And wrapped her mantle round to guard her head,
And laid her down. The rock was Kailyal’s bed;
Her chamber-lamps were in the starry sky;
The winds and waters were her lullaby.
12.
“Be of good heart, and may thy sleep be sweet!”
Ladurlad said. Alas! that cannot be
To one whose days are days of misery.
How often did she stretch her hands to greet
Ereenia, rescued in the dreams of night I
How oft, amid the vision of delight,
Fear in her heart all is not as it seems!
Then from unsettled slumber start, and hear
The Winds that moan above, the Waves below!
Thou hast been called, O Sleep! the friend of Woe;
But ’tis the happy who have called thee so.
13.
Another day, another night, are gone;
A second passes, and a third wanes on.
So long she paced the shore,
So often on the beach she took her stand,
That the wild Sea-Birds knew her, and no more
Fled when she passed beside them on the strand.
Bright shine the golden summits in the light
Of the noon-sun, and lovelier far by night
Their moonlight glories o’er the sea they shed.
Fair is the dark-green deep; by night and day,
Unvexed with storms, the peaceful billows play,
As when they closed upon Ladurlad’s head;
The firmament above is bright and clear;
The sea-fowl, lords of water, air, and land,
Joyous alike upon the wing appear,
Or when they ride the waves or walk the sand;
Beauty and light and joy are everywhere;
There is no sadness and no sorrow here,
Save what that single human breast contains,
But, oh! what hopes and fears and pains are there!
14.
Seven miserable days the expectant Maid,
From earliest dawn till evening, watched the shore.
Hope left her then; and in her heart she said,
Never should she behold her Father more.
XVI. THE ANCIENT SEPULCHRES.
1.
WHEN the broad Ocean on Ladurlad’s head
Had closed, and arched him o’er,
With steady tread he held his way
Adown the sloping shore.
The dark-green waves with emerald hue?
Imbue the beams of day;
And on the wrinkled sand below,
Rolling their mazy network to and fro,
Light shadows shift and play.
The hungry Shark, at scent of prey,
Toward Ladurlad darted;
Beholding then that human form erect,
How like a God the depths he trod,
Appalled the monster started,
And in his fear departed.
Onward Ladurlad went with heart elate,
And now hath reached the Ancient City’s gate.
2.
Wondering he stood awhile to gaze
Upon the works of elder days.
The brazen portals open stood,
Even as the fearful multitude
Had left them, when they fled
Before the rising flood.
High overhead, sublime,
The mighty gateway’s storied roof was spread,
Dwarfing the puny piles of younger time.
With the deeds of days of yore
That ample roof was sculptured o’er;
And many a godlike form there met his eye,
And many an emblem dark of mystery.
Through these wide portals oft had Baly rode
Triumphant from his proud abode,
When, in his greatness, he bestrode
The Aullay, hugest of four-footed kind,
The Aullay-Horse, that in his force,
With elephantine trunk, could bind
And lift the elephant, and on the wind
Whirl him away with sway and swing,
Even like a pebble from the practised sling.
3.
Those streets which never, since the days of yore,
By human footstep had been visited,
Those streets which never more
A human foot shall tread,
Ladurlad trod. In sunlight and sea-green,
The thousand Palaces were seen
Of that proud City, whose superb abodes
Seemed reared by Giants for the immortal Gods.
How silent and how beautiful they stand,
Like things of Nature! the eternal rocks
Themselves not firmer. Neither hath the sand
Drifted within their gates and choked their doors,
Nor slime defiled their pavements and their floors.
Did, then, the Ocean wage
His war for love and envy, not in rage,
O thou fair City! that he spared thee thus?
Art thou Varounin’s capital and court,
Where all the Sea-Gods for delight resort,
A place too godlike to be held by us,
The poor, degenerate children of the Earth?
So thought Ladurlad, as he looked around,
Weening to hear the sound
Of Mermaid’s shell, and song
Of choral throng from some imperial hall,
Wherein the Immortal Powers, at festival,
Their high carousals keep.
But all is silence dread,
Silence profound and dead,
The everlasting stillness of the Deep.
4.
Through many a solitary street,
And silent market-place and lonely square,
Armed with the mighty Curse, behold him fare!
And now his feet attain that royal fane
Where Baly held of old his awful reign.
