And in the silent chambers of the tomb
Death shuddered her unholy tread to hear,
And, from the dry and mouldering bones, did fear
Force a cold sweat, when Lorrinite was near.
5.
Power made her haughty: by ambition fir’d,
Ere long to mightier mischiefs she aspir’d.
The Calis, who o’er Cities rule unseen,
Each in her own domain a Demon Queen,
And there ador’d with blood and human life,
They knew her, and in their accurst employ
She stirr’d up neighbouring states to mortal strife.
Sani, the dreadful God, who rides abroad
Upon the King of the Ravens, to destroy
The offending sons of men, when his four hands
Were weary with their toil, would let her do
His work of vengeance upon guilty lands;
And Lorrinite, at his commandment, knew
When the ripe earthquake should be loos’d, and where
To point its course. And in the baneful air
The pregnant seeds of death he bade her strew,
All deadly plagues and pestilence to brew.
The Locusts were her army, and their bands,
Where’er she turn’d her skinny finger, flew;
The floods in ruin roll’d at her commands;
And when, in time of drought, the husbandman
Beheld the gathered rain about to fall,
Her breath would drive it to the desert sands.
While in the marshes parch’d and gaping soil,
The rice-roots by the searching Sun were dried;
And in lean groupes, assembled at the side
Of the empty tank, the cattle dropt and died;
And Famine, at her bidding, wasted wide
The wretched land; till, in the public way,
Promiscuous where the dead and dying lay,
Dogs fed on human bones in the open light of day.
6.
Her secret cell the accursed Arvalan,
In quest of vengeance, sought, and thus began.
Mighty mother! mother wise!
Revenge me on my enemies.
LORRINITE.
Com’st thou, son, for aid to me?
Tell me who have injur’d thee,
Where they are, and who they be;
Of the Earth, or of the Sea,
Or of the aerial company?
Earth, nor Sea, nor Air is free
From the powers who wait on me,
And my tremendous witchery.
ARVALAN.
She for whom so ill I sped,
Whom my Father deemeth dead,
Lives, for Marriataly’s aid
From the water sav’d the maid.
In hatred I desire her still,
And in revenge would have my will.
A Deveta with wings of blue,
And sword whose edge even now I rue,
In a Ship of Heaven on high,
Pilots her along the sky.
Where they voyage thou canst tell,
Mistress of the mighty spell.
7.
At this the Witch, through shrivell’d lips and thin,
Sent forth a sound half-whistle and half-hiss.
Two winged Hands came in,
Armless and bodyless,
Bearing a globe of liquid crystal, set
In frame as diamond bright, yet black as jet.
A thousand eyes were quench’d in endless night,
To form that magic globe; for Lorrinite
Had, from their sockets, drawn the liquid sight,
And kneaded it, with re-creating skill,
Into this organ of her mighty will.
Look in yonder orb, she cried,
Tell me what is there descried.
ARVALAN.
A mountain top, in clouds of light
Envelop’d, rises on my sight;
Thence a cataract rushes down,
Hung with many a rainbow crown;
Light and clouds conceal its head,
Below, a silver Lake is spread;
Upon its shores a Bower I see,
Fit home for blessed company.
See they come forward,... one, two, three,...
The last a Maiden,... it is she!
The foremost shakes his wings of blue,
’Tis he whose sword even yet I rue;
And in that other one I know
The visage of my deadliest foe.
Mother, let thy magic might
Arm me for the mortal fight;
Helm and shield and mail afford,
Proof against his dreaded sword.
Then will I invade their seat,
Then shall vengeance be compleat.
LORRINITE.
Spirits, who obey my will,
Hear him, and his wish fulfill.
8.
So spake the mighty one, nor farther spell
Needed, Anon a sound, like smother’d thunder,
Was heard, slow rolling under;
The solid pavement of the cell
Quak’d, heav’d, and cleft asunder,
And, at the feet of Arvalan display’d,
Helmet and mail and shield and scymitar were laid.
9.
The Asuras, often put to flight,
And scattered in the fields of light,
By their foes’ celestial might,
Forged this enchanted armour for the fight.
‘Mid fires intense did they anneal,
In mountain furnaces, the quivering steel,
Till trembling through each deepening hue,
It settled in a midnight blue;
Last they cast it, to aslake,
In the penal icy lake.
Then, they consign’d it to the Giant brood;
And, while they forged the impenetrable arms,
The Evil Powers, to oversee them, stood,
And there imbued
The work of Giant strength with magic charms.
Foul Arvalan, with joy, survey’d
The crescent sabre’s cloudy blade,
With deeper joy the impervious mail,
The shield and helmet of avail.
