10.
Such strength the will reveal’d had given
This holy pair, such influxes of grace,
That to their solitary resting place
They brought the peace of Heaven.
Yea all around was hallowed! Danger, Fear,
Nor thought of evil ever entered here.
A charm was on the Leopard when he came
Within the circle of that mystic glade;
Submiss he crouch’d before the heavenly maid,
And offered to her touch his speckled side;
Or with arch’d back erect, and bending head,
And eyes half-clos’d for pleasure, would he stand,
Courting the pressure of her gentle hand.
11.
Trampling his path through wood and brake,
And canes which crackling fall before his way,
And tassel-grass, whose silvery feathers play
O’ertopping the young trees,
On comes the Elephant, to slake
His thirst at noon in yon pellucid springs.
Lo! from his trunk upturn’d, aloft he flings
The grateful shower; and now
Plucking the broad-leav’d bough
Of yonder plane, with waving motion slow,
Fanning the languid air,
He moves it to and fro.
But when that form of beauty meets his sight,
The trunk its undulating motion stops,
From his forgetful hold the plane-branch drops,
Reverent he kneels, and lifts his rational eyes
To her as if in prayer;
And when she pours her angel voice in song,
Entranced he listens to the thrilling notes,
Till his strong temples, bath’d with sudden dews,
Their fragrance of delight and love diffuse.
12.
Lo! as the voice melodious floats around,
The Antelope draws near,
The Tygress leaves her toothless cubs to hear,
The Snake comes gliding from the secret brake,
Himself in fascination forced along
By that enchanting song;
The antic Monkies, whose wild gambols late,
When not a breeze wav’d the tall jungle-grass,
Shook the whole wood, are hush’d, and silently
Hang on the cluster’d trees.
All things in wonder and delight are still;
Only at times the Nightingale is heard,
Not that in emulous skill that sweetest bird
Her rival strain would try,
A mighty songster, with the Maid to vie;
She only bore her part in powerful sympathy.
13.
Well might they thus adore that heavenly Maid!
For never Nymph of Mountain,
Or Grove, or Lake, or Fountain,
With a diviner presence fill’d the shade.
No idle ornaments deface
Her natural grace,
Musk-spot, nor sandal-streak, nor scarlet stain,
Ear-drop nor chain, nor arm nor ankle-ring,
Nor trinketry on front, or neck, or breast,
Marring the perfect form: she seem’d a thing
Of Heaven’s prime uncorrupted work, a child
Of early Nature undefil’d,
A daughter of the years of innocence.
And therefore all things lov’d her. When she stood
Beside the glassy pool, the fish, that flies
Quick as an arrow from all other eyes,
Hover’d to gaze on her. The mother bird,
When Kailyal’s steps she heard,
Sought not to tempt her from her secret nest,
But, hastening to the dear retreat, would fly
To meet and welcome her benignant eye.
14.
Hope we have none, said Kailyal to her Sire.
Said she aright? and had the Mortal Maid
No thoughts of heavenly aid, . .
No secret hopes her inmost heart to move
With longings of such deep and pure desire,
As vestal Maids, whose piety is love,
Feel in their extasies, when rapt above,
Their souls unto their heavenly Spouse aspire?
Why else so often doth that searching eye
Roam through the scope of sky?
Why, if she sees a distant speck on high,
Starts there that quick suffusion to her cheek?
’Tis but the Eagle, in his heavenly height;
Reluctant to believe, she hears his cry,
And marks his wheeling flight,
Then languidly averts her mournful sight.
Why ever else, at morn, that waking sigh,
Because the lovely form no more is nigh
Which hath been present to her soul all night;
And that injurious fear
Which ever, as it riseth, is represt,
Yet riseth still within her troubled breast,
That she no more shall see the Glendoveer!
15.
Hath he forgotten me? The wrongful thought
Would stir within her, and, though still repell’d
With shame and self-reproaches, would recur.
Days after days unvarying come and go,
And neither friend nor foe
Approaches them in their sequestered bower.
Maid of strange destiny! but think not thou
Thou art forgotten now,
And hast no cause for farther hope or fear.
High-fated Maid, thou dost not know
What eyes watch over thee for weal and woe!
Even at this hour,
Searching the dark decrees divine,
Kehama, in the fulness of his power,
Perceives his thread of fate entwin’d with thine.
The Glendoveer, from his far sphere,
With love that never sleeps, beholds thee here,
And, in the hour permitted, will be near.
Dark Lorrinite on thee hath fix’d her sight,
And laid her wiles, to aid
Foul Arvalan when he shall next appear;
For well she ween’d his Spirit would renew
Old vengeance now, with unremitting hate;
The Enchantress well that evil nature knew,
The accursed Spirit hath his prey in view,
And thus, while all their separate hopes pursue,
All work, unconsciously, the will of Fate.
16.
Fate work’d its own the while. A band
Of Yoguees, as they roam’d the land,
Seeking a spouse for Jaga-Naut their God,
Stray’d to this solitary glade,
And reach’d the bower wherein the Maid abode.
Wondering at form so fair, they deem’d the power
Divine had led them to his chosen bride,
And seiz’d and bore her from her father’s side.