What once had been the Gardens spread around,
Fair Gardens, once which wore perpetual green,
Where all sweet flowers through all the year were found,
And all fair fruits were through all seasons seen
A place of Paradise, where each device
Of emulous Art with Nature strove to vie;
And Nature, on her part,
Called forth new powers wherewith to vanquish Art
The Swerga-God himself, with envious eye,
Surveyed those peerless gardens in their prime;
Nor ever did the Lord of Light,
Who circles Earth and Heaven upon his way,
Behold from eldest time a goodlier sight
Than were the groves which Baly, in his might,
Made for his chosen place of solace and delight.
5.
It was a Garden still beyond all price;
Even yet it was a place of Paradise:
For where the mighty Ocean could not spare,
There had he, with his own creation,
Sought to repair his work of devastation.
And here were coral bowers,
And grots of madrepores,
And banks of sponge, as soft and fair to eye
As ere was mossy bed
Whereon the Wood-Nymphs lie
With languid limbs, in summer’s sultry hours.
Here, too, were living flowers,
Which, like a bud compacted,
Their purple cups contracted,
And now, in open blossom spread,
Stretched like green anthers many a seeking head.
And arborets of jointed stone were there,
And plants of fibres fine as silkworm’s thread;
Yea, beautiful as Mermaid’s golden hair
Upon the waves dispread.
Others that, like the broad banana growing,
Raised their long, wrinkled leaves of purple hue,
Like streamers wide outflowing.
And, whatsoe’
er the depths of Ocean hide
From human eyes, Ladurlad there espied,
Trees of the deep, and shrubs and fruits and flowers
As fair as ours,
Wherewith the Sea-Nymphs love their locks to braid,
When to their father’s hall, at festival
Repairing, they, in emulous array,
Their charms display
To grace the banquet and the solemn day
6.
The golden fountains had not ceased to flow;
And, where they mingled with the briny Sea,
There was a sight of wonder and delight
To see the fish, like birds in air,
Above Ladurlad flying.
Round those strange waters they repair,
Their scarlet fins outspread and plying;
They float with gentle hovering there;
And now upon those little wings,
As if to dare forbidden things,
With wilful purpose bent,
Swift as an arrow from a bow,
They shoot across, and to and fro,
In rapid glance, like lightning go
Through that unwonted element
7.
Almost, in scenes so wondrous fair,
Ladurlad had forgot
The mighty cause which led him there:
His busy eye was everywhere;
His mind had lost all thought;
His heart, surrendered to the joys
Of sight, was happy as a boy’s.
But soon the awakening thought recurs
Of him who in the Sepulchres,
Hopeless of human aid, in chains is laid;
And her who, on the solitary shore,
By night and day, her weary watch will keep,
Till she shall see them issuing from the deep.
8.
Now hath Ladurlad reached the Court
Of the great Palace of the King: its floor
Was of the marble rock; and there, before
The imperial door,
A mighty Image on the steps was seen,
Of stature huge, of countenance serene.
A crown and sceptre at his feet were laid;
One hand a scroll displayed;
The other pointed there, that all might see:
“My name is Death,” it said;
“In mercy have the Gods appointed me.”
Two brazen gates beneath him, night and day,
Stood open; and within them you behold
Descending steps, which in the living stone
Were hewn, a spacious way
Down to the Chambers of the Kings of old.
9.
Trembling with hope, the adventurous man descended.
The sea-green light of day
Not far along the vault extended;
But, where the slant reflection ended,
Another light was seen,
Of red and fiery hue,
That with the water blended,
And gave the secrets of the Tombs to view
10.
Deep in the marble rock, the Hall
Of Death was hollowed out, — a chamber wide,
Low-roofed, and long: on either side,
Each in his own alcove and on his throne,
The Kings of old were seated; in his hand
Each held the sceptre of command,
From whence, across that scene of endless night,
A carbuncle diffused its everlasting light.
11.
So well had the embalmers done their part
With spice and precious unguents to imbue
The perfect corpse, that each had still the hue
Of living man; and every limb was still
Supple and firm and full as when of yore
Its motion answered to the moving will.
The robes of royalty, which once they wore,
Long since had mouldered off, and left them bare:
Naked upon their thrones behold them there,
Statues of actual flesh, — a fearful sight!
Their large and rayless eyes,
Dimly reflecting to that gem-born light,
Glazed, fixed, and meaningless, — yet, open wide,
Their ghastly balls belied
The mockery of life in all beside.
12.
But if, amid these chambers drear,
Death were a sight of shuddering and of fear,
Life was a thing of stranger horror here.
For at the farther end, in yon alcove,
Where Baly should have lain, had he obeyed
Man’s common lot, behold Ereenia laid!
Strong fetters link him to the rock: his eye
Now rolls and widens, as with effort vain
He strives to break the chain,
Now seems to brood upon his misery.
Before him couched there lay
One of the mighty monsters of the deep,
Whom Lorrinite, encountering on the way,
There stationed, his perpetual guard to keep:
In the sport of wanton power, she charmed him there
As if to mock the Glendoveer’s despair.
13.
Upward his form was human, save that here
The skin was covered o’er with scale on scale
Compact, a panoply of natural mail;
His mouth, from ear to ear,
Weaponed with triple teeth, extended wide,
And tusks on either side;
A double snake below, he rolled
His supple length behind in many a sinuous fold.
14.
With red and kindling eye, the Beast beholds
A living man draw nigh,
And, rising on his folds,
In hungry joy awaits the expected feast,
His mouth half open, and his teeth unsheathed.
Then on he sprung, and in his scaly arms
Seized him, and fastened on his neck, to suck,
With greedy lips, the warm life-blood; and sure,
But for the mighty power of magic charms,
As easily as in the blithesome hour
Of spring a child doth crop the meadow-flower,
Piecemeal those claws
Had rent their victim, and those armed jaws
Snapped him in twain. Naked Ladurlad stood,
Yet fearless and unharmed in this dread strife,
So well Kehama’s Curse had charmed his fated life.
15.
He, too, — for anger, rising at the sight
Of him he sought, in such strange thrall confined.
With desperate courage fired Ladurlad’s mind,
He, too, unto the fight himself addressed;
And, grappling breast to breast,
With foot firm-planted stands,
And seized the monster’s throat with both his hands.
Vainly, with throttling grasp, he pressed
The impenetrable scales;
And, lo! the Guard rose up, and round his foe,
With gliding motion, wreathed his lengthening coils,
Then tightened all their folds with stress and strain.
Nought would the raging Tiger’s strength avail,
If once involved within those mighty toils;
The armed Rhinoceros, so clasped, in vain
Had trusted to his hide of rugged mail,
His bones all broken, and the breath of life
Crushed from the lungs, in that unequal strife.
Again, and yet again, he sought to break
The impassive limbs; but, when the Monster found
His utmost power was vain,
A moment he relaxed in every round,
Then knit his coils again with closer strain,
And, bearing forward, forced him to the ground.
16.
Ereenia groaned in anguish at the sight
Of this dread fight: once more the Glendoveer
Essayed to brea
k his bonds; and fear
For that brave father, who had sought him here,
Stung him to wilder strugglings. From the rock
He raised himself half up, with might and main
Plucked at the adamantine chain,
And now, with long and unrelaxing strain,
In obstinate effort of indignant strength,
Labored and strove in vain;
Till his immortal sinews failed at length;
And yielding, with an inward groan, to fate,
Despairingly, he let himself again
Fall prostrate on his prison-bed of stone,
Body and chain alike with lifeless weight.
17.
Struggling they lay in mortal fray
All day, while day was in our upper sphere;
For light of day
And natural darkness never entered here;
All night, with unabated might,
They waged the unremitting fight.
A second day, a second night,
With furious will they wrestled still.
The third came on, the fourth is gone;
Another comes, another goes;
And yet no respite, no repose!
But day and night, and night and day,
Involved in mortal strife they lay;
Six days and nights have passed away,
And still they wage, with mutual rage,
The unremitting fray.
With mutual rage their war they wage,
But not with mutual will;
For, when the seventh morning came,
The Monster’s worn and wearied frame
In this strange contest fails;
And weaker, weaker, every hour,
He yields beneath strong Nature’s power;
For now the Curse prevails.
18.
Sometimes the Beast sprung up to bear
His foe aloft, and, trusting there
To shake him from his hold,
Relaxed the rings that wreathed him round
But on his throat Ladurlad hung,
And weighed him to the ground;
And if they sink, or if they float,
Alike with stubborn clasp he clung,
Tenacious of his grasp:
For well he knew with what a power,
Exempt from Nature’s laws,
The Curse had armed him for this hour:
And in the Monster’s gasping jaws,
And in his hollow eye,
Complete Poetical Works of Robert Southey Page 151