Soon did he himself array,
And bade her speed him on his way.
10.
Then she led him to the den,
Where her chariot, night and day,
Stood harness’d, ready for the way.
Two Dragons, yok’d in adamant, convey
The magic car; from either collar sprung
An adamantine rib, which met in air,
O’er-arch’d, and crost, and bent diverging there,
And firmly in its arc upbore,
Upon their brazen necks, the seat of power.
Arvalan mounts the car, and in his hand
Receives the magic reins from Lorrinite;
The dragons, long obedient to command,
Their ample sails expand;
Like steeds well-broken to fair lady’s hand,
They feel the reins of might,
And up the northern sky begin their flight.
11.
Son of the Wicked, doth thy soul delight
To think its hour of vengeance now is nigh?
Lo! where the far-off light
Of Indra’s palace flashes on his sight,
And Meru’s heavenly summit shines on high,
With clouds, of glory bright,
Amid the dark-blue sky.
Already, in his hope, doth he espy
Himself secure in mail of tenfold charms,
Ereenia writhing from the magic blade,
The Father sent to bear his Curse,... the Maid
Resisting vainly in his impious arms.
12.
Ah, Sinner! whose anticipating soul
Incurs the guilt even when the crime is spar’d!
Joyous toward Meru’s summit on he far’d,
W
hile the twin Dragons, rising as he guides.
With steady flight, steer northward for the pole.
Anon, with irresistible controul,
Force mightier far than his arrests their course;
It wrought as though a Power unseen, had caught
Their adamantine yokes to drag them on.
Straight on they bend their way, and now, in vain,
Upward doth Arvalan direct the rein!
The rein of magic might avails no more;
Bootless its strength against that unseen Power
Which, in their mid career,
Hath seiz’d the Chariot and the Charioteer.
With hands resisting, and down-pressing feet
Upon their hold insisting,
He struggles to maintain his difficult seat.
Seeking in vain with that strange Power to vie,
Their doubled speed the affrighted Dragons try.
Forced in a stream from whence was no retreat,
Strong as they are, behold them whirled along,
Headlong, with useless pennons, through the sky.
13.
What power was that, which, with resistless might
Foil’d the dread magic thus of Lorrinite?
’Twas all-commanding Nature... They were here
Within the sphere of the adamantine rocks
Which gird Mount Meru round, as far below
That heavenly height where Ganges hath its birth
Involv’d in clouds and light,
So far above its roots of ice and snow.
On... on they roll,.. rapt headlong they roll on;...
The lost canoe, less rapidly than this,
Down the precipitous stream is whirl’d along
To the brink of Niagara’s dread abyss.
On.. on.. they roll, and now, with shivering shock,
Are dash’d against the rock that girds the Pole.
Down from his shatter’d mail the unhappy Soul
Is dropt,.. ten thousand thousand fathoms down,...
Till in an ice-rift, ‘mid the eternal snow,
Foul Arvalan is stopt. There let him howl,
Groan there,.. and there, with unavailing moan,
For aid on his Almighty Father call.
All human sounds are lost
Amid those deserts of perpetual frost,
Old Winter’s drear domain,
Beyond the limits of the living World,
Beyond Kehama’s reign.
Of utterance and of motion soon bereft,
Frozen to the ice-rock, there behold him lie,
Only the painful sense of Being left,
A Spirit who must feel, and cannot die,
Bleaching and bare beneath the polar sky.
XII. THE SACRIFICE COMPLEATED.
O ye who, by the Lake
On Meru Mount, partake
The joys which Heaven hath destin’d for the blest,
Swift, swift, the moments fly,
The silent hours go by,
And ye must leave your dear abode of rest.
O wretched Man, prepare
Again thy Curse to bear!
Prepare, O wretched Maid, for farther woe!
The fatal hour draws near,
When Indra’s heavenly sphere
Must own the Tyrant of the World below.
To-day the hundredth Steed,
At Seeva’s shrine, must bleed,
The dreadful sacrifice is full to-day;
Nor man nor God hath power,
At this momentous hour,
Again to save the Swerga from his sway.
Fresh woes, O Maid divine,
Fresh trials must be thine;
And what must thou, Ladurlad, yet endure!
But let your hearts be strong,
And bear ye bravely on,
For Providence is good, and virtue is secure.
2.
They, little deeming that the fatal day
Was come, beheld where, through the morning sky,
A Ship of Heaven drew nigh.
Onward they watch it steer its steady flight;
Till, wondering, they espy
Old Casyapa, the Sire of Gods, alight.
