BYRON.

ADVERTISEMENT.

The Tale which these disjointed fragments present, is founded upon circumstances now less common in the East than formerly; either because the ladies are more circumspect than in the "olden time;" or because the Christians have better fortune, or less enterprise. The story, when entire, contained the adventures of a female slave, who was thrown, in the Mussulman manner, into the sea for infidelity, and avenged by a young Venetian, her lover, at the time the Seven Islands were possessed by the Republic of Venice, and soon after the Arnaouts were beaten back from the Morea, which they had ravaged for some time subsequent to the Russian invasion. The desertion of the Mainotes, on being refused the plunder of Misitra, led to the abandonment of that enterprise, and to the desolation of the Morea, during which the cruelty exercised on all sides was unparalleled even in the annals of the faithful.

Caught by the laughing tides that lave
These Edens of the eastern wave;
And if, at times, a transient breeze
Break the blue crystal of the seas,
Or sweep one blossom from the trees,
How welcome is each gentle air
That wakes and wafts the odours there!
For there the rose o'er crag or vale,
Sultana of the nightingale,2

The maid for whom his melody,
His thousand songs are heard on high,
Blooms blushing to her lover's tale:
His queen, the garden queen, his rose,
Unbent by winds, unchill'd by snows,
Far from the winters of the west,
By every breeze and season blest,
Returns the sweets by Nature given,
In softest incense back to heaven;
And grateful yields that smiling skv
Her fairest hue and fragrant sigh.
And many a summer flower is there,
And many a shade that love might share
And
many a grotto, meant for rest
That holds the pirate for a guest;
Whose bark in sheltering cove below
Lurks fo: e passing peaceful prow
Till the gay mariner's guitar'
Is heard, and seen the evening star
Then stealing with the muffled oar,
Far shaded by the rocky shore,
Rush the night-prowlers on the prey,
And turn to groans his roundelay.
Strange-that where Nature lov'd to trace
As if for gods, a dwelling-place,
And every charm and grace hath mix'd
Within the paradise she fix'd,
There man, enamour'd of distress,
Should mar it into wilderness,

And trample, brute-like, o'er each flower
That tasks not one laborious hour;
Nor claims the culture of his hand

To bloom along the fairy land,

But springs as to preclude his care,
And sweetly woos him-but to spare!
Strange that where all is peace beside
There passion riots in her pride,
And lust and rapine wildly reign
To darken o'er the fair domain.
It is as though the fiends prevail'd
Against the seraphs they assail'd,

And, fixed on heavenly thrones, should dwell
The freed inheritors of hell;

So soft the scene, so form'd for joy,
So curst the tyrants that destroy!

He who hath bent him o'er the dead,
Ere the first day of death is fled,
The first dark day of nothingness,
The last of danger and distress,
(Before decay's effacing fingers

Have swept the lines where beauty lingers,)
And mark'd the mild angelic air,
The rapture of repose that's there,
The fix'd, yet tender traits that streak
The languor of the placid cheek,
And-but for that sad shrouded eye,

That fires not, wins not, weeps not, now,
And but for that chill, changeless brow,
Where cold obstruction's apathy 4
Appals the gazing mourner's heart,
As if to him it could impart

The doom he dreads, yet dwells upon;
Yes, but for these, and these alone,
Some moments, ay, one treacherous hour
He still might doubt the tyrant's power;
So fair, so calm, so softly seal'd,
The first, last look by death reveal'd!'
Such is the aspect of this shore;

'Tis Greece, but living Greece no more!
So coldly sweet, so deadly fair,
We start, for soul is wanting there.
Hers is the loveliness in death,

That parts not quite with parting breath;
But beauty with that fearful bloom,
That hue which haunts it to the tomb,
Expression's last receding ray,

A gilded halo hovering round decay,

The farewell beam of feeling past away!

Spark of that flame, perchance of heavenly birth, Which gleams, but warms no more its cherished earth!

Clime of the unforgotten brave! Whose land from plain to mountain-cave Was freedom's home or glory's grave! Shrine of the mighty! can it be, That this is all remains of thee? Approach, thou craven crouching slave Say, is not this Thermopyla? These waters blue that round you lave,

Oh servile offspring of the freePronounce what sea, what shore is this? The gulf, the rock of Salamis! These scenes, their story not unknown, Arise, and make again your own; Snatch from the ashes of your sires The embers of their former fires; And he who in the strife expires Will add to theirs a name of fear That tyranny shall quake to hear, And leave his sons a hope, a fame They too will rather die than shame. For freedom's battle once begun, Bequeath'd by bleeding sire to son, Though baffled oft, is ever won. Bear witness, Greece, thy living page Attest it many a deathless age!

While kings, in dusty darkness hid,
Have left a nameless pyramid,
Thy heroes, though the general doom
Hath swept the column from their tomb,
A mightier monument command,
The mountains of their native land!
There points thy muse to tranger's eye
The graves of those that cannot die!
"T were long to tell, and sad to trace,
Each step from splendour to disgrace;
Enough-no foreign foe could quell
Thy soul, till from itself it fell;
Yes! self-abasement paved the way
To villain-bonds and despot-sway.

What can he tell who treads thy shore?
No legend of thine olden time,
No theme on which the muse might soar
High as thine own in days of yore,

When man was worthy of thy clime
The hearts within thy valleys bred,
The fiery souls that might have led
Thy sons to deeds sublime,
Now crawl from cradle to the grave,
Slaves-nay, the bondsmen of a slave,
And callous, save to crime;
Stain'd with each evil that pollutes
Mankind, where least above the brutes;
Without even savage virtue blest,
Without one free or valiant breast.
Still to the neighbouring ports they waft
Proverbial wiles, and ancient craft;
In this the subtle Greek is found,
For this, and this alone, renown'd.
In vain might liberty invoke
The spirit to its bondage broke,
Or raise the neck that courts the yoke:
No more her sorrows I bewail,
Yet this will be a mournful tale,
And they who listen may believe,
Who heard it first had cause to grieve.

Who thundering comes on blackest steed With slacken'd bit, and hoof of speed? Beneath the clattering iron's sound The cavern'd echoes wake around In lash for lash, and bound for bound; The foam that streaks the courser's side Seems gather'd from the ocean-tide; Though weary waves are sunk to rest, There's none within his rider's breast; And though to-morrow's tempest lower, 'Tis calmer than thy heart, young Giaour!' I know thee not, I loathe thy race, But in thy lineaments I trace What time shall strengthen, not efface: Though young and pale, that sallow front Is scathed by fiery passion's brunt; Though bent on earth thine evil eye, As meteor-like thou glidest by, Right well I view and deem thee one Whom Othman's sons should slay or shun.

On-on he hastened, and he drew My gaze of wonder as he flew: Though like a demon of the night He pass'd and vanish'd from my sight, His aspect and his air impress'd A troubled memory on my breast, And long upon my startled ear Rung his dark courser's hoofs of fear He spurs his steed; he nears the steep, That, jutting, shadows o'er the deep; He winds around; he hurries by; The rock relieves him from mine eye; For well I ween unwelcome he Whose glance is fix'd on those that flee; And not a star but shines too bright On him who tales such timeless flight. He wound along, but, ere he pass'd, One glance he snatch'd, as if his last, A moment check'd his wheeling steed, A moment breathed him from his speed, A moment on his stirrup stoodWhy looks he o'er the olive-wood? The crescent glimmers on the hill,

The mosque's high lamps are quivering still:
Though too remote for sound to wake
In echoes of the far tophaike,"
The flashes of each joyous peal
Are seen to prove the Moslem's zeal.
To-night, set Rhamazani's sun;
To-night the Bairam feast's begun;
To-night-but who and what art thou,
Of foreign garb and fearful brow?
And what are these to thine or thee,
That thou shouldst either pause or flee?
He stood some dread was on his face,
Soon hatred settled in its place
It rose not with the reddening flush
Of transient anger's darkening blush,
But pale as marble o'er the tomb,
Whose ghastly whiteness aids its gloom.
His brow was bent, his eye was glazed,
He raised his arm, and fiercely raised,
And sternly shook his hand on high,
As doubting to return or fly:
Impatient of his flight delay'd,

Here loud his raven charger neigh'd

Down glanced that hand, and grasped his blade; That sound had burst his waking dream,

As slumber starts at owlet's scream.

