An aweful voice, that left no choice,
Sent forth its stern command,
Aboard! aboard!

The travellers hear that voice in fear, And breathe to Heaven an inward prayer, And take their seats in silence there.

9.

Self hoisted then, behold the sail
Expands itself before the gale;
Hands which they cannot see, let slip
The cable of that fated ship;

The land breeze sends her on her way,

And lo! they leave the living light of day!

171

XXI.

THE WORLD'S END.

1.

SWIFT as an arrow in its flight
The Ship shot through the incumbent night;
And they have left behind

The raging billows and the roaring wind, The storm, the darkness, and all mortal fears; And lo! another light

To guide their way appears,

The light of other spheres.

2.

That instant from Ladurlad's heart and brain The Curse was gone; he feels again Fresh as in youth's fair morning, and the Maid Hath lost her leprous stain.

The Tyrant then hath no dominion here,
Starting she cried; O happy, happy hour!
We are beyond his power!

Then raising to the Glendoveer,

With heavenly beauty bright, her angel face, Turn'd not reluctant now, and met his dear embrace.

3.

Swift glides the Ship with gentle motion
Across that calm and quiet ocean;
That glassy sea which seem'd to be
The mirror of tranquillity.

Their pleasant passage soon was o'er,
The Ship hath reach'd its destined shore;
A level belt of ice which bound,

As with an adamantine mound,
The waters of the sleeping Ocean round.
Strange forms were on the strand

Of earth-born spirits slain before their time;
Who wandering over sea and sky and land,
Had so fulfill'd their term; and now were met
Upon this icey belt, a motley band,

Waiting their summons at the appointed hour, When each before the Judgement-seat must stand, And hear his doom from Baly's righteous power.

4.

Foul with habitual crimes, a hideous crew Were there, the race of rapine and of blood. Now having overpass'd the mortal flood, Their own deformity they knew,

And knew the meed that to their deeds was due.
Therefore in fear and agony they stood,
Expecting when the Evil Messenger
Among them should appear. But with their fear
A hope was mingled now;

O'er the dark shade of guilt a deeper hue
It threw, and gave a fiercer character

To the wild eye and lip and sinful brow.
They hoped that soon Kehama would subdue
The inexorable God and seize his throne,
Reduce the infernal World to his command,

And with his irresistible right hand,
Redeem them from the vaults of Padalon.

5.

Apart from these a milder company, The victims of offences not their own, Look'd when the appointed Messenger should come; Gather'd together some, and some alone Brooding in silence on their future doom. Widows whom, to their husbands' funeral fire, Force or strong error led, to share the pyre, As to their everlasting marriage-bed : And babes, by sin unstain'd,

Whom erring parents vow'd

To Ganges, and the holy stream profaned
With that strange sacrifice, rite unordain'd
By Law, by sacred Nature unallow'd:
Others more hapless in their destiny,
Scarce having first inhaled their vital breath,
Whose cradles from some tree
Unnatural hands suspended,

Then left, till gentle Death,

Coming like Sleep, their feeble moanings ended; Or for his prey the ravenous Kite descended; Or marching like an army from their caves, The Pismires blacken'd o'er, then bleach'd and bare Left their unharden'd bones to fall asunder there.

6.

Innocent Souls! thus set so early free
From sin and sorrow and mortality,
Their spotless spirits all-creating Love
Received into its universal breast.
Yon blue serene above

Was their domain; clouds pillow'd them to rest;
The Elements on them like nurses tended,
And with their growth etherial substance blended.
Less pure than these is that strange Indian bird,

Who never dips in earthly streams her bill, But, when the sound of coming showers is heard, Looks and from the clouds receives her fill. up,

Less the footless fowl of Heaven, that never pure

Rest upon earth, but on the wing for ever Hovering o'er flowers, their fragrant food inhale, Drink the descending dew upon its way, And sleep aloft while floating on the gale.

7.

And thus these innocents in yonder sky
Grow and are strengthen'd, while the allotted years
Perform their course; then hitherward they fly,
Being free from moral taint, so free from fears,
A joyous band, expecting soon to soar
To Indra's happy spheres,

And mingle with the blessed company
Of heavenly spirits there for ever more.

8.

A Gulph profound surrounded
This icey belt; the opposite side
With highest rocks was bounded;
But where their heads they hide,