XVIII.

Then thus I answer'd wily." If, indeed,

"Son of our God thou be'st, what need to seek "For food from men?-Lo! on these flint stones feed, "Bid them be bread! Open thy lips and speak, "And living rills from yon parch'd rock will break.” Instant as I had spoke, his piercing eye

Fix'd on my face;-the blood forsook my cheek, I could not bear his gaze; my mask slipped by; I would have shunn'd his look, but had not power to fly.

XIX.

Then he rebuked me with the holy word--
Accursed sounds! but now my native pride
Return'd, and by no foolish qualm deterr'd,
I bore him from the mountain's woody side,
Up to the summit, where, extending wide
Kingdoms and cities, palaces and fanes,

Bright sparkling in the sunbeams, were descried,
And in gay dance, amid luxuriant plains,

Tripp'd to the jocund reed the emasculated swains.

XX.

"Behold," I cried, "these glories! scenes divine!
"Thou whose sad prime in pining want decays,
"And these, O rapture! these shall all be thine,
"If thou wilt give to me, not God, the praise.
"Hath he not given to indigence thy days?
"Is not thy portion peril here and pain?

"Oh! leave his temples, shun his wounding ways!

"Seize the tiara! these mean weeds disdain,

"Kneel, kneel, thou man of woe, and peace and splendour gain."

XXI.

"Is it not written," sternly he replied,

"Tempt not the Lord thy God?" Frowning he spake, And instant sounds, as of the ocean tide,

Rose, and the whirlwind from its prison brake,
And caught me up aloft, till, in one flake,
The sidelong volley met my swift career,

And smote me earthward.-Jove himself might quake At such a fall; my sinews crack'd, and near,

Obscure and dizzy sounds seem'd ringing in mine ear.

XXII.

Senseless and stunn'd I lay; till casting round
My half unconscious gaze, I saw the foe

Borne on a car of Roses to the ground,
By volant angels; and as sailing slow
He sunk, the hoary battlement below,
While on the tall spire slept the slant sun-beam,
Sweet on the enamour'd zephyr was the flow
Of heavenly instruments, Such strains oft seem,
On star-light hill, to soothe the Syrian shepherd's dream.

XXIII.

I saw blaspheming. Hate renew'd my strength;
I smote the ether with my iron wing,
And left the accursed scene.-Arriv'd at length
In these drear halls, to ye, my peers! I bring
The tidings of defeat. Hell's haughty king
Thrice vanquish'd, baffled, smitten, and dismay'd!
O shame! Is this the hero who could fling
Defiance at his Maker, while array'd,

High o'er the walls of light rebellion's banners play'd!

XXIV.

Yet shall not Heaven's bland minions triumph long; Hell yet shall have revenge.-O glorious sight, Prophetic visions on my fancy throng,

I see wild agony's lean finger write

Sad figures on his forehead !--Keenly bright Revenge's flambeau burns! Now in his eyes

Stand the hot tears,-immantled in the night, Lo! he retires to mourn!-I hear his cries,He faints he falls-and, lo!-'tis true, ye powers, he dies."

XXV.

Thus spake the chieftain,-and as if he view'd
The scene he pictured, with his foot advanced,

And chest inflated, motionless he stood,

While under his uplifted shield he glanced,

With straining eye-ball fix'd, like one entranced,

On viewless air;-thither the dark platoon

Gaz'd wondering, nothing seen, save when there danced

The northern flash, or fiend late fled from noon, Darken'd the disk of the descending moon.

XXVI.

Silence crept stilly through the ranks. The breeze Spake most distinctly. As the sailor stands, When all the midnight gasping from the seas Break boding sobs, and to his sight expands

High on the shrouds the spirit that commands The ocean-farer's life; so stiff-so sear

Stood each dark power;-while through their numerous bands

Beat not one heart, and mingling hope and fear Now told them all was lost, now bade revenge appear.

XXVII.

One there was there, whose loud defying tongue
Nor hope nor fear had silenced, but the swell
Of overboiling malice. Utterance long

His passion mock'd, and long he strove to tell
His labouring ire; still syllable none fell
From his pale quivering lip, but died away
For very fury; from each hollow cell
sprang his eyes, that cast a flamy ray,

Half