The spur hath lanced his courser's sides;
Away, away, for life he rides;
Swift as the hurl'd on high jerreed,
Springs to the touch his startled steed;
The rock is doubled, and the shore

Shakes with the clattering tramp no more
The crag is won, no more is seen
His Christian crest and haughty mien.
"I was but an instant he restrain'd
That fiery barb so sternly rein'd:
Twas but a moment that he stood,
Then sped as if by death pursued;
But in that instant o'er his soul
Winters of memory seem'd to roll,
And gather in that drop of time
A life of pain, an age of crime.
O er him who loves, or hates, or fears,
Such moment pours the grief of years
What felt he then, at once opprest
By all that most distracts the breast?
That pause, which ponder'd o'er his fate,
Oh, who its dreary length shall date!
Though in time's record nearly nought,
It was eternity to thought!

For infinite as boundless space

The thought that conscience must embrace,

Which in itself can comprehend
Wo without name, or hope, or end.
The hour is past, the Giaour is gone
And did he fly or fall alone?
Wo to that hour he came or went!
The curse for Hassan's sin was sent,
To turn a palace to a tomb:

He came, he went, like the simoom,1°
That harbinger of fate and gloom,
Beneath whose widely-wasting breath
The very cypress droops to death-
Dark tree, still sad when others' grief is fled,
The only constant mourner o'er the dead!
The steed is vanish'd from the stall;
No serf is seen in Hassan's hall;
The lonely spider's thin gray pall
Waves slowly widening o'er the wall,
The bat builds in his haram bower;
And in the fortress of his power

The owl usurps the beacon-tower;

The wild-dog howls o'er the fountain's brim, With baffled thirst, and famine grim;

For the stream has shrunk from its marble bed,
Where the weeds and the desolate dust are spread
"T was sweet of yore to see it play,
And chase the sultriness of day,
As, springing high, the silver dew
In whirls fantastically flew,

And flung luxurious coolness round
The air, and verdure o'er the ground.

'T was sweet, when cloudless stars were bright,
To view the wave of watery light,
And hear its melody by night,
And oft had Hassan's childhood play'd
Around the verge of that cascade;
And oft upon his mother's breast
That sound had harmonized his rest;
And oft had Hassan's youth along
Its bank been soothed by beauty's song;
And softer seemed each melting tone
Of music mingled with its own.
But ne'er shall Hassan's age repose
Along the brink at twilight's close:
The stream that fill'd that font is fled-
The blood that warm'd his heart is shed!
And here no more shall human voice

Be heard to rage, regret, rejoice;

The last sad note that swell'd the gale

Was woman's wildest funeral wail

That quench'd in silence, all is still,

But the lattice that flaps when the wind is shrill: Though raves the gust, and floods the rain,

No hand shall close its clasp again.

On desert sands 'twere joy to scan
The rudest steps of fellow man-
So here the very voice of grief
Might wake an echo like relief;
At least 't would say, "all are not gone;
"There lingers life, though but in one-
For many a gilded chamber 's there,
Which solitude might well forbear;
Within that dome as yet decay

Hath slowly work'd her cankering way-
But gloom is gathered o'er the gate
Nor there the fakir's self will wait;
Nor there will wandering dervise stay
For bounty cheers not his delay;
Nor there will weary stranger halt
To bless the sacred "bread and salt." "
Alike must wealth and poverty
Pass heedless and unheeded by,
For courtesy and pity died

With Hassan on the mountain side.

His roof, that refuge unto men,

Is desolation's hungry den.

The guest flies the hall, and the vassals from labour, Since his turban was cleft by the infidel's sabre! 12

*

I hear the sound of coming feet, But not a voice mine ear to greet; More near-each turban I can scan, And silver-sheathed ataghan; 13 The foremost of the band is seen, An emir by his garb of green: 14 "Ho! who art thou?-this low salam 15 Replies of Moslem faith I am. The burden ye so gently bear, Seems one that claims your utmost care, And, doubtless, holds some precious freight, My humble bark would gladly wait."

