THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 Walter 0. Schneider
 
 
 COLLECTED EDITION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 NOVELS AND TALES 
 
 BY 
 
 THE EIGHT HONOEABLE 
 B. DISEAELI. 
 
 VOL. VI1LALROY. IXION IN HEAVEN. 
 
 THE INFERNAL MARRIAGE. 
 
 POPANILLA.
 
 BAI.LANTYNE, HANSON AND CO. 
 EDINBURGH AND LONDON
 
 ALEOY. 
 
 IXION IN HEAVEN. 
 
 THE INFEENAL MAEEIAGE. 
 
 POPANILLA. 
 
 RIGHT HONORABLE B. DISRAELI. 
 
 NEW EDITION. 
 
 LONDON: 
 LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 
 
 1878. 
 
 All rights reserved.
 
 College 
 Library 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 TO 
 
 ALEOY. 
 
 BEING at Jerusalem in the year 1831, and visiting the 
 traditionary tombs of the Kings of Israel, my thoughts 
 recurred to a personage whose marvellous career had, 
 even in boyhood, attracted my attention, as one fraught 
 with the richest materials of poetic fiction. And I then 
 commenced these pages that should commemorate the 
 name of ALROY. 
 
 In the twelfth century, when he arose, this was the 
 political condition of the East : 
 
 The Caliphate was in a state of rapid decay. The 
 Seljukian Sultans, who had been called to the assist- 
 ance of the Commanders of the Faithful, had become, 
 like the Mayors of the palace in France, the real 
 sovereigns of the Empire. Out of the dominions of 
 the successors of the Prophet, they had carved four 
 kingdoms, which conferred titles on four Seljukian 
 Pripces, to wit, the Sultan of Bagdad, the Sultan of 
 Persia, the Sultan of Syria, and the Sultan of Roum, or 
 Asia Minor. 
 
 1
 
 vi PEEFACE. 
 
 
 
 But these warlike princes, in the relaxed discipline 
 and doubtful conduct of their armies, began themselves 
 to evince the natural effects of luxury and indulgence. 
 They were no longer the same invincible and irresistible 
 warriors who had poured forth from the shores of the 
 Caspian over the fairest regions of the East ; and 
 although they still contrived to preserve order in their 
 dominions, they witnessed with ill-concealed appre- 
 hension the rising power of the Kings of Karasme, 
 whose conquests daily made their territories more con- 
 tiguous. 
 
 With regard to the Hebrew people, it should be 
 known that, after the destruction of Jerusalem, the 
 Eastern Jews, while they acknowledged the supremacy 
 of their conquerors, gathered themselves together for 
 all purposes of jurisdiction, under the control of a 
 native ruler, a reputed descendant of David, whom 
 they dignified with the title of ' The Prince of the 
 Captivity.' If we are to credit the enthusiastic an- 
 nalists of this imaginative people, there were periods of 
 prosperity when the Princes of the Captivity assumed 
 scarcely less state and enjoyed scarcely less power than 
 the ancient Kings of Judah themselves. Certain it is 
 that their power increased always in an exact propor- 
 tion to the weakness of the Caliphate, and, without 
 doubt, in some of the most distracted periods of the 
 Arabian rule, the Hebrew Princes rose into some de- 
 gree of local and temporary importance. Their chief 
 residence was Bagdad, where they remained until the 
 eleventh century, an age fatal in Oriental history, and 
 from the disasters of which the Princes of the Captivity 
 were not exempt. They are heard of even in the
 
 PEEFACE. vii 
 
 twelfth century. I have ventured to place one at 
 Hamadan, which was a favourite residence of the 
 Hebrews, from being the burial-place of Esther and 
 Mordecai. 
 
 With regard to the supernatural machinery of this 
 romance, it is Cabalistical and correct. From the 
 Spirits of the Tombs to the sceptre of Solomon, autho- 
 rity may be found in the traditions of the Hebrews for 
 the introduction of all these spiritual agencies. 
 
 GBOSVENOB GATE: 
 July
 
 A L R O Y. 
 
 PAET I. 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 v THE CORNETS sounded a final flourish as the Prince of the 
 Captivity dismounted from his white mule ; his train shouted 
 as if they were onco more a people ; and, had it not heen 
 for the contemptuous leer which played upon the counte- 
 nances of the Moslem bystanders, it might have been taken 
 for a day of triumph rather than of tribute. 
 
 ' The glory has not departed ! ' exclaimed the venerable 
 Bostenay, as he entered the hall of his mansion. ' It is not 
 as the visit of Sheba unto Solomon ; nevertheless the glory 
 has not yet departed. You have done well, faithful Caleb.' 
 The old man's courage waxed more vigorous, as each step 
 within his own walls the more assured him against the 
 recent causes of his fear, the audible curses and the 
 threatened missiles of the unbelieving mob. 
 
 'It shall be a day of rejoicing and thanksgiving !' con- 
 tinued the Prince ; ' and look, my faithful Caleb, that the 
 trumpeters be well served. That last flourish was bravely 
 done. It was not as the blast before Jericho ; nevertheless, 
 it told that the Lord of Hosts was for us. How the accursed 
 Ishmaelites started ! Did you mark, Caleb, that tall Turk 
 in green upon my left ? By the sceptre of Jacob, he turned 
 pale ! Oh ! it shall be a day of rejoicing and thanksgiving ! 
 And spare not the wine, nor the flesh-pots for the people. 
 Look you to this, my child, for the people shouted bravely
 
 2 ALROY. 
 
 and with a stout voice. It was not as the great shout in 
 the camp when the ark returned ; nevertheless, it was boldly 
 done, and showed that the glory had not yet departed. So 
 spare not the wine, my son, and drink to the desolation of 
 Ishmael in the juice which he dare not quaff.' 
 
 'It has indeed been a great day for Israel!' exclaimed 
 Caleb, echoing his master's exultation. 
 
 ' Had the procession been forbidden,' continued Bostenay, 
 ' had it been reserved for me of all the princes to have 
 dragged the accursed tribute upon foot, without trumpets 
 and without guards, by this sceptre, my good Caleb, I 
 really think that, sluggishly as this old blood now runs, I 
 
 would But it is needless now to talk ; the God of oar 
 
 fathers hath been our refuge.' 
 
 ' Verily, my lord, we were as David in the wilderness of 
 Ziph ; but now we are as the Lord's anointed in the strong- 
 hold of Engedi !' 
 
 ' T)ae glory truly has not yet utterly departed,' resumed 
 
 the Prince in a more subdued tone ; ' yet if. I tell you 
 
 what, Caleb ; praise the Lord that you are young.' 
 
 ' My Prince too may yet live to see the good day.' 
 
 ' Nay, my child, you misinterpret me. Your Prince has 
 lived to see the evil day. 'Twas not of the coming that I 
 thought when I bid you praise the Lord because you were 
 young, the more my sin. I was thinking, Caleb, that if 
 your hair was as mine, if you could recollect, like me, the 
 days that are gone by, the days when it needed no bribe to 
 prove we were princes, the glorious days when we led cap- 
 tivity captive ; I was thinking, I say, my son, what a gainful 
 heritage it is to be born after the joys that have passed 
 away.' 
 
 ' My father lived at Babylon,' said Caleb. 
 
 'Oh! name it not! name it not!' exclaimed the old 
 chieftain. 'Dark was the day that we lost that second 
 Sion! We were then also slaves to the Egyptian; but 
 verily we ruled over the realm of Pharaoh. Why, Caleb, 
 Caleb, you who know all, the days of toil, the nights rest- 
 less as a love-sick boy's, which it has cost your Prince to
 
 ALEOY. 3 
 
 gain permission to grace our tribute-day with the paltry 
 presence of half-a-dozen guards ; you who know all my 
 difficulties, who have witnessed all my mortifications, what 
 would you say to the purse of dirhems, surrounded by seven 
 thousand scimetars ?' 
 
 ' Seven thousand scimetars !' 
 
 ' Not one less ; my father nourished one.' 
 
 ' It was indeed a great day for Israel !' 
 
 ' Nay, that is nothing. When old Alroy was prince, old 
 David Alroy, for thirty years, good Caleb, thirty long years 
 we paid no tribute to the Caliph.' 
 
 ' No tribute ! no tribute for thirty years ! What marvel 
 then, my Prince, that the Philistines have of late exacted 
 interest ?' 
 
 'Nay, that is nothing,' continued old Bostenay, unmind- 
 ful of his servant's ejaculations. ' When Moctador was 
 Caliph, he sent to the same Prince David, to know why the 
 dirhems were not brought up, and David immediately called 
 to horse, and, attended by all the chief people, rode to the 
 palace, and told the Caliph that tribute was an acknowledg- 
 ment made from the weak to the strong to insure protection 
 and support ; and, inasmuch as he and his people had gar- 
 risoned the city for ten years against the Seljuks, he held 
 the Caliph in arrear.' 
 
 ' We shall yet see an ass mount a ladder,' 1 exclaimed 
 Caleb, with uplifted eyes of wonder. 
 
 ' It is true, though,' continued the Prince ; ' often have 
 I heard my father tell the tale. He was then a child, and 
 his mother held him up to see the procession return, and 
 all the people shouted " The sceptre has not gone out of 
 Jacob." ' 
 
 ' It was indeed a great day for Israel.' 
 
 ' Nay, that is nothing. I could tell you such things ! 
 But we prattle ; our business is not yet done. You to the 
 people ; the widow and the orphan are waiting. Give 
 freely, good Caleb, give freely ; the spoils of the Canaanite 
 are no longer ours, nevertheless the Lord is 'still our God, 
 and, after all, even this is a great day for Israel. And, 
 
 B 2
 
 4 ALROY. 
 
 Caleb, Caleb, bid my nephew, David Alroy, know that I 
 would speak with him.' 
 
 ' I will do all promptly, good master ! We wondered 
 that our honoured lord, your nephew, went not up with the 
 donation this day.' 
 
 ' Who bade you wonder ? Begone, sir ! How long are 
 you to idle here ? Away !' 
 
 ' They wonder he went not up with the tribute to-day. 
 Ay ! surely, a common talk. This boy will be our ruin, a 
 prudent hand to wield our shattered sceptre. I have ob- 
 served him from his infancy; he should have lived in 
 Babylon. The old Alroy blood flows in his veins, a stiff- 
 necked race. When I was a youth, his grandsire was my 
 friend ; I had some fancies then myself. Dreams, dreams ! 
 we have fallen on evil days, and yet we prosper. I have 
 lived long enough to feel that a rich caravan, laden with 
 the shawls of India and the stuffs of Samarcand, if not 
 exactly like dancing before the ark, is still a goodly sight. 
 And our hard-hearted rulers, with all their pride, can they 
 subsist without us ? Still we wax rich. I have lived to see 
 the haughty Caliph sink into a slave viler far than Israel. 
 And the victorious and voluptuous Seljuks, even now they 
 tremble at the dim mention of the distant name of Arslaii. 
 Yet I, Bostenay, and the frail remnant of our scattered 
 tribes, still we exist, and still, thanks to our God ! we 
 prosper. But the age of power has passed ; it is by pru- 
 dence now that we must flourish. The gibe and jest, the 
 curse, perchance the blow, Israel now must bear, and with 
 a calm or even smiling visage. What then ? For every 
 gibe and jest, for every curse, I'll have a dirhem ; and for 
 every blow, let him look to it who is my debtor, or wills to 
 be so. But see, he comes, my nephew ! His grandsire was 
 my friend. Methinks I look upon him now: the same 
 Alroy that was the partner of my boyish hours. And yet 
 that fragile form and girlish face but ill consort with the 
 dark passions and the dangerous fancies, which, I fear, lie 
 hidden in that tender breast. Well, sir ?' 
 
 ' You want me, uncle ?'
 
 ALEOY. 5 
 
 ' What then ? Uncles often want what nephews seldom 
 offer.' 
 
 ' I at least can refuse nothing ; for I have nought to give.' 
 
 ' You have a jewel which I greatly covet.' 
 
 ' A jewel ! See my chaplet ! You gave it me, my uncle ; 
 it is yours.' 
 
 ' I thank you. Many a blazing ruby, many a soft and 
 shadowy pearl, and many an emerald glowing like a star in 
 the far desert, I behold, my child. They are choice stones, 
 and yet I miss a jewel far more precious, which, when I 
 gave you this rich chaplet, David, I deemed you did possess.' 
 
 ' How do you call it, sir ?' 
 
 ' Obedience.' 
 
 ' A word of doubtful import ; for to obey, when duty is 
 disgrace, is not a virtue.' 
 
 ' I see you read my thought. In a word, I sent for you 
 to know, wherefore you joined me not to-day in offering 
 our, our ' 
 
 ' Tribute.' 
 
 ' Be it so : tribute. Why were you absent ? ' 
 
 ' Because it was a tribute ; I pay none.' 
 
 ' But that the dreary course of seventy winters has not 
 erased the memory of my boyish follies, David, I should 
 esteem you mad. Think you, because I am old, I am 
 enamoured of disgrace, and love a house of bondage ? If 
 life were a mere question between freedom and slavery, 
 glory and dishonour, all could decide. Trust me, there 
 needs but little spirit to be a moody patriot in a sullen home, 
 and vent your heroic spleen upon your fellow- sufferers, 
 whose sufferings you cannot remedy But of such stuff 
 your race were ever made. Such deliverers ever abounded 
 in the house of Alroy. And what has been the result ? I 
 found you and your sister orphan infants, your sceptre 
 broken, and your tribes dispersed. The tribute, which now 
 at least we pay like princes, was then exacted with the 
 scourge and offered in chains. I collected our scattered 
 people, I re-established our ancient throne, and this day, 
 which you look upon as a day of humiliation and of mourning,
 
 6 ALROY. 
 
 is rightly considered by all a day of triumph and of feast- 
 ing; for, has it not proved, in the very teeth of the Ishmael- 
 ites, that the sceptre has not yet departed from Jacob ? ' 
 
 ' I pray you, uncle, speak not of these things. I would 
 not willingly forget you are my kinsman, and a kind one. 
 Let there not be strife between us. What my feelings are 
 is nothing. They are my own : I cannot change them. 
 And for my ancestors, if they pondered much, and achieved 
 little, why then 'twould seem our pedigree is pure, and I 
 am their true son. At least one was a hero.' 
 
 * Ah ! the great Alroy ; you may well be proud of such 
 an ancestor.' 
 
 ' I am ashamed, uncle, ashamed, ashamed.' 
 
 ' His sceptre still exists. At least, I have not betrayed 
 him. And this brings me to the real purport of our inter- 
 view. That sceptre I would return.' 
 
 ' To whom ? 
 
 ' To its right owner, to yourself.' 
 
 ' Oh ! no, no, no ; I pray you, I pray you not. I do en- 
 treat you, sir, forget that I have a right as utterly as I 
 disclaim it. That sceptre, you have wielded it wisely and 
 well ; I beseech you keep it. Indeed, good uncle, I have 
 no sort of talent for all the busy duties of this post.' 
 
 ' You sigh for glory, yet you fly from toil.' 
 
 ' Toil without glory is a menial's lot.' 
 
 ' You are a boy ; you may yet live to learn that the 
 sweetest lot of life consists in tranquil duties and well- 
 earned repose.' 
 
 * If my lot be repose, I'll find it in a lair.' 
 
 ' Ah ! David, David, there is a wildness in your temper, 
 boy, that makes me often tremble. You are already too 
 much alone, child. And for this, as well as weightier 
 reasons, I am desirous that you should at length assume 
 the office you inherit. What my poor experience can afford 
 to aid you, as your counsellor, I shall ever proffer ; and, for 
 the rest, our God will not desert you, an orphan child, and 
 born of royal blood.' 
 
 ' Pr'ythee, no more, kind uncle. I have but little heart
 
 ALROY. 7 
 
 to mount a throne, which only ranks me as the first of 
 slaves.' 
 
 ' Pooh, pooh, you are young. Live we like slaves ? Is 
 this hall a servile chamber? These costly carpets, and 
 these rich divans, in what proud harem shall we find their 
 match? I feel not like a slave. My coffers are full of 
 dirhems. Is that slavish ? The wealthiest company of the 
 caravan is ever Bostenay's. Is that to be a slave? Walk 
 the bazaar of Bagdad, and you will find my name more 
 potent than the Caliph's. Is that a badge of slavery ? ' 
 
 ' Uncle, you toil for others.' 
 
 ' So do we all, so does the bee, yet he is free and happy.' 
 
 ' At least he has a sting.' 
 
 ' Which he can use but once, and when he stings ' 
 
 ' He dies, and like a hero. Such a death is sweeter than 
 his honey.' 
 
 ' Well, well, you are young, you are young. I once, too, 
 had fancies. Dreams all, dreams all. I willingly would see 
 you happy, child. Come, let that face brighten; after all, 
 to-day is a great day. If you had seen what I have seen, 
 David, you too would feel grateful. Come, let us feast. 
 The Ishmaelite, the accursed child of Hagar, he does con- 
 fess to-day that you are a prince ; this day also you com- 
 plete your eighteenth year. The custom of our people now 
 requires that you should assume the attributes of manhood. 
 To-day, then, your reign commences ; and at our festival I 
 will present the elders to their prince. For a while fare- 
 well, my child. Array that face in smiles. I shall most 
 anxiously await your presence.' 
 
 'Farewell, sir.' 
 
 He turned his head and watched his uncle as he departed : 
 the bitter expression of his countenance gradually melted 
 away as Bostenay disappeared : dejection succeeded to 
 sarcasm ; he sighed, he threw himself upon a couch and 
 buried his face in his hands. 
 
 Suddenly he arose and paced the chamber with an irre- 
 gular and moody step. He stopped, and leant against a 
 column. He spoke in a tremulous and smothered voice.
 
 8 ALKOY. 
 
 ' Oil ! my heart is full of care, and my soul is dark with 
 sorrow ! What am I ? What is all this ? A cloud hangs 
 heavy o'er my life. God of my fathers, let it burst ! 
 
 ' I know not what I feel, yet what I feel is madness. 
 Thus to be is not to live, if life be what I sometimes dream, 
 and dare to think it might be. To breathe, to feed, to 
 sleep, to wake and breathe again, again to feel existence 
 without hope ; if this be life, why then these brooding 
 thoughts that whisper death were better ? 
 
 4 Away ! The demon tempts me. But to what ? What 
 nameless deed shall desecrate this hand ? It must not be : 
 the royal blood of twice two thousand years, it must not 
 die, die like a dream. Oh ! my heart is full of care, and 
 my soul is dark with sorrow ! 
 
 ' Hark ! the trumpets that sound our dishonour. Oh, 
 that they but sounded to battle ! Lord of Hosts, let me 
 conquer or die ! Let me conquer like David ; or die, Lord, 
 like Saul ! 
 
 ' Why do I live ? Ah ! could the thought that lurks 
 within my secret heart but answer, not that trumpet's blast 
 could speak as loud or clear. The votary of a false idea, I 
 linger in this shadowy life, and feed on silent images which 
 no eye but mine can gaze upon, till at length they are in- 
 vested with all the terrible circumstance of life, and breathe, 
 and act, and form a stirring world of fate and beauty, time, 
 and death, and glory. And then, from out this dazzling 
 wilderness of deeds, I wander forth and wake, and find 
 myself in this dull house of bondage, even as I do now. 
 Horrible ! horrible ! 
 
 ' God of my fathers ! for indeed I dare not style thee God 
 of their wretched sons ; yet, by the memory of Sinai, let 
 me tell thee that some of the antique blood yet beats within 
 these pulses, and there yet is one who fain would commune 
 with thee face to face, commune and conquer. 
 
 ' And if the promise unto which we cling be not a cheat, 
 why, let him come, come, and come quickly, for thy servant 
 Israel, Lord, is now a slave so infamous, so woe-begone, and 
 so contemned, that even when our fathers hung their harps
 
 ALROY. 9 
 
 by the sad waters of the Babylonian stream, why, it was 
 paradise compared with what we suffer. 
 
 ' Alas ! they do not suffer ; they endure and do not feel. 
 Or by this time our shadowy cherubim would guard again 
 the ark. It is the will that is the father to the deed, and 
 he who broods over some long idea, however wild, will find 
 his dream was but the prophecy of coming fate. 
 
 ' And even now a vivid flash darts through the darkness 
 of my mind. Methinks, methinks : ah ! worst of woes to 
 dream of glory in despair. No, no; I live and die a most 
 ignoble thing ; beauty and love, and fame and mighty 
 deeds, the smile of women and the gaze of men, and the 
 ennobling consciousness of worth, and all the fiery course 
 of the creative passions, these are not for me, and I, Alroy, 
 the descendant of sacred kings, and with a soul that pants 
 for empire, I stand here extending my vain arm for my lost 
 sceptre, a most dishonoured slave ! And do I still exist ? 
 Exist ! ay, merrily. Hark ! Festivity holds her fair revel 
 in these light-hearted walls. We are gay to-day ; and yet, 
 ere yon proud sun, whose mighty course was stayed before 
 our swords that now he even does not deign to shine upon ; 
 ere yon proud sun shall, like a hero from a glorious field, 
 enter the bright pavilion of his rest, there shall a deed be 
 done. 
 
 ' My fathers, my heroic fathers, if this feeble arm cannot 
 redeem your heritage ; if the foul boar must still wallow in 
 thy sweet vineyard, Israel, at least I will not disgrace you. 
 No ! let me perish. The house of David is no more ; no 
 more our sacred seed shall lurk and linger, like a blighted 
 thing, in this degenerate earth. If we cannot flourish, 
 why then we will die ! ' 
 
 ' Oh ! say not so, my brother ! ' 
 
 He turns, he gazes on a face beauteous as a starry night ; 
 his heart is full, his voice is low. 
 
 ' Ah, Miriam ! thou queller of dark spirits ! is it thou ? 
 Why art thou here ? ' 
 
 ' Why am I here ? Are you not here ? and need I urge 
 a stronger plea ? Oh ! brother dear, I pray you come, and
 
 10 ALHOY. 
 
 mingle in oar festival ! Our walls are hnng with flowers 
 you love ; 2 I culled them by the fountain's side ; the holy 
 lamps are trimmed and set, and you must raise their earliest 
 flame. Without the gate, my maidens wait, to offer you a 
 robe of state. Then, brother dear, I pray you come and 
 mingle in our festival.' 
 
 ' Why should we feast? ' 
 
 ' Ah ! is it not in thy dear name these lamps are lit, 
 these garlands hung? To-day to us a prince is given, 
 to-day ' 
 
 ' A prince without a kingdom.' 
 
 ' But not without that which makes kingdoms precious, 
 and which full many a royal heart has sighed for, willing 
 subjects, David.' 
 
 ' Slaves, Miriam, fellow-slaves.' 
 
 ' What we are, my brother, our God has willed ; and let 
 us bow and tremble.' 
 
 ' I will not bow, I cannot tremble.' 
 
 ' Hush, David, hush ! It was this haughty spirit that 
 called the vengeance of the Lord upon us.' 
 
 'It was this haughty spirit that conquered Canaan.' 
 
 ' Oh, my brother, my dear brother ! they told me the dark 
 spirit had fallen on thee, and I came, and hoped that Miriam 
 might have charmed it. What we have been, Alroy, is a 
 bright dream ; and what we may be, at least as bright a 
 hope ; and for what we are, thou art my brother. In thy 
 love I find present felicity, and value more thy chance 
 embraces and thy scanty smiles than all the vanished splen- 
 dour of our race, our gorgeous gardens, and our glittering 
 halls.' 
 
 ' Who waits without there ? ' 
 
 ' Caleb.' 
 
 'Caleb?' 
 
 'My Lord.' 
 
 ' Go tell my uncle that I will presently join the banquet. 
 Leave me a moment, Miriam. Nay, dry those tears.' 
 
 ' Oh, Alroy ! they are not tears of sorrow.' 
 
 ' God be with thee ! Thou art the charm and consolation 
 of my life. Farewell ! farewell ! '
 
 ALKOY. 1 1 
 
 ' I do observe the influence of women very potent over 
 me. "Tis not of such stuff that they make heroes. I know 
 not love, save that pure affection which doth subsist 
 between me and this girl, an orphan and my sister. We 
 are so alike, that when, last Passover, in mimicry she 
 twined my turban round her head, our uncle called her 
 David. 
 
 ' The daughters of my tribe, they please me not, though 
 they are passing fair. Were our sons as brave as they are 
 beautiful, we still might dance on Sion. Yet have I often 
 thought that, could I pillow this moody brow upon some 
 snowy bosom that were my own, and dwell in the wilder- 
 ness, far from the sight and ken of man, and all the care 
 and toil and wretchedness that groan and sweat and sigh 
 about me, I might haply lose this deep sensation of over- 
 whelming woe that broods upon by being. ~No matter ! 
 Life is but a dream, and mine must be a dull one.' 
 
 CHAPTER H. 
 
 WITHOUT the gates of Hamadan, a short distance from 
 the city, was an enclosed piece of elevated ground, in the 
 centre of which rose an ancient sepulchre, the traditionary 
 tomb of Esther and Mordecai. 3 This solemn and solitary 
 spot was an accustomed haunt of Alroy, and thither, escap- 
 ing from the banquet, about an hour before sunset, he this 
 day repaired. 
 
 As he unlocked the massy gate of the burial-place, he 
 heard behind him the trampling of a horse ; and before he 
 had again secured the entrance, some one shouted to him. 
 
 He looked up, and recognised the youthful and voluptuous 
 Alschiroch, the governor of the city, and brother of the 
 sultan of the Seljuks. He was attended only by a single 
 running footman, an Arab, a detested favourite, and noto- 
 rious minister of his pleasures. 
 
 * Dog! ' exclaimed the irritated Alschiroch, ' art thou deaf, 
 or obstinate, or both? Are we to call twice to our slaves? 
 Unlock, that gate ! '
 
 12 ALKOY. 
 
 ' Wherefore ? ' inquired Alroy. 
 
 'Wherefore ! By the holy Prophet he bandies questions 
 with us ! Unlock that gate, or thy head shall answer for 
 it!' 
 
 ' Who art thou,' inquired Alroy, ' whose voice is so loud ? 
 Art thou some holiday Turk, who hath transgressed the 
 orders of thy Prophet, and drunken aught but water ? Go 
 to, or I will summon thee before thy Cadi ;' and, so saying, 
 he turned towards the tomb. 
 
 ' By the eyes of my mother, the dog jeers us ! But that 
 we are already late, and this horse is like an untamed tiger, 
 I would impale him on the spot. Speak to the dog, Mus- 
 tapha ! manage him ! ' 
 
 'Worthy Hebrew,' said the silky Mustapha, advancing, 
 apparently you are not aware that this is our Lord Als- 
 chiroch.. His highness would fain walk his horse through 
 the burial-ground of thy excellent people, as he is obliged 
 to repair, on urgent matters, to a holy Santon, who sojourns 
 on the other side of the hill, and time presses.' 
 
 ' If this be our Lord Alschiroch, thou doubtless art his 
 faithful slave, Mustapha.' 
 
 'I am, indeed, his poor slave. What then, young 
 master? ' 
 
 ' Deem thyself lucky that the gate is closed. It was but 
 yesterday thou didst insult the sister of a servant of my 
 house. I would not willingly sully my hands with such 
 miserable blood as thine, but away, wretch, away ! ' 
 
 'Holy Prophet ! who is this dog? ' exclaimed the aston- 
 ished governor. 
 
 ' "Pis the young Alroy,' whispered Mnstapha, who had 
 not at first recognised him ; ' he they call their Prince ; a 
 most headstrong youth. My lord, we had better proceed.' 
 
 ' The young Alroy ! I mark him. They must have a 
 prince too ! The young Alroy ! Well, let us away, and, 
 dog ! ' shouted Alschiroch, rising in his stirrups, and shak- 
 ing his hand with a threatening air, ' dog ! remember thy 
 tribute ! ' 
 
 Alroy rushed to the gate, but the massy lock was slow to
 
 ALROY. ] 3 
 
 open ; and ere he could succeed, the fiery steed had borne 
 Alschiroch beyond pursuit. 
 
 An 1 expression of baffled rage remained for a moment on 
 his countenance ; for a moment he remained with his eager 
 eye fixed on the route of his vanished enemy, and then he 
 walked slowly towards the tomb ; but his excited temper 
 was now little in unison with the still reverie in which he 
 had repaired to the sepulchre to indulge. He was restless 
 and disquieted, and at length he wandered into the woods, 
 which rose on the summit of the burial-place. 
 
 He found himself upon a brow crested with young pine- 
 trees, in the midst of which rose a mighty cedar. He 
 threw himself beneath its thick and shadowy branches, and 
 looked upon a valley small and green ; in the midst of 
 which was a marble fountain, the richly- carved cupola, 4 
 supported by twisted columns, and banded by a broad in- 
 scription in Hebrew characters. The bases of the white 
 pillars were covered with wild flowers, or hidden by beds of 
 variegated gourds. The transparent sunset flung over the 
 whole scene a soft but brilliant light. 
 
 The tranquil hour, the beauteous scene, the sweetness 
 and the stillness blending their odour and serenity, the 
 gentle breeze that softly rose, and summoned forth the 
 languid birds to cool their plumage in the twilight air, and 
 
 wave their radiant wings in skies as bright Ah ! what 
 
 stern spirit will not yield to the soft genius of subduing 
 Eve? 
 
 And Alroy gazed upon the silent loneliness of earth, and 
 a tear stole down his haughty cheek. 
 
 ' 'Tis singular ! but when I am thus alone at this still 
 hour, I ever fancy I gaze upon the Land of Promise. And 
 often, in my dreams, some sunny spot, the bright memorial 
 of a roving hour, will rise upon my sight, and, when I wake, 
 I feel as if I had been in Canaan. Why am I not ? The 
 caravan that bears my uncle's goods across the Desert would 
 bear me too. But I rest here, my miserable life running to 
 seed in the dull misery of this wretched city, and do nothing. 
 Why ! the old captivity was empire to our inglorious bond-
 
 14 ALKOY. 
 
 age. We have no Esther now to share their thrones, no 
 politic Mordecai, no purple-vested Daniel. O Jerusalem, 
 Jerusalem ! I do believe one sight of thee would nerve 
 me to the sticking-point. And yet to gaze upon thy fallen 
 state, my uncle tells me that of the Temple not a stone 
 remains. 'Tis horrible. Is there no hope? ' 
 
 ' THE BRICKS ABE FALLEN, BUT WE WILL REBUILD WITH MARBLE ; 
 THE SYCAMORES ARE CUT DOWN, BUT WE WILL REPLACE THEM WITH 
 CEDARS.' 
 
 ' The chorus of our maidens, as they pay their evening 
 visit to the fountain's side. 5 The burden is prophetic. 
 
 ' Hark again ! How beautifully, upon the soft and flow- 
 ing air, their sweet and mingled voices blend and float ! ' 
 
 ' YET AGAIN I WILL BUILD THEE, AND THOU SHALT BE BUILT, 
 
 O VIRGIN OP ISRAEL ! YET AGAIN SHALT THOU DECK THYSELF 
 
 WITH THY TABRETS, AND GO FORTH IN THE DANCE OF THOSE THAT 
 MAKE MERRY. YET AGAIN SHALT THOU PLANT VINEYARDS ON THE 
 MOUNTAINS OF SAMARIA.' 
 
 ' See ! their white forms break through the sparkling 
 foliage of the sunny shrubs as they descend, with measured 
 step, that mild declivity. A fair society in bright proces- 
 sion : each one clothed in solemn drapery, veiling her 
 shadowy face with modest hand, and bearing on her graceful 
 head a graceful vase. Their leader is my sister. 
 
 ' And now they reach the fountain's side, and dip their 
 vases in the water, pure and beauteous as themselves. Some 
 repose beneath the marble pillars ; some, seated 'mid the 
 flowers, gather sweets, and twine them into garlands; and 
 that wild girl, now that the order is broke, touches with 
 light fingers her moist vase, and showers startling drops of 
 glittering light on her serener sisters. Hark ! agarn they 
 sing.' 
 
 ' VINE OF SlBMAH ! UPON THY SUMMER FRUITS, AND UPON 
 THY VINTAGE, A SPOILER HATH FALLEN ! ' 
 
 A scream, a shriek, a long wild shriek, confusion, flight,
 
 ALEOY. 1 5 
 
 despair ! Behold ! from out the woods a turbaned man 
 rushes, and seizes the leader of the chorus. Her companions 
 fly on all sides, Miriam alone is left in the arms of Alschiroch. 
 
 The water column wildly rising from the breast of sum- 
 mer ocean, in some warm tropic clime, when the sudden 
 clouds too well discover that the holiday of heaven is over, 
 and the shrieking sea-birds tell a time of fierce commotion, 
 the column rising from the sea, it was not so wild as he, the 
 young Alroy. 
 
 Pallid and mad, he swift upsprang, and he tore up a tree 
 by its lusty roots, and down the declivity, dashing with 
 rapid leaps, panting and wild, he struck the ravisher on the 
 temple with the mighty pine. Alschiroch fell lifeless on 
 the sod, and Miriam fainting into her brother's arms. 
 
 And there he stood, fixed and immovable, gazing upon 
 his sister's deathly face, and himself exhausted by passion 
 and his exploit, supporting her cherished but senseless body. 
 
 One of the fugitive maidens appeared reconnoitring in the 
 distance. When she observed her mistress in the arms of 
 one of her own people, her courage revived, and, desirous of 
 rallying her scattered companions, she raised her voice, and 
 sang : 
 
 ' HASTE, DAUGHTERS OP JERUSALEM ; ! HASTE, FOR THE 
 LORD HAS AVENGED US, AND THE SPOILER IS SPOILED.' 
 
 And soon the verse was responded to from various quar- 
 ters of the woods, and soon the virgins re-assembled, 
 singing, 
 
 ' WE COME, DAUGHTER OF JERUSALEM ! WE COME ; FOR THE 
 LORD HAS AVENGED US, AND THE SPOILER IS SPOILED.' 
 
 They gathered round their mistress, and one loosened her 
 veil, and another brought water from the fountain, and 
 sprinkled her reviving countenance. And Miriam opened 
 her eyes, and said, ' My brother ! ' And he answered, ' I 
 am here.' And she replied in a low voice, ' Fly, David, fly ; 
 for the man you have stricken is a prince among the people.' 
 
 ' He will be merciful, my sister ; and, doubtless, since he 
 first erred, by this time he has forgotten my offence.'
 
 16 ALKOY. 
 
 ' Justice and mercy ! Oh, my brother, what can these foul 
 tyrants know of either ! Already he has perhaps doomed 
 
 you to some refined and procrastinated torture, already 
 
 All ! what unutterable woe is mine ! fly, my brother, fly ! ' 
 
 * FLY, FLY, FLY ! ' 
 
 
 
 ' There is no fear, my Miriam ; would all his accursed race 
 could trouble us as little as their sometime ruler. See, he 
 sleeps soundly. But his carcass shall not defile our fresh 
 fountain, and our fragrant flowers. I'll stow it in the woods, 
 and stroll here at night to listen to the jackals at their 
 banquet.' 
 
 ' You speak wildly, David. What ! No ! It is impossible ! 
 He is not dead ! You have not slain him. ! He sleeps, he 
 is afraid. He mimics death, that we may leave his side, 
 and he may rise again in safety. Girls, look to him. David, 
 you do not answer. Brother, dear brother, surely he has 
 swooned ! I thought he had fled. Bear water, maidens, to 
 that terrible man. I dare not look upon him.' 
 
 'Away! I'll look on him, and I'll triumph. Dead! 
 Alschiroch dead ! Why, but a moment since, this clotted 
 carcass was a prince, my tyrant ! So we can rid ourselves 
 of them, eh ? If the prince fall, why not the people ? 
 Dead, absolutely dead, and I his slayer ! Hah ! at length 
 I am a man. This, this indeed is life. Let me live slaying ! ' 
 
 ' Woe ! woe ! our house is fallen ! The wildness of his 
 gestures frightens me. David, David, I pray thee cease. 
 He hears me not ; my voice, perchance, is thin. I am very 
 faint. Maidens, kneel to your Prince, and soothe the mad- 
 ness of his passion.' 
 
 ''SWEET is THE VOICE OF A SISTER IN THE SEASON OF SORROW, 
 
 AND WISE IS THE COUNSEL OF THOSE WHO LOVE US.' 
 
 ' Why, this is my Goliath ! a pebble or a stick, it is the 
 same. The Lord of Hosts is with us. Rightly am I called 
 David.' 
 
 ' DELIVER us FROM OUR ENEMIES, LORD ! FROM THOSE WHO 
 
 RISE UT AGAINST US, AND THOSE WHO LIE IN WAIT FOR US.'
 
 ALROY. 17 
 
 ' Were but this blow multiplied, were but the servants of 
 my uncle's house to do the same, why we should see again 
 the days of Elah ! The Philistine, the foul, lascivious, dam- 
 nable Philistine ! and he must touch my sister ! Oh ! that 
 all his tribe were here, all, all ! I'd tie such firebrands to 
 their foxes' tails, the blaze should light to freedom ! ' 
 
 While he spoke, a maiden, who had not yet rejoined the 
 company, came running towards them swiftly with an agi- 
 tated countenance. 
 
 ' Fly,' she exclaimed, ' they come, they come ! ' 
 
 Miriam was reclining in an attendant's arms, feeble and 
 faint, but the moment her quick ear caught these words 
 she sprang up, and seized her brother's arm. 
 
 ' Alroy ! David ! brother, dear brother ! I beseech thee, 
 listen, I am thy sister, thy Miriam ; they come, they come, 
 the hard-hearted, wicked men, they come, to kill, perhaps 
 to torture thee, my tender brother. Bouse thyself, David ; 
 rouse thyself from this wild, fierce dream : save thyself, fly ! ' 
 
 ' Ah ! is it thou, Miriam ? Thou seest he sleepeth soundly. 
 I was dreaming of noble purposes and mighty hopes. 'Tis 
 over now. I am myself again. What wouldst thou ? ' 
 
 ' They come, the fierce retainers of this fallen man ; they 
 come, to seize thee. Fly, David ! ' 
 
 ' And leave thee ? ' 
 
 ' I and my maidens, we have yet time to escape by the 
 private way we entered, our uncle's garden. When in his 
 house, we are for a moment safe, as safe as our poor race can 
 ever be. Bostenay is so rich, so wise, so prudent, so learned 
 in man's ways, and knows so well the character and spirit 
 of these men, all will go right ; I fear nothing. But thou, 
 if thou art here, or to be found, thy blood alone will satiate 
 them. If they be persuaded that thou hast escaped, as I 
 yet pray thou mayest, their late master here, whom they 
 could scarcely love, why, give me thy arm an instant, sweet 
 Beruna. So, that's well. I was saying, if well bribed, and 
 they may have all my jewels, why, very soon, he will be as 
 little in their memories as he is now in life. I can scarcely 
 speak ; I feel my words wander, or seem to wander ; I could 
 
 C
 
 18 ALROY. 
 
 swoon, but will not ; nay ! do not fear. I will reach home. 
 These maidens are my charge. 'Tis in these crises we should 
 show the worth of royal blood. I'll see them safe, or die 
 with them.' 
 
 ' ! my sister, methinks I never knew I was a brother 
 until this hour. My precious Miriam, what is life ? what is 
 revenge, or even fame and freedom without thee ? I'll stay.' 
 
 ' SWEET is THE VOICE OP A SISTER IN THE SEASON OF SORROW, 
 
 AND WISE IS THE COUNSEL OF THOSE WHO LOVE US.' 
 
 ' Fly, David, fly ! ' 
 
 ' Fly ! whither and how ? ' 
 
 The neigh of a horse sounded from the thicket. 
 
 'Ah ! they come ! ' exclaimed the distracted Miriam. 
 
 ' ALL THIS HAS COME UPON us, LORD ! YET HAVE WE NOT 
 
 FORGOTTEN THEE, NEITHER HAVE WE DEALT FALSELY IN THY 
 COVENANT.' 
 
 ' Hark ! again it neighs ! It is a horse that calleth to its 
 rider. I see it. Courage, Miriam! it is no enemy, but a 
 very present friend in time of trouble. It is Alschiroch'a 
 courser. He passed me on it by the tomb ere sunset. I 
 marked it well, a very princely steed.' 
 
 'BEHOLD, BEHOLD, A RAM is CAUGHT IN THE THICKET BY HIS 
 HORNS.' 
 
 ' Our God hath not forgotten us ! Quick, maidens, bring 
 forth the goodly steed. What ! do you tremble ? I'll be 
 his groom.' 
 
 ' Nay ! Miriam, beware, beware. It is an untamed beast, 
 wild as the whirlwind. Let me deal with him.' 
 
 He ran after her, dashed into the thicket, and brought 
 forth the horse. 
 
 Short time I ween that stately steed had parted from 
 his desert home ; his haughty crest, his eye of fire, the 
 glory of his snorting nostril, betokened well his conscious 
 pride, and pure nobility of race. His colour was like the 
 sable night shining with a thousand stars, and he pawed
 
 ALKOY. 1 9 
 
 the ground with his delicate hoof, like an eagle flapping its 
 wing. 
 
 Alroy vaulted on his back, and reined him with a master's 
 hand. 
 
 ' Hah ! ' he exclaimed, ' I feel more like a hero than a 
 fugitive. Farewell, my sister ; farewell, ye gentle maidens ; 
 fare ye well, and cherish my precious Miriam. One em- 
 brace, sweet sister,' and he bent down and whispered, 
 ' Tell the good Bostenay not to spare his gold, for I have 
 a deep persuasion that, ere a year shall roll its heavy 
 course, I shall return, and make our masters here pay 
 for this hurried ride and bitter parting. Now for the 
 desert ! '
 
 20 ALEOY. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 SPEED, fleetly speed, thou courser bold, and track the 
 desert's trackless way. Beneath thee is the boundless 
 earth, above thee is the boundless heaven, an iron soil and 
 brazen sky. Speed, swiftly speed, thou courser bold, and 
 track the desert's trackless way. 
 
 Ah ! dost thou deem these salty plains 6 lead to thy Ye- 
 men's happy groves, and dost thou scent on the hot breeze 
 the spicy breath of Araby ? A sweet delusion, noble steed, 
 for this briny wilderness leads not to the happy groves of 
 Yemen, and the breath thou scentest on the coming breeze 
 is not the spicy breath of Araby. 
 
 The day has died, the stars have risen, with all the 
 splendour of a desert sky, and now the Night descending 
 brings solace on her dewy wings to the fainting form and 
 pallid cheek of the youthful Hebrew Prince. 
 
 Still the courser onward rushes, still his mighty heart 
 supports him. Season and space, the glowing soil, the 
 burning ray, yield to the tempest of his frame ; the thunder 
 of his nerves, and lightning of his veins. 
 
 Food or water they have none. No genial fount, no 
 graceful tree, rise with their pleasant company. Never a 
 beast or bird is there, in that hoary desert bare. Nothing 
 breaks the almighty stillness. Even the jackal's felon cry 
 might seem a soothing melody. A grey wild rat, with 
 snowy whiskers, out of a withered bramble stealing, with a 
 youthful snake in its ivory teeth, in the moonlight grins 
 with glee. This is their sole society. 
 
 Morn comes, the fresh and fragrant morn, for which even
 
 ALEOY. 21 
 
 the guilty sigh. Morn comes, and all is visible. And light 
 falls like a signet on the earth, and its face is turned like 
 wax beneath a seal. Before them and also on their right 
 was the sandy desert ; but in the night they had approached 
 much nearer to the mountainous chain, which bounded the 
 desert on the left, and whither Alroy had at first guided the 
 steed. 
 
 The mountains were a chain of the mighty Elburz ; and, 
 as the sun rose from behind a lofty peak, the horse suddenly 
 stopped and neighed, as if asking for water. But Alroy, 
 himself exhausted, could only soothe him with caresses. 
 And the horse, full of courage, understood his master, and 
 neighed again more cheerfully. 
 
 For an hour or two the Prince and his faithful companion 
 proceeded slowly, but, as the day advanced, the heat be- 
 came so oppressive, and the desire to drink so overwhelm- 
 ing, that Alroy again urged on the steed towards the 
 mountains, where he knew that he should find a well. 
 The courser dashed willingly forward, and seemed to share 
 his master's desire to quit the arid aud exhausting wil- 
 derness. 
 
 More than once the unhappy fugitive debated whether 
 he should not allow himself to drop from his seat and die ; 
 no torture that could await him at Hamadan, but seemed 
 preferable to the prolonged and inexpressible anguish 
 which he now endured. As he rushed along, leaning on 
 his bearer's neck, he perceived a patch of the desert that 
 seemed of a darker colour than the surrounding sand. 
 Here, he believed, might perhaps be found water. He 
 tried to check the steed, but with difficulty he succeeded, 
 and with still greater difficulty dismounted. He knelt 
 down, and feebly raked up the sand with his hands. It 
 was moist. He nearly fainted over his fruitless labour. 
 At length, when he had dug about a foot deep, there bubbled 
 up some water. He dashed in his hand, but it was salt 
 as the ocean. When the horse saw the water his ears rose, 
 but, when he smelt it, he turned away his head, and neighed 
 most piteously.
 
 22 ALROY. 
 
 ' Alas, poor beast ! ' exclaimed Alroy, ' I am the occasion 
 of thy suffering, I, who would be a kind master to thee, if 
 the world would let me. Oh, that ~we were once more by 
 my own fair fountain ! The thought is madness. And 
 Miriam too ! I fear I am sadly tender-hearted.' He leant 
 against his horse's back, with a feeling of utter exhaustion, 
 and burst into hysteric sobs. 
 
 And the steed softly moaned, and turned its head, and 
 gently rubbed its face against his arm, as if to solace him 
 in his suffering. And strange, but Alroy was relieved by 
 having given way to his emotion, and, charmed with the 
 fondness of the faithful horse, he leant down and took water, 
 and threw it over its feet to cool them, and wiped the foam 
 from its face, and washed it, and the horse again neighed. 
 
 And now Alroy tried to remount, but his strength failed 
 him, and the horse immediately knelt down and received 
 him. And the moment that the Prince was in his seat, 
 the horse rose, and again proceeded at a rapid pace in their 
 old direction. Towards sunset they were within a few 
 miles of the broken and rocky ground into which the 
 mountains descended ; and afar off Alroy recognised the 
 cupola of the long-expected well. With re-animated courage 
 and rallied energies he patted his courser's neck, and pointed 
 in the direction of the cupola, and the horse pricked up its 
 ears, and increased its pace. 
 
 Just us the sun set, they reached the well. Alroy 
 jumped off the horse, and would have led it to the fountain, 
 but the animal would not advance. It stood shivering 
 with a glassy eye, and then with a groan fell down and 
 died. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 NIGHT brings rest ; night brings solace ; rest to the weary, 
 solace to the sad. And to the desperate night brings 
 despair. 
 
 The moon has sunk to early rest ; but a thousand stars 
 are in the sky. The mighty mountains rise severe in the
 
 ALKOY. 23 
 
 clear and silent air. In the forest all is still. The tired 
 wind no longor roams, but has lightly dropped on its leafy 
 couch, and sleeps like man. Silent all but the fountain's 
 drip. And by the fountain's side a youth is lying. 
 
 Suddenly a creature steals through the black and broken 
 rocks. Ha, ha ! the jackal smells from afar the rich cor- 
 ruption of the courser's clay. Suddenly and silently it 
 steals, and stops, and smells. Brave banqueting I ween 
 to-night for all that goodly company. Jackal, and fox, 
 and marten-cat, haste ye now, ere morning's break shall 
 call the vulture to his feast and rob you of your prey. 
 
 The jackal lapped the courser's blood, and moaned with 
 exquisite delight. And in a moment, a faint bark was 
 heard in the distance. And the jackal peeled the flesh from 
 one of the ribs, and again burst into a shriek of mournful 
 ecstasy. 
 
 Hark, their quick tramp ! First six, and then three, 
 galloping with ungodly glee. And a marten-cat came rush- 
 ing down from the woods ; but the jackals, fierce in their 
 number, drove her away, and there she stood without the 
 circle, panting, beautiful, and baffled, with her white teeth 
 and glossy skin, and sparkling eyes of rabid rage. 7 
 
 Suddenly as one of the half-gorged jackals retired from 
 the main corpse, dragging along a stray member by some 
 still palpitating nerves, the marten-cat made a spring at 
 her enemy, carried off his prey, and rushed into the woods. 
 
 Her wild scream of triumph woke a lion from his lair. 
 His mighty form, black as ebony, moved on a distant emi- 
 nence, his tail flowed like a serpent. He roared, and the 
 jackals trembled, and immediately ceased from their ban- 
 quet, turning their heads in the direction of their sovereign's 
 voice. He advanced ; he stalked towards them. They re- 
 tired ; he bent his head, examined the carcass with conde- 
 scending curiosity, and instantly quitted it with royal dis- 
 dain. The jackals again collected around their garbage. 
 The lion advanced to the fountain to drink. He beheld a 
 man. His mane rose, his tail was wildly agitated, he bent 
 over the sleeping Prince, he uttered an awful roar, which 
 awoke Alroy.
 
 24 AT/ROY. 
 
 CHAPTER HX 
 
 HE awoke ; his gaze met the flaming eyes of the enormous 
 beast fixed upon him with a blended feeling of desire and 
 surprise. He awoke, and from a swoon ; but the dreamless 
 trance had refreshed the exhausted energies of the desolate 
 wanderer ; in an instant he collected his senses, remembered 
 all that had passed, and comprehended his present situation. 
 He returned the lion a glance as imperious, and fierce, and 
 scrutinising, as his own. For a moment, their flashing orbs 
 vied in regal rivalry ; but at length the spirit of the mere 
 animal yielded to the genius of the man. The lion, cowed, 
 slunk away, stalked with haughty timidity through the 
 rocks, and then sprang into the forest. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 MORN breaks ; a silver light is shed over the blue and starry 
 sky. Pleasant to feel is the breath of dawn. Night brings 
 repose, but day brings joy. 
 
 The carol of a lonely bird singing in the wilderness ! A 
 lonely bird that sings with glee ! Sunny and sweet, and 
 light and clear, its airy notes float through the sky, and 
 trill with innocent revelry. 
 
 The lonely youth on the lonely bird upgazes from the 
 fountain's side. High in the air it proudly floats, balancing 
 its crimson wings, and its snowy tail, long, delicate, and 
 thin, shines like a sparkling meteor in the sun. 
 
 The carol of a lonely bird singing in the wilderness ! Sud- 
 denly it downward dashes, and thrice with circling grace it 
 flies around the head of the Hebrew Prince. Then by his 
 side it gently drops a bunch of fresh and fragrant dates. 
 
 'Tis gone, 'tis gone ! that cheerful stranger, gone to the 
 palmy land it loves ; gone like a bright and pleasant dream. 
 A moment since and it was there, glancing in the sunny 
 air, and now the sky is without a guest. Alas, alas ! no 
 more is heard the carol of that lonely bird singing in the 
 wilderness.
 
 ALEOY. 25 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ' As thou didst feed Elijah, so also hast thou fed me, God 
 of my fathers ! ' And Alroy arose, and he took his turban 
 and unfolded it, and knelt and prayed. And then he ate of 
 the dates, and drank of the fountain, and, full of confidence 
 in the God of Israel, the descendant of David pursued his 
 flight. 
 
 He now commenced the ascent of the mountainous 
 chain, a wearisome and painful toil. Two hours past noon 
 he reached the summit of the first ridge, and looked over a 
 wild and chaotic waste full of precipices and ravines, and 
 dark unfathomable gorges. The surrounding hills were 
 ploughed in all directions by the courses of dried-up cata- 
 racts, and here and there a few savage goats browsed on an 
 occasional patch of lean and sour pasture. This waste ex- 
 tended for many miles ; the distance formed by a more ele- 
 vated range of mountains, and beyond these, high in the 
 blue sky, rose the loftiest peaks of Elburz, 8 shining with 
 sharp glaciers of eternal snow. 
 
 It was apparent that Alroy was no stranger in the scene 
 of his flight. He had never hesitated as to his course, and 
 now, after having rested for a short time on the summit, he 
 descended towards the left by a natural but intricate path, 
 until his progress was arrested by a black ravine. Scarcely 
 half a dozen yards divided him from the opposite precipice 
 by which it was formed, but the gulf beneath, no one could 
 shoot a glance at its invisible termination without drawing 
 back with a cold shudder. 
 
 The Prince knelt down and examined the surrounding 
 ground with great care. At length he raised a small square 
 stone which covered a metallic plate, and, taking from his 
 vest a carnelian talisman covered with strange characters, 
 he knocked thrice upon the plate with the signet. A low 
 solemn murmur sounded around. Presently the plate flew 
 oif, and Alroy pulled forth several yards of an iron chain, 
 which he threw over to the opposite precipice. The chain 
 fastened without difficulty to the rock, and was evidently
 
 26 ALKOY. 
 
 constrained by some magnetic influence. The Prince, seiz- 
 ing the chain with both his hands, now swung across the 
 ravine. As he landed, the chain parted from the rock, 
 swiftly disappeared down the opposite aperture, and its 
 covering closed with the same low, solemn murmur as 
 before. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ALKOY proceeded for about a hundred paces through a na- 
 tural cloister of basalt until he arrived at a large uncovered 
 court of the same formation, which a stranger might easily 
 have been excused for believing to have been formed and 
 smoothed by art. In its centre bubbled up a perpetual 
 spring, icy cold ; the stream had worn a channel through 
 the pavement, and might be traced for some time wandering 
 among the rocks, until at length it leaped from a precipice 
 into a gorge below, in a gauzy shower of variegated spray. 
 Crossing the court, Alroy now entered a vast cavern. 
 
 The cavern was nearly circular in form, lighted from a 
 large aperture in the top. Yet a burning lamp, in a dis- 
 tant and murky corner, indicated that its inhabitant did not 
 trust merely to this natural source of the great blessing of 
 existence. In the centre of the cave was a circular and 
 brazen table, sculptured with strange characters and myste- 
 rious figures : near it was a couch, on which lay several 
 volumes. 9 Suspended from the walls were a shield, some 
 bows and arrows, and other arms. 
 
 As the Prince of the Captivity knelt down and kissed the 
 vacant couch, a figure advanced from the extremity of the 
 cavern into the light. He was a man of middle age, con- 
 siderably above the common height, with a remarkably 
 athletic frame, and a strongly-marked but majestic counte- 
 nance. His black beard descended to his waist, over a dark 
 red robe, encircled by a black girdle embroidered with yel- 
 low characters, like those sculptured on the brazen table. 
 Black also was bis turban, and black his large and luminous 
 eye.
 
 ALROY. 27 
 
 The stranger advanced so softly, that Alroy did not per- 
 ceive him, until the Prince again rose up. 
 
 ' Jabaster ! ' exclaimed the Prince. 
 
 ' Sacred seed of David,' answered the Cabalist, 10 'thou art 
 expected. I read of thee in the stars last night. They 
 spoke of trouble.' 
 
 ' Trouble or triumph, Time must prove which it is, great 
 master. At present I am a fugitive and exhausted. The 
 bloodhounds track me, bufr. methinks I have baffled them 
 now. I have slain an Ishmaelite.'
 
 28 ALKOY. 
 
 PAET IE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 IT was midnight. Alroy slept upon the couch : his sleep 
 was troubled. Jabaster stood by his side motionless, and 
 gazing intently upon his slumbering guest. 
 
 ' The only hope of Israel,' murmured the Cabalist, ' my 
 pupil and my prince ! I have long perceived in his young 
 mind the seed of mighty deeds, and o'er his future life have 
 often mused with a prophetic hope. The blood of David, 
 the sacred offspring of a solemn race. There is a magic in 
 his flowing veins my science cannot reach. 
 
 ' When, in my youth, I raised our standard by my native 
 Tigris, and called our nation to restore their ark, why, we 
 were numerous, wealthy, potent ; we were a people then, 
 and they flocked to it boldly. Did we lack counsel? Did we 
 need a leader ? Who can aver that Jabaster's brain or arrn 
 was ever wanting ? And yet the dream dissolved, the glo- 
 rious vision ! Oh ! when I struck down Marvan, and the 
 Caliph's camp flung its blazing shadow over the bloody 
 river, ah ! then indeed I lived. Twenty years of vigil may 
 gain a pardon that I then forgot we lacked the chief ingre- 
 dient in the spell, the blood that sleeps beside me. 
 
 ' I recall the glorious rapture of that sacred strife amid 
 the rocks of Caucasus. A fugitive, a proscribed and out- 
 lawed wretch, whose life is common sport, and whom the 
 vilest hind may slay without a bidding. I, who would have 
 been Messiah ! 
 
 ' Burn thy books, Jabaster ; break thy brazen tables ; for- 
 get thy lofty science, Cabalist, and read the stars no longer.' 1 1 
 But last night, I stood upon the gulf which girds my dwell-
 
 ALEOY. 29 
 
 ing : in one hand, I held my sacred talisman, that bears the 
 name ineffable ; in the other, the mystic record of our holy 
 race. I remembered that I had evoked spirits, that I had 
 communed with the great departed, and that the glowing 
 heavens were to me a natural language. I recalled, as con- 
 solation to my gloomy soul, that never had my science been 
 exercised but for a sacred or a noble purpose. And I re- 
 membered Israel, my brave, my chosen, and my antique 
 race, slaves, wretched slaves. I was strongly tempted to 
 fling me down this perilous abyss, and end my learning and 
 my life together. 
 
 ' But, as I gazed upon the star of David, a sudden halo 
 rose around its rays, and ever and anon a meteor shot from 
 out the silver veil. I read that there was trouble in the 
 holy seed ; and now comes this boy, who has done a deed 
 
 which ' 
 
 ' The ark, the ark ! I gaze upon the ark ! ' 
 ' The slumberer speaks ; the words of sleep are sacred.' 
 ' Salvation only from the house of David.' 
 ' A mighty truth ; my life too well has proved it.' 
 ' He is more calm. It is the holy hour. I'll steel into 
 the court, and gaze upon the star that sways the fortunes 
 of his royal house.' 
 
 CHAPTER H. 
 
 THE moonbeam fell upon the fountain ; the pavement of the 
 court was a flood of light ; the rocks rose dark around. Ja- 
 baster, seated by the spring, and holding his talisman in his 
 left hand, shaded his sight with the other as he gazed upon 
 the luminous heavens. 
 
 A shriek ! his name was called. Alroy, wild and pant- 
 ing, rushed into the court with extended arms. The Ca- 
 balist started up, seized him, and held him in his careful 
 grasp, foaming and in convulsions. 
 
 ' Jabaster, Jabaster ! ' 
 
 ' I am here, my child.'
 
 30 ALKOY. 
 
 ' The Lord Lath spoken.' 
 
 ' The Lord is our refuge. Calm thyself, son of David, 
 and tell me all.' 
 
 ' I have been sleeping, master ; is it not so ? ' 
 
 ' Even so, my child. Exhausted by his flight and the 
 exciting narrative of his exploit, my Prince lay down upon 
 the couch and slumbered ; but I fear that slumber was not 
 repose.' 
 
 ' Repose and I have nought in common now. Farewell 
 for ever to that fatal word. I am the Lord's anointed.' 
 
 ' Drink of the fountain, David : it will restore thee.' 
 
 ' Restore the covenant, restore the ark, restore the holy 
 city.' 
 
 ' The Spirit of the Lord hath fallen upon him. Son of 
 David, I adjure thee tell me all that hath passed. I am a 
 Levite ; in my hand I hold the name ineffable.' 
 
 * Take thy trumpet then, summon the people, bid them 
 swiftly raise again our temple. " The bricks have fallen, 
 but we will rebuild with marble." Didst hear that chorus, 
 sir?' 
 
 ' Unto thy chosen ear alone it sounded.' 
 
 ' Where am I ? This is not our fountain. Yet thou 
 didst say, " the fountain." Think me not wild. I know 
 thee, I know all. Thou art not Miriam. Thou art Ja- 
 baster ; I am Alroy. But thou didst say, " the fountain," 
 and it distracted me, and called back my memory to 
 
 ' God of Israel, lo, I kneel before thee ! Here, in the 
 solitude of wildest nature, my only witness here this holy 
 man, I kneel and vow, Lord ! I will do thy bidding. I am 
 young, God ! and weak ; but thou, Lord, art all-powerful ! 
 What God is like to tbee ? Doubt not my courage, Lord ; 
 and fill me with thy spirit ! but remember, remember her, 
 
 Lord ! remember Miriam. It is the only worldly thought 
 
 1 have, and it is pure.' 
 
 ' Still of his sister, calm thyself, my son.' 
 
 ' Holy master, thou dost remember when I was thy 
 pupil in this cavern. Thou hast not forgotten those days 
 of tranquil study, those sweet, long wandering nights of
 
 ALROY. 31 
 
 sacred science ! I was dutiful, and hung upon each accent 
 of thy lore with the devotion that must spring from love.' 
 
 ' I cannot weep, Alroy ; but, were it in my power, I 
 would yield a tear of homage to the memory of those 
 days.' 
 
 ' How calmly have we sat on some high brow, and gazed 
 upon the stars ! ' 
 
 ' 'Tis very true, sweet child.' 
 
 ' And if thou e'er didst chide me, 'twas half in jest, and 
 only for my silence.' 
 
 ' What would he now infer ? No matter, he grows 
 calmer. How solemn is his visage in the moonlight ! And 
 yet not Solomon, upon his youthful throne, could look 
 more beautiful.' 
 
 ' I never told thee an untruth, Jabaster.' 
 
 ' My life upon thy faith.' 
 
 ' Fear not the pledge, and so believe me, on the moun- 
 tain brow watching the starry heavens with thyself, I was 
 not calmer than I feel, sir, now.' 
 
 ' I do believe thee.' 
 
 ' Then, Jabaster, believe as fully I am the Lord's 
 anointed.' 
 
 ' Tell me all, my child.' 
 
 ' Know, then, that sleeping on the couch within, my 
 sleep was troubled. Many dreams I had, indefinite and 
 broken. I recall none of their images, except I feel a dim 
 sensation 'twas my lot to live in brighter days than now 
 rise on our race. Suddenly I stood upon a mountain, tall 
 and grey, and gazed upon the stars. And, as I gazed, a 
 trumpet sounded. Its note thrilled through my soul. 
 Never have I heard a sound so awful. The thunder, when 
 it broke over the cavern here, and shivered the peak, 
 whose ruins lie around us, was but a feeble worldly sound 
 to this almighty music. My cheek grew pale, I panted 
 even for breath. A flaming light spread over the sky, the 
 stars melted away, and I beheld, advancing from the burst- 
 ing radiancy, the foremost body of a mighty host. 
 
 ' Oh ! not when Saul led forth our fighting men against
 
 32 ALEOY. 
 
 the Philistine, not when Joab numbered the warriors of 
 ruy great ancestor, did human vision gaze upon a scene of 
 so much martial splendour. Chariots and cavalry, and 
 glittering trains of plumed warriors too robust to need a 
 courser's solace ; streams of shining spears, and banners 
 like a sunset; reverend priests swinging their perfumed 
 censers, and prophets hymning with, their golden harps a 
 most triumphant future. 
 
 ' " Joy, joy," they say, " to Israel, for he cometh, he 
 cometh in his splendour and his might, the great Messiah 
 of our ancient hopes." 
 
 ' And, lo ! a mighty chariot now appeared, drawn by 
 strange beasts, whose forms were half obscured by the 
 bright flames on which they seemed to float. In that 
 glorious car a warrior stood, proud and immovable his 
 form, his countenance; hold my hand, Jabaster, while I 
 speak, that chieftain was myself ! ' 
 
 ' Proceed, proceed, my son.' 
 
 ' I started in my dream, and I awoke. I found myself 
 upsitting on my couch. The pageantry had vanished. 
 Nought was seen but the bright moonlight and the gloomy 
 cave. And, as I sighed, to think I e'er had wakened, and 
 mused upon the strangeness of my vision, a still small 
 voice descended from above and called, " Alroy ! " I 
 started, but I answered not. Methought it was my fancy. 
 Again my name was called, and now I murmured, " Lord, 
 I am here, what wouldst thou ?" Nought responded, and 
 soon great dread came over me, and I rushed out and 
 called to thee, my master.' 
 
 'It was "the Daughter of the Voice" 12 that spake. 
 Since the Captivity 'tis the only mode by which the saints 
 are summoned. Oft have I heard of it, but never in these 
 sad degenerate days has its soft aspiration fallen upon us. 
 These are strange times and tidings. The building of the 
 temple is at hand. Son of David, my heart is full. Let 
 us to prayer ! '
 
 ALKOY. 33 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 DAT dawned upon Jabaster, still musing in solitude among 
 his rocks. Within the cavern, Alroy remained in prayer. 
 
 Often and anxiously the Cabalist shot a glance at his 
 companion, and then again relapsed into reverie. 
 
 ' The time is come that I must to this youth reveal the 
 secrets of my early life. Much will he hear of glory, 
 much of shame. Nought must I conceal, and nought gloss 
 over. 
 
 ' I must tell how in the plains of Tigris I upraised the 
 sacred standard of our chosen race, and called them from 
 their bondage ; how, despairing of his recreant fathers, 
 and inspired by human power alone, I vainly claimed the 
 mighty office for his sacred blood alone reserved. God of 
 my fathers, grant that future service, the humble service of 
 a contrite soul, may in the coming glory that awaits us, 
 atone for past presumption ! 
 
 ' But for him great trials are impending. JSTot lightly 
 must that votary be proved, who fain would free a people. 
 The Lord is faithful to his promise, but the Lord will 
 choose his season and his minister. Courage, and faith, 
 and deep humility, and strong endurance, and the watch- 
 ful soul temptation cannot sully, these are the fruits we 
 lay upon his altar, and meekly watch if some descending 
 flame will vouchsafe to accept and brightly bless them. 
 
 * It is written in the dread volume of our mystic lore, 
 that not alone the Saviour shall spring from out our house 
 of princes, but that none shall rise to free us, until, alone 
 and unassisted, he have gained the sceptre which Solomon 
 of old wielded within his cedar palaces. 
 
 ' That sceptre must he gain. This fragile youth, untried 
 and delicate, unknowing in the ways of this strange world, 
 where every step is danger, how much hardship, how 
 much peril, what withering disappointment, what dull 
 care, what long despondency, what never-ending lures, 
 now lie in ambush for this gentle boy ! O my countrymen.
 
 34 ALKOY. 
 
 is this your hope ? And I, with all my lore, and all my 
 courage, and all my deep intelligence of man ; unhappy 
 Israel, why am I not thy Prince ? 
 
 ' I check the blasphemous thought. Did not his great 
 ancestor, as young and as untried, a beardless stripling, 
 with but a pebble, a small smoothed stone, level a mailed 
 giant with the ground, and save his people ? 
 
 ' He is clearly summoned. The Lord is with him. Be he 
 with the Lord, and we shall prosper.' 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 IT was at sunset, on the third day after the arrival of 
 Alroy at the cave of the Cabalist, that the Prince of the 
 Captivity commenced his pilgrimage in quest of the sceptre 
 of Solomon. 
 
 Silently the pilgrim and his master took their way to 
 the brink of the ravine, and there they stopped to part, 
 perhaps for ever. 
 
 ' It is a bitter moment, Alroy. Human feelings are not 
 for beings like us, yet they will have their way. Remember 
 all. Cherish the talisman as thy life : nay ! welcome death 
 with it pressing against thy heart, rather than breathe 
 without it. Be firm, be pious. Think of thy ancestors, 
 think of thy God.' 
 
 ' Doubt me not, dear master ; if I seem not full of that 
 proud spirit, which was perhaps too much my wont, ascribe 
 it not to fear, Jabaster, nor even to the pain of leaving thee, 
 dear friend. But ever since that sweet and solemn voice 
 summoned me so thrillingly, I know not how it is, but a 
 change has come over my temper ; yet I am firm, oh ! firmer 
 far than when I struck down the Ishmaelite. Indeed, indeed, 
 fear not for me. The Lord, that knoweth all things, knows 
 fall well I am prepared even to the death. Thy prayers, 
 Jabaster, and ' 
 
 ' Stop, stop. I do remember me. See this ring : 'tis a 
 choice emerald. Thou mayst have wondered I should wear
 
 ALEOY. 35 
 
 a bauble. Alroy, I had a brother once : still he may live. 
 When we parted, this was the signal of his love : a love, my 
 child, strong, though we greatly differed. Take it. The 
 hour may come that thou mayst need his aid. It will com- 
 mand it. If he live, he prospers. I know his temper well. 
 He was made for what the worldly deem prosperity. God be 
 with thee, sacred boy : the God of our great fathers, the 
 God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob ! ' 
 
 They embraced. 
 
 'We linger,' exclaimed the Cabalist, 'we linger. Oh! 
 in vain we quell the feelings of our kind. God, God bless 
 and be with, thee ! Art sure thou hast all ? thy dagger and 
 thy wallet ? That staff has seen some service. I cut it on 
 the Jordan. Ah ! that I could be thy mate ! 'T would be 
 nothing then. At the worst to die together. Such a fate 
 seems sweeter now than parting. I'll watch thy star, my 
 child. Thou weepest ! And I too. Why ! what is this ? 
 
 Am I indeed Jabaster ? One more embrace, and so 
 
 we'll not say farewell, but only think it.' 
 
 D2
 
 36 ALEOY. 
 
 PAET IV. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 TRADITION taught that the sceptre of Solomon could be found 
 only in the unknown sepulchres of the ancient Hebrew 
 monarchs, and that none might dare to touch it but one of 
 their descendants. Armed with the cabalistic talisman, 
 which was to guide him in his awful and difficult researches, 
 Alroy commenced his pilgrimage to the Holy City. At this 
 time, the love of these sacred wanderings was a reigning 
 passion among the Jews as well as the Christians. 
 
 The Prince of the Captivity was to direct his course into 
 the heart of those great deserts which, in his flight from 
 Hamadan, he had only skirted. Following the track of the 
 caravan, he was to make his way to Babylon, or Bagdad. 
 From the capital of the caliphs, his journey to Jerusalem 
 was one comparatively easy ; but to reach Bagdad he must 
 encounter hardship and danger, the prospect of which 
 would have divested any one of hope, who did not conceive 
 himself the object of an omnipotent and particular Pro- 
 vidence. 
 
 Clothed only in a coarse black frock, common among the 
 Kourds, girded round his waist by a cord which held his 
 dagger, his head shaven, and covered with a large white 
 turban, which screened him from the heat, his feet protected 
 only by slippers, supported by his staff, and bearing on his 
 shoulders a bag of dried meat and parched corn, and a 
 leathern skin of water, behold, toiling over the glowing 
 sands of Persia, a youth whose life had hitherto been a long 
 unbroken dream of domestic luxury and innocent indulgence. 
 
 He travelled during the warm night or the early starlit
 
 ALROY. 37 
 
 morn. During the day lie rested : happy if he conld recline 
 by the side of some charitable well, shaded by a palm-treo,. 
 or frighten a gazelle from its resting-place among the rough 
 bushes of some wild rocks. Were these resources wanting, 
 he threw himself upon the sand, and made an awning with 
 his staff and turban. 
 
 Three weeks had elapsed since he quitted the cavern of 
 the Cabalist. Hitherto he had met with no human being. 
 The desert became less arid. A scanty vegetation sprang 
 up from a more genial soil ; the ground broke into gentle 
 undulations ; his senses were invigorated with the odour of 
 wild plants, and his sight refreshed by the glancing form 
 of some wandering bird, a pilgrim like himself, but more 
 at ease. 
 
 Soon sprang up a grove of graceful palm-trees, with their 
 tall thin stems, and bending feathery crowns, languid and 
 beautiful. Around, the verdant sod gleamed like an eme- 
 rald : silver streams, flowing from a bubbling parent spring, 
 wound their white forms within the bright green turf. 
 From the grove arose the softening song of doves, and 
 showers of gay and sparkling butterflies, borne on their 
 tinted wings of shifting light, danced without danger ^n 
 the liquid air. A fair and fresh Oasis ! 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ALROY reposed in this delicious retreat for two days, feeding 
 on the living dates, and drinking of the fresh water. Fain 
 would he have lingered, nor indeed, until he rested, had he 
 been sufficiently conscious of his previous exertion. But the 
 remembrance of his great mission made him restless, and 
 steeled him to the sufferings which yet awaited him. 
 
 At the dawn of the second day of his journey from the 
 Oasis he beheld, to his astonishment, faintly but distinctly 
 traced on the far horizon, the walls and turrets of an ex- 
 tensive city. 13 Animated by this unexpected prospect, he 
 continued his progress for several hours after sunrise. At
 
 38 ALROY. 
 
 length, utterly exhausted, he sought refuge from the over- 
 powering heat beneath the cupola of the ruined tomb of 
 some Moslem saint. At sunset he continued his journey, 
 and in the morning found himself within a few miles of the 
 city. He halted, and watched with anxiety for some evi- 
 dence of its inhabitants. None was visible. No crowds or 
 cavalcades issued from the gates. Not a single human being, 
 not a solitary camel, moved in the vicinity. 
 
 The day was too advanced for the pilgrim to proceed, 
 but so great was his anxiety to reach this unknown settle- 
 ment, and penetrate the mystery of its silence, that ere 
 sunset Alroy entered the gates. 
 
 A magnificent city, of an architecture with which he was 
 unacquainted, offered to his entranced vision its gorgeous 
 ruins and deserted splendour ; long streets of palaces, with 
 their rich line of lessening pillars, here and there broken by 
 some fallen shaft, vast courts surrounded by ornate and 
 solemn temples, and luxurious baths adorned with rare 
 mosaics, and yet bright with antique gilding ; now an arch 
 of triumph, still haughty with its broken friezes ; now a 
 granite obelisk covered with strange characters, and proudly 
 towering over a prostrate companion ; sometimes a void and 
 crumbling theatre, sometimes a long and elegant aqueduct, 
 sometimes a porphyry column, once breathing with the 
 heroic statue that now lies shivered at its base, all suffused 
 with the warm twilight of an eastern eve. 
 
 He gazed with wonder and admiration upon the strange 
 and fascinating scene. The more he beheld, the more his 
 curiosity was excited. He breathed with difficulty ; he 
 advanced with a blended feeling of eagerness and hesitation. 
 Fresh wonders successively unfolded themselves. Each 
 turn developed a new scene of still and solemn splendour. 
 The echo of his step filled him with awe. He looked around 
 him with an amazed air, a fluttering heart, and a changing 
 countenance. All was silent : alone the Hebrew Prince 
 stood amid the regal creation of the Macedonian captains. 
 Empires and dynasties flourish and pass away ; the proud 
 metropolis becomes a solitude, the conquering kingdom even
 
 AXROY. 39 
 
 a desert ; but Israel still remains, still a descendant of the 
 most ancient kings breathed amid these royal ruins, and 
 still the eternal sun could never rise without gilding the 
 towers of living Jerusalem. A word, a deed, a single day, 
 a single man, and we might be a nation. 
 
 A shout ! he turns, he is seized ; four ferocious Kourdish 
 bandits grapple and bind him. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE bandits hurried their captive through a street which 
 appeared to have been the principal way of the city. 
 Nearly at its termination, they turned by a small Ionian 
 temple, and, clambering over some fallen pillars, entered a 
 quarter of the city of a more ruinous aspect than that which 
 Alroy had hitherto visited. The path was narrow, often 
 obstructed, and around were signs of devastation for which 
 the exterior of the city had not prepared him. 
 
 The brilliant but brief twilight of the Orient was fast 
 fading away ; a sombre purple tint succeeded to the rosy 
 flush ; the distant towers rose black, although defined, in 
 the clear and shadowy air ; and the moon, which, when he 
 first entered, had studded the heavens like a small white 
 cloud, now glittered with deceptive light. 
 
 Suddenly, before them rose a huge pile. Oval in shape, 
 and formed by tiers of arches, it was evidently much 
 dilapidated, and one enormous, irregular, and undulating 
 rent, extending from the top nearly to the foundation, 
 almost separated the side to which Alroy and his companions 
 advanced. 
 
 Clambering up the remainder of this massive wall, tho 
 robbers and their prisoner descended into an immense am- 
 phitheatre, which seemed vaster in the shadowy and stream- 
 ing moonlight. In it were groups of men, horses, and 
 camels. In the extreme distance, reclining or squatting on 
 mats and carpets, was a large assembly, engaged in a rough 
 but merry banquet. A fire blazed at their side, its red and
 
 40 ALEOY. 
 
 uncertain flame mingling with the white and steady moon- 
 beam, and throwing a flickering light over their ferocious 
 countenances, their glistening armour, ample drapery, and 
 shawled heads. 
 
 ' A spy,' exclaimed the captors, as they dragged Alroy 
 before the leader of the band. 
 
 ' Hang him, then,' said the chieftain, without even look- 
 ing up. 
 
