He stampt and cleft the Earth; it open'd wide, And gave him way to his own Judgement-seat. Down, like a plummet, to the World below He sunk, and bore his prey

To punishment deserved, and endless woe.

151

XVIII.

KEHAMA'S DESCENT.

1.

THE Earth, by Baly's feet divided, Closed o'er his way as to the Judgement-seat He plunged and bore his prey.

Scarce had the shock subsided,

When, darting from the Swerga's heavenly heights, Kehama, like a thunderbolt, alights.

In wrath he came, a bickering flame Flash'd from his eyes which made the moonlight dim, And passion forcing way from every limb, Like furnace-smoke, with terrors wrapt him round. Furious he smote the ground;

Earth trembled underneath the dreadful stroke,
Again in sunder riven ;

He hurl'd in rage his whirling weapon down.
But lo! the fiery sheckra to his feet
Return'd, as if by equal force re-driven,
And from the abyss the voice of Baly came:
Not yet, O Rajah, hast thou won

The realms of Padalon!

Earth and the Swerga are thine own,
But, till Kehama shall subdue the throne
Of Hell, in torments Yamen holds his son.

2.

Fool that he is! ... in torments let him lie!

Kehama, wrathful at his son, replied.
But what am I,

That thou should'st brave me?..kindling in his pride
The dreadful Rajah cried.

Ho! Yamen! hear me. God of Padalon,
Prepare thy throne,

And let the Amreeta cup

Be ready for my lips, when I anon
Triumphantly shall take my seat thereon,
And plant upon thy neck my royal feet.

3.

In voice like thunder thus the Rajah cried,
Impending o'er the abyss, with menacing hand
Put forth, as in the action of command,
And eyes that darted their red anger down.
Then drawing back he let the earth subside,
And, as his wrath relax'd, survey'd,
Thoughtfully and silently, the mortal Maid.
Her
eye the while was on the farthest sky,
Where up the ethereal height

Ereenia rose and pass'd away from sight.
Never had she so joyfully

Beheld the coming of the Glendoveer,
Dear as he was and he deserved to be,
As now she saw him rise and disappear.
Come now what will, within her heart said she,
For thou art safe, and what have I to fear?

4.

Meantime the Almighty Rajah, late
In power and majesty and wrath array'd,
Had laid his terrors by

And gazed upon the Maid.

Pride could not quit his eye,

Nor that remorseless nature from his front Depart; yet whoso had beheld him then Had felt some admiration mix'd with dread, And might have said,

That sure he seem'd to be the King of Men! Less than the greatest that he could not be, Who carried in his port such might and majesty.

5.

In fear no longer for the Glendoveer, Now toward the Rajah Kailyal turn'd her eyes As if to ask what doom awaited her. But then surprise,

Even as with fascination held them there, So strange a thing it seem'd to see the change Of purport in that all-commanding brow, Which thoughtfully was bent upon her now. Wondering she gazed, the while her Father's eye Was fix'd upon Kehama haughtily; It spake defiance to him, high disdain, Stern patience unsubduable by pain, And pride triumphant over agony.

6.

Ladurlad, said the Rajah, thou and I
Alike have done the work of Destiny,

Unknowing each to what the impulse tended; But now that over Earth and Heaven my reign Is stablish'd, and the ways of Fate are plain

Before me, here our enmity is ended.

I take away thy Curse . . . As thus he said, The fire which in Ladurlad's heart and brain Was burning, fled, and left him free from pain. So rapidly his torments were departed, That at the sudden ease he started, As with a shock, and to his head His hands up-fled,

As if he felt through every failing limb The power and sense of life forsaking him.

7.

Then turning to the Maid, the Rajah cried,
O Virgin, above all of mortal birth
Favour'd alike in beauty and in worth,
And in the glories of thy destiny,
Now let thy happy heart exult with pride,
For Fate hath chosen thee

To be Kehama's bride,

To be the Queen of Heaven and Earth,
And of whatever Worlds beside
Infinity may hide... For I can see
The writing which, at thy nativity,
All-knowing Nature wrought upon thy brain,
In branching veins, which to the gifted eye
Map out the mazes of futurity.

There is it written, Maid, that thou and I,
Alone of human kind a deathless pair,
Are doom'd to share