In breath-suspending vigilance. Ah me!
The little wretch toward his lurking-place
Draws near, and calls on Madoc; and the Prince
Thinks of no danger nigh, and follows not
The childish lure! nearer the covert now
Young Hoel runs, and stops, and calls again;
Then like a lion, from his couching place
Ocellopan leapt forth, and seized his prey.

Loud shriek'd the affrighted child, as in his arms
The savage grasp'd him; startled at the cry,
Madoc beheld him hastening through the pass.
Quick as instinctive love can urge his feet
He follows, and he now almost hath reach'd
The incumber'd ravisher, and hope inspires
New speed,.. yet nearer now, and nearer still,
And lo! the child holds out his little arms!
That instant, as the Prince almost had laid
His hand upon the boy, young Tlalala

Leapt on his neck, and soon, though Madoc's strength,
With frantic fury, shook him from his hold,
Far down the steep Ocellopan had fled.
Ah! what avails it now, that they, by whom
Madoc was standing to survey their toil,

Have miss'd their Chief, and spread the quick alarm?
What now avails it, that with distant aid,
His gallant men come down? Regarding nought
But Hoel, but the wretched Llaian's grief,
He rushes on; and ever as he draws

Near to the child, the Tyger Tlalala

Impedes his way; and now they reach the place

Of ambush, and the ambush'd band arise,
And Madoc is their prisoner.

Caradoc,

In vain thou leadest on the late pursuit!
In vain, Cadwallon, hath thy love alarm'd
Caught the first sound of evil! They pour out
Tumultuous from the vale, a half-arm'd troop;
Each with such weapons as his hasty hand
Can seize, they rush to battle. Gallant men,
Your valour boots not! It avails not now,
With such fierce onset that ye charge the foe,
And drive with such full force the weapon home!
They while ye slaughter them, impede pursuit,
And far away, meantime, their comrades bear
The captive Prince. In vain his noble heart
Swells now with wild and suffocating rage;
In vain he struggles:.. they have bound his limbs
With the tough osier, and his struggles now
But bind more close and cuttingly the band.
They hasten on; and while they bear the prize,
Leaving their ill-doomed fellows in the fight
To check pursuit, foremost afar of all,
With unabating strength by joy inspired,
Ocellopan to Aztlan bears the child.

XII.

HOEL.

GOOD tidings travel fast... The chief is seen;
He hastens on; he holds the child on high;
He shouts aloud. Through Aztlan spreads the news;
Each to his neighbour tells the happy tale, ..
Joy,..joy to Aztlan! the blood-shedder comes!
Tlaloc has given his victim.

Ah, poor child!

They from the gate swarm out to welcome thee,
Warriors, and men grown grey, and youths and maids,
Exulting, forth they crowd. The mothers throng
To view thee, and, while thinking of thy doom,
They clasp their own dear infants to the breast
With deeper love, delighted think that thou
Shalt suffer for them. He, poor child, admires
The strange array ! with wonder he beholds
Their olive limbs, half bare, their plumey crowns,
And
round and round, where all was new,
gazes
Forgetful of his fears. But when the Priest
Approach'd to take him from the Warrior's arms,
Then Hoel scream'd, and from that hideous man
Averting, to Ocellopan he turn'd,

And would have clung to him, so dreadful late,
Stern as he was, and terrible of eye,

Less dreadful than the Priest, whose dark aspect
Which nature with her harshest characters

Had featured, art made worse. His cowl was white;
His untrimm'd hair, a long and loathsome mass,
With cotton cords intwisted, clung with gum,
And matted with the blood, which every morn,
He from his temples drew before the God,
In sacrifice; bare were his arms, and smear'd
Black. But his countenance a stronger dread
Than all the horrors of that outward garb,
Struck with quick instinct to young Hoel's heart;
It was a face, whose settled sullenness
No gentle feeling ever had disturb'd;

Which, when he probed a victim's living breast,
Retained its hard composure.

Such was he

Who took the son of Llaian, heeding not

His cries and screams, and arms in suppliant guise,
Stretch'd out to all around, and strugglings vain.
He to the Temple of the Water-God

Convey'd his victim. By the threshold, there
The ministering Virgins stood, a comely band
Of high-born damsels, to the temple rites
By pious parents vow'd. Gladly to them
The little Hoel leapt ; their gentle looks
No fear excited; and he gazed around,
Pleased and surprised, unconscious to what end
These things were tending. O'er the rush-strewn floor
They to the azure Idol led the boy,

Now not reluctant, and they raised the hymn.

God of the Waters! at whose will the streams Flow in their wonted channel, and diffuse Their plenty round, the blood and life of earth;

At whose command they swell, and o'er their banks
Burst with resistless ruin, making vain

The toils and hopes of man,.. behold this child!
O strong to bless, and mighty to destroy,
Tlaloc! behold thy victim! so mayest thou
Restrain the peaceful streams within their banks,
And bless the labours of the husbandman.

God of the Mountains! at whose will the clouds Cluster around the heights; who sendest them To shed their fertilizing showers, and raise The drooping herb, and o'er the thirsty vale Spread their green freshness; at whose voice the hills Grow black with storms; whose wrath the thunder

speaks,

Whose bow of anger shoots the lightning shafts,
To blast the works of man ;.. behold this child!
O strong to bless, and mighty to destroy,
Tlaloc! behold thy victim! so mayest thou
Lay by the fiery arrows of thy rage,
And bid the genial rains and dews descend.

O thou, Companion of the powerful God, Companion and Beloved!.. when he treads The mountain-top, whose breath diffuses round The sweets of summer; when he rides the waves, Whose presence is the sunshine and the calm,.. Aiauh, O green-robed Goddess, see this child! Behold thy victim! so mayest thou appease The sterner mind of Tlaloc when he frowns, And Aztlan flourish in thy fostering smile. Young Spirits! ye whom Aztlan's piety