 ' This wine, great Scherirah, is excellent, or I am no true 
 Moslem,' said a principal robber ; ' but you are too cruel ; 
 I hate this summary punishment. Let us torture him a 
 little, and extract some useful information.' 
 
 * As you like, Kisloch,' said Scherirah ; ' it may amuse us. 
 Fellow, where do you come from ? He cannot answer. 
 Decidedly a spy. Hang him up.' 
 
 The captors half untied the rope that bound Alroy, that 
 it might serve him for a further purpose, when another of 
 the gentle companions of Scherirah interfered. 
 
 ' Spies always answer, captain. He is more probably a 
 merchant in disguise.' 
 
 ' And carries hidden treasure,' added Kisloch ; ' these 
 rough coats often cover jewels. We had better search him.' 
 
 ' Ah ! search him,' said Scherirah, with his rough brutal 
 voice ; ' do what you like, only give me the bottle. This 
 Greek wine is choice booty. Feed the fire, men. Are you 
 asleep ? And then Kisloch, who hates cruelty, can roast 
 him if he likes.' 
 
 The robbers prepared to strip their captive. ' Friends, 
 friends !' exclaimed Alroy, ' for there is no reason why you 
 should not be friends, spare me, spare me. I am poor, I 
 am young, I am innocent. I am neither a spy nor a mer- 
 chant. I have no plots, no wealth. I am a pilgrim.' 
 
 ' A decided spy,' exclaimed Scherirah ; ' they are ever 
 pilgrims.' 
 
 ' He speaks too well to speak truth,' exclaimed Kisloch. 
 
 'All talkers are liars,' exclaimed Scherirah. 
 
 ' That is why Kisloch is the most eloquent of the band.' 
 
 ' A jest at the banquet may prove a curse in the field,' 
 replied Kisloch.
 
 ALROY. 41 
 
 'Pooh!' exclaimed Scherirah. 'Fellows, why do you 
 hesitate ? Search the prisoner, I say !' 
 
 They advanced, they seized him. In vain he struggled. 
 
 ' Captain,' exclaimed one of the band, ' he wears upon 
 his breast a jewel !' 
 
 ' I told you so,' said the third robber. 
 
 ' Give it me,' said Scherirah. 
 
 But Alroy, in despair at the thought of losing the talis- 
 man, remembering the injunctions of Jabaster, and ani- 
 mated by supernatural courage, burst from his searchers, 
 and, seizing a brand from the fire, held them at bay. 
 
 ' The fellow has spirit,' said Scherirah, calmly. ' 'Tis 
 pity it will cost him his life.' 
 
 ' Bold man,' exclaimed Alroy, ' for a moment hear me ! 
 I am a pilgrim, poorer than a beggar. The jewel they talk 
 of is a holy emblem, worthless to you, to me invaluable, and 
 to be forfeited only with my life. You may be careless of 
 that. Beware of your own. The first man who advances 
 dies. I pray you humbly, chieftain, let me go.' 
 
 ' Kill him,' said Scherirah. 
 
 ' Stab him !' exclaimed Kisloch. 
 
 ' Give me the jewel,' said the third robber. 
 
 ' The God of David be my refuge, then !' exclaimed Alroy. 
 
 ' He is a Hebrew, he is a Hebrew,' exclaimed Scherirah, 
 jumping up. ' Spare him, my mother was a Jewess.' 
 
 The assailants lowered their arms, and withdrew a few 
 paces. Alroy still remained upon his guard. 
 
 'Valiant pilgrim,' said Scherirah, advancing, with a 
 softened voice, ' are you for the holy city ?' 
 
 ' The city of my fathers.' 
 
 ' A perilous journey. And whence from ?' 
 
 ' Hamadan.' 
 
 'A dreary way. You need repose. Your name ?' 
 
 ' David.' 
 
 ' David, you are among friends. Rest, and repose in 
 safety. You hesitate. Fear not ! The memory of my 
 mother is a charm that always changes me !' Scherirah 
 unsheathed his dagger, punctured his arm, 14 and, throwing
 
 42 ALROY. 
 
 away the weapon, offered the bleeding member to Alroy. 
 The Prince of the Captivity touched the open vein with 
 his lips. 
 
 ' My troth is pledged,' said the bandit ; ' I can never be- 
 tray him in whose veins my own blood is flowing.' So say- 
 ing, he led Alroy to his carpet. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ' EAT, David,' said Scherirah. 
 
 ' I will eat bread,' answered Alroy. 
 
 ' What ! have you had so much meat lately that you will 
 refuse this delicate gazelle that I brought down this morn- 
 ing with my own lance ? 'Tis food for a caliph.' 
 
 ' I pray you give me bread.' 
 
 ' Oh ! bread if you like. But that a man should prefer 
 bread to meat, and such meat as this, 'tis miraculous.' 
 
 ' A thousand thanks, good Scherirah ; but with our 
 people the flesh of the gazelle is forbidden. It is unclean. 
 Its foot is cloven.' 
 
 ' I have heard of these things,' replied Scherirah, with a 
 thoughtful air. My mother was a Jewess, and my father 
 was a Kourd. Whichever be right, I hope to be saved.' 
 
 ' There is but one God, and Mahomed is his prophet !' 
 exclaimed Kisloch ; ' though I drink wine. Your health, 
 Hebrew.' 
 
 * I will join you,' said the third robber. ' My father 
 was a Guebre, and sacrificed his property to his faith ; and 
 the consequence is, his son has got neither.' 
 
 ' As for me,' said a fourth robber, of very dark com- 
 plexion and singularly small bright eyes, ' I am an Indian, 
 and I believe in the great golden figure with carbuncle eyes, 
 in the temple of Delhi.' 
 
 'I have no religion,' said a tall negro in a red turban, 
 grinning with his white teeth ; ' they have none in my 
 country ; but if I had heard of your God before, Calidas, I 
 would have believed in him.'
 
 ALROY. 43 
 
 'I almost wish I had been a Jew,' exclaimed Scherirah, 
 musing. ' My mother was a good woman.' 
 
 ' The Jews are very rich,' said the third robber. 
 
 'When you get to Jerusalem, David, you will see the 
 Christians,' continued Scherirah. 
 
 ' The accursed Giaours,' exclaimed Kisloch, ' we are all 
 against them.' 
 
 ' With their white faces,' exclaimed the negro. 
 
 1 And their blue eyes,' said the Indian. 
 
 ' What can you expect of men who live in a country 
 without a sun ?' observed the Guebre. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ALROY awoke about two hours after midnight. His com- 
 panions were in deep slumber. The moon had set, the fire 
 had died away, a few red embers alone remaining ; dark 
 masses of shadow hung about the amphitheatre. He arose 
 and cautiously stepped over the sleeping bandits. He was 
 not in strictness a prisoner ; but who could trust to the 
 caprice of these lawless men ? To-morrow might find him 
 their slave, or their companion in some marauding expe- 
 dition, which might make him almost retrace his steps to 
 the Caucasus, or to Hamadau. The temptation to ensure 
 his freedom was irresistible. He clambered up the ruined 
 wall, descended into the intricate windings that led to the 
 Ionic fane, that served him as a beacon, hurried through 
 the silent and starry streets, gained the great portal, and 
 rushed once more into the desert. 
 
 A vague fear of pursuit made him continue his course 
 many hours without resting. The desert again became 
 sandy, the heat increased. The breeze that plays about 
 the wilderness, and in early spring is often scented with 
 the wild fragrance of aromatic plants, sank away. A lurid 
 brightness suffused the heavens. An appalling stillness 
 pervaded nature j even the insects were silent. For the
 
 44 ALEOY. 
 
 first time in his pilgrimage, a feeling of deep despondency 
 fell over the soul of Alroy. His energy appeared sud- 
 denly to have deserted him. A low hot wind began to 
 rise, and fan his cheek with pestiferous kisses, and ener- 
 vate his frame with its poisonous embrace. His head 
 and limbs ached with a dull sensation, more terrible than 
 pain ; his sight was dizzy, his tongue swollen. Vainly 
 he looked around for aid ; vainly he extended his forlorn 
 arms, and wrung them to the remorseless heaven. Al- 
 most frantic with thirst, the boundless horizon of the 
 desert disappeared, and the unhappy victim, in the midst 
 of his torture, found himself apparently surrounded by 
 bright and running streams, the fleeting waters of the 
 false mirage ! 
 
 The sun became blood-red, the sky darker, the sand rose 
 in fierce eddies, the moaning wind burst into shrieks and 
 exhaled more ardent and still more malignant breath. The 
 pilgrim could no longer sustain himself. 15 Faith, courage, 
 devotion deserted him with his failing energies. He 
 strove no longer with his destiny, he delivered himself up 
 to despair and death. He fell upon one knee with drooping 
 head, supporting himself by one quivering hand, and then, 
 full of the anguish of baffled purposes and lost affections, 
 raising his face and arm to heaven, thus to the elements he 
 poured his passionate farewell. 
 
 ' life ! once vainly deemed a gloomy toil, I feel thy 
 sweetness now ! Farewell, life, farewell my high re- 
 solves and proud conviction of almighty fame. My days, 
 my short unprofitable days, melt into the past ; and death, 
 with which I struggle, horrible death, arrests me in this 
 wilderness. my sister, could thy voice but murmur in 
 my ear one single sigh of love ; could thine eye with its 
 soft radiance but an instant blend with my dim fading 
 vision, the pang were nothing. Farewell, Miriam ! my 
 heart is with thee by thy fountain's side. Fatal blast, 
 bear her my dying words, my blessing. And ye too, 
 friends, whose too neglected love I think of now, farewell ! 
 Farewell, my uncle ; farewell, pleasant home, and Hama-
 
 ALEOY. 45 
 
 dan's serene and shadowy bowers ! Farewell, Jabaster, and 
 the mighty lore of which thou wert the priest and I the 
 pupil ! Thy talisman throbs on my faithful heart. Green 
 earth and golden sun, and all the beautiful and glorious 
 sights ye fondly lavish on unthinking man, farewell, fare- 
 well ! I die in the desert : 'tis bitter. No more, oh ! 
 never more for me the hopeful day shall break, and the 
 fresh breeze rise on its cheering wings of health and joy. 
 Heaven and earth, water and air, my chosen country and 
 my antique creed, farewell, farewell ! And thou, too, city 
 
 of my soul, I cannot name thee, unseen Jerusalem ' 
 
 Amid the roar of the wind, the bosom of the earth 
 heaved and opened, swift columns of sand sprang up to the 
 lurid sky, and hurried towards their victim. With the 
 clang of universal chaos, impenetrable darkness descended 
 on the desert.
 
 46 ALKOY. 
 
 PAET V. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 * Now our dreary way is over, now the desert's toil is 
 past. Soon the river broadly flowing, through its green 
 and palmy banks, to our wearied limbs shall offer baths 
 which caliphs cannot buy. Allah-illah, Allah-hu. Allab- 
 illah, Allah-hu.' 
 
 ' Blessed the man who now may bear a relic from our 
 Prophet's tomb ; blessed the man who now unfolds the 
 treasures of a distant mart, jewels of the dusky East, and 
 silks of farthest Samarcand. Allah-illah, Allah-hu. Allah- 
 illah, Allah-hu.' 
 
 ' Him the sacred mosque shall greet with a reverence 
 grave and low ; him the busy Bezestein shall welcome with 
 confiding smile. Holy merchant, now receive the double 
 triumph of thy toil. Allah-illah, Allah-hu. Allah-illah, 
 Allah-hu.' 
 
 ' The camel jibs, Abdallah ! See, there is something in 
 the track.' 
 
 ' By the holy stone, 16 a dead man. Poor devil ! Ono 
 should never make a pilgrimage on foot. I hate your 
 humble piety. Prick the beast and he will pass the corpse.' 
 
 ' The Prophet preaches charity, Abdallah. He has fa- 
 voured my enterprise, and I will practise his precept. See 
 if he be utterly dead.' 
 
 It was the Mecca caravan returning to Bagdad. The 
 pilgrims were within a day's journey of the Euphrates, 
 and welcomed their approach to fertile earth with a trium- 
 phant chorus. Far as the eye could reach, the long line of 
 their straggling procession stretched across the wilderness,
 
 ALROY. 47 
 
 thousands of camels in strings, laden with bales of mer- 
 chandise, and each company headed by an animal of supe- 
 rior size, leading with tinkling bells ; groups of horsemen, 
 clusters of litters ; all the pilgrims armed to their teeth, 
 the van formed by a strong division of Seljukian cavalry, 
 and the rear protected by a Kourdish clan, who guaranteed 
 the security of the pious travellers through their country. 
 
 Abdallah was the favourite slave of the charitable mer- 
 chant Ali. In obedience to his master's orders, he un- 
 willingly descended from his camel, and examined the body 
 of the apparently lifeless Alroy. 
 
 ' A Kourd by his dress,' exclaimed Abdallah, with a 
 sneer ; ' what does he here ? ' 
 
 ' It is not the face of a Kourd,' replied Ali ; ' perchance 
 a pilgrim from the mountains.' 
 
 ' Whatever he be, he is dead,' answered the slave : ' I 
 doubt not an accursed Giaour.' 
 
 ' God is great,' exclaimed Ali ; ' he breathes ; the breast 
 of his caftan heaved.' 
 
 ' 'Twas the wind,' said Abdallah. 
 
 * 'Twas the sigh of a human heart,' answered Ali. 
 Several pilgrims who were on foot now gathered around 
 
 the group. 
 
 ' I am a Hakim,' 17 observed a dignified Armenian. ' I 
 will feel his pulse ; 'tis dull, but it beats.' 
 
 * There is but one God,' exclaimed Ali. 
 
 ' And Mahomed is his Prophet,' responded Abdallah. 
 ' You do not believe in him, you Armenian infidel.' 
 
 ' I am a Hakim,' replied the dignified Armenian. * Al- 
 though an infidel, God has granted me skill to cure true 
 believers. Worthy Ali, believe me, the boy may yet live.' 
 
 ' Hakim, you shall count your own dirhems if he breathe 
 in my divan in Bagdad,' answered Ali ; ' I have taken a 
 fancy to the boy. God has sent him to me. He shall 
 carry my slippers.' 
 
 ' Give me a camel, and I will save his life.' 
 
 ' We have none,' said the servant. 
 
 ' Walk, Abdallah,' said the master.
 
 48 ALROY. 
 
 * Is a true believer to walk to save the life of a Kourd ? 
 Master slipper-bearer shall answer for this, if there be any 
 sweetness in the bastinado,' murmured Abdallah. 
 
 The Armenian bled Alroy ; the blood flowed slowly but 
 surely. The Prince of the Captivity opened his eyes. 
 
 ' There is but one God,' exclaimed Ali. 
 
 ' The evil eye fall on him !' muttered Abdallah. 
 
 The Armenian took a cordial from his vest, and poured 
 it down his patient's throat. The blood flowed more freely. 
 
 ' He will live, worthy merchant,' said the physician. 
 
 ' And Mahomed is his Prophet,' continued Ali. 
 
 ' By the stone of Mecca, I believe ifc is a Jew,' shouted 
 Abdallah. 
 
 ' The dog!' exclaimed Ali., 
 
 ' Pah !' said a negro- slave, drawing back with disgust. 
 
 ' He will die,' said the Christian physician, not even 
 binding up the vein. 
 
 ' And be damned,' said Abdallah, again jumping on his 
 camel. 
 
 The party rode on, the caravan proceeded. A Kourdish 
 horseman galloped forward. He curbed his steed as he 
 passed Alroy bleeding to death. 
 
 ' What accursed slave has wounded one of my clan ?' 
 
 The Kourd leaped off his horse, stripped off a slip of his 
 blue shirt, stanched the wound, and carried the unhappy 
 Alroy to the rear. 
 
 The desert ceased, the caravan entered upon a vast but 
 fruitful plain. In the extreme distance might be descried 
 a long undulating line of palm-trees. The vanguard gave 
 a shout, shook their tall lances in the air, and rattled their 
 scimetars in rude chorus against their small round iron 
 shields. All eyes sparkled, all hands were raised, all voices 
 sounded, save those that were breathless from overpower- 
 ing joy. After months wandering in the sultry wilderness, 
 they beheld the great Euphrates. 
 
 Broad and fresh, magnificent and serene, the mighty 
 waters rolled through the beautiful and fertile earth. A 
 vital breeze rose from their bosom. Every being responded
 
 ALROY. 4D 
 
 to their genial influence. The sick were cured, the de- 
 sponding became sanguine, the healthy and light-hearted 
 broke into shouts of laughter, jumped from their camels, 
 and embraced the fragrant earth, or, wild in their renovated 
 strength, galloped over the plain, and threw their wanton 
 jerreeds in the air, 18 as if to show that suffering and labour 
 had not deprived them of that skill and strength, without 
 which it were vain again to enter the haunts of their less 
 adventurous brethren. 
 
 The caravan halted on the banks of the broad river, 
 glowing in the cool sunset. The camp was pitched, the 
 plain glittered with tents. The camels, falling on their 
 knees, crouched in groups, the merchandise piled up in 
 masses by their sides. The unharnessed horses rushed 
 neighing about the plain, tossing their glad heads, and 
 rolling in the unaccustomed pasture. Spreading their mats, 
 and kneeling towards Mecca, the pilgrims performed their 
 evening orisons. Never was thanksgiving more sincere. 
 They arose : some rushed into the river, some lighted lamps, 
 some pounded coffee. 19 Troops of smiling villagers arrived 
 with fresh provisions, eager to prey upon such light hearts 
 and heavy purses. It was one of those occasions when 
 the accustomed gravity of the Orient disappears. Long 
 through the night the sounds of music and the shouts of 
 laughter were heard on the banks of that starry river ; long 
 through the night you might have listened with enchant- 
 ment to the wild tales of the storier, or gazed with fasci- 
 nation on the wilder gestures of the dancing girls. 20 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE great bazaar of Bagdad afforded an animated and 
 sumptuous spectacle on the day after the arrival of the 
 caravan. All the rare and costly products of the world 
 were collected in that celebrated mart : the shawls of 
 Cashmere and the silks of Syria, the ivory, and plumes, and 
 

 
 50 ALROY. 
 
 gold of Afric, the jewels of Ind, the talismans of Egypt, 
 the perfumes and manuscripts of Persia, the spices and 
 gums of Araby, beautiful horses, more beautiful slaves, 
 cloaks of sable, pelisses of ermine, armour alike magnificent 
 in ornament and temper, rare animals, still rarer birds, 
 blue apes in silver collars, white gazelles bound by a golden 
 chain, greyhounds, peacocks, paroquets. And everywhere 
 strange, and busy, and excited groups ; men of all nations, 
 creeds, and climes : the sumptuous and haughty Turk, the 
 graceful and subtle Arab, the Hebrew with his black cap 
 and anxious countenance ; the Armenian Christian, with 
 his dark flowing robes, and mild demeanour, and serene 
 visage. Here strutted the lively, affected, and superfine 
 Persian ; and there the Circassian stalked with his long hair 
 and chain cuirass. The fair Georgian jostled the ebony 
 form of the merchant of Dongola or Sennaar. 
 
 Through the long, narrow, arched, and winding streets 
 of the bazaar, lined on each side with loaded stalls, all was 
 bustle, bargaining, and barter. A passenger approached, 
 apparently of no common rank. Two pages preceded him, 
 beautiful Georgian boys, clothed in crimson cloth, and caps 
 of the same material, sitting tight to their heads, with long 
 golden tassels. One bore a blue velvet bag, and the other 
 a clasped and richly bound volume. Four footmen, armed, 
 followed their master, who rode behind the pages on a 
 milk-white mule. He was a man of middle age, eminently 
 handsome. His ample robes concealed the only fault in his 
 appearance, a figure which indulgence had rendered some- 
 what too exuberant. His eyes were large, and soft, and 
 dark ; his nose aquiline, but delicately moulded ; his mouth 
 small, and beautifully proportioned ; his lip full and red ; 
 his teeth regular and dazzling white. His ebony beard 
 flowed, but not at too great a length, in graceful and natural 
 curls, and was richly perfumed ; a delicate mustachio shaded 
 his upper lip, but no whisker was permitted to screen the 
 form and shroud the lustre of his oval countenance and 
 brilliant complexion. Altogether, the animal perhaps pre- 
 dominated too much in the expression of the stranger's
 
 ALEOY. 51 
 
 countenance ; but genius beamed from his passionate eye, 
 and craft lay concealed in that subtle lip. The dress of the 
 rider \vas sumptuous. His turban, formed by a scarlet 
 Cashmere shawl, was of great breadth, and, concealing half 
 of his white forehead, increased by the contrast the radiant 
 height of the other. His under- vest was of white Damascus 
 silk, stiff with silver embroidery, and confined by a girdle 
 formed by a Brusa scarf of gold stuff, and holding a dagger, 
 whose hilt appeared blazing with brilliants and rubies. His 
 loose and exterior robe was of crimson cloth. His white 
 hands sparkled with rings, and his ears glittered with pen- 
 dulous gems. 
 
 * Who is this ? ' asked an Egyptian merchant, in a low 
 whisper, of the dealer whose stuffs he was examining. 
 
 ' "Tis the Lord Honain,' replied the dealer. 
 
 ' And who may he be ? ' continued the Egyptian. ' Is 
 he the Caliph's son ? ' 
 
 4 A much greater man; his physician.' 
 
 The white mule stopped at the very stall where this con- 
 versation was taking place. The pages halted, and stood on 
 each side of their master, the footmen kept off the crowd. 
 
 ' Merchant,' said Honain, with a gracious smile of con- 
 descension, and with a voice musical as a flute, 'Merchant, 
 did you obtain me my wish ? ' 
 
 ' There is but one God,' replied the dealer, who was the 
 charitable Ali, ' and Mahomed is his Prophet. I succeeded, 
 please your highness, in seeing at Aleppo the accursed 
 Giaour, of whom I spoke, and behold, that which you 
 desired is here.' So saying, Ali produced several Greek 
 manuscripts, and offered them to his visitor. 
 
 ' Hah ! ' said Honaiii, with a sparkling eye, ' 'tis well ; 
 their cost ? ' 
 
 ' The infidel would not part with them under five hundred 
 dirhems,' replied Ali. 
 
 ' Ibrahim, see that this worthy merchant receive a 
 thousand.' 
 
 ' As many thanks, my Lord Honain.' 
 
 The Caliph's physician bowed gracefully. 
 
 E 2
 
 52 ALROY. 
 
 ' Advance, pages,' continued Honain ; ' why this stop- 
 page ? Ibrahim, see that our way be cleared. What is all 
 this ? ' 
 
 A crowd of men advanced, pulling along a youth, who, 
 almost exhausted, still singly struggled with his ungene- 
 rous adversaries. 
 
 ' The Cadi, the Cadi,' cried the foremost of them, who 
 was Abdallah, ' drag him to the Cadi.' 
 
 'Noble lord,' cried the youth, extricating himself by a 
 sudden struggle from the grasp of his captors, and seizing 
 the robe of Honain, ' I am innocent and injured. I pray 
 thy help.' 
 
 ' The Cadi, the Cadi,' exclaimed Abdallah ; the knave has 
 stolen my ring, the ring given me by my laithful Fatima 
 on our marriage-day, and which I would not part with for 
 my master's stores.' 
 
 The youth still clung to the robe of Honain, and, mute 
 from exhaustion, fixed upon him his beautiful and im- 
 ploring eye. 
 
 ' Silence,' proclaimed Honain, ' I will judge this cause.' 
 
 ' The Lord Honain, the Lord Honain, listen to the Lord 
 Honain ! ' 
 
 ' Speak, thou brawler ; of what hast thou to complain ? ' 
 said Honain to Abdallah. 
 
 ' May it please your highness,' said Abdallah, in a whining 
 voice, ' I am the slave of your faithful servant, AH : often 
 have I had the honour of waiting on your highness. This 
 young knave here, a beggar, has robbed me, while slum- 
 bering in a coffee-house, of a ring ; I have my witnesses to 
 prove my slumbering. 'Tis a fine emerald, may it please 
 your highness, and doubly valuable to me as a love-token 
 from my Fatima. No consideration in the world could induce 
 me to part with it ; and so, being asleep, here are three 
 honest men who will prove the sleep, comes this little vaga- 
 bond, may it please your highness, who while he pretends 
 to offer me my coflee, takes him my finger, and slips off this 
 precious ring, which he now wears upon his beggarly 
 paw, and will not restore to me without the bastinado.'
 
 ALEOY. 53 
 
 ' Abdallali is a faithful slave, may it please your highness, 
 and a Hadgee,' said Ali, his master. 
 
 ' And what sayest thou, boy ? ' inquired Honain. 
 
 ' That this is a false knave, who lies as slaves ever will.' 
 
 ' Pithy, and perhaps true,' said Honain. 
 
 ' You call me a slave, you young scoundrel ? ' exclaimed 
 Abdallah ; ' shall I tell you what you are ? Why, your 
 highness, do not listen to him a moment. It is a shame to 
 bring such a creature into your presence ; for, by the holy 
 stone, and I am a Hadgee, I doubt little he is a Jew.' 
 
 Honain grew somewhat pale, and bit his lip. He was 
 perhaps annoyed that he had interfered so publicly in behalf 
 of so unpopular a character as a Hebrew, but he was 
 unwilling to desert one whom a moment before he had 
 resolved to befriend, and he inquired of the youth where 
 he had obtained the ring. 
 
