Freed from thy foe, and now secure from fear, Son of Kehama! take thy pleasure here."

13.

Her words the accursed race obeyed: Forth with a sound like rushing winds they fled; And, of all aid from Earth or Heaven bereft, Alone with Arvalan the Maid was left. But, in that hour of agony, the Maid Deserted not herself: her very dread

Had calmed her; and her heart Knew the whole horror, and its only part. "Yamen, receive me undefiled!” she said, And seized a torch, and fired the bridal bed. Up ran the rapid flames; on every side They find their fuel wheresoe'er they spread, Thin hangings, fragrant gums, and odorous wood, That piled like sacrificial altars stood. Around they run, and upward they aspire; And, lo! the huge Pagoda lined with fire!

14.

The wicked Soul, who had assumed again A form of sensible flesh for his foul will, Still bent on base revenge, and baffled still. Felt that corporeal shape alike to pain Obnoxious as to pleasure: forth he flew, Howling and scorched by the devouring flame; Accursed Spirit! still condemned to rue, The act of sin and punishment the same.

Freed from his loathsome touch, a natural dread

Came on the self-devoted; and she drew Back from the flames which now toward her spread, And, like a living monster, seemed to dart Their hungry tongues toward their shrinking prey. Soon she subdued her heart:

"O Father!" she exclaimed, "there was no way But this! and thou, Ereenia! who for me Sufferest, my soul shall bear thee company."

15.

So having said, she knit

Her body up to work her soul's desire, And rush at once among the thickest fire. A sudden cry withheld her: "Kailyal, stay! Child! daughter! I am here!" the voice exclaims; And from the gate, unharmed, through smoke and flames,

Like as a God, Ladurlad made his way, Wrapped his preserving arms around, and bore His Child, uninjured, o'er the burning floor.

XV.

THE CITY OF BALY.

1.

KAILYAL.

Ereenia!

LADURLAD.

Nay, let no reproachful thought Wrong his heroic heart! The Evil Powers Have the dominion o'er this wretched World, And no good Spirit now can venture here.

KAILYAL.

Alas, my Father! he hath ventured here, And saved me from one horror. But the Powers

Of Evil beat him down, and bore away

To some dread scene of durance and despair; The Ancient Tombs, methought their mistress said, Beneath the ocean waves: no way for Man Is there; and Gods, she boasted, there are none On Earth to help him now.

LADURLAD.

Is that her boast?

And hath she laid him in the Ancient Tombs, Relying that the Waves will guard him there? Short-sighted are the eyes of Wickedness, And all its craft but folly. O my child!

The Curses of the Wicked are upon me;

And the immortal Deities, who see

And suffer all things for their own wise end,
Have made them blessings to us!

KAILYAL.

Then thou knowest

Where they have borne him?

LADURLAD.

To the Sepulchres

Of the Ancient Kings, which Baly, in his power
Made in primeval times, and built above them
A City, like the Cities of the Gods,
Being like a God himself. For many an age
Hath Ocean warred against his Palaces,
Till, overwhelmed, they lie beneath the waves,
Not overthrown, so well the awful Chief
Had laid their deep foundations. Rightly said
The Accursed, that no way for Man was there;
But not like Man am I!

2.

Up from the ground the Maid exultant sprung, And clapped her happy hands in attitude Of thanks to Heaven, and flung

Her arms around her Father's neck, and stood Struggling awhile for utterance, with excess Of hope and pious thankfulness.

Come, come!" she cried. "Oh, let us not delay! He is in torments there!-away! away!"

3.

Long time they travelled on; at dawn of day
Still setting forward with the earliest light,
Nor ceasing from their way

Till darkness closed the night.
Short refuge from the noontide heat,
Reluctantly compelled, the Maiden took,
And ill her indefatigable feet

Could that brief respite brook.
Hope kept her up, and her intense desire
Supports that heart which ne'er at danger quails,
Those feet which never tire,

That frame which never fails.

4.

Their talk was of the City of the days Of old, Earth's wonder once, and of the fame -he whose name,

Of Baly, its great founder,

In ancient story and in poet's praise,
Liveth and flourisheth for endless glory,
Because his might

Put down the wrong, and aye upheld the right;
Till for ambition, as old sages tell,
At length the universal Monarch fell:
For he, too, having made the World his own,
Then in his pride, had driven

The Devetas from Heaven,

And seized triumphantly the Swerga throne. The Incarnate came before the Mighty One In dwarfish stature, and in mien obscure: