A Voice, which from within him came, was heard,

The indubitable word

Of Him to whom all secret things are known:
Go, ye who suffer, go to Yamen's throne.

He hath the remedy for every woe;
He setteth right whate'er is wrong below.

XX.

THE EMBARKATION.

1.

Down from the Heaven of Heavens Ereenia fell Precipitate, yet imperceptible

His fall, nor had he cause nor thought of fear;
And when he came within this mundane sphere,
And felt that Earth was near,

The Glendoveer his azure wings expanded,
And, sloping down the sky

Toward the spot from whence he sprung on high,
There on the shore he landed.

2.

Kailyal advanced to meet him,

Not moving now as she was wont to greet him,
Joy in her eye and in her eager pace;
With a calm smile of melancholy pride
She met him now, and turning half aside,
Her warning hand repell'd the dear embrace.

3.

Strange things, Ereenia, have befallen us here, The Virgin said; the Almighty Man hath read The lines which, traced by Nature on my brain,

There to the gifted eye

Make all my fortunes plain,

Mapping the mazes of futurity.

He sued for peace, for it is written there That I with him the Amreeta cup must share; Wherefore he bade me come, and by his side Sit on the Swerga-throne, his equal bride. I need not tell thee what reply was given; My heart, the sure interpreter of Heaven, His impious words belied.

Thou seest his poor revenge! So having said, One look she glanced upon her leprous stain Indignantly, and shook

Her head in calm disdain.

4.

O Maid of soul divine!
O more than ever dear,

And more than ever mine,
Replied the Glendoveer;

He hath not read, be sure, the mystic ways
Of Fate; almighty as he is, that maze
Hath mock'd his fallible sight.

Said he the Amreeta-cup? So far aright The Evil One may see; for Fate displays Her hidden things in part, and part conceals, Baffling the wicked eye

Alike with what she hides, and what reveals, When with unholy purpose it would pry

So

Into the secrets of futurity.

may it be permitted him to see Dimly the inscrutable decree ;

For to the World below,

Where Yamen guards the Amreeta, we must go ; Thus Seeva hath exprest his will, even he The Holiest hath ordain'd it; there, he saith, All wrongs shall be redrest

By Yamen, by the righteous Power of Death.

5.

Forthwith the Father and the fated Maid,
And that heroic Spirit, who for them
Such flight had late essay'd,

The will of Heaven obey'd.

They went their way along the road
That leads to Yamen's dread abode.

6.

Many a day hath pass'd away
Since they began their arduous way,
Their way of toil and pain;
And now their weary feet attain
The Earth's remotest bound,
Where outer Ocean girds it round.
But not like other Oceans this;
Rather it seem'd a drear abyss,
Upon whose brink they stood.

Oh! scene of fear! the travellers hear
The raging of the flood;

They hear how fearfully it roars,
But clouds of darker shade than night
For ever hovering round those shores,
Hide all things from their sight;

The Sun upon that darkness pours
His unavailing light,

Nor ever Moon nor Stars display,

Through the thick shade, one guiding ray To show the perils of the way.

7.

There in a creek a vessel lay,
Just on the confines of the day,
It rode at anchor in its bay,
These venturous pilgrims to convey
Across that outer Sea.

Strange vessel sure it seem'd to be, And all unfit for such wild sea! For through its yawning side the wave Was oozing in; the mast was frail, And old and torn its only sail. How may that crazy vessel brave The billows that in wild commotion For ever roar and rave?

How hope to cross the dreadful Ocean O'er which eternal shadows dwell, Whose secrets none return to tell!

8.

Well might the travellers fear to enter!
But summon'd once on that adventure,
For them was no retreat.

Nor boots it with reluctant feet
To linger on the strand;

Aboard! aboard!