"Thou speakest sooth, thy skiff unmoor, And waft us from the silent shore; Nay, leave the sail still fur d, and ply The nearest oar that 's scatter'd by; And midway to those rocks where sleep The channel'd waters dark and deep, Rest from your task-so-bravely done, Our course has been right swiftly run Yet 't is the longest voyage, I trow, That one of

Sullen it plung'd, and slowly sank,
The calm wave rippled to the bank;
I watch'd it as it sank, methought
Some motion from the current caught
Bestirr'd it more,-'t was but the beam
That chequer'd o'er the living stream:
I gazed, till vanishing from view,
Like lessening pebble it withdrew;
Still less and less, a speck of white

That gemm'd the tide, then mock'd the sight;
And all its hidden secrets sleep,

Known but to genii of the deep,
Which, trembling in their coral caves
They dare not whisper to the waves.

*

As rising on its purple wing
The insect-queen 16 of eastern spring,
O'er emerald meadows of Kashmeer
Invites the young pursuer near,
And leads him on from flower to flower
A weary chase and wasted hour,
Then leaves him, as it soars on high,
With panting heart and tearful eye:
So beauty lures the full-grown child,
With hue as bright, and wing as wild;
A chase of idle hopes and fears,
Begun in folly, closed in tears.
If won, to equal ills betray'd,
Wo waits the insect and the maid
A life of pain, the loss of peace,
From infant's play, and man's caprice.
The lovely toy so fiercely sought
Hath lost its charm by being caught.
For every touch that wooed its stay
Hath brush'd its brightest hues away,
Till, charm, and hue, and beauty gone,
"I' is left to fly or fall alone.

With wounded wing, or bleeding breast,
Ah! where shall either victim rest?
Can this with faded pinion soar
From rose to tulip as before?
Or beauty, blighted in an hour,

Find joy within her broken bower?

No! gayer insects fluttering by

Ne'er droop the wing o'er those that die,

And lovelier things have mercy shown
To every failing but their own,
And every wo a tear can claim
Except an erring sister's shame.

The mind, that broods o'er guilty woes,
Is like the scorpion girt by fire,
In circle narrowing as it glows,
The flames around their captive close,
Till, inly search'd by thousand throes,
And maddening in her ire,

One sad and sole relief she knows,
The sting she nourish'd for her foes,
Whose venom never yet was vain,
Gives but one pang, and cures all pain,
And darts into her desperate brain:
So do the dark in soul expire,
Or live like scorpion girt by fire; 17
So writhes the mind remorse hath riven,
Unfit for earth, undoom'd for heaven,
Darkness above, despair beneath,
Around it flame, within it death!

Black Hassan from the haram flies, Nor bends on woman's form his eyes; The unwonted chase each hour employs Yet shares he not the hunter's joys. Not thus was Hassan wont to fly When Leila dwelt in his Serai. Doth Leila there no longer dwell? That tale can only Hassan tell: Strange rumours in our city say Upon that eve she fled away, When Rhamazan's 18 last sun was set, And, flashing from each minaret, Millions of lamps proclaim'd the feast Of Bairam through the boundless east. "T was then she went as to the bath, Which Hassan vainly search'd in wrath, For she was flown her master's rage, In likeness of a Georgian page, And far beyond the Moslem's power Had wrong'd him with the faithless Giaour, Somewhat of this had Hassan deem'd; But still so fond, so fair she seem'd, Too well he trusted to the slave Whose treachery deserv'd a grave: And on that eve had gone to mosque, And thence to feast in his kiosk. Such is the tale his Nubians tell, Who did not watch their charge too well; But others say, that on that night, By pale Phingari's 19 trembling light, The Giaour upon his jet black steed Was seen, but seen alone to speed With bloody spur along the shore, Nor maid nor page behind him bore.

Her eyes dark charm 't were vain to tell,
But gaze on that of the gazelle,
It will assist thy fancy well;

As large, as languishingly dark,
But soul beam'd forth in every spark
That darted from beneath the lid,
Bright as the jewel of Giamschid. 20
Yea, soul, and should our prophet say
That form was nought but breathing clay,
By Alla! I would answer nay;
Though on Al-Sirat's 21 arch I stood
Which totters o'er the fiery flood,
With paradise within my view,

And all his houris beckoning through.

