II.

THE CURSE.

1.

ALONE towards the Table of the Dead

Kehama moved: there on the altar-stone
Honey and rice he spread;

There, with collected voice and painful tone,
He called upon his son.

Lo, Arvalan appears!

Only Kehama's powerful eye beheld
The thin, ethereal spirit hovering nigh;
Only the Rajah's ear

Received his feeble breath.

"And is this all," the mournful Spirit said, "This all that thou canst give me after death, – This unavailing pomp,

-

These empty pageantries, that mock the dead?"

2.

In bitterness the Rajah heard,

And groaned, and smote his breast, and o'er his face Cowled the white mourning vest.

3.

ARVALAN.

Art thou not powerful,

even like a God?

And must I, through my years of wandering,

Shivering and naked to the elements,
In wretchedness await

The hour of Yamen's wrath?
I thought thou wouldst embody me anew,

But in that wrongful and upbraiding tone
Kehama found relief;

For rising anger half suppressed his grief.
Reproach me not!" he cried:

66

"Had I not spell-secured thee from disease, Fire, sword,

And thou,

- all common accidents of man? fool, fool!— to perish by a stake! And by a peasant's arm!

Even now,

when from reluctant Heaven,

Forcing new gifts and mightier attributes,

So soon I should have quelled the Death-God's

power."

5.

"Waste not thy wrath on me!" quoth Arvalan;
"It was my hour of folly! Fate prevailed;
Nor boots it to reproach me that I fell.
I am in misery, Father! Other souls,
Predoomed to Indra's Heaven, enjoy the dawn
Of bliss; to them the tempered elements
Minister joy; genial delight the sun
Sheds on their happy being, and the stars
Effuse on them benignant influences;

And thus o'er earth and air they roam at will, And, when the number of their days is full,

Go fearlessly before the awful throne. But I,—all naked feeling and raw life, What worse than this hath Yamen's hell in store? If ever thou didst love me, mercy, Father! Save me! for thou canst save; the Elements Know and obey thy voice."

6.

KEHAMA.

The Elements

Shall sin no more against thee; whilst I speak, Already dost thou feel their power is gone.

Fear not! I cannot call again the past, Fate hath made that its own; but Fate shall yield To me the future, and thy doom be fixed By mine, not Yamen's will. Meantime all power Whereof thy feeble spirit can be made Participant, I give. Is there aught else To mitigate thy lot?

ARVALAN.

Only the sight of vengeance.

Give me that!

Vengeance, full, worthy vengeance! not the stroke

Of sudden punishment; no agony

That spends itself, and leaves the wretch at rest; But lasting, long revenge.

KEHAMA.

What, boy? is that cup sweet? Then take thy fill!

7.

So, as he spake, a glow of dreadful pride Inflamed his cheek: with quick and angry stride He moved toward the pile,

And raised his hand to hush the crowd, and cried, "Bring forth the murderer!" At the Rajah's voice, Calmly, and like a man whom fear had stunned, Ladurlad came, obedient to the call;

But Kailyal started at the sound,

And gave a womanly shriek, and back she drew,
And eagerly she rolled her eyes around,
As if to seek for aid, albeit she knew
No aid could there be found.

8.

It chanced that near her, on the river-brink,
The sculptured form of Marriataly stood:
It was an Idol roughly hewn of wood,
Artless and mean and rude:

The Goddess of the poor was she;
None else regarded her with piety.
But, when that holy Image Kailyal viewed,
To that she sprung, to that she clung;
On her own Goddess, with close-clasping arms,
For life the maiden hung.

9.

They seized the maid; with unrelenting grasp They bruised her tender limbs:

She, nothing yielding, to this only hope

Clings with the strength of frenzy and despair. She screams not now, she breathes not now, She sends not up one vow,

She forms not in her soul one secret prayer; All thought, all feeling, and all powers of life, In the one effort centring. Wrathful they With tug and strain would force the maid away: Didst thou, O Marriataly! see their strife? In pity didst thou see the suffering maid? Or was thine anger kindled, that rude hands Assailed thy holy Image? - for, behold, The holy Image shakes!

10.

Irreverently bold, they deem the maid
Relaxed her stubborn hold,

And now with force redoubled drag their prey;
And now the rooted Idol to their sway
Bends, yields; and now it falls. But then they

scream;

For, lo! they feel the crumbling bank give way, And all are plunged into the stream.

11.

"She hath escaped my will!" Kehama cried; "She hath escaped, but thou art here:

I have thee still,

The worser criminal!"

And on Ladurlad, while he spake, severe
He fixed his dreadful frown.