled plain; Or the caresses of his sated lust,

Carnage and ruin have been made their food They congregate :-in her they put their trust;

From infancy-ill has become their good, The tyrants send their armed slaves to quell

And for its hateful sake their will has wove Her power ;-they, even like a thunder gust

The chains which eat their hearts-the multitude Caught by some forest, bend beneath the spell

Surrounding them, with words of human love, Of that young maiden's speech, and to their chicfs rebel. Seek from their own decay their stubborn minds to move.

XXI.
« Thus she doth equal laws and justice teach
To woman, outraged and polluted long;
Gathering the sweetest fruit in human reach
For those fair hands now free, while armed wrong
Trembles before her look, though it be strong;
Thousands thus dwell beside her, virgins bright,
And matrons with their babes, a stately throng!

Lovers renew the vows which they did plight
In early faith, and hearts long parted now unite,

XXVII.
• Over the land is felt a sudden pause,
As night and day those ruthless bands around
The watch of love is kept:-a trance which awes
The thoughts of men with hope-as when the sound
Of whirlwind, whose fierce blasts the waves and clouds

confound,
Dies suddenly, the mariner in fear
Feels silence sink upon his heart-thus bound,

The conquerors pause, and oh! may freemen nc'er
Clasp the relentless knees of Dread, the murderer!

XXVIII.
If blood be shed, 't is but a change and choice
Of bonds,-from slavery to cowardice
A wretched fall!--uplift thy charmed voice,
Pour on those cvil men the love that lies
Ilovering within those spirit-soothing cyes-
Arise, my friend, farewell!, -As thus be spakc,
From the green earth lightly I did ariso,

As one out of dim dreams that doth awake,
And look'd upon the depth of that reposing lake.

XXII.
· And homeless orplans find a home near her,
And those poor victims of the proud, no less,
Fair wrecks, on whom the smiling world with stir,
Thrusts the redemption of its wickedness :-
Jn squalid huts, and in its palaces
Sits Lust alone, while o'er the land is borne
Her voice, whose awful sweetness doch

repress
All evil, and her foes relenting turn,
And cast the vote of love in hope's abandon’d urn.

XXIX.
I saw my countenance reflected therc;-
And then my youth fell on me like a wind
Descending on still waters-my thin hair
Was prematurely grey, my face was lined

CANTO V.
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.

I. And though their lustre now was spent and faded,

Over the utmost hill at length I sped, Yet in my hollow looks and wither'd mien

A snowy steep :- the moon was hanging low The likeness of a shape for which was braided Over the Asian mountains, and outspread The brightest woof of genius, still was seen

The plain, the City, and the Camp below, One who, methought, had gone

from the world's scene,

Skirted the midnight Ocean's glimmering flow, And left it vacant-'t was her lover's face

The City's moon-lit spires and myriad lamps, It might resemble her-it once had been

Like stars in a sublunar sky did glow, The mirror of her thoughts, and still the grace

And fires blazed far amid the scatter'd camps, Which her mind's shadow cast, left there a lingering Like springs of flame, which burst where'er swift Earthtrace.

quake stamps. XXXI.

II. What then was I? She slumber'd with the dead.

All slept but those in watchful arms who stood, Glory and joy and peace, had come and

And those who sate tending the beacon's light,

gone. Doth the cloud perish, when the beams are fled

And the few sounds from that vast multitude Which steep'd its skirts in gold? or dark and lone,

Made silence more profound-Oh, what a might Doth it not through the paths of night unknown,

Of human thought was cradled in that night! On outsprcad wings of its own wind upborne

How many hearts impenetrably veil'd Pour rain upon the earth? the slars are slown,

Beat underneath its shade, what secret fight When the cold moon sharpens her silver horn

Evil and good, in woven passions mail'd, Under the sea, and make thie wide night not forlorn.

Waged through that silent throng; a war that never

faild! XXXII. Strengthen'd in heart, yet sad, that aged man

And now the Power of Good held victory I left, with interchange of looks and tears,

So, through the labyrinth of many a tent, And lingering speech, and to the Camp began

Among the silent millions who did lie My way. O'er many a mountain chain which rears

In innocent sleep, exultingly I went; Its hundred crests aloft, my spirit bears

The moon bad left fleaven desert now, but lent My frame; o'er many a dale and many a moor,

From eastern morn the first faint lustre show'd And gaily now me seems serene earth wears

An armed youth-over his spear he bent The bloomy spring's slar-brighe investiture,

His downward facem. A friend !, I cried aloud, A vision which ought sad from sadness might allure.

And quickly common hopes made freemen understood.

III.

XXXIII.
My powers revived within me, and I went
As one whom winds wafl 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
Not like a child of death, among them ever;
When I arose from rest, a woeful mass

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

IV.
I sate beside him while the morning beam
Crept slowly over Heaven, and talk'd with him
Of those immortal hopes, a glorious theme!
Which led us forth, until the stars grew dim :
And all the while, methought, bis 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,
He look'd on me, and cried in wonder, Thou art here!,

XXXIV.
Aye as I went, that maiden who had rear'd
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 whatsoe'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.

V.
Then, suddenly, I knew it was the youth
In whom its earliest hopes my spirit found;
But envious tongues had stain'd liis spotless truth,
And thoughtless pride his love in silence bound,
And shame and sorrow mine in toils liad 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.

XIL. Thus, while with rapid lips and earnest eyes

• Join then your hands and hearts, and let the past We talk'd, a sound of sweeping conflict spread, Be as a grave which gives not up its dead As from the earth did suddenly arise;

To evil thoughts- A film then overcast From every tent roused by that clamour dread, My sense with dimness, for the wound, which bled Our bands outsprung and scized their arms-we sped Freshly, swift shadows o'er mine eyes had shed. Towards the sound : our tribes were gathering far, When I awoke, I lay 'mid friends and foes, Those sanguine slaves amid ten thousand dead

And earnest countenances on me shed Stabb’d in their sleep, trampled in treacherous war, The light of questioning looks, whilst one did close The gentle hearts whose power their lives had sought to My wound with balmiest herbs, and soothed me to respare,

pose. VII.

XIII. Like rabid snakes, that sting some gentle child And one whose spear had pierced me, Ican'd beside Who brings them food, when winter false and fair With quivering lips and humid eyes ;---and all Allures them forth with its cold smiles, so wild

Seem'd like some brothers on a journey wide They rage among the camp;—They overbear

Gone forth, whom now strange meeting did befall The patriot hosts-confusion, then despair

In a strange land, round one whom they might call Descends like night-when « Laon!. one did cry: Their friend, their chief, their father, for assay Like a bright ghost from Heaven that shont did scare Of peril, which had saved them from the thrall

The slaves, and widening through the vaulted sky, Of death, now suffering. Thus the vast array Seem'd sent from Earth to Heaven in sign of victory. Of those fraternal bands were reconciled that day.

VIII.
In sudden panic those false murderers fled,
Like insect tribes before the northern gale:
But swifter still, our hosts encompassed
Their shatter'd ranks, and in a cragey vale,
Where even their fierce despair might nought avail
Hemm'd them around !-and then revenge and fear
Made the high virtue of the patriots fail :

One pointed on his foe the mortal spear-
I rush'd before its point, and cried, - Forbear, forbear!»

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
Link'd by a jealous interchange of good;
A glorious pageant, more magnificent
Than kingly slaves array'd in gold and blood;

When they return from carnage, and are sent
In triumph bright beneath the populous battlement.

XV.

IX.
The spear transfix'd my arm that was uplifted
In swift expostulation, and the blood
Gush'd 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 subdued-

Ah, ye are pale, -ye weep, -your passions pause, 'T is well! ye feel the truth of love's benignant laws.

X.
« Soldiers, our hrethren and our friends are slain :
Ye murder'd 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 quench'd 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 stabb'd as they did sleep-but they forgive ye now.

Afar, the City walls were throng'd on high,
And myriads on each giddy turret clung,
And to each spire far lesscning in the sky,
Bright pennons on the idle winds were hung;
As we approach'd a shoul of joyauce sprung
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
past.

XVI,
Our armies through the City's hundred gates
Were pour'd, like brooks which to the rocky lair
Of some deep lake, whose silence them awaits,
Throng from the mountains when the storms are

there;

XI.
• O wherefore should ill ever flow from ill,
And pain still keener pain forever 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
With her own broken heart! 0 Earth, O Heaven!
And thou, dread Nature, which to every

deed
And all that lives, or is, to be hath given,
Even as to thee have these done ill, and are forgiven.

And as we past 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 turn'd to love from ill beguiled,
And every one on them more gently smiled,
Because they had done evil;- the sweet awe
Of such mild looks made their own liearts grow mild,

And did with soft attraction ever draw
Their spirits to the love of freedom's equal law.

XVIII.

XXIV. And they, and all, in one loud symphony

She stood beside him like a rainbow braided My name which Liberty, commingling, lifted

Within some storm, when scarce its shadows vast • The friend and the preserver of the free !

From the blue paths of the swift sun have faded ; The parent of this joy!, and fair eyes gifted

A sweet and solemn smile, like Cythna's, cast With feelings, caught from one who had uplifted One moment's light, which made my heart beat fast, The light of a great spirit, round me shone;

O'er that child's parted lips-a gleam of bliss, And all the shapes of this grand scenery shifted A shade of vanish'd days, -as the tears past Like restless clouds before the stedfast sun,

Which wrapt it, even as with a father's kiss Where was that Maid? I asked, but it was known of I press'd those softest eyes in trembling tenderness.

pone.

XIX.
Laone was the dame her love had chosen,
For she was nameless, and her birth none knew :
Where was Laone now!—the words were frozen
Within my lips with fear; but to subdue
Such dreadful hope, to my great task was due,
And when at length one brought reply, that she
To-morrow would appear, I then withdrew

To judge what need for that great throng might be,
For now the stars came thick over the twilight sea.

XXV.
The sceptred wretch then from that solitude
I drew, and of his change compassionate,
With words of sadness soothed his rugged mood.
But he, while pride and fear held deep debate,
With sullen guile of ill-dissembled hate
Glared on me as a toothless snake might glare:
Pity, not scorn I felt, though desolate

The desolator now, and unaware
The curses which he mock'd had caught him by the hair.

XX.

XXVI. Yet need was none for rest or food to care,

I led him forth from that which now might seem Even though that multitude was passing great, A gorgeous grave: through portals sculptured deep Since each one for the other did prepare

With imagery beautiful as dream All kindly succour— Therefore to the gate

We went, and left the shades which tend on sleep Of the Imperial House, now desolate,

Over its unregarded gold to keep I past, and there was found aghast, alone,

Their silent watch.-The child trod faintingly, The fallen Tyrant!-silently he sate

And as she went, the tears which she did weep Upon the footstool of his golden throne,

Glanced in the star-light; wilder'd seemed she, Which starred with sunny gems, in its own lustre shone. And when I spake, for sobs she could not answer me.

XXI.

XXVII. Alone, but for one child, who led before him

At last the tyrant cried, "She hungers, slave, A graceful dance: the only living thing

Stab her, or give her bread!:-It was a tone Of all the crowd, which thither to adore him

Such as sick fancies in a new-made grave Flock'd yesterday, who solace sought to bring

Might hear. I trembled, for the truth was known, In his abandonment!-she knew the King

He with this child had thus been left alone, llad praised her dance of yore, and now she wove And neither had gone forth for food,—but he Its circles, aye weeping and murmuring

Jo mingled pride and awe cower'd near his throne, 'Mid her sad task of upregarded love,

And she, a pursling of captivity, That to no smiles it might his speechless sadness move. Knew nought beyond those walls, vor what such change

might be. XXII.

XXVIII. She fled to him, and wildly clasp'd his feet

And he was troubled at a charm withdrawn When human steps were heard :-he moved nor Thus suddenly; that sceptres ruled no morespoke,

That even from gold the dreadful strength was gone, Nor changed his hue, nor raised his looks to meet Which once made all things subject to its powerThe gaze of strangers-our loud entrance woke Such wonder seized him, as if hour by hour The echoes of the hall, which circling broke

The past had come again; and the swift fall The calm of its recesses,-like a tomb

Of one so great and terrible of yore, Its sculptured walls vacantly to the stroke

To desolateness, in the hearts of all Of footfalls answered, and the twilight's gloom, Like wonder stirr’d, who saw such awful change befal. Lay like a charnel's mist within the radiant dome. xxЙІІ. .

XXIX. The little child stood up when we came nigh ;

A mighty crowd, such as the wide land pours Her lips and cheeks seemed very pale and wan, Once in a thousand years, now gather'd round But on her forehead, and within her eye

The fallen tyrant;-like the rusli of showers Lay beauty, which makes hearts that feed thereon Of hail in spring, pattering along the ground, Sick with excess of sweetness; on the throne

Their many footsteps fell, else came no sound She lean'd ;-the King with gather'd brow, and lips From the wide multitude: that lonely man Wreath'd by long scorn, did inly sneer and frown Then knew the burthen of his change, and found,

With hue like that when some great painter dips Concealing in the dust his visage wan, His pencil in the gloom of earthquake and eclipse. Refuge from the keen looks which thro' his bosom ran.

XXX.

XXXVI. And he was faint withal : I sate beside him

Then to a home for his repose assignd,
Upon the earth, and took that child so fair

Accompanied by the still throng he went
From his weak arms, that ill might none betide him In silence, where to soothe his rankling mind,
Or her ;-when food was brought to them, her share Some likeness of his ancient state was lent;
To his averted lips the child did bear,

And if his heart could have been innocent
But when she saw he had enough, she ate

As those who pardon'd him, he might have ended And wept the while;- the lonely man's despair His days in peace; but his straight lips were bent, Hunger then overcame, and of his state

Men said, into a smile which guile portended, Forgetful, on the dust as in a trance he sate.

A sight with which that child like hope with fear was

blended. XXXI.

XXXVII. Slowly the silence of the multitudes

'T was midnight now, the eve of that great day Past, as when far is heard in some lone dell

Whereon the many nations at whose call The gathering of a wind among the woods

The chains of earth like mist melted away, And he is fallen! they cry, he who did dwell

Decreed to hold a sacred Festival, Like famine or the plague, or aught more fell

A rite to attest the equality of all Among our homes, is fallen! the murderer

Who live. So to their homes, to dream or wake Who slaked his thirsting soul as from a well

Aļl went. The sleepless silence did recal Of blood and tears with ruin! he is here!

Laone to my thoughts, with hopes that make Sunk in a gulf of scorn from which none may him rear! The flood recede from which their thirst they seek to

slake. XXXII.

XXXVIII. Then was heard-Ile who judged let him be brought The dawn flow'd forth, and from its purple fountains To judgment! blood for blood cries from the soil I drank those hopes which make the spirit quail ; On which his crimes have deep pollution wrought! As to the plain between the misty mountains Shall Othman only unavenged despoil?

And the great City, with a countenance pale Shall they who by the stress of grinding toil

I went :-it was a sight which might avail Wrest froin the unwilling earth his luxuries,

To make men weep exulting tears, for whom Perish for crime, while his foul blood may boil, Now first from human power the reverend veil Or creep within his veins at will!- Arise!

Was toro, to see Earth from her general womb And to high justice make her chosen sacrifice.

Pour forth her swarming sons to a fraternal doom : XXXI.

XXXIX. • What do ye seek? what fear yel, then I cried, To see, far glancing in the misty morning, Suddenly starting forth, - that ye should shed

The signs of that innumerable host, The blood of Othman-if your hearts are tried To hear one sound of many made, the warning In the true love of freedom, cease to dread

Of Earth to Heaven from its free children tost,
This one poor lonely man-beneath Heaven spread While the eternal hills, and the sea lost
In purest light above us all, through earth

Jn wavering light, and, starring the blue sky
Maternal earth, who doth her sweet smiles shed The city's myriad spires of gold, almost
For all, let him go free; until the worth

With human joy made mute society,
Of human nature win from these a second birth. Its witnesses with inen who must hereafter be.

XXXIV.
« What call ye justice? is there one who ne'er
In secret thought has wish'd another's ill?
Are ye all pure? let those stand forth who hear,
And tremble not. Shall they insult and kill,
If such they be? their mild eyes can they fill
With the false anger of the hypocrite?
Alas, such were not pure-the chasten'd will

Of virtue sees that justice is the light
Of love, and not revenge, and terror and despite.

XL.
To see like some vast island from the Ocean,
The Altar of the Federation rear
Its pile i' the midst; a work, which the devotion
Of millions in one night created there,
Sudden, as when the moonrise makes appear
Strange clouds in the east ; a marble pyramid
Distinct with steps: that mighty shape did wear

The light of genius; its still shadow hid
Far ships : to know its height the morning mists forbid !

XXXV.

XLI.
The murmur of the people slowly dying,

To hear the restless multitudes forever
Paused as I spake, then those who near me were, Around the base of that great Altar flow,
Cast gentle looks where the lone man was lying As on some mountain islet burst and shiver
Shrouding his head, which now that infant fair Atlantic waves; and solemnly and slow
Clasp'd on her lap in silence ;-through the air As the wind bore that tumult to and fro,
Sobs were then heard, and many kiss'd my feet To feel the dreamlike music, which did swim
In pity's madness, and to the despair

Like beams through floating clouds on waves below Of him whom late they cursed, a solace sweet

Falling in pauses, from that Altar dim His very victims brought-soft looks and speeches meet. As silver sounding tongues breathed an aërial hymn.