Oh! who young Leila's glance could read
And keep that portion of his creed 22
Which saith that woman is but dust,
A soulless toy for tyrant's lust?
On her might muftis gaze, and own
That through her eye the Immortal shone;
On her fair cheek's unfading hue

The young pomegranate's 23 blossoms strew
Their bloom in blushes ever new;
Her hair in hyacinthine 24 flow,
When left to roll its folds below,
As 'midst her handmaids in the hall
She stood superior to them all,
Hath swept the marble where her feet
Gleam'd whiter than the mountain sleet,
Ere from the cloud that gave it birth
It fell, and caught one stain of earth.
The cygnet nobly walks the water;
So moved on earth Circassia's daughter,
The loveliest bird of Franguestan! 25
As rears her crest the ruffled swan,
And spurns the wave with wings of pride
When pass the steps of stranger man

Along the banks that bound her tide;
Thus rose fair Leila's whiter neck:-
Thus arm'd with beauty would she check
Intrusion's glance, till folly's gaze
Shrunk from the charms it meant to praise.
Thus high and graceful was her gait;
Her heart as tender to her mate;
Her mate-stern Hassan, who was he?
Alas! that name was not for thee!

Stern Hassan hath a journey ta'en
With twenty vassals in his train,
Each arm'd, as best becomes a man,
With arquebuss and ataghan;
The chief before, as deck'd for war,
Bears in his belt the scimitar
Stain'd with the best of Arnaut blood,
When in the pass the rebels stood,
And few return'd to tell the tale
Of what befell in Parne's vale.
The pistols which his girdle bore
Were those that once a pasha wore,

Which still, though gemm'd and boss'd with gold,
Even robbers tremble to behold.

T is said he goes to woo a bride
More true than her who left his side;
The faithless slave that broke her bower,
And, worse than faithless, for a Giaour!

*

The sun's last rays are on the hill, And sparkle in the fountain rill, Whose welcome waters, cool and clear, Draw blessings from the mountaineer: Here may the loitering merchant Greek Find that repose 't were vain to seek In cities lodged too near his lord, And trembling for his secret hoardHere may he rest where none can see, In crowds a slave, in deserts free; And with forbidden wine may stain The bowl a Moslem must not drain.

The foremost Tartar 's in the gap,
Conspicuous by his yellow cap;
The rest in lengthening line the while
Wind slowly through the long defile:
Above, the mountain rears a peak,
Where vultures whet the thirsty beak,
And theirs may be a feast to-night,

Shall tempt them down ere morrow's light;

"

They reach the groye of pine at last : "Bismillah! 26 now the peril 's past; For yonder view the opening plain, And there we 'll prick our steeds amain The Chiaus spake, and as he said, A bullet whistled o'er his head; The foremost Tartar bites the ground! Scarce had they time to check the rein, Swift from their steeds the riders bound;

But three shall never mount again: Unseen the foes that gave the wound,

The dying ask revenge in vain.
With steel unsheathed, and carbine bent,
Some o'er their courser's harness leant,
Half shelter'd by the steed;
Some fly behind the nearest rock,
And there await the coming shock,

Nor tamely stand to bleed
Beneath the shaft of foes unseen,
Who dare not quit their craggy screen.
Stern Hassan only from his horse
Disdains to light, and keeps his course,
Till fiery flashes in the van
Proclaim too sure the robber-clan
Have well secured the only way
Could now avail the promised prey;
Then curl'd his very beard 27 with ire,
And glared his eye with fiercer fire:
"Though far and near the bullets hiss,
I've scaped a bloodier hour than this."
And now the foe their covert quit,
And call his vassals to submit ;
But Hassan's frown and furious word
Are dreaded more than hostile sword,
Nor of his little band a man
Resign'd carbine or ataghan,
Nor raised the craven cry, Amaun! **
In fuller sight, more near and near,
The lately ambush'd foes appear,
And, issuing from the grove, advance
Some who on battle-charger prance.
Who leads them on with foreign brand,
Far flashing in his red right hand?
"T is he! 't is he! I know him now;
I know him by his pallid brow;
I know him by the evil eyes
That aids his envious treachery;
I know him by his jet-black barb:
Though now array'd in Arnaut garb,
Apostate from his own vile faith,
It shall not save him from the death
"T is he! well met in any hour!
Lost Leila's love, accursed Giaour!"

29

As rolls the river into ocean,
In sable torrent wildly streaming;

As the sea-tide's opposing motion,
In azure column proudly gleaming,
Beats back the current many a rood,
In curling foam and mingling flood,
While eddying whirl, and breaking wave
Roused by the blast of winter, rave;
Through sparkling spray, in thundering clash,
The lightnings of the waters flash.