XV. THE CITY OF BALY.
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 ventur’d here,
And sav’d 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 warr’d against his Palaces,
Till overwhelm’d, they lie beneath the waves,
Not overthrown, so well the Mighty One
Had laid their deep foundations. Rightly said
The Accursed, that no way for Man was there,
But not like Man am I!
