And bid thee take thy weeping slave to Heaven! Scarce had she said These breathless words, when a voice deep and dread From their first sleep-so startling 'twas to both— Rung through the casement near, "Thy oath! thy oath !" Her inmost core, nor durst she lift her eyes, Though through the casement, now, nought but the skies ""Tis he, and I am his-all, all is o'er Go-fly this instant, or thou'rt ruined too- The Dead stood round us, while I spoke that vow, Their eyes glared on me, while I pledged that bowl, And the Veiled Bridegroom--hist! I've seen to-night With all that strength which madness lends the weak, Flew up through that long avenue of light, Fleetly as some dark ominous bird of night Lalla Rookh could think of nothing all day but the misery of these two young lovers. Her gaiety was gone, and she looked pensively even upon Fadladeen. She felt, too, without knowing why, a sort of uneasy pleasure in imagining that Azim must have been just such a youth as Feramorz; just as worthy to enjoy all the blessings, without any of the pangs, of that illusive passion which too often, like the sunny apples of Istkahar, * is all sweetness on one side, and all bitterness on the other. As they passed along a sequestered river after sunset, they saw a young Hindoo girl upon the bank, whose employment seemed to them so strange that they stopped their palankeens to observe "In the territory of Istkahar there is a kind of apple, half of which is sweet and half sour."-Ebn Haukal. |