But, when Ereenia saw the Sire appear,
At that unwonted and unwelcome sight
His heart receiv’d a sudden shock of fear:
Thy presence doth its doleful tidings tell,
O Father! cried the startled Glendoveer,
The dreadful hour is near! I know it well!
Not for less import would the Sire of Gods
Forsake his ancient and august abodes.
3.
Even so: serene the immortal Sire replies;
Soon like an earthquake will ye feel the blow
Which consummates the mighty sacrifice:
And this World, and its Heaven, and all therein
Are then Kehama’s. To the second ring
Of these seven Spheres, the Swerga-King,
Even now, prepares for flight,..
Beyond the circle of the conquer’d world,
Beyond the Rajah’s might.
Ocean, that clips this inmost of the Spheres,
And girds it round with everlasting roar,
Set like a gem appears
Within that bending shore.
Thither fly all the Sons of heavenly race:
I, too, forsake mine ancient dwelling-place.
And now, O Child and Father, ye must go,
Take up the burthen of your woe,
And wander once again below.
With patient heart hold onward to the end,...
Be true unto yourselves, and bear in mind
That every God is still the good Man’s friend;
And they, who suffer bravely, save mankind.
4.
Oh tell me, cried Ereenia, for from thee
Nought can be hidden, when the end will be!
5.
Seek not to know, old Casyapa replied,
What pleaseth Heaven to hide.
Dark is the abyss of time,
But light enough to guide your steps is given;
Whatever weal or woe betide,
Turn never from the way of truth aside,
And leave the event, in holy hope, to Heaven.
The moment is at hand, no more delay,
Ascend the etherial bark, and go your way;
And Ye, of heavenly nature, follow me.
6.
The will of Heaven be done, Ladurlad cried,
Nor more the man replied;
But placed his daughter in the etherial Bark,
Then took his seat beside.
There was no word at parting, no adieu.
Down from that empyreal height they flew:
One groan Ladurlad breath’d, yet uttered not,
When, to his heart and brain
The fiery Curse again like lightning shot.
And now on earth the Sire and Child alight,
Up soar’d the Ship of Heaven, and sail’d away from sight,
7.
O ye immortal Bowers,
Where hitherto the Hours
Have led their dance of happiness for aye,
With what a sense of woe
Do ye expect the blow,
And see your heavenly dwellers driven away!
Lo! where the aunnay-birds of graceful mien,
Whose milk-white forms were seen,
Lovely as Nymphs, your ancient trees between,
And by your silent springs,
With melancholy cry,
Now spread unwilling wings;
Their stately necks reluctant they protend,
And through the sullen sky,
To other worlds, their mournful progress bend.
The affrighted gales to-day
O’er their beloved streams no longer play,
The streams of Paradise have ceas’d to flow;
The Fountain-Tree withholds its diamond
shower,
In this portentous hour,..
This dolorous hour,.. this universal woe.
Where is the Palace, whose far-flashing beams,
With streaks and streams of ever-varying light,
Brighten’d the polar night
Around the frozen North’s extremest shore?
Gone like a morning rainbow,.. like a dream...
A star that shoots and falls, and then is seen no more.
8.
Now! now!... Before the Golden Palaces,
The Bramin strikes the inevitable hour.
The fatal blow is given,
That over Earth and Heaven
Confirms the Almighty Rajah in his power.
All evil Spirits then,
That roam the World about,
Or wander through the sky,
Set up a joyful shout.
The Asuras and the Giants join the cry,
The damn’d in Padalon acclaim
Their hop’d Deliverer’s name;
Heaven trembles with the thunder-drowning sound;
Back starts affrighted Ocean from the shore,
And the adamantine vaults, and brazen floor
Of Hell, are shaken with the roar.
Up rose the Rajah through the conquer’d sky,
To seize the Swerga for his proud abode;
Myriads of evil Genii round him fly,
As royally, on wings of winds, he rode,
And scal’d high Heaven, triumphant like a God.
XIII. THE RETREAT.
1.
AROUND her Father’s neck the Maiden locked
Her arms, when that portentous blow was given:
Clinging to him, she heard the dread uproar,
And felt the shuddering shock which ran through Heaven;
Earth underneath them rocked,
Her strong foundations heaving in commotion,
Such as wild winds upraise in raving Ocean,
As though the solid base were rent asunder.
And lo, where, storming the astonished sky,
Kehama and his evil host ascend!
Before them rolls the thunder;
Ten thousand thousand lightnings round them fly;
Upward the lengthening pageantries aspire,
Leaving from Earth to Heaven a widening wake of fire.
2.
When the wild uproar was at length allayed,
And Earth, recovering from the shock, was still,
Complete Poetical Works of Robert Southey Page 148