Which helps

Came help or no? Not this and this ?
When I returned with, found the Prefect here,
The Druses here, all here but Hakeem's self,
The Khalif of a thousand prophecies,
Reserved for such a juncture,-could I call

My mission aught but Hakeem's? Promised Hakeem
More than performs the Djabal—you absolve?
-Me, you will never shame before the crowd
Yet happily ignorant?-Me, both throngs surround
The few deceived, the many unabused,
-Who, thus surrounded, slay for you and them
The Prefect, lead to Lebanon! No Khalif,
But Sheikh once more! Mere Djabal not..

Kha.

Enter KHALIL hastily.

-God Hakeem!

'Tis told! The whole Druse nation knows thee, Hakeem,

As we! and mothers lift on high their babes

Who seem aware, so glisten their great eyes,

Thou hast not failed us; ancient brows are proud!

Our Elders could not earlier die, it seems,

Than at thy coming! The Druse heart is thine!
Take it! my Lord and theirs, be thou adored!
Dja. [Aside.] Adored !—but I renounce it utterly!
Kha. Already are they instituting choirs

And dances to the Khalif, as of old

"Tis chronicled thou bad'st them.

Flavoured like honey and bruised mountain herbs?
Or wear those strings of sun-dried cedar-fruit?
Oh-let me tell the-Esaad, we supposed
Doting, is carried forth, eager to see

The last sun rise on the Isle-he can see now !
The shamed Druse women never wept before :
They can look up when we reach home, they say.
Smell!-Sweet cane, saved in Lilith's breast thus long-
Sweet!-it grows wild in Lebanon. And I

Alone do nothing for thee! 'Tis my office

Just to announce what well thou know'st-but thus
Thou bidst me. At this selfsame moment tend
The Prefect, Nuncio, and the Admiral
Hither, by their three sea-paths--nor forget
Who were the trusty watchers!-Thou forget?
Like me, who do forget that Anael bade . . .

...

Dja. [Aside.] Ay, Anael, Anael—is that said at last? Louder than all, that would be said, I knew! What does abjuring mean, confessing mean, To the people? Till that woman crossed my path, On went I, solely for my people's sake:

I saw her, and I first saw too myself,

And slackened pace: "if I should prove indeed
Hakeem-with Anael by!"

Kha. [Aside.]

Ah, he is rapt!

Dare I at such a moment break on him

Even to do my sister's bidding? Yes!

The eyes are Djabal's, and not Hakeem's yet!
Though but till I have spoken this, perchance.

Dja. [Aside.] To yearn to tell her, and yet have no one Great heart's-word that will tell her! I could gasp Doubtless one such word out, and die!

That Anael...

Kha.

...

Fain would see thee, speak with thee,

Before thou change, discard this Djabal's shape
She knows, for Hakeem's shape she is to know:
Something's to say that will not from her mind :
I know not what-" Let him but come!" she said.
Dja. [Half-apart.] My nation-all my Druses-how
fare they?

Those I must save, and suffer thus to save,

Hold they their posts? Wait they their Khalif too?
Kha. All at the signal pant to flock around

That banner of a brow!

Dja. [Aside.]

And when they flock,

Confess them this-and after, for reward,

Be chased with howlings to her feet perchance ?
-Have the poor outraged Druses, deaf and blind,
Precede me there-forestall my story, there-
Tell it in mocks and jeers—

I lose myself!

Who needs a Hakeem to direct him now?

I need the veriest child-why not this child?

[Turning abruptly to KHALIL.

You are a Druse too, Khalil; you were nourished

Like Anael with our mysteries: if she

Could vow, so nourished, to love only one

Who should revenge the Druses, whence proceeds

Your silence?

Wherefore made you no essay,

Who thus implicitly can execute

My bidding? What have I done, you could not?
Who, knowing more than Anael the prostration

Of our once lofty tribe, the daily life

Of this detested...

Does he come, you say,

The sword,

This Prefect? All 's in readiness?

Kha.

The sacred robe, the Khalif's mystic tiar,
Laid up so long, are all disposed beside
The Prefect's chamber.

Dja.

-Why did you despair?

Kha. I know our Nation's state? Too surely know, As thou, who speak'st to prove me! Wrongs like ours Should wake revenge: but when I sought the wronged And spoke," The Prefect stabbed your son-arise! "Your daughter, while you starve, eats shameless bread "In his pavilion-then, arise!"-my speech

Fell idly-'twas, "Be silent, or worse fare!
“Endure, till time's slow cycle prove complete!

"Who may'st thou be that takest on thee to thrust

"Into this peril-art thou Hakeem?" No! Only a mission like thy mission renders

All these obedient at a breath, subdues

Their private passions, brings their wills to one!
Dja. You think so?

Kha.

Even now-when they have witnessed

Thy miracles—had I not threatened them

With Hakeem's vengeance, they would mar the whole,
And lie ere this, each with his special prize,
Safe in his dwelling, leaving our main hope

To perish! No! When these have kissed thy feet
At Lebanon, the Past purged off, the Present
Clear, for the Future, even Hakeem's mission
May end, and I perchance, or any youth,
Can rule them thus renewed.-I talk to thee!

Dja. And wisely. (He is Anael's brother, pure
As Anael's self.) Go say, I come to her.

Haste! I will follow you.

[KHALIL goes.

Oh, not confess

Before at least the fortune of

my deed

To these the blinded multitude-confess,

Half authorize its means! Only to her

Let me confess my fault, who in my path
Curled up like incense from a mage-king's tomb
When he would have the wayfarer descend
Thro' the earth's rift and take hid treasure up.
When should my first child's-carelessness have stopped
If not when I, whose lone youth hurried past
Letting each joy 'scape for the Druses' sake,
At length recovered in one Druse all joys?
Were her brow brighter, her eyes richer, still
Would I confess ! On the gulf's verge I pause.
How could I slay the Prefect, thus and thus ?

Anael, be mine to guard me, not destroy!

1

[Goes.