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XI.

THE ENCHANTRESS.

1.

WHEN from the sword by arm angelic driven, Foul Arvalan fled howling, wild in pain, His thin essential spirit, rent and riven With wounds, united soon and heal'd again; Backward the accursed turn'd his eye in flight, Remindful of revengeful thoughts even then, And saw where, gliding through the evening light, The Ship of Heaven sail'd upward through the sky, Then, like a meteor, vanish'd from his sight. Where should he follow? vainly might he try To trace through trackless air its rapid course, Nor dared he that angelic arm defy, Still sore and writhing from its dreaded force.

2.

Should he the lust of vengeance lay aside? Too long had Arvalan in ill been train'd; Nurst up in power and tyranny and pride, His soul the ignominious thought disdain'd. Or to his mighty Father should he go, Complaining of defeature twice sustain'd, And ask new powers to meet the immortal foe? ..

Repulse he fear'd not, but he fear'd rebuke,
And shamed to tell him of his overthrow.
There dwelt a dread Enchantress in a nook
Obscure; old helpmate she to him had been,
Lending her aid in many a secret sin ;
And there, for counsel, now his way he took.

3.

She was a woman whose unlovely youth, Even like a canker'd rose which none will cull, Had wither'd on the stalk; her heart was full Of passions which had found no natural scope, Feelings which there had grown but ripen'd not, Desires unsatisfied, abortive hope,

Repinings which provoked vindictive thought:
These restless elements for ever wrought,
Fermenting in her with perpetual stir,
And thus, her spirit to all evil moved,
She hated men because they loved not her,
And hated women because they were lov'd.
And thus, in wrath and hatred and despair,
She tempted Hell to tempt her; and resign'd
Her body to the Demons of the Air,
Wicked and wanton fiends, who where they will
Wander abroad, still seeking to do ill,
And take whatever vacant form they find,
Carcase of man or beast that life hath left,
Foul instrument for them of fouler mind.
To these the Witch her wretched body gave,
So they would wreak her vengeance on mankind :
She thus at once their mistress and their slave;

And they to do such service nothing loth,
Obey'd her bidding, slaves and masters both.

4.

So from this cursed intercourse she caught Contagious power of mischief, and was taught Such secrets as are damnable to guess.

Is there a child whose little lovely ways Might win all hearts, ... on whom his parents gaze Till they shed tears of joy and tenderness? Oh! hide him from that Witch's withering sight! Oh! hide him from the eye of Lorrinite! Her look hath crippling in it, and her curse All plagues which on mortality can light; Death is his doom if she behold,.

... or worse, ... Diseases loathsome and incurable,

And inward sufferings that no tongue can tell.

5.

Woe was to him, on whom that eye of hate Was bent; for, certain as the stroke of Fate, It did its mortal work, nor human arts Could save the unhappy wretch, her chosen prey; For gazing, she consumed his vital parts, Eating his very core of life

away.

The wine which from yon wounded palm on high Fills yonder gourd, as slowly it distills, Grows sour at once if Lorrinite pass by.

The deadliest worm from which all creatures fly, Fled from the deadlier venom of her eye; The babe unborn, within its mother's womb,

Started and trembled when the Witch came nigh; And in the silent chambers of the tomb, Death shudder'd her unholy tread to hear, And from the dry and mouldering bones did fear Force a cold sweat, when Lorrinite was near.

6.

Power made her haughty: by ambition fired,
Ere long to mightier mischiefs she aspired.

The Calis, who o'er Cities rule unseen,
Each in her own domain a Demon Queen,
And there adored 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 loosed, 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 gather'd rain about to fall,

Her breath would drive it to the desert sands,

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.

7.

Her secret cell the accursed Arvalan, In quest of vengeance sought, and thus began. Mighty mother! mother wise! Revenge me on my enemies.

LORRINITE.

Comest thou, son, for aid to me?
Tell me who have injured thee,
Where they are, and who they be;
Of the Earth, or of the Sea,
Or of the aërial 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 saved the Maid.

In hatred I desire her still,

And in revenge would have my will.

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