 ' The ring was given to me by my dearest friend when I 
 first set out upon an arduous pilgrimage not yet completed. 
 There is but one person in the world, except the donor, to 
 whom I would part with it, and with that person I am 
 unacquainted. All this may seem improbable, but all this 
 is true. I have truth alone to support me. I am destitute 
 and friendless ; but I am not a beggar, nor will any suffer- 
 ing induce me to become one. Feeling, from various 
 circumstances, utterly exhausted, I entered a coffee-house 
 and lay down, it may have been to die. I. could not sleep, 
 although nay eyes were shut, and nothing would have 
 roused me from a tremulous trance, which I thought was 
 dying, but this plunderer here, who would not wait until 
 death had permitted him quietly to possess himself of a 
 jewel I value more than life.' 
 
 ' Show me the jewel.' 
 
 The youth held up his hand to Honain, who felt his 
 pulse, and then took off" the ring. 
 
 ' 0, my Fatima ! ' exclaimed Abdallah. 
 
 ' Silence, sir ! ' said Honain. ' Page, call a jeweller.' 
 
 Honain examined the ring attentively. Whether he were 
 near-sighted, or whether the deceptive light of the covered
 
 54 ALROY. 
 
 bazaar prevented him from examining it with ease, ho 
 certainly raised his hand to his brow, and for some moments 
 his countenance was invisible. 
 
 The jeweller arrived, and, pressing his hand to his heart, 
 bowed before Honain. 
 
 ' Value this ring,' said Honain, in a low voice. 
 
 The jeweller took the ring, viewed it in all directions 
 with a scrutinising glance, held it to the light, pressed it 
 to his tongue, turned it over and over, and finally declared 
 that he could not sell such a ring under a thousand 
 dirhems. 
 
 ' Whatever be the justice of the case,' said Honain to 
 Abdallah, ' art thou ready to part with this ring for a 
 thousand dirhems ? ' 
 
 ' Most certainly,' said Abdallah. 
 
 ' And thou, lad, if the decision be in thy favour, wilt thou 
 take for the ring double the worth at which the jeweller 
 prizes it ? ' 
 
 ' My lord, I have spoken the truth. I cannot part with 
 that ring for the palace of the Caliph.' 
 
 ' The truth for once is triumphant,' said Honain. ' Boy, 
 the ring is thine ; and for thee, thou knave,' turning to 
 Abdallah, ' liar, thief, and slanderer ! for thee the bas- 
 tinado, 21 which thou destinedst for this innocent youth. 
 Ibrahim, see that he receives five hundred. Young pilgrim, 
 thou art no longer destitute or friendless. Follow me to 
 my palace.' 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 THE arched chamber was of great size and beautiful pro- 
 portion. The ceiling, encrusted with green fretwork, and 
 studded with silver stars, rested upon clustered columns of 
 white and green marble. In the centre of a variegated 
 pavement of the same material, a fountain rose and fell into 
 a green porphyry basin, and by the side of the fountain, 
 upon a couch of silver, reposed Honain.
 
 ALROY. 55 
 
 He raised his eyes from the illuminated volume on which 
 he had been long intent ; he clapped his hands, and a 
 Nubian slave advanced, and, folding his arms upon his 
 breast, bowed in silence before his lord. 
 
 ' How fares the Hebrew boy, Analschar ? ' 
 
 ' Master, the fever has not returned. We gave him the 
 potion; he slumbered for many hours, and has now 
 awakened, weak but well.' 
 
 ' Let him rise and attend me. 
 
 The Nubian disappeared. 
 
 ' There is nothing stranger than sympathy,' soliloquised 
 the physician of the Caliph, with a meditative air ; ' all 
 resolves itself into this principle, and I confess this learned 
 doctor treats it deeply and well. An erudite spirit truly, 
 and an eloquent pen ; yet he refines too much. 'Tis too 
 scholastic. Observation will teach us more than dogma. 
 Meditating upon my passionate youth, I gathered wisdom. 
 I have seen so much that I have ceased to wonder. How- 
 ever we doubt, there is a mystery beyond our penetration. 
 And yet 'tis near our grasp. I sometimes deem a step, a 
 single step, would launch us into light. Here comes my 
 patient. The rose has left his cheek, and his deep brow is 
 wan and melancholy. Yet 'tis a glorious visage, Medita- 
 tion's throne ; and Passion lingers in that languid eye. I 
 know not why, a strong attraction draws me to this lono 
 child. 
 
 ' Gentle stranger, how fares it with thee ? ' 
 
 ' Very well, my lord. I come to thank thee for all thy 
 goodness. My only thanks are words, and those too weak ; 
 and yet the orphan's blessing is a treasure.' 
 You are an orphan, then ? ' 
 I have no parent but my father's God.' 
 
 And that God is ' 
 
 The God of Israel.' 
 
 So I deemed. He is a Deity we all must honour ; if 
 he be the great Creator whom we all allow.' 
 
 ' He is what he is, and we are what we are, a fallen 
 people, but faithful still.'
 
 6 ALEOY. 
 
 ' Fidelity is strength.' 
 
 ' Thy words are truth, and strength must triumph.' 
 
 ' A prophecy ! ' 
 
 4 Many a prophet is little honoured, till the future proves 
 his inspiration.' 
 
 ' You are young and sanguine.' 
 
 ' So was >rny ancestor within the vale of Elah. But I 
 speak unto a Moslem, and this is foolishness.' 
 
 ' I have read something, and can take your drift. As for 
 my faith, I believe in truth, and wish all men to do the 
 .same. By the bye, might I inquire the name of him who 
 as the inmate of my house ? ' 
 
 4 They call me David.' 
 
 4 David, you have a ring, an emerald cut with curious 
 chai'acters, Hebrew, I believe.' 
 
 'Tis here.' 
 
 ' A fine stone, and this inscription means ' 
 
 ' A simple legend, "Parted, l>ut one;" the kind memorial 
 of a brother's love.' 
 
 ' Your brother ? ' 
 
 ' I never had a brother.' 
 
 ' I have a silly fancy for this ring : you hesitate. Search 
 my palace, and choose the treasure you deem its match.' 
 
 ' Noble sir, the gem is little worth ; but were it such 
 might deck a Caliph's brow, 'twere a poor recompense for 
 all thy goodness. This ring is a trust rather than a pos- 
 session, and strange to say, although I cannot offer it to 
 thee who mayst command, as thou hast saved, the life of 
 its uuhappy wearer, some stranger may cross my path 
 to-morrow, and almost claim it as his own.' 
 
 4 And that stranger is ' 
 
 ' The brother of the donor.' 
 
 The brother of Jabaster? ' 
 
 4 Jabaster ! ' 
 
 4 Even so. I am that parted brother.' 
 
 ' Great is the God of Israel ! Take the ring. But what 
 is this ? the brother of Jabaster a turbaned chieftain ! a 
 Moslem ! Say, but say that thou has not assumed their
 
 ALKOY. 57 
 
 base belief; say, but say, that them hast not become a 
 traitor to our covenant, and I will bless the fortunes of this 
 hour.' 
 
 ' I am false to no God. Calm thyself, sweet youth. 
 These are higher questions than thy faint strength can 
 master now. Another time we'll talk of this, my boy; 
 at present of my brother and thyself. He lives and 
 prospers ? ' 
 
 ' He lives in faith ; the pious ever prosper.' 
 
 ' A glorious dreamer ! Though our moods are different, 
 I ever loved him. And thyself ? Thou art not what thou 
 seemest. Tell me all. Jabaster's friend can be no common 
 mind. Thy form has heralded thy fame. Trust me.' 
 
 ' I am Alroy.' 
 
 ' What ! the Prince of our Captivity ? ' 
 
 ' Even so.' 
 
 ' The slayer of Alschiroch ? ' 
 
 'Ay!' 
 
 My sympathy was prophetic. I loved thee from the 
 first. And w r hat dost thou here ? A price is set upon thy 
 head : thou knowest it ? ' 
 
 ' For the first time ; but I am neither astonished nor 
 alarmed. I am upon the Lord's business.' 
 
 ' What wouldst thou ? ' 
 
 * Free his people.' 
 
 ' The pupil of Jabaster : I see it all. Another victim 
 to his reveries. I'll save this boy. David, for thy name 
 must not be sounded within this city, the sun is dying. 
 Let us to the terrace, and seek the solace of the twilight 
 breeze.' 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ' WHAT is the hour, David ? ' 
 
 ' Near to midnight. I marvel if thy brother may read 
 in the stars our happy meeting.'
 
 58 ALROY. 
 
 ' Men read that which they wish. He is a learned 
 Cabalisfc.' 
 
 ' But what we wish comes from above.' 
 
 ' So they say. We make our fortunes, and we call them. 
 Fate.' 
 
 ' Yet the Voice sounded, the Daughter of the Voice that 
 summoned Samuel.' 
 
 ' You have told me strange things ; I have heard stranger 
 solved.' 
 
 ' My faith is a rock.' 
 
 ' On which you may split.' 
 
 ' Arb thou a Sadducee ? ' 
 
 ' I am a man who knows men.' 
 
 * You are learned, but different from Jabaster.' 
 
 ' We are the same, though different. Day and Night 
 are both portions of Time.' 
 
 ' And thy portion is ' 
 
 'Truth.' 
 
 * That is, light.' 
 
 ' Yes ; so dazzling that it sometimes seems dark.' 
 ' Like thy meaning.' 
 
 * You are young.' 
 
 ' Is youth a defect ? ' 
 
 ' No, the reverse. But we cannot eat the fruit while the 
 tree is in blossom.' 
 
 < What fruit ? ' 
 
 ' Knowledge.' 
 
 ' I have studied.' 
 
 'What?' 
 
 ' All sacred things.' 
 
 ' How know you that they are sacred ? ' 
 
 ' They come from God.' 
 
 ' So does everything. Is everything sacred ?' 
 
 ' They are the deep expression of his will.' 
 
 ' According to Jabaster. Ask the man who prays in 
 yonder mosque, and he will tell you that Jabaster 's wrong.' 
 
 ' After all, thou art a Moslem ? ' 
 
 'No.'
 
 ALROY. 59 
 
 4 What then?' 
 
 ' I have told you, a man.' 
 
 ' But what dost thou worship ? ' 
 
 ' What is worship ? ' 
 
 ' Adoration due from the creature to the Creator.' 
 
 Which is he ? ' 
 
 ' Our God.' 
 
 'The God of Israel?' 
 
 ' Even so.' 
 
 ' A frail minority, then, burn incense to him.' 
 
 ' We are the chosen people.' 
 
 ' Chosen for scoffs, and scorns, and contumelies. Com- 
 mend me to such choice.' 
 
 ' We forgot him, before he chastened us.' 
 
 < Why did we ? ' 
 
 ' Thou knowest the records of our holy race.' 
 
 * Yes, I know them ; like all records, annals of blood.' 
 
 ' Annals of victory, that will dawn again.' 
 
 ' If redemption be but another name for carnage, I envy 
 no Messiah.' 
 
 ' Art thou Jabaster's brother ? ' 
 
 ' So our mother was wont to say : a meek and blessed 
 woman.' 
 
 ' Lord Honain, thou art rich, and wise, and powerful. 
 Thy fellow-men speak of thee only with praise or fear, and 
 both are cheering. Thou hast quitted our antique ark ; 
 why ; no matter. We'll not discuss it. 'Tis something, if 
 a stranger, at least thou art not a renegade. The world 
 goes well with thee, my Lord Honain. But if, instead of 
 bows and blessings, thou, like thy brethren, wert greeted 
 only with the cuff and curse ; if thou didst rise each 
 morning only to feel existence to be dishonour, and to 
 find thyself marked out among surrounding men as some- 
 thing foul and fatal ; if it were thy lot, like theirs, at best 
 to drag on a mean and dull career, hopeless and aimless, 
 or with no other hope or aim but that which is degrading, 
 and all this too with a keen sense of thy intrinsic worth, 
 and a deep conviction of superior race ; why then, per-
 
 ALROY. 
 
 chance, Honain might even discover 'twere worth a struggle 
 to be free and honoured.' 
 
 ' I pray your pardon, sir ; I thought you were Jabas- 
 ter's pupil, a dreaming student. I see you have a deep 
 ambition.' 
 
 ' I am a prince ; and I fain would be a prince without 
 my fetters.' 
 
 ' Listen to me, Alroy,' said Honain in a low voice, and 
 he placed his arm around him, ' I am your friend. Our 
 acquaintance is very brief : no matter, I love you ; I rescued 
 you in injury, I tended you in sickness, even now your life 
 is in my power, I would protect it with my own. You 
 cannot doubt me. Oar affections are not under our own 
 control ; and mine are yours. The sympathy between us 
 is entire. You see me, you see what I am ; a Hebrew, 
 though unknown ; one of that despised, rejected, persecuted 
 people, of whom you are the chief. I too would be free 
 and honoured. Freedom and honour are mine, but I was 
 my own messiah. "I quitted in good time our desperate 
 cause, but I gave it a trial. Ask Jabaster how I fought. 
 Youth could be my only excuse for such indiscretion. I 
 left this country ; I studied and resided among the Greeks. 
 I returned from Constantinople, with all their learning, 
 some of their craft. No one knew me. I assumed their 
 turban, and I am, the Lord Honain. Take my expe- 
 rience, child, and save yourself much sorrow. Turn your 
 late adventure to good account. No one can recognise 
 you here. I will introduce you amongst the highest as my 
 child by some fair Greek. The world is before you. You 
 may fight, you may love, you may revel. War, and women, 
 and luxury are all at your command. With your person 
 and talents you may be grand vizir. Clear your head of 
 nonsense. In the present disordered state of the empire, 
 you may even carve yourself out a kingdom, infinitely more 
 delightful than the barren land of milk and honey. I have 
 seen it, child ; a rocky wilderness, where I would not let 
 my courser graze.' 
 
 He bent down, and fixed his eyes upon his companion
 
 ALROY. 61 
 
 with a scrutinising glance. The moonlight fell upon the 
 resolved visage of the Prince of the Captivity. 
 
 ' Honain,' he replied, pressing his hand, ' I thank thee. 
 Thou knowest not me, but still I thank thee.' 
 
 ' You are resolved, then, on destruction.' 
 
 ' On glory, eternal glory.' 
 ' Is it possible to succeed ? ' 
 
 ' Is it possible to fail ? ' 
 
 ' You are mad.' 
 
 ' I am a believer.' 
 
 ' Enough. You have yet one chance. My brother has 
 saddled your enterprise with a condition, and an impossible 
 one. Gain the sceptre of Solomon, and I will agree to be 
 your subject. You will waste a year in this frolic. You 
 are young, and can afford it. I trust you will experience 
 nothing worse than a loss of time, which is, however, 
 valuable. My duty will be, after all your sufferings, to 
 send you forth on your adventures in good condition, and 
 to provide you means for a less toilsome pilgrimage than 
 has hitherto been your lot. Trust me you will return to 
 Bagdad to accept my offers. At present, the dews are 
 descending, and we will return to our divan, and take 
 some coffee.' 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 SOME few days after this conversation on the terrace, as 
 Alroy was reclining in a bower, in the beautiful garden of 
 his host, meditating on the future, some one touched him 
 on the back. He looked up. It was Honain. 
 
 ' Follow me,' said the brother of Jabaster. 
 
 The Prince rose, and followed him in silence. They 
 entered the house, and, passing through the saloon already 
 described, they proceeded down a long gallery, which 
 terminated in an arched flight of broad steps 'leading to 
 the river. A boat was fastened to the end of the stairs, 
 floating on the blue line of the Tigris, bright in the sun.
 
 62 ALROY. 
 
 Honain now gave to Alroy a velvet bag, which he re- 
 quested him to carry, and then they descended the steps 
 and entered the covered boat ; and, without any directions 
 to the rower, they were soon skimming over the water. 
 By the sound of passing vessels, and the occasional shouts 
 of the boatmen, Alroy, although he could observe nothing, 
 was conscious that for some time their course lay through a 
 principal thoroughfare of the city; but by degrees the 
 sounds became less frequent, and in time entirely died 
 away, and all that caught his ear was the regular and mo- 
 notonous stroke of their own oar. 
 
 At length, after the lapse of nearly an hour from their 
 entrance, the boat stopped, and was moored against a quay. 
 The curtains were withdrawn, and Honain and his com- 
 panion disembarked. 
 
 A low but extensive building, painted in white and gold 
 arabesque, and irregular but picturesque in form, with 
 many small domes, and tall thin towers, rose amid groves 
 of cypress on the bank of the broad and silent river. The 
 rapid stream had carried them far from the city, which was 
 visible but distant. Around was no habitation, no human 
 being. The opposite bank was occupied by enclosed gar- 
 dens. Not even a boat passed. 
 
 Honain, beckoning to Alroy to accompany him, but still 
 silent, advanced to a small portal, and knocked. It was 
 instantly opened by a single Nubian, who bowed reverently 
 as the visitors passed him. They proceeded along a low 
 and gloomy passage, covered with arches of fretwork, until 
 they arrived at a door of tortoiseshell and mother of pearl. 22 
 Here Honain, who was in advance, turned round to Alroy, 
 and said, 'Whatever happen, and whoever may address 
 you, as you value your life and mine, do not speak.' 
 
 The door opened, and they found themselves in a vast 
 and gorgeous hall. Pillars of many-coloured marbles rose 
 from a red and blue pavement of the same material, and 
 supported a vaulted, circular, and highly-embossed roof of 
 purple, scarlet, and gold. 23 Around a fountain, which rose 
 fifty feet in height from an immense basin of lapis-lazuli,
 
 ALEOY. 63 
 
 and reclining on small yellow Barbary mats, was a group 
 of Nubian eunuchs, dressed in rich habits of scarlet and 
 gold, 24 and armed with ivory battle-axes, the white handles 
 worked in precious arabesque finely contrasting with the 
 blue and brilliant blades. 
 
 The commander of the eunuch-guard rose on seeing 
 Honain, and, pressing his hand to his head, mouth, and 
 heart, saluted him. The physician of the Caliph, motion- 
 ing Alroy to remain, advanced somes paces in front of 
 him, and entered into a whispering conversation with the 
 eunuch. After a few minutes, this officer resumed his 
 seat, and Honain, beckoning to Alroy to rejoin him, crossed 
 the hall. 
 
 Passing through an open arch, they entered a quadran- 
 gular court of roses, 25 each bed of flowers surrounded by a 
 stream of sparkling water, and floating like an enchanted 
 islet upon a fairy ocean. The sound of the water and the 
 sweetness of the flowers blended together, and produced 
 a lulling sensation, which nothing but his strong and 
 strange curiosity might have enabled Alroy to resist. Pro- 
 ceeding along a cloister of light airy workmanship which 
 connected the hall with the remainder of the buildings, 
 they stood before a lofty and sumptuous portal. 
 
 It was a monolith gate, thirty feet in height, formed of 
 one block of green and red jasper, and cut into the fanciful 
 undulating arch of the Saracens. The consummate artist 
 had seized the advantage afforded to him by the ruddy 
 veins of the precious stone, and had formed them in bold 
 relief into two vast and sinuous serpents, which shot forth 
 their crested heads and glittering eyes at Honain and his 
 companion. 
 
 The physician of the Caliph, taking his dagger from his 
 girdle, struck the head of one of the serpents thrice. The 
 massy portal opened with a whirl and a roar, and before 
 them stood an Abyssinian giant, 26 holding in his leash a 
 roaring lion. 
 
 ' Hush, Haroun ! ' said Honain to the animal, raising at 
 the same time his arm ; and the beast crouched in silence.
 
 64 ALROY. 
 
 ' Worthy Morgargon, I bring you a remembrance.' The 
 Abyssinian showed his tusks, larger and whiter than the 
 lion's, as he grinningly received the tribute of the courtly 
 Honain; and he uttered a few uncouth sounds, but he 
 could not speak, for he was a mute. 
 
 The jasper portal introduced the companions to a long 
 and lofty and arched chamber, lighted by high windows of 
 stained glass, hung with tapestry of silk and silver, covered 
 with prodigious carpets, and surrounded by immense 
 couches. And thus through similar chambers they pro- 
 ceeded, in some of which were signs of recent habitation, 
 until they arrived at another quadrangle nearly filled by a 
 most singular fountain which rose from a basin of gold 
 encrusted with pearls, and which was surrounded by figures 
 of every rare quadruped 27 in the most costly materials. 
 Here a golden tiger, with flaming eyes of ruby and flowing 
 stripes of opal, stole, after some bloody banquet, to the 
 refreshing brink ; a cameleopard raised its slender neck of 
 silver from the centre of a group of every inhabitant of the 
 forest ; and brilliant bands of monkeys, glittering with pre- 
 cious stones, rested, in every variety of fantastic posture, 
 on the margin of the basin. 
 
 The fountain itself was a tree of gold and silver 28 spread- 
 ing into innumerable branches, covered with every variety 
 of curious birds, their plumage appropriately imitated by 
 the corresponding tints of precious stones, and which 
 warbled in beautiful melody as they poured forth from 
 their bills the musical and refreshing element. 
 
 It was with difficulty that Alroy could refrain from an 
 admiring exclamation, but Honain, ever quick, turned to 
 him, with his finger pressed on his mouth, and quitting the 
 quadrangle, they entered the gardens. 
 
 Lofty terraces, dark masses of cypress, winding walks of 
 acacia, in the distance an interminable paradise, and here 
 and there a glittering pavilion and bright kiosk ! Its 
 appearance on the river had not prepared Alroy for the 
 extent of the palace itself. It seemed infinite, and it was 
 evident that he had only viewed a small portion of it.
 
 ALKOY. 65 
 
 While they were moving on, there suddenly arose a sound 
 of trumpets. The sound grew nearer and nearer, louder 
 and louder : soon was heard the tramp of an approaching 
 troop. Honain drew Alroy aside. A procession appeared 
 advancing from a dark grove of cypress. Pour hundred 
 men led as many white bloodhounds with collars of gold 
 and rubies. 29 Then came one hundred men, each with a 
 hooded hawk ; then six horsemen in rich dresses ; after 
 them a single horseman, mounted on a steed, marked on its 
 forehead with a star. 30 The rider was middle-aged, hand- 
 some, and dignified. He was plainly dressed, but the staff 
 of his hunting-spear was entirely of diamonds and the 
 blade of gold. He was followed by a company of Nubian 
 eunuchs, with their scarlet dresses and ivory battle-axes, 
 and the procession closed. 
 
 ' The Caliph,' whispered Honain, when they had passed, 
 placing at the same time his finger on his lip to prevent 
 any inquiry. This was the first intimation that had reached 
 Alroy of what he had already suspected, that he was a 
 visitor to the palace of the Commander of the Faithful. 
 
 The companions turned down a wild and winding walk, 
 which, after some time, brought them to a small and gently 
 sloping lawn, surrounded by cedar-trees of great size. Upon 
 the lawn was a kiosk, a long and many- windowed building, 
 covered with blinds, and further screened by an overhang- 
 ing roof. The kiosk was built of white and green marble, 
 the ascent to it was by a flight of steps the length of the 
 building, alternately of white and green marble, and nearly 
 covered with rose-trees. Honain went up these steps alone, 
 and entered the kiosk. After a few minutes he looked out 
 from the blinds and beckoned to Alroy. David advanced, 
 but Honain, fearful of some indiscretion, met him, and said 
 to him in a low whisper between his teeth, ' Remember you 
 are deaf, a mute, and a eunuch.' Alroy could scarcely 
 refrain from smiling, and the Prince of the Captivity and 
 the physician of the Caliph entered the kiosk together. 
 Two women, veiled, and two eunuchs of the guard, received 
 
 F
 
 66 ALKOY. 
 
 them in an antechamber. And then they passed into a 
 room which ran nearly the whole length of the kiosk, 
 opening on one side to the gardens, and on the other 
 supported by an ivory wall, with niches painted in green 
 fresco, and in each niche a rose-tree. Each niche, also, was 
 covered with an almost invisible golden grate, which con- 
 fined a nightingale, and made him constant to the rose he 
 loved. At the foot of each niche was a fountain, but, 
 instead of water, each basin was replenished Avith the purest 
 quicksilver. 31 The roof of the kiosk was of mother-of-pearl 
 inlaid with tortoise-shell ; the pavement, a mosaic of rare 
 marbles and precious stones, representing the most de- 
 licious fruits and the most beautiful flowers. Over this 
 pavement, a Georgian page flung at intervals refreshing 
 perfumes. At the end of this elegant chamber was a divan 
 of light green silk, embroidered with pearls, and covered 
 with cushions of white satin and gold. Upon one of these 
 cushions, in the middle of the divan, sat a lady, her eyes 
 fixed in abstraction upon a volume of Persian poetry lying 
 on her knees, one hand playing with a rosary of pearls and 
 emeralds, 32 and the other holding a long gold chain, which 
 imprisoned a white gazelle. 
 
 The lady looked up as Honain and his companion entered. 
 She was very young, as youthful as Alroy. Her long light 
 brown hair, drawn off a high white forehead covered with 
 blue veins, fell braided with pearls over each shoulder. Her 
 eyes were large and deeply blue ; her nose small, but high 
 and aquiline. The fairness of her face was dazzling, and, 
 when she looked up and greeted Honain, her lustrous 
 cheeks broke into dimples, the more fascinating from their 
 contrast with the general expression of her countenance, 
 which was haughty and derisive. The lady was dressed in. 
 a robe of crimson silk girded round her waist by a green 
 shawl, from which peeped forth the diamond hilt of a small 
 poniard. 33 Her round white arms looked infinitely small, 
 as they occasionally flashed forth from their large loose 
 hanging sleeves. One was covered with jewels, and the 
 right arm was quite bare.
 
 ALROY. 67 
 
 Honain advanced, and, bending, kissed the lady's prof- 
 fered hand. Alroy fell into the background. 
 
 ' They told me that the Rose of the World drooped this 
 morning,' said the Physician, bending again as he smiled, 
 ' and her slave hastened at her command to tend her.' 
 
 ' It was a south wind. The wind has changed, and the 
 Rose of the World is better,' replied the lady laughing. 
 
 Honain touched her pulse. 
 
 ' Irregular,' said the Physician. 
 
 ' Like myself,' said the lady. ' Is that a new slave ? ' 
 
 ' A recent purchase, and a great bargain. He is good- 
 looking, has the advantage of being deaf and dumb, and is 
 harmless in every respect.' 
 
 ' 'Tis a pity,' replied the lady ; ' it seems that all good- 
 looking people are born to be useless. I, for instance.' 
 
 ' Yet rumour whispers the reverse,' remarked the Phy- 
 sician. 
 
 ' How so ? ' inquired the lady. 
 
 ' The young King of KarasmeV 
 
 ' Poh ! I have made up my mind to detest him. A 
 barbarian ! ' 
 
 4 A hero!' 
 
 * Did you ever see him ? ' 
 1 1 have.' 
 
 ' Handsome ? * 
 ' An archangel.' 
 ' And sumptuous ? ' 
 
 * Is he not a conqueror ? All the plunder of the world 
 will be yours.' 
 
 ' I am tired of magnificence. I built this kiosk to 
 forget it.' 
 
 'It is not in the least degree splendid,' said Honain, 
 looking round with a smile. 
 
 * No,' answered the lady, with a self-satisfied air : ' here, 
 at least, one can forget one has the misfortune to be a 
 princess.' 
 
 ' It is certainly a great misfortune,' said the Physician. 
 
 F 2
 
 68 ALEOY. 
 
 * And yet it must be the only tolerable lot,' replied the 
 lady. 
 
 ' Assuredly,' replied Honain. 
 
 ' For our unhappy sex at least.' 
 
 ' Very unhappy.' 
 
 ' If I were only a man ! ' 
 
 ' What a hero you would be ! ' 
 
 ' I should like to live in endless confusion.' 
 
 ' I have not the least doubt of it.' 
 
 ' Have you got me the books ? ' eagerly inquired the 
 Princess. 
 
 ' My slave bears them,' replied Honain. 
 
 ' Let me see them directly.' 
 
 Honain took the bag from Alroy, and unfolded its con- 
 tents ; the very volumes of Greek romances which Ali, the 
 merchant, had obtained for him. 
 
 ' I am tired of poetry, said the Princess, glancing over 
 the costly volumes, and tossing them away ; ' I long to see 
 the world.' 
 
 ' You would soon be tired of that,' replied the Physician. 
 
 ' I suppose common people are never tired,' said the 
 Princess. 
 
 ' Except with labour,' said the Physician ; ' care keeps 
 them alive.' 
 
 ' What is care ? ' asked the Princess, with a smile. 
 
 ' It is a god,' replied the Physician, ' invisible, but 
 omnipotent. It steals the bloom from the cheek and light- 
 ness from the pulse ; it takes away the appetite, and turns 
 the hair grey.' 
 
 * It is no true divinity, then,' replied the Princess, but 
 an idol we make ourselves. I am a sincere Moslem, and 
 will not worship it. Tell me some news, Honain.' 
 
 ' The young King of Karasme ' 
 
 ' Again ! the barbarian ! You are in his pay. I'll none 
 of him. To leave one prison, and to be shut up in another, 
 why do you remind me of it ? No, my dear Hakim, if I 
 marry at all, I will marry to be free.' 
 
 ' An impossibility,' said Honain.
 
 ALEOY. CO 
 
 ' My mother was free till she was a queen and a slave. 
 I intend to end as she began. You know what she was.' 
 
 Honain knew well, but he was too politic not to affect 
 ignorance. 
 
 ' The daughter of a bandit,' continued the Princess, 'who 
 fought by the side of her father. That is existence ! I 
 must be a robber. 'Tis in the blood. I want my fate 
 foretold, Honain. You are an astrologer ; do it.' 
 
 ' I have already cast your nativity. Your star is a 
 comet.' 
 
 ' That augurs well ; brilliant confusion and erratic splen- 
 dour. I wish I were a star,' added the Princess in a deep 
 rich voice, and with a pensive air ; ' a star in the clear blue 
 sky, beautiful and free. Honain, Honain, the gazelle has 
 broken her chain, and is eating my roses.' 
 
 Alroy rushed forward and seized the graceful truant. 
 Honain shot him an anxious look; the Princess received 
 the chain from the hand of Alroy, and cast at him a scru- 
 tinising glance. 
 
 ' What splendid eyes the poor beast has got ! ' exclaimed 
 the Princess. 
 
 ' The gazelle ? ' inquired the Physician. 
 
 ' No, your slave,' replied the Princess. 
 
 ' Why, he blushes. Were he not deaf as well as dumb, 
 I could almost believe he understood me.' 
 
 ' He is modest,' replied Honain, rather alarmed ; ' and is 
 frightened at the liberty he has taken.' 
 
 ' I like modesty,' said the Princess ; ' it is interesting. I 
 am modest ; you think so ? ' 
 
 ' Certainly,' said Honain. 
 
 * And interesting ? ' 
 
 1 Very.' 
 
 ' I detest an interesting person. After all, there is 
 nothing like plain dulness.' 
 
 ' Nothing,' said Honain. 
 
 ' The day flows on so serenely in such society.' 
 
 ' It does,' said Honain. 
 
 ' No confusion : no scenes.'
 
 70 ALKOY. 
 
 ' None.' 
 
 ' I make it a role only to nave ugly slaves. 
 
 ' You are quite right.' 
 
 ' Honain, will you ever contradict me ? Tou know very 
 well I have the handsomest slaves in the world.' 
 
 ' Every one knows it.' 
 
 ' And do you know, I have taken a great fancy to your 
 new purchase, who, according to your account, is eminently 
 qualified for the post. Why, do you not agree with me ? ' 
 
 ' Why, yes ; I doubt not your Highness would find him 
 eminently qualified, and certainly few things would give 
 me greater pleasure than offering him for your acceptance ; 
 but I got into such disgrace by that late affair of the Cir- 
 cassian, that ' 
 
 ' Oh ! leave it to me,' said the Princess. 
 
 ' Certainly,' said the Physician, turning the conversation; 
 ' and when the young King of Karasme arrives at Bagdad, 
 you can offer him to his majesty as a present.' 
 
 ' Delightful ! and the king is really handsome and young 
 as well as brave ; but has he any taste ? ' 
 
 ' You have enough for both.' 
 
 ' If he would but make war against the Greeks ! ' 
 
 ' Why so violent against the poor Greeks ? ' 
 
 ' You know they are Giaours. Besides, they might beat 
 him, and then I should have the pleasure of being taken 
 prisoner.' 
 
 'Delightful!' 
 
 ' Charming ! to see Constantinople, and marry the Em- 
 peror.' 
 
 ' Marry the Emperor ! ' 
 
 ' To be sure. Of course he would fall in love with me.' 
 
 ' Of course.' 
 
 ' And then, and then, I might conquer Paris ! ' 
 
 'Paris!' 
 
 ' You have been at Paris ? ' 34 
 
 'Yes.' 
 
 * The men are shut up there,' said the Princess with a 
 omile, ' are they not ? and the women do what they like ? ' 
 
 ' You will always do what you like,' said Honain, rising.
 
 ALROY. 71 
 
 ' You are going ? ' 
 
 ' My visits must not be too long.' 
 
 ' Farewell, dear Honain ! ' said the Princess, with a me- 
 lancholy air. ' You are the only person who has an idea 
 in all Bagdad, and you leave me. A miserable lot is mine, 
 to feel everything, and be nothing. These books and 
 flowers, these sweet birds, and this fair gazelle : ah ! poets 
 may feign as they please, but how cheerfully would I 
 resign all these elegant consolations of a captive life for 
 one hour of freedom ! I wrote some verses on myself 
 yesterday ; take them, and get them blazoned for me by 
 the finest scribe in the city ; letters of silver on a violet 
 ground with a fine flowing border ; I leave the design to 
 you. Adieu ! Come hither, mute.' Alroy advanced to 
 her beckon, and knelt. ' There, take that rosary for thy 
 master's sake, and those dark eyes of thine.' 
 
 The companions withdrew, and reached their boat in 
 silence. It was sunset. The musical and sonorous voice 
 of the Muezzin resounded from the innumerable minarets 
 of the splendid city. Honain threw back the curtains of 
 the barque. Bagdad rose before them in huge masses of 
 sumptuous dwellings, seated amid groves and gardens. An 
 infinite population, summoned by the invigorating twilight, 
 poured forth in all directions. The glowing river was 
 covered with sparkling caiques, the glittering terraces with 
 showy groups. Splendour, and power, and luxury, and 
 beauty were arrayed before them in their most captivating 
 forms, and the heart of Alroy responded to their magni- 
 ficence. 
 
 ' A glorious vision ! ' said the Prince of the Captivity. 
 
 ' Very different from Hamadan,' said the physician of 
 the Caliph. 
 
 ' To-day I have seen wonders,' said Alroy. 
 
 ' The world is opening to you,' said Honain. 
 
 Alroy did not reply ; but after some minutes he said, in 
 a hesitating voice, ' Who was that lady ? ' 
 
 ' The Princess Schirene,' replied Honain, ' the favourite 
 daughter of the Caliph. Her mother was a Georgian and 
 a Giaour.'
 
 ALROY. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE moonlight fell upon the figure of Alroy lying on a 
 couch ; his face was hidden by his arm. He was motion- 
 less, but did not sleep. 
 
 He rose and paced the chamber with agitated steps ; 
 sometimes he stopped, and gazed on the pavement, fixed in 
 abstraction. He advanced to the window, and cooled his 
 feverish brow in the midnight air. 
 
 An hour passed away, and the young Prince of the Cap- 
 tivity remained fixed in the same position. Suddenly he 
 turned to a tripod of porphyry, and, seizing a rosary of 
 jewels, pressed it to his lips. 
 
 ' The Spirit of my dreams, she comes at last ; the form 
 for which I have sighed and wept ; the form which rose 
 upon my radiant vision when I shut my eyes against the 
 jarring shadows of this gloomy world. 
 
 ' Schirene ! Schirene ! here in this solitude I pour to 
 thee the passion long stored up : the passion of my life, no 
 common life, a life full of deep feeling and creative thought. 
 O beautiful ! more than beautiful ! for thou to me art as 
 a dream unbroken : why art thou not mine ? why lose a 
 moment in our glorious lives, and balk our destiny of half 
 its bliss ? 
 
 ' Fool, fool, hast thou forgotten ? The rapture of a 
 prisoner in his cell, whose wild fancy for a moment belies 
 his fetters ! The daughter of the Caliph and a Jew ! 
 
 ' Give me my fathers' sceptre. 
 
 4 A plague on talismans ! Oh ! I need no inspiration but 
 her memory, no magic but her name. By heavens ! I will 
 enter this glorious city a conqueror, or die. 
 
 ' Why, what is Life ? for meditation mingles ever with 
 my passion : why, what is Life ? Throw accidents to the 
 dogs, and tear off the painted mask of false society ! Here 
 am I a hero ; with a mind that can devise all things, and 
 a heart of superhuman daring, with youth, with vigour, 
 with a glorious lineage, with a form that has made full
 
 ALEOY. 73 
 
 many a lovely maiden of our tribe droop her fair head by 
 Hamadan's sweet fount, and I am, nothing. 
 
 ' Out on Society ! 'twas not made for me. I'll form my 
 own, and be the deity I sometimes feel. 
 
 ' We make our fortunes, and we call them Fate.' Thou 
 saidst well, Honain. Most subtle Sadducee ! The saintly 
 blood flowed in my fathers' veins, and they did nothing ; 
 but I have an arm formed to wield a sceptre, and I will 
 win one. 
 
 ' I cannot doubt my triumph. Triumph is a part of my 
 existence. I am born for glory, as a tree is born to bear 
 its fruit, or to expand its flowers. The deed is done. 'Tis 
 thought of, and 'tis done. I will confront the greatest of 
 my diademed ancestors, and in his tomb. Mighty Solo- 
 mon ! he wedded Pharaoh's daughter. Hah ! what a future 
 dawns upon my hope. An omen, a choice omen ! 
 
 ' Heaven and earth are mingling to form my fortunes. 
 My mournful youth, which I have so often cursed. I hail 
 thee : thou wert a glorious preparation ; and when, feeling 
 no sympathy with the life around me, I deemed myself a 
 fool, I find that I was a most peculiar being. By heavens, 
 I am joyful ; for the first time in my life I am joyful. I 
 could laugh, and fight, and drink. I am new-born ; I am 
 another being ; I am mad ! 
 
 ' Time, great Time ! the world belies thy fame. It 
 calls thee swift. Methinks thou art wondrous slow. Fly 
 on, great Time, and on thy coming wings bear me my 
 sceptre ! 
 
 ' All is to be. It is a lowering thought. My fancy, like 
 a bright and wearied bird, will sometimes flag and fall, and 
 then I am lost. The young King of Karasm6, a youthful 
 hero ! Would he had been Alschiroch ! My heart is sick 
 even at the very name. Alas ! my trials have not yet 
 begun. Jabaster warned me : good, sincere Jabaster ! His 
 talisman presses on my frantic heart, and seems to warn 
 me. I am in danger. Braggart to stand here, filling the 
 careless air with idle words, while all is unaccomplished. 
 I grow dull. The young King of Karasme ! Why, what
 
 74 ALEOY. 
 
 am I compared to this same prince ? Nothing, "but in my 
 thoughts. In the full bazaar, they would not deem me 
 
 worthy even to hold his stirrup or his slipper Oh ! 
 
 this contest, this constant, bitter, never-ending contest 
 between my fortune and my fancy ! Why do I exist ? or, if 
 existing, why am I not recognised as I would be ? 
 
 ' Sweet voice, that in Jabaster's distant cave descendedst 
 from thy holy home above, and whispered consolation, 
 breathe again ! Again breathe thy still summons to my 
 lonely ear, and chase away the thoughts that hover round 
 me ; thoughts dark and doubtful, like fell birds of prey 
 hovering around a hero in expectation of his fall, and 
 gloating on their triumph over the brave. There is some- 
 thing fatal in these crowded cities. Faith flourishes in 
 solitude.' 
 
 He threw himself upon the couch, and, leaning down 
 his head, seemed lost in meditation. He started up, and, 
 seizing his tablets, wrote upon them these words : 
 
 ' Honain, I have been the whole night like David in the 
 wilderness of Ziph ; but, by the aid of the Lord, I have con- 
 quered. I fly from this dangerous city upon his business, 
 which I have too much neglected. Attempt not to discover 
 me, and accept my gratitude.'
 
 ALROY. 75 
 
 PAET VI. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 A SCOECHING sun, a blue and burning sky, on every side 
 lofty ranges of black and barren mountains, dark ravines, 
 deep caverns, unfathomable gorges ! 
 
 A solitary being moved in the distance. Faint and 
 toiling, a pilgrim slowly clambered up the steep and stony 
 track. 
 
 The sultry hours moved on ; the pilgrim at length gained 
 the summit of the mountain, a small and rugged table-land, 
 strewn with huge masses of loose and heated rock. All 
 around was desolation : no spring, no herbage ; the bird 
 and the insect were alike mute. Still it was the summit : 
 no loftier peaks frowned in the distance ; the pilgrim 
 stopped, and breathed with more facility, and a faint smile 
 played over his languid and solemn countenance. 
 
 He rested a few minutes ; he took from his wallet some 
 locusts and wild honey, and a small skin of water. His 
 meal was short as well as simple. An ardent desire to 
 reach his place of destination before nightfall urged him to 
 proceed. He soon passed over the table-land, and com- 
 menced the descent of the mountain. A straggling olive- 
 tree occasionally appeared, and then a group, and soon the 
 groups swelled into a grove. His way woiind through tho 
 grateful and unaccustomed shade. He emerged from the 
 grove, and found that he had proceeded down more than 
 half the side of the mountain. It ended precipitously in 
 a dark and narrow ravine, formed on the other side by an 
 opposite mountain, the lofty steep of which was crested by 
 a city gently rising on a gradual slope. 
 
 Nothing could be conceived more barren, wild, and
 
 76 ALROY. 
 
 terrible than the surrounding scenery, unillumined by a 
 single trace of culture. The city stood like the last gla- 
 diator in an amphitheatre of desolation. 
 
 It was surrounded by a lofty turreted wall, of an archi- 
 tecture to which the pilgrim was unaccustomed : gates with 
 drawbridge and portcullis, square towers, and loopholes 
 for the archer. Sentinels, clothed in steel and shining in 
 the sunset, paced, at regular intervals, the cautious wall, 
 and on a lofty tower a standard waved, a snowy standard, 
 with a red, red cross ! 
 
 The Prince of the Captivity at length beheld the lost 
 capital of his fathers. 35 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 A FEW months back, and such a spectacle would have called 
 forth all the latent passion of Alroy ; but time and suffering, 
 and sharp experience, had already somewhat curbed the 
 fiery spirit of the Hebrew Prince. He gazed upon Jeru- 
 salem, he beheld the City of David garrisoned by the 
 puissant warriors of Christendom, and threatened by the 
 innumerable armies of the Crescent. The two great divi- 
 sions of the world seemed contending for a prize, which 
 he, a lonely wanderer, had crossed the desert to rescue. If 
 his faith restrained him from doubting the possibility of 
 his enterprise, he was at least deeply conscious that the 
 world was a very different existence from what he had 
 fancied amid the gardens of Hamadan and the rocks of 
 Caucasus, and that if his purpose could be accomplished, 
 it could only be effected by one means. Calm, perhaps 
 somewhat depressed, but full of pious humiliation, and not 
 deserted by holy hope, he descended into the Valley of 
 Jehoshaphat, and so, slaking his thirst at Siloah, and mount- 
 ing the opposite height, David Alroy entered Jerusalem 
 by the gate of Sion. 36 
 
 He had been instructed that the quarter allotted to his
 
 ALROY. 77 
 
 people was near this entrance. He inquired the direction 
 of the sentinel, who did not condescend to answer him. 
 An old man, in shabby robes, who was passing, beckoned 
 to him. 
 
 ' What want you, friend ? ' inquired Alroy. 
 
 ' You were asking for the quarter of our people. You 
 must be a stranger, indeed, in Jerusalem, to suppose that 
 a Frank would speak to a Jew. You were lucky to get 
 neither kicked nor cursed.' 
 
 ' Kicked and cursed ! Why, these dogs ' 
 
 ' Hush ! hush ! for the love of God,' said his new com- 
 panion, much alarmed. ' Have you lent money to their 
 captain that you speak thus ? In Jerusalem our people 
 speak only in a whisper.' 
 
 ' ISTo matter : the cure is not by words. Where is our 
 quarter.' 
 
 'Was the like ever seen! Why he speaks as if he 
 were a Frank. I save him from having his head broken 
 by a gauntlet, and ' 
 
 ' My friend, I am tired. Our quarter ? ' 
 
 ' Whom may you want ? ' 
 
 ' The Chief Rabbi.' 
 
 ' You bear letters to him ? ' 
 
 * What is that to you ? ' 
 
 ' Hush ! hush ! You do not know what Jerusalem is, 
 young man. You must not think of going on in this way. 
 Where do you come from ? ' 
 
 ' Bagdad.' 
 
 ' Bagdad ! Jerusalem is not Bagdad. A Turk is a brute, 
 but a Christian is a demon.' 
 
 ' But our quarter, our quarter ? ' 
 
 ' Hush ! you want the Chief Rabbi ? ' 
 
 ' Ay ! ay ! 
 
 ' Rabbi Zimri?' 
 
 ' It may be so. I neither know nor care.' 
 
 ' Neither knows nor cares ! This will never do : you 
 must not go on in this way at Jerusalem. You must not 
 think of it.'
 
 78 ALROY. 
 
 ' Fellow, I see thou art a miserable prattler. Show me 
 our quarter, and I will pay thee well, or be off.' 
 
 ' Be off ! Art thou a Hebrew ? to say 'be off ' to any 
 one. You come from Bagdad ! I tell you what, go back 
 to Bagdad. You will never do for Jerusalem.' 
 
 ' Your grizzled beard protects you. Old fool, I am a 
 pilgrim just arrived, wearied beyond expression, and you 
 keep me here listening to your flat talk ! ' 
 
 'Hat talk! Why! what would you ?' 
 
 ' Lead me to the Rabbi Zimri, if that be his name.' 
 
 ' If that be his name ! Why, every one knows Rabbi 
 Zimri, the chief rabbi of Jerusalem, the successor of Aaron. 
 We have our temple yet, say what they like. A very 
 learned doctor is Rabbi Zimri.' 
 
 ' Wretched driveller. I am ashamed to lose my patience 
 with such a dotard. 
 
 ' Driveller ! dotard ! Why, who are you ? ' 
 
 ' One you cannot comprehend. Without another word 
 lead me to your chief.' 
 
 ' Chief ! you have not far to go. I know no one of the 
 nation who holds his head higher than I do here, and they 
 call me Zimri.' 
 
 ' What, the Chief Rabbi, that very learned doctor ? ' 
 
 ' No less ; I thought you had heard of him.' 
 
 ' Let us forget the past, good Zimri. When great men 
 play the incognito, they must sometimes hear rough phrases. 
 It is the Caliph's lot as well as yours. I am glad to make 
 the acquaintance of so great a doctor. Though young, and 
 roughly habited, 1 have seen the world a little, and may 
 offer next Sabbath in the synagogue more dirhems than you 
 would perhaps suppose. Good and learned Zimri, I would 
 be your guest.' 
 
 ' A very worshipful young man ! And he speaks low 
 and soft now ! But it was lucky I was at hand. Good, 
 what's your name ? ' 
 
 ' David.' 
 
 ' A very honest name, good David. It was lucky I was 
 at hand when you spoke to the sentinel, though. A Jew
 
 ALROY. 79 
 
 speak to a Frank, and a sentinel too ! Hah ! hah ! hah ! 
 that is good. How Rabbi Maimon will laugh ! Faith it 
 was very lucky, now, was not it ? ' 
 
 ' Indeed, most fortunate.' 
 
 ' Well, that is candid ! Here ! this way. "Pis not far. 
 We number few, sir, of our brethren here, but a better time 
 will come, a better time will come.' 
 
 ' I think so. This is your door? ' 
 
 * An humble one. Jerusalem is not Bagdad, but you are 
 welcome.' 
 
 CHAPTER IH. 
 
 ' KING PIRGANDICUS 37 entered them,' said Rabbi Maimon, 
 ' but no one since.' 
 
 ' And when did he live ? ' inquired Alroy. 
 
 ' His reign is recorded in the Talmud,' answered Rabbi 
 Zimri, ' but in the Talmud there are no dates.' 
 
 ' A long while ago ? ' said Alroy. 
 
 * Since the Captivity,' answered Rabbi Maimon. 
 
 ' I doubt that,' said Rabbi Zimri, ' or why should he be 
 called king? ' 
 
 ' Was he of the house of David ? ' said Alroy. 
 
 ' Without doubt,' said Rabbi Maimon ; ' he was one of 
 our greatest kings, and conquered Julius Cassar.' 38 
 
 ' His kingdom was in the northernmost parts of Africa,' 
 said Rabbi Zimri, ' and exists to this day, if we could but 
 find it.' 
 
 ' Ay, truly,' added Rabbi Maimon, ' the sceptre has never 
 depai-ted out of Judah ; and he rode always upon a white 
 elephant.' 
 
 ' Covered with cloth of gold,' added Rabbi Zimri. 
 
 ' And he visited the Tombs of the Kings ? ' 39 inquired 
 Alroy. 
 
 * Without doubt,' said Rabbi Maimon. ' The whole ac- 
 count is in the Talmud.' 
 
 ' And no one can now find them? ' 
 
 ' No one,' replied Rabbi Zimri ; ' but, according to tnai
 
 80 ALROY. 
 
 learned doctor, Moses Hallevy, they are in a valley in the 
 mountains of Lebanon, which was sealed up by the Arch- 
 angel Michael.' 
 
 'The illustrious Doctor Abarbanel, of Babylon,' said 
 Rabbi Maimon, ' gives one hundred and twenty reasons in 
 his commentary on the Gemara to prove that they sunk 
 under the earth at the taking of the Temple.' 
 
 ' No one reasons like Abarbanel of Babylon,' said Rabbi 
 Zimri. 
 
 ' The great Rabbi Akiba, of Pundebita, has answered 
 them all,' said Rabbi Maimon, ' and holds that they were 
 taken up to heaven.' 
 
 'And which is right? ' inquired Rabbi Zimri. 
 
 * Neither,' said Rabbi Maimon. 
 
 ' One hundred and twenty reasons are strong proof,' said 
 Rabbi Zimri. 
 
 ' The most learned and illustrious Doctor Aaron Men- 
 dola, of Granada,' said Rabbi Maimon, 'has shown that 
 we must look for the Tombs of the Kings in the south of 
 Spain.' 
 
 ' All that Mendola writes is worth attention,' said Rabbi 
 Zimri. 
 
 ' Rabbi Hillel, 40 of Samaria, is worth two Mendolas any 
 day,' said Rabbi Maimon. 
 
 ' 'Tis a most learned doctor,' said Rabbi Zimri ; ' and 
 what thinks he ? ' 
 
 'Hillel proves that there are two Tombs of the Kings,' 
 said Rabbi Maimon, ' and that neither of them are the 
 right ones.' 
 
 ' What a learned doctor ! ' exclaimed Rabbi Zimri. 
 
 ' And very satisfactory,' remarked Alroy. 
 
 ' These are high subjects,' continued Maimon, his blear 
 eyes twinkling with complacency. ' Your guest, Rabbi 
 Zimri, must read the treatise of the learned Shimei, of 
 Damascus, on " Effecting Impossibilities." ' 
 
 ' That is a work ! ' exclaimed Zimri. 
 
 ' I never slept for three nights after reading that work,' 
 paid Rabbi Maimon. 'It containb twelve thousand five
 
 ALROY. 81 
 
 hundred and thirty-seven quotations from the Pentateuch, 
 and not a single original observation.' 
 
 ' There were giants in those days,' said Rabbi Zimri ; 
 ' we are children now.' 
 
 ' The first chapter makes equal sense, read backward or 
 forward,' continued Rabbi Maimon. 
 
 ' Ichabod ! ' exclaimed Rabbi Zimri. 
 
 ' And the initial letter of every section is a cabalistical 
 type of a king of Judah.' 
 
 ' The temple will yet be built,' said Rabbi Zimri. 
 
 ' Ay, ay ! that is learning ! ' exclaimed Rabbi Maimon ; 
 ' but what is the great treatise on " Effecting Impossibilities " 
 to that profound, admirable, and ' 
 
 ' Holy Rabbi ! ' said a youthful reader of the synagogue, 
 who now entered, 'the hour is at hand.' 
 
 ' You don't say so ! Learned Maimon, I must to the 
 synagogue. I could sit here all day listening to you. 
 Come, David, the people await us.' 
 
 Zimri and Alroy quitted the house, and proceeded along 
 the narrow hilly streets to the chief temple of the Hebrews. 
 
 ' It grieves the venerable Maimon much that he cannot 
 join us,' said Rabbi Zimri. ' Tou have doubtless heard of 
 him at Bagdad ; a most learned doctor.' 
 
 Alroy bowed in silence. 
 
 ' He bears his years well. You would hardly believe 
 that he was my master.' 
 
 ' I perceive that you inherit much of his erudition.' 
 
 'You are kind. If he have breathed one year, Rabbi 
 Maimon will be a hundred and ten next Passover.' 
 
 ' I doubt it not.' 
 
 ' When he is gathered to his fathers, a great light will 
 be extinguished in Israel. You wanted to know something 
 about the Tombs of the Kings ; I told you he was your 
 man. How full he was ! His mind, sir, is an egg.' 
 
 ' A somewhat ancient one. I fear his guidance will 
 hardly bring me the enviable fortune of King Pirgandicus.' 
 
 'Between ourselves, good David, talking of King 
 Pirgandicus, I cannot help fancying that the learned
 
 82 ALROY. 
 
 Maim on made a slight mistake. I hold Pirgandicus was 
 only a prince. It was after the Captivity, and I know no 
 authority for any of our rulers since the destruction as- 
 suming a higher title. Clearly a prince, eh ? But, though 
 I would whisper it to no one but you, I think our worthy 
 friend grows a little old. We should remember his years, 
 sir. A hundred and ten next Passover. "Tis a great 
 burden.' 
 
 ' Ay ! with his learning added, a very fearful burden 
 indeed ! ' 
 
 ' You have been a week in Jerusalem, and have not yet 
 visited our synagogue. It is not of cedar and ivory, but it 
 is still a temple. This way. Is it only a week that you 
 have been here ? Why, you look another man ! I shall 
 never forget our first meeting : you did not know me. 
 That was good, eh ? And when I told you I was the chief 1 
 Rabbi Zimri, how you changed ! Tou have quite regained 
 your appetite. Ah ! 'tis pleasant to mix once more with 
 our own people. To the left. So ! we must descend a 
 little. We hold our meetings in an ancient cemetery. 
 You have a finer temple, I warrant me, in Bagdad. Jeru- 
 salem is not Bagdad. But this has its conveniences. 'Tis 
 safe, and we are not very rich, nor wish to seem so.' 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 A LONG passage brought them to a number of small, 
 square, low chambers 41 leading into each other. They 
 were lighted by brass lamps, placed at intervals in vacant 
 niches, that once held corpses, and which were now soiled 
 by the smoky flame. Between two and three hundred in- 
 dividuals were assembled in these chambers, at first scarcely 
 distinguishable by those who descended from the broad 
 daylight ; but by degrees the eyesight became accustomed 
 to the dim and vaporous atmosphere, and Alroy recognised 
 in the final and more illumined chamber a high cedar
 
 ALROY. 83 
 
 cabinet, the type of the ark, and which held the sacred 
 vessels and the sanctified copy of the law. 
 
 Standing in lines, with their heads mystically covered, 42 
 the forlorn remnant of Israel, captives in their ancient city, 
 avowed, in spite of all their sufferings, their fidelity to their 
 God, and, notwithstanding all the bitterness of hope de- 
 layed, their faith in the fulfilment of his promises. Their 
 simple service was completed, their prayers were read, 
 their responses made, their law exhibited, and their chari- 
 table offerings announced by their high priest. After the 
 service, the venerable Zimri, opening a volume of the 
 Talmud, and fortified by the opinions of all those illus- 
 trious and learned doctors, the heroes of -his erudite con- 
 versations with the aged Maimon, expounded the law to 
 the congregation of the people. 43 
 
 ' It is written,' said the Rabbi, c " Thou shalt have none 
 other God but me." Now know ye what our father Abra- 
 ham said when Nimrod ordered him to worship fire ? "Why 
 not water," answered Abraham, "which can put out fire? 
 why not the clouds, which can pour forth water ? why not 
 the winds, which can produce clouds ? why not God, which 
 can create winds? " 
 
 A murmur of approbation sounded throughout the con- 
 gregation. 
 
 ' Eliezer,' said Zimri, addressing himself to a young 
 Rabbi, ' it is written, that he took a rib from Adam when 
 he was asleep. Is God then a robber? ' 
 
 The young Rabbi looked puzzled, and cast his eyes on 
 the ground. The congregation was perplexed and a little 
 alarmed. 
 
 ' Is there no answer ? ' said Zimri. 
 
 ' Rabbi,' said a stranger, a tall, swarthy African pilgrim, 
 standing in a corner, and enveloped in a red mantle, over 
 which a lamp threw a flickering light ; ' Rabbi, some rob- 
 bers broke into my house last night, and stole an earthen 
 pipkin, but they left a golden vase in its stead.' 
 
 ' It is well said ; it is well said,' exclaimed the congrega- 
 tion. The applause was loud. 
 
 G 2
 
 84 ALROY. 
 
 * Learned Zimri,' continued the African, ' it is written in 
 the Gremara, that there was a youth in Jerusalem who fell 
 in love with a beautiful damsel, and she scorned him. And 
 the youth was so stricken with his passion that he could 
 not speak ; but when he beheld her, he looked at her im- 
 ploringly, and she laughed. And one day the youth, not 
 knowing what to do with himself, went out into the desert ; 
 and towards night he returned home, but the gates of the 
 city were shut. And he went down into the valley of Je- 
 hoshaphat, and entered the tomb of Absalom and slept ; 44 
 and he dreamed a dream ; and next morning he came into 
 the city smiling. And the maiden met him, and she said, 
 " Is that thou ; art thou a laugher? " and he answered, 
 " Behold, yesterday being disconsolate. I went out of the 
 city into the desert, and I returned home, and the gates of 
 the city were shut, and I went down into the valley of 
 Jehoshaphat, and I entered the tomb of Absalom, and I 
 slept, and I dreamed a dream, and ever since then I have 
 laughed." And the damsel said, " Tell me thy dream." And 
 he answered and said, " I may not tell my dream only to 
 my wife, for it regards her honour." And the maiden grew 
 sad and curious, and said, " I am thy wife, tell me thy 
 dream." And straightway they went and were married, 
 and .ever after they both laughed. Now, learned Zimri, 
 what means this tale, an idle jest for a master of the law, 
 yet it is written by the greatest doctor of the Captivity ? ' 
 
 ' It passeth my comprehension,' said the chief Rabbi. 
 
 Rabbi Eliezer was silent ; the congregation groaned. 
 
 ' Now hear the interpretation,' said the African. ' The 
 youth is our people, and the damsel is our lost Sion, and 
 the tomb of Absalom proves that salvation can only come 
 from the house of David. Dost thou hear this, young 
 man? ' said the African, coming forward and laying his 
 hand on Alroy. ' I speak to thee, because I have observed a 
 deep attention in thy conduct.' 
 
 The Prince of the Captivity started, and shot a glance 
 at the dark visage before him, but the glance read nothing. 
 The upper part of the countenance of the African was half
 
 ALEOY. 85 
 
 concealed by masses of dark matted hair, and the lower by 
 his uncouth robes. A flashing eye was its only character- 
 istic, which darted forth like lightning out of a black 
 cloud. 
 
 ' Is my attention the only reason that induces you to 
 address me ? ' inquired Alroy. 
 
 ' Whoever gave all his reasons ? ' replied the African, 
 with a laughing sneer. 
 
 ' I seek not to learn them. Suffice it, stranger, that 
 how much soever- you may mean, as much I can under- 
 stand.' 
 
 ' "Tis well. Learned Ziruri, is this thy pupil? I congratu- 
 late thee. I will match him against the hopeful Ehezer.' 
 So saying, the lofty African stalked out of the chamber. 
 The assembly also broke up. Alroy would willingly have 
 immediately followed the African, and held some further 
 and more private conversation with him; but some minutes 
 elapsed, owing to the officious attentions of Zimri, before 
 he could escape ; and, when he did, his search after the 
 stranger was vain. He inquired among the congregation, 
 but none knew the African. He was no man's guest and 
 no man's debtor, and apparently had never before been 
 seen. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE trumpet was sounding to close the gates, as Alroy 
 passed the Sion entrance. The temptation was irresistible. 
 He rushed out, and ran for more than one hundred yards 
 without looking back, and when he did, he had the satis- 
 faction of ascertaining that he was fairly shut out for the 
 night. The sun had set, still the Mount of Olives was 
 flushed with the reflection of his dying beams, but Jehosh- 
 aphat at its feet was in deep shadow. 
 
 He wandered among the mountains for some time, be- 
 holding Jerusalem from a hundred different points of view, 
 and watching the single planets and clustering constella-
 
 86 ALEOY. 
 
 tions that gradually burst into beauty, or gathered into 
 light. At length, somewhat exhausted, he descended into 
 the vale. The scanty rill of Siloah 45 looked like a thread 
 of silver winding in the moonlight. "Some houseless 
 wretches were slumbering under the arch of its fountain. 
 Several isolated tombs of considerable size 46 rose at the 
 base of Olivet, and the largest of these Alroy entered. 
 Proceeding through a narrow passage, he entered a small 
 square chamber. On each side was an empty sarcophagus 
 of granite, one with its lid broken. Between these the 
 Prince of the Captivity laid his robe, and, wearied by his 
 ramble, soon soundly slept. 
 
 After some hours he woke. He fancied that he had been 
 wakened by the sound of voices. The chamber was not 
 quite dark. A straggling moonbeam fought its way 
 through an open fretwork pattern in the top of the tomb, 
 and just revealed the dim interior. Suddenly a voice 
 spoke, a strange and singular voice. 
 
 ' Brother, brother, the sounds of the night begin.' 
 
 Another voice answered, 
 
 ' Brother, brother, I hear them, too.' 
 
 ' The woman in labour ! ' 
 
 'The thief at his craft! ' 
 
 ' The sentinel's challenge ! ' 
 
 ' The murderer's step ! ' 
 
 ' Oh ! the merry sounds of the night ! ' 
 
 ' Brother, brother, let us come forth and wander about 
 the world.' 
 
 ' "We have seen all things. I'll lie here and listen to the 
 baying hound. 'Tis music for a tomb.' 
 
 ' Choice and rare. You are idle. I like to sport in the 
 starry air. Our hours are few, they should be fair.' 
 
 ' What shall we see, Heaven or Earth? ' 
 
 ' Hell for me, 'tis more amusing.' 
 
 ' As for me, I am sick of Hades.' 
 
 ' Let us visit Solomon ! ' 
 
 ' Iii his unknown metropolis ? ' 
 
 That will be rare.'
 
 ALROY. 87 
 
 ' But where, oh ! where ? ' 
 
 ' Even a spirit cannot tell. But they say, but they say, I 
 dare not whisper what they say.' 
 
 Who told you ? ' 
 
 ' No one. I overheard an Afrite whispering to a female 
 Ghoul he wanted to seduce.' 
 
 ' Hah, hah ! hah, hah ! choice pair, choice pair ! We are 
 more ethereal.' 
 
 ' She was a beauty in her way. Her eyes were lumi- 
 nous, though somewhat dank, and her cheek tinged with 
 carnation caught from infant blood.' 
 
 ' Oh ! gay ; oh ! gay ; what said they? ' 
 
 ' He was a deserter without leave from Solomon's body- 
 guard. The trull wriggled the secret out.' 
 
 ' Tell me, kind brother.' 
 
 ' I'll show, not tell.' 
 
 ' I pr'ythee tell me.' 
 
 ' Well, then, well. In Genthesma's gloomy cave there 
 is a river none has reached, and you must sail, and you 
 must sail Brother ! ' 
 
 'Ay.' 
 
 ' Methinks I smell something too earthly.' 
 
 'What's that?' 
 
 ' The breath of man.' 
 
 ' Scent more fatal than the morning air ! Away, 
 away ! ' 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 IN the range of mountains that lead from Olivet to the 
 river Jordan is the great cavern of Genthesma, a mighty 
 excavation formed by the combined and immemorial work 
 of Nature and of Art ; for on the high basaltic columns are 
 cut strange characters and unearthly forms, 47 and in many 
 places the natural ornaments have been completed by the 
 hands of the sculptor into_ symmetrical entablatures and 
 fanc,iful capitals, the work, they say, of captive Dives and 
 conquered Afrites, for the great king.
 
 88 ALKOY. 
 
 It was midaiglit ; the cold full moon showered its 
 brilliancy upon this narrow valley, shut in on all sides by 
 black and barren mountains. A single being stood at the 
 entrance of the cave. 
 
 It was Alroy. Desperate and determined, after listening 
 to the spirits in the tomb, he resolved to penetrate the 
 mysteries of Grenthesma. He took from his girdle a flint 
 and steel, with which he lighted a torch and then he 
 entered. 
 
 The cavern narrowed as he cautiously advanced, and 
 soon he found himself at the head of an evidently arti- 
 ficial gallery. A crowd of bats rushed forward and ex- 
 tinguished his torch. 48 He leant down to relight it, and 
 in so doing observed that he trod upon an artificial pave- 
 ment. 
 
 The gallery was of great extent, with a gradual de- 
 clination. 49 Being in a straight line with the mouth of 
 the cavern, the moonlit scene was long visible, but Alroy, 
 on looking round, now perceived that the exterior was shut 
 out by the eminence that he had left behind him. The 
 sides of the gallery were covered with strange and sculp- 
 tured forms. 
 
 The Prince of the Captivity proceeded along this gallery 
 for nearly two hours. A distant murmur of falling water, 
 which might have been distinguished nearly from the first, 
 increased in sound as he advanced, and now, from the loud 
 roar and dash at hand, he felt that he was on the brink of 
 some cataract. It was very dark. His heart trembled. 
 He felt his footing ere he ventured to advance. The spray 
 suddenly leaped forward and extinguished his torch. His 
 imminent danger filled him with terror, and he receded 
 some paces, but in vain endeavoured to re-illumine his 
 torch, which was soaked with water. 
 
 His courage deserted him. Energy and exertion seemed 
 hopeless. He was about to deliver himself up to despair, 
 when an expanding lustre attracted his attention in the 
 opposing gloom. 
 
 A small and bright red cloud seemed sailing towards
 
 ALROY. 89 
 
 him. It opened, discharged from its bosom a silvery star, 
 and dissolved again into darkness. But the star remained, 
 the silvery star, and threw a long line of tremulous light 
 upon the vast and raging rapid, which now, fleet and foam- 
 ing, revealed itself on all sides to the eye of Alroy. 
 
 The beautiful interposition in his favour re-animated the 
 adventurous pilgrim. A dark shadow in the foreground, 
 breaking the line of light shed by the star upon the waters, 
 attracted his attention. He advanced, regained his former 
 footing, and more nearly examined it. It was a boat, and 
 in the boat, mute ^nd immovable, sat one of those vast, 
 singular, and hideous forms, which he had observed sculp- 
 tured on the walls of the gallery. 
 
 David Alroy, committing his fortunes to the God of 
 Israel, leapt into the boat. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 AND at the same moment the Afrite, for it was one of 
 those dread beings, 80 raised the oars, and the boat moved. 
 The falling waters suddenly parted in the long line of 
 the star's reflection, and the barque glided through their 
 high and severed masses. 
 
 In this wise they proceeded for a few minutes, until they 
 entered a beautiful and moonlit lake. In the distance 
 was a mountainous country. Alroy examined his com- 
 panion with a feeling of curiosity not unmixed with terror. 
 It was remarkable that Alroy could never succeed in any 
 way in attracting his notice. The Afrite seemed totally 
 unconscious of the presence of his passenger. At length 
 the boat reached the opposite shore of the lake, and the 
 Prince of the Captivity disembarked. 
 
 He disembarked at the head of an avenue of colossal 
 lions of red granite, 81 extending far as the eye could reach, 
 and ascending the side of the mountain, which was cab 
 into a flight of magnificent steps. The easy ascent was
 
 90 ALKOY. 
 
 in consequence soon accomplished, and Alroy, proceeding 
 along the avenue of lions, soon gained the summit of the 
 mountain. 
 
 To his infinite astonishment he beheld Jerusalem. That 
 strongly-marked locality could not be mistaken : at his feet 
 were Jehoshaphat, Kedron, Siloah ; he stood upon Olivet ; 
 before him was Sion. But in all other respects, how 
 different was the landscape from the one that he had 
 gazed upon a few days back, for the first time ! The sur- 
 rounding hills sparkled with vineyards, and glowed with 
 summer palaces, and voluptuous pavilions, and glorious 
 gardens of pleasure. The city, extending all over Mount 
 Sion, was encompassed with a wall of white marble, with 
 battlements of gold ; a gorgeous mass of gates and pillars, 
 and gardened terraces ; lofty piles of rarest materials, ce- 
 dar, and ivory, and precious stones ; and costly columns 
 of the richest workmanship and the most fanciful orders, 
 capitals of the lotus and the palm, and flowing friezes of 
 the olive and the vine. 
 
 And in the front a mighty Temple rose, with inspira- 
 tion in its very form ; a Temple so vast, so sumptuous, 
 that there needed no priest to tell us that no human hand 
 planned that sublime magnificence ! 
 
 ' Grod of my fathers ! ' said Alroy, ' I am a poor, weak 
 thing, and my life has been a life of dreams and visions, 
 and I have sometimes thought my brain lacked a sufficient 
 master ; where am I ? Do I sleep or live ? Am I a 
 slumberer or a ghost? This trial is too much.' He sank 
 down, and hid his face in his hands : his over-exerted 
 mind appeared to desert him : he wept. 
 
 Many minutes elapsed before Alroy grew composed. 
 His wild bursts of weeping sank into sobs, and the sobs 
 died off into sighs. And at length, calm from exhaustion, 
 he again looked up, and lo ! the glorious city was no 
 more ! Before him was a moon-lit plain, over which the 
 avenue of lions still advanced, and appeared to terminate 
 only in the mountainous distance. 
 
 This limit the Prince of the Captivity at length reached,
 
 ALEOY. 91 
 
 and stood before a stupendous portal, cut out of the solid 
 rock, four hundred feet in height, and supported by clusters 
 of colossal Caryatides. 52 Upon the portal were -engraven 
 some Hebrew characters, which upon examination proved 
 to be the same as those upon the talisman of Jabaster. 
 And so, taking from his bosom that all-precious and long- 
 cherished deposit, David Alroy, in obedience to his instruc- 
 tions, pressed the signet against the gigantic portal. 
 
 The portal opened with a crash of thunder louder than 
 an earthquake. Pale, panting, and staggering, the Prince 
 of the Captivity entered an illimitable hall, illumined by 
 pendulous balls of glowing metal. On each side of the 
 hall, sitting on golden thrones, was ranged a line of kings, 
 and, as the pilgrim entered, the monarchs rose, and took off 
 their diadems, and waved them thrice, and thrice repeated, 
 in solemn chorus. ' All hail, Alroy ! Hail to thee, brother 
 king ! Thy crown awaits thee ! ' 
 
 The Prince of the Captivity stood trembling, with his 
 eyes fixed upon the ground, and leaning breathless against 
 a column. And when at length he had a little recovered 
 himself, and dared again to look up, he found that the 
 monarchs were re- seated ; and, from their still and vacant 
 visages, apparently unconscious of his presence. And this 
 emboldened him, and so, staring alternately at each side 
 of the hall, but with a firm, perhaps desperate step, Alroy 
 advanced. 
 
 And he came to two thrones which were set apart from 
 the others in the middle of the hall. On one was seated a 
 noble figure, far above the common stature, with arms 
 folded and down-cast eyes. His feet rested upon a broken 
 sword and a shivered sceptre, which told that he was a 
 monarch, in spite of his discrowned head. 
 
 And on the opposite throne was a venerable personage, 
 with a long flowing beard, and dressed in white raiment. 
 His countenance was beautiful, although ancient. Age had 
 stolen on without its imperfections, and time had only in- 
 vested it with a sweet dignity and solemn grace. The coun- 
 tenance of the king was upraised with a seraphic gaze,
 
 92 ALROY. 
 
 and, as lie thus looked up on high, with eyes full of love, 
 and thanksgiving, and praise, his consecrated fingers seemed 
 to touch the trembling wires of a golden harp. 
 
 And farther on, and far above the rest, upon a throne 
 that stretched across the hall, a most imperial presence 
 straightway flashed upon the startled vision of Alroy. 
 Fifty steps of ivory, and each step guarded by golden 
 lions, 53 led to a throne of jasper. A dazzling light blazed 
 forth from the glittering diadem and radiant countenance 
 of him who sat upon the throne, one beautiful as a woman, 
 but with the majesty of a god. And in one hand he held a 
 seal, and in the other a sceptre. 
 
 And when Alroy had reached the foot of the throne, he 
 stopped, and his heart misgave him. And he prayed for 
 some minutes in silent devotion, and, without daring to 
 look up, he mounted the first step of the throne, and the 
 second, and the third, and so on, with slow and faltering 
 feet, until he reached the forty- ninth step. 
 
 The Prince of the Captivity raised his eyes. He stood 
 before the monarch face to face. In vain Alroy attempted 
 to attract his attention, or to fix his gaze. The large dark 
 eyes, full of supernatural lustre, appeared capable of 
 piercing all things, and illuminating all things, but they 
 flashed on without shedding a ray upon Alroy. 
 
 Pale as a spectre, the pilgrim, whose pilgrimage seemed 
 now on the point of completion, stood cold and trembling 
 before the object of all his desires and all his labours. But 
 he thought of his country, his people, and his God ; and, 
 while his noiseless lips breathed the name of Jehovah, 
 solemnly he put forth his arm, and with a gentle firmness 
 grasped the unresisting sceptre of his great ancestor. 
 
 And, as he seized it, the whole scene vanished from his 
 sight !
 
 ALROY. 93 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 HOURS or years might have passed away, so far as the 
 sufferer was concerned, when Alroy again returned to self- 
 consciousness. His eyes slowly opened, he cast around a 
 vacant stare, he was lying in the cavern of Genthesma. 
 The moon had set, but the morn had not broken. A single 
 star glittered over the brow of the black mountains. He 
 faintly moved his limbs ; he would have raised his hand to 
 his bewildered brain, but found that it grasped a sceptre. 
 The memory of the past returned to him. He tried to rise, 
 and found that he was reposing in the arms of a human 
 being. He turned his head ; he met the anxious gaze of 
 Jabaster !
 
 94 AUIOY. 
 
 PAST VII. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 * YOUR pace is troubled, uncle.' 
 
 ' So is my mind.' 
 
 ' All may go well.' 
 
 ' Miriam, we have seen the best. Prepare yourself for 
 sorrow, gentle girl. I care not for myself, for I am old, 
 and age makes heroes of us all. I have endured, and can 
 endure more. As we approach our limit, it would appear 
 that our minds grow callous. I have seen my wealth, 
 raised with the labours of a thoughtful life, vanish in a 
 morn : my people, a fragile remnant, nevertheless a people, 
 dispersed, or what is worse. I have wept for them, al- 
 though no tear of selfish grief has tinged this withered 
 cheek. And, were I but alone, ay ! there's the pang. The 
 solace of my days is now my sorrow.' 
 
 ' Weep not for me, dear uncle. Rather let us pray that 
 our God will not forsake us.' 
 
 'We know not when we are well. Our hours stole 
 tranquilly along, and then we murmured. Prospering, we 
 murmured, and now we are rightly stricken. The legend 
 of the past is Israel's bane. The past is a dream ; and, in 
 the waking present, we should discard the enervating 
 shadow. Why should we be free ? We murmured against 
 captivity. This is captivity : this damp, dim cell, where 
 we are brought to die. 
 
 *O! youth, rash youth, thy being is destruction. But 
 yesterday a child, it seems but yesterday I nursed him in. 
 these arms, a thoughtless child, and now our house has 
 fallen by his deeds. I will not think of it; 'twill make 
 me mad.' 
 
 ' Uncle ; dearest uncle, we have lived together, and we 

 
 ALROY. 95 
 
 will die together, and both in love ; but, I pray you, speak 
 no harsh word of David.' 
 
 ' Shall I praise him? ' 
 
 ' Say nothing. What he has done, if done in grief, has 
 been done all in honour. "Would you that he had spared 
 Alschiroch? ' 
 
 ' Never ! I would have struck him myself. Brave boy, 
 he did his duty ; and I, I, Miriam, thy uncle, at whom they 
 wink behind his back and call him niggard, was I wanting 
 in that hour of trial ? Was my treasure spared to save my 
 people? Did I shrink from all the toil and trouble of that 
 time ? A trying time, my Miriam, but compared with this, 
 the building of the Temple ' 
 
 ' You were then what you have ever been, the best and 
 wisest. And since our fathers' God did not forsake us, even 
 in that wilderness of wildest woe, I offer gratitude in pre- 
 sent faith, and pay him for past mercies by my prayers for 
 more.' 
 
 ' Well, well, life must end. The hour approaches when 
 we must meet our rulers and mock trial ; precious justice 
 that begins in threats and ends in torture. You are silent, 
 Miriam.' 
 
 ' I am speaking to my God.' 
 
 ' What is that noise ? A figure moves behind the 
 dusky grate. Our gaoler. N"o, no, it is Caleb ! Faithful 
 child, I fear you have perilled much.' 
 
 'I enter with authority, my lord, and bear good 
 tidings.' 
 
 ' He smiles ! Is't possible ? Speak on, speak on ! ' 
 
 ' Alroy has captured the harem of our Governor, as 
 they journeyed from Badgad to this city, guarded by his 
 choicest troops. And he has sent to offer that they shall 
 be exchanged for you and for your household. And 
 Hassan has answered that his women shall owe their free- 
 dom to nothing but his sword. But, in the meantime, it 
 is agreed between him and the messenger of your nephew, 
 that both companies of prisoners shall be treated with all 
 becoming courtesy. You, therefore, are remanded to your
 
 96 ALEOY. 
 
 palace, and the trumpet is now sounding before the great 
 mosque to summon all the host against Alroy, whom Hassan 
 has vowed to bring to Hamadan dead or alive.' 
 
 * The harem of the Governor, guarded too by his choicest 
 troops! 'Tis a great deed. He did remember us. Faithful 
 boy ! The harem of the Governor ! his choicest troops ! 
 'Tis a very great deed. Methinks the Lord is with him. 
 He has his great father's heart. Only think of David, a 
 child ! I nursed him, often. Caleb ! Can this be David, 
 our David, a child, a girl ? Yet he struck Alschiroch ! 
 Miriam ! where is she ? Worthy Caleb, look to your 
 mistress ; she has fallen. Quite gone ! Fetch water. 'Tis 
 not very pure, but we shall be in our palace soon. The 
 harem of the Governor ! I can't believe it. Sprinkle, 
 sprinkle. David take them prisoners ! Why, when they 
 pass, we are obliged to turn our heads, and dare not look. 
 More water : I'll rub her hand. 'Tis warmer ! Her eyes 
 open ! Miriam, choice news, my child ! The harem of the 
 Governor ! I'll not believe it ! ' 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ' ONCE more within our walls, Caleb. Life is a miracle. 
 I feel young again. This is home ; and yet I am a prisoner. 
 You said the host were assembling; he can have no chance. 
 Think you, Caleb, he has any chance ? I hope he will die. 
 I would not have him taken. I fear their tortures. We 
 will die too ; we will all die. Now I am out of that dun- 
 geon, methinks I could even fight. Is it true that he has 
 joined with robbers? ' 
 
 ' I saw the messenger, and learnt that he first repaired 
 to some bandits in the ruins in the desert. He had become 
 acquainted with them in his pilgrimage. They say their 
 leader is one of our people.' 
 
 'I am glad of that. He can eat with him. I would 
 not have him eat unclean things with the Ishmaelites.'
 
 ALKOY. 97 
 
 ' Lord, sir ! our people gather to him from all quarters. 
 'Tis said that Jabaster, the great Cabalist, has joined him 
 from the mountains with ten thousand men.' 
 
 ' The great Jabaster ! then there is some chance. I 
 know Jabaster well. He is too wise to join a desperate 
 cause. Art sure about Jabaster ? 'Tis a great name, a 
 very potent spirit. I have heard such things of that 
 Jabaster, sir, would make you stare like Saul before the 
 spirit ! Only think of our David, Caleb, making all this 
 noise ! I am full of hope. I feel not like a prisoner. He 
 beat the Harem guard, and, now he has got Jabaster, he 
 will beat them all.' 
 
 ' The messenger told me he captured the Harem, only to 
 free his uncle and his sister.' 
 
 ' He ever loved me ; I have done my duty to him ; I 
 think I have. Jabaster ! why, man, the name is a spell ! 
 There are men at Bagdad who will get up in the night to 
 join Jabaster. I hope David will follow his counsels in all 
 things. I would I had seen his servant, I could have sent 
 him a message.' 
 
 ' Lord, sir ! the Prince Alroy has no great need of coun- 
 sellors, I can tell you. 'Tis said he bears the sceptre of 
 great Solomon, which he himself obtained in the unknown 
 tombs of Palestine.' 
 
 ' The sceptre of Solomon ! could I but believe it ! 'Tis 
 an age of wonders ! Where are we ? Call for Miriam, I'll 
 tell her this. Only think of David, a mere child, our 
 David with the sceptre of Solomon ! and Jabaster too ! I 
 have great faith. The Lord confound his enemies !' 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 ' GENTLE Rachel, I fear I trouble you ; sweet Beruna, I 
 thank you for your zeal. I am better now ; the shock was 
 great. These are strange tidings, maidens.' 
 
 'Yes, dear lady! who would have thought of your 
 brother turning out a Captain ? ' 
 
 H
 
 98 ALROY. 
 
 ' I am sure I always thought he was the quietest person 
 in the world,' said Beruna, 'though he did kill Alschi- 
 roch.' 
 
 ' One could never get a word out of him,' said Rachel. 
 
 ' He was always moping alone,' said Beruna. 
 
 ' And when one spoke to him he always turned away,' 
 said Leah. 
 
 ' Or blushed,' added Imra. 
 
 ' "Well, for my part,' said the beautiful Bathsheba, ' I 
 always thought Prince David was a genius. He had such 
 beautiful eyes ! ' 
 
 ' I hope he "will conquer Hassan,' said Rachel. 
 
 ' So do I,' said Beruna. 
 
 ' I wonder what he has done with the Harem,' said 
 Leah. * 
 
 ' I don't think he will dare to speak to them,' said Imra. 
 
 ' You are very much mistaken,' said Bathsheba. 
 
 ' Hark ! ' said Miriam. 
 
 ' 'Tis Hassan,' said Bathsheba ; ' may he never return ! ' 
 
 The wild drum of the Seljuks sounded, then a flourish of 
 their fierce trumpets, and soon the tramp of horse. Behind 
 the blinds of their chamber, Miriam and her maidens be- 
 held the magnificent troop of turbaned horsemen, who, 
 glittering with splendid armour and bright shawls, and 
 proudly bounding on their fiery steeds, now went forth to 
 crash and conquer the only hope of Israel. Upon an 
 Arab, darker than night, rode the superb Hassan, and, as 
 he passed the dwelling of his late prisoners, whether from 
 the exulting anticipation of coming triumph, or from a soft 
 suspicion that, behind that lattice, bright eyes and brilliant 
 faces were gazing on his sta<te, the haughty but handsome 
 Seljuk flourished his scimetar over his head, as he threw 
 his managed steed into attitudes that displayed the skill of 
 its rider. 
 
 ' He is handsomer than Alschiroch,' said Rachel. 
 
 ' What a shawl ! ' said Beruna. 
 
 ' His scimetar was like lightning,' said Leah. 
 
 ' And his steed like thunder,' said Imra.
 
 ALROY. 99 
 
 ' The evil eye fall on him ! ' said Bathsheba. 
 ' Lord,' exclaimed Miriam, ' remember David and all his 
 afflictions ! ' 
 
 CHAPTER IV.- 
 
 THE deserted city of the wilderness presented a very 
 different appearance from that which met the astonished 
 gaze of Alroy, when he first beheld its noble turrets, and 
 wandered in its silent streets of palaces. 
 
 Without the gates was pitched a numerous camp of 
 those low black tents common among the Kourds and Turk- 
 mans ; the principal street was full of busy groups engaged 
 in all the preparations of warfare, and all the bustling ex- 
 pedients of an irregular and adventurous life ; steeds were 
 stalled in ruined chambers, and tall camels raised their 
 still visages among the clustering columns, or crouched 
 in kneeling tranquillity amid fallen statues and prostrate 
 obelisks. 
 
 Two months had scarcely elapsed since Alroy and Ja- 
 baster had sought Scherirah in his haunt, and announced 
 to him their sacred mission. The callous heart of him, 
 whose ' mother was a Jewess,' had yielded to their inspired 
 annunciations. He embraced their cause with all the 
 fervour of conversion, and his motley band were not long 
 sceptical of a creed which, while it assuredly offered danger 
 and adventure, held out the prospects of wealth and even 
 empire. From the city of the wilderness the new Messiah 
 sent forth his messengers to the neighbouring cities, to 
 announce his advent to his brethren in captivity. The 
 Hebrews, a proud and stiff-necked race, ever prone to re- 
 bellion, received the announcement of their favourite 
 prince with transport. The descendant of David, and the 
 slayer of Alschiroch, had double claims upon their confi- 
 dence and allegiance, and the flower of the Hebrew youth 
 in the neighbouring cities of the Caliphate repaired in 
 crowds to pay their homage to the recovered sceptre of 
 Solomon. 
 
 H 2
 
 100 ALEOY. 
 
 The affair was at first treated by the government with con- 
 tempt, and the sultan of the Seljuks contented himself 
 with setting a price upon the head of the murderer of his 
 brother; but, when several cities had been placed under 
 contribution, and more than, one Moslem caravan stopped, 
 and plundered in the name of the God of Abraham, of 
 Isaac, and of Jacob, orders were despatched from Bagdad 
 to the new governor of Hamadan, Hassan Subah, to sup- 
 press the robbers, or the rebels, and to send David Alroy 
 dead or alive to the capital. 
 
 The Hebrew malcontents were well apprised by their less 
 adventurous but still sympathising brethren of everything 
 that took place at the head-quarters of the enemy. Spies 
 arrived on the same day at the city of the wilderness, who 
 informed Alroy that his uncle was thrown into a dungeon 
 at Hamadan, and that a body of chosen troops were about 
 to escort a royal harem from Bagdad into Persia. 
 
 Alroy attacked the escort in person, utterly discomfited 
 them, and captured their charge. It proved to be the 
 harem of the Governor of Hamadan, and if for a moment 
 the too sanguine fancy of the captor experienced a passing 
 pang of disappointment, the prize at least obtained, as we 
 have seen, the freedom and security of his dear though dis- 
 tant friends. This exploit precipitated the expedition 
 which was preparing at Hamadan for his destruction. The 
 enraged Hassan Subah started from his divan, seized his 
 scimetar, and without waiting for the auxiliaries he had 
 summoned from the neighbouring chieftains, called to horse, 
 and at the head of two thousand of the splendid Seljuk 
 cavalry, hurried to vindicate his love and satiate his revenge. 
 
 Within the amphitheatre which he first entered as a 
 prisoner, Alroy sat in council. On his right was Jabaster, 
 Scherirah on his left. A youth, little his senior, but tall 
 as a palm-tree, and strong as a young lion, was the fourth 
 captain. In the distance, some standing, some reclining, 
 were about fifty men completely armed. 
 
 ' Are the people numbered, Abner ? ' inquired Alroy of 
 the youth.
 
 ALKOY. 101 
 
 
 
 'Even so; three hundred effective horsemen, and two 
 thousand footmen ; but the footmen lack arms.' 
 
 'The Lord will send them in good time,' said Jabaster ; 
 ' meanwhile let them continue to make javelins.' 
 
 ' Trust in the Lord,' murmured Scherirah, bending his 
 head, with his eyes fixed on the ground. 
 
 A loud shout was heard throughout the city. Alroy 
 started from his carpet. The messenger had returned. 
 Pale and haggard, covered with sweat and sand, the faith- 
 ful envoy was borne into the amphitheatre almost upon 
 the shoulders of the people. In vain the guard endea- 
 voured to stem the passage of the multitude. They clam- 
 bered up the tiers of arches, they filled the void and 
 crumbling seats of the antique circus, they supported them- 
 selves upon each other's shoulders, they clung to the 
 capitals of the lofty columns. The whole multitude had 
 assembled to hear the intelligence ; the scene recalled the 
 ancient purpose of the building, and Alroy and his 
 fellow-warriors seemed like the gladiators of some old 
 spectacle. 
 
 ' Speak,' said Alroy, ' speak the worst. No news can 
 be bitter to those whom the Lord will avenge.' 
 
 ' Ruler of Israel ! thus saith Hassan Subah,' answered 
 the messenger : ' My harem shall owe their freedom to 
 nothing but my sword. I treat not with rebels, but I war 
 not with age or woman ; and between Bostenay and his 
 household on one side, and the prisoners of thy master on 
 the other, let there be peace. Go, tell Alroy I will seal it 
 in his best blood. And lo ! thy uncle and thy sister are 
 again in their palace.' 
 
 Alroy placed his hand for a moment to his eyes, and then 
 instantly resuming his self-possession, he enquired as to the 
 movements of the enemy. 
 
 ' I have crossed the desert on a swift dromedary 64 lent to 
 me by Shelomi of the Gate, whose heart is with our cause. 
 I have not tarried, neither have I slept. Ere to-morrow's 
 sunset the Philistines will be here, led by Hassan Subah 
 himself. ' The Lord of Hosts be with us ! Since we con-
 
 102 ALROY. 
 
 quered Canaan, Israel hath not. straggled with such a 
 power ! ' 
 
 A nrurnrur ran through the assembly. Men exchanged 
 enquiring glances, and involuntarily pressed each other's 
 arms. 
 
 ' The trial has come, 1 said a middle-aged Hebrew, who 
 had fought twenty years ago with Jabaster. 
 
 'Let me die for the Ark ! ' said a young enthusiast of the 
 band of Abner. 
 
 ' I thought we should get into a scrape,' whispered Kis- 
 loch the Kourd to Calidas the Indian. ' What could have 
 ever induced us to give up robbing in a quiet manner ? ' 
 
 ' And turn Jews ! ' said the Guebre, with a sneer. 
 
 ' Look at Scherirah,' said the Negro, grinning. ' If he is 
 not kissing the sceptre of Solomon ! ' 
 
 ' I wish to heaven he had only hung Alroy the first time 
 he met him,' said Calidas. 
 
 ' Sons of the Covenant! ' exclaimed Alroy, ' the Lord hath 
 delivered them into our hands. To-morrow eve we march 
 to Hamadan ! ' 
 
 A cheer followed this exclamation. 
 
 ' It is written,' said Jabaster, opening a volume, ' Lo ! I 
 will defend this city, to save it, for mine own sake, and for 
 my servant David's sake.' 
 
 ' And it came to pass that night that the angel of the 
 Lord went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians, an 
 hundred four score and five thousand ; and when they arose 
 early in the morning, behold! they were all dead corpses.' 
 
 ' Now, as I was gazing upon the stars this morn, and 
 reading the celestial alphabet known to the true Cabalist, 55 
 behold ! the star of the house of David and seven other stars 
 moved, and met together, and formed into a circle. And 
 the word they formed was a mystery to me ; but lo ! I have 
 opened the book, and each star is the initial letter of each 
 line of the Targum that I have now read to you. There- 
 fore the fate of Sennacherib is the fate of Hassan Subah ! ' 
 
 * TRUST IN HIM AT ALL TIMES, YE PEOPLE ; POUR OUT TOUR 
 HEART BEFORE HIM : GOD IS A REFUGE FOR US. SELAH ! '
 
 ALROY. 103 
 
 At this moment a female form appeared on the very top 
 of the amphitheatre, upon the slight remains of the upper- 
 most tier of which a solitary arch alone was left. The 
 chorus instantly died away, every tongue was silent, every 
 eye fixed. Hushed, mute, and immovable, even Kisloch and 
 his companions were appalled as they gazed upon Esther 
 the Prophetess. 
 
 Her eminent position, her imposing action, the flashing 
 of her immense eyes, her beautiful but awful countenance, 
 her black hair, that hung almost to her knees, and the white 
 light of the moon, just rising over the opposite side of the 
 amphitheatre, and which threw a silvery flash upon her 
 form, and seemed to invest her with some miraculous ema- 
 nation, while all beneath her was in deep gloom, these cir- 
 cumstances combined to render her an object of universal 
 interest and attention, while in a powerful but high voice 
 she thus addressed them. 
 
 ' They come, they come ! But will they go ? Lo ! hear 
 ye this, house of Jacob, which are called by the name of 
 Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Judah ! I 
 hear their drum in the desert, and the voice of their trumpets 
 is like the wind of eve, but a decree hath gone forth, and it 
 says, that a mortal shall be more precious than fine gold, 
 yea, a man than the rich ore of Ophir. 
 
 ' They come, they come ! But will they go ? I see the 
 flash of their scimetars, I mark the prancing of their cruel 
 steeds ; but a decree hath gone forth, and it says, a gleaning 
 shall be left among them, as in the shaking of the olive-tree ; 
 two or three berries on the top of the uppermost bough ; 
 four or five on the straggling branches. 
 
 ' They come, they come ! But will they go ? Lo ! a 
 decree hath gone forth, and it says, Hamadan shall be to 
 thee for a spoil, and desolation shall fall upon Babylon. 
 And there shall the wild beasts of the desert lodge, and 
 howling monsters shall fill their houses, and there shall the 
 daughters of the ostrich dwell, and there shall the screech- 
 owl pitch her tent, and there shall the night-raven lay her 
 eggs, and there shall the satyrs hold their revels. And
 
 104 ALEOY. 
 
 wolves shall howl to one another in their palaces, and 
 dragons in their voluptuous pavilions. Her time is near at 
 hand ; her days shall not be prolonged ; the reed and the 
 lotus shall wither in hSr rivers ; and the meadows by her 
 canals shall be as the sands of the desert. For, is it a light 
 thing that the Lord should send his servant to raise up the 
 tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel ? 
 Sing, heavens, and be joyful, earth, and break forth 
 into singing, O mountains, for the Lord hath comforted his 
 people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted ! ' 
 
 She ceased ; she descended the precipitous side of the 
 amphitheatre with rapid steps, vaulting from tier to tier, 
 and bounding with wonderful agility from one mass of ruin 
 to another. . At length she reached the level ; and then 
 foaming and panting, she rushed to Alroy, threw herself 
 upon the ground, embraced his feet, and wiped off the dust 
 from his sandals with her hair. 
 
 The assembly broke into long and loud acclamations of 
 supernatural confidence and sanguine enthusiasm. They 
 beheld their Messiah wave his miraculous sceptre. They 
 thought of Hassan Subah and his Seljuks only as of victims, 
 and of to-morrow only as of a day which was to commence 
 a new era of triumph, freedom, and empire ! 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 HASSAN SDBAH, after five days' forced marches pitched his 
 sumptuous pavilion in that beautiful Oasis, which had 
 afforded such delightful refreshment to Alroy when a soli- 
 tary pilgrim. Around for nearly a mile, were the tents of 
 his warriors, and of the numerous caravan that had accom- 
 panied him, laden with water and provisions for his troops. 
 Here, while he reposed, he also sought information as to 
 the position of his enemy. 
 
 A party of observation, which he had immediately des- 
 patched, returned almost instantly with a small caravan
 
 ALKOY. 105 
 
 that had been recently plundered by the robbers. The mer- 
 chant, a venerable and pious Moslem, was ushered into the 
 presence of the Governor of Hamadan. 
 
 ' From the robbers' haunt ? ' inquired Hassan. 
 
 ' Unfortunately so,' answered the merchant. 
 
 ' Is it far ? ' 
 
 ' A day's journey.' 
 
 ' And you quitted it ? ' 
 
 ' Yesterday morn.' 
 
 ' What is their force ? ' 
 
 The merchant hesitated. 
 
 ' Do they not make prisoners ? ' enquired the Governor, 
 casting a scrutinising glance at his companion. 
 
 ' Holy Prophet ! what a miserable wretch am I ! ' ex- 
 claimed the venerable merchant, bursting into tears. ' A 
 faithful subject of the Caliph, I am obliged to serve rebels, 
 a devout Moslem, I am forced to aid Jews ! Order me to be 
 hanged at once, my lord,' continued the unfortunate mer- 
 chant, wringing his hands. ' Order me to be hanged at 
 once. I have lived long enough.' 
 
 ' What is all this ? ' enquired Hassan ; ' speak, friend, 
 without fear.' 
 
 ' I am a faithful subject of the Caliph,' answered the mer- 
 chant; 'I am a devout Moslem, but I have lost ten thousand 
 dirhems.' 
 
 ' I am sorry for you, sir ; I also have lost something, but 
 my losses are nothing to you, nor yours to me.' 
 
 ' Accursed be the hour when these dogs , tempted me ! 
 Tell me, is it sin to break faith with a Jew ? ' 
 
 ' On the contrary, I could find you many reverend Mollahs, 
 who will tell you that such a breach is the highest virtue. 
 Come! come, I see how it is: you have received your freedom 
 on condition of not betraying your merciful plunderers. Pro- 
 mises exacted by terror are the bugbears of fools. Speak, 
 man, all you know. Where are they ? What is their force ? 
 Are we supposed to be at hand ? ' 
 
 ' I am a faithful subject of the Caliph, and I am bound to 
 serve him,' replied the merchant ; ' I am a devout Moslem,
 
 106 ALEOY. 
 
 and 'tis my duty to destroy all Giaours, but I am also a man, 
 and I must look after my own interest. Noble Governor, 
 the long and the short is, these scoundrels have robbed me 
 of ten thousand dirhems, as my slaves will tell you: at least, 
 goods to that amount. ~No one can prove that they be worth 
 less. It is true that I include in that calculation the fifty 
 per cent. I was to make on my shawls at Hamadan, but 
 still to me it is as good as ten thousand dirhems. Ask my 
 slaves if such an assortment of shawls was ever yet beheld.' 
 ' To the point, to the point. The robbers ? ' 
 ' I am at the point. The shawls is the point. For when 
 I talked of the shawls and the heaviness of my loss, you 
 
 must know that the captain of the robbers ' 
 
 'Alroy?' 
 
 * A fierce young gentleman, I do not know how they call 
 him: said the captain tome, "Merchant, you look gloomy." 
 " Gloomy," I said, " you "would look gloomy if you were a 
 prisoner, and had lost ten thousand dirhems." " What, is 
 this trash worth ten thousand dirhems ? " said he. " With 
 the fifty per cent. I was to make at Hamadan." "Fifty per 
 cent.," said he ; "you are an old knave." " Knave! I should 
 like to hear any one call me knave at Bagdad." "Well, knave 
 or not, you may get out of this scrape." " How ? " " Why 
 you are a respectable-looking man," said he, "and are a good 
 Moslem into the bargain, I warrant." " That I am," said I, 
 " although you be a Jew: but how the faith is to serve me 
 here I am sure I don't know, unless the angel Gabriel, as 
 in the. fifty-fifth verse of the twenty-seventh chapter of the 
 
 Koran " ' 
 
 ' Tush, tush ! ' exclaimed Hassan ; ' to the point.' 
 ' I always am at the point, only you put me out. However, 
 to make it as short as possible, the captain knows all about 
 your coming, and is frightened out of his wits, although he 
 did talk big ; I could easily see that. And he let me go, 
 you see, with some of my slaves, and gave me an order for 
 five thousand dirhems on one Bostenay, of Hamadan, (per- 
 haps you know him ; is he a good man?) on condition that 
 I would fall in with you, and, Mohammed forgive me, tell 
 you a lie ! '
 
 ALKOY. 107 
 
 'Alic!' 
 
 ' Yes, a lie ; but these Jewish, dogs do not understand 
 what a truly religious man is, and when I began to tell the 
 lie, I was soon put out. Xow, noble Hassan, if a promise 
 to a Jew be not binding on a, true believer, and you will 
 see me straight with the five thousand dirhems, I will be- 
 tray everything at once.' 
 
 ' Be easy about the five thousand dirhems, good man, and 
 tell me all.' 
 
 ' You will see me paid? ' 
 
 ' My honour upon it.' 
 
 ' Tis well ! Know then, the infamous dogs are very 
 weak, and terrified at the news of your progress : one, 
 whom I think they call Jabaster, has departed with the 
 great majority of the people into the interior of the desert, 
 about seven hundred strong. I heard so ; but mind, I do 
 not know it. The young man, whom you call Alroy, being 
 wounded in a recent conflict, could not depart with them, 
 but remains among the ruins with some female prisoners, 
 some treasure, and about a hundred companions hidden in 
 sepulchres. He gave me my freedom on condition that I 
 should fall in with you, and assure you that the dogs, full 
 five thousand strong, had given you the go-by in the night, 
 and marched towards Hamadan. They wanted me to 
 frighten you ; it was a lie, and I could not tell it. And 
 now you know the plain truth ; and if it be a sin to break 
 faith with an infidel, you are responsible for it, as well as 
 for the five thousand dirhems, which, by the" bye, ought to 
 have been ten.' 
 
 ' Where is your order ? ' 
 
 ' 'Tis here,' said the merchant, drawing it from his vest, 
 ' a very business-like document, drawn upon one Bostenay, 
 whom they described as very rich, and who is here enjoined 
 to pay me five thousand dirhems, if, in consequence of my 
 information, Hassan Subah, that is yourself, return forth- 
 with to Hamadan without attacking them.' 
 
 ' Old Bostenay's head shall answer for this.' 
 
 ' I am glad of it. But were I you, T would make him pay 
 me first.'
 
 103 ALROY. 
 
 ' Merchant,' said Hassan, ' have you any objection to pay 
 another visit to your friend Alroy ? ' 
 
 'Allah forbid!' 
 
 ' In my company ? ' 
 
 ' That makes a difference.' 
 
 ' Be our guide. The dirhems shall be doubled.' 
 
 ' That will make up for the fifty per cent. I hardly like 
 it ; but in your company that makes a difference. Lose no 
 time. If you push on, Alroy must be captured. Now or 
 never ! The Jewish dogs, to rifle a true believer ! ