And buzz about her with delight, 23. Ah! Wanton! cried the Glendoveer, No power For these are proof, by nobler thoughts possest. 24. Rightly Ereenia spake; and ill had thoughts Of earthly love beseem'd the sanctuary Where Kailyal had been wafted, that the Soul Of her dead Mother there might strengthen her, Feeding her with the milk of heavenly lore, And influxes of Heaven imbue her heart With hope and faith, and holy fortitude, Against the evil day. Here rest a while In peace, O father! mark'd for misery Above all sons of men; O daughter! doom'd For sufferings and for trials above all Of women; ... yet both favour'd, both beloved By all good Powers, rest here a while in peace. 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, 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: And they to do such service nothing loth, 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 The wine which from yon wounded palm on high eye; 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, The Calis, who o'er Cities rule unseen, |