"When other eyes shall see, unmoved,
"Her widows mourn, her warriors fall,
"Thou'lt think how well one Gheber loved.
"And for _his_ sake thou'lt weep for all!
"But look"--
With sudden start he turned
And pointed to the distant wave
Where lights like charnel meteors burned
Bluely as o'er some seaman's grave;
And fiery darts at intervals[211]
Flew up all sparkling from the main
As if each star that nightly falls
Were shooting back to heaven again.
"My signal lights!--I must away--
"Both, both are ruined, if I stay.
"Farewell--sweet life! thou clingest in vain--
"Now, Vengeance, I am thine again!"
Fiercely he broke away, nor stopt,
Nor lookt--but from the lattice dropt
Down mid the pointed crags beneath
As if he fled from love to death.
While pale and mute young HINDA stood,
Nor moved till in the silent flood
A momentary plunge below
Startled her from her trance of woe;--
Shrieking she to the lattice flew,
"I come--I come--if in that tide
"Thou sleepest to-night, I'll sleep there too
"In death's cold wedlock by thy side.
"Oh! I would ask no happier bed
"Than the chill wave my love lies under:--
"Sweeter to rest together dead,
"Far sweeter than to live asunder!"
But no--their hour is not yet come--
Again she sees his pinnace fly,
Wafting him fleetly to his home,
Where'er that ill-starred home may lie;
And calm and smooth it seemed to win
Its moonlight way before the wind
As if it bore all peace within
Nor left one breaking heart behind!
The Princess whose heart was sad enough already could have wished that
FERAMORZ had chosen a less melancholy story; as it is only to the happy
that tears are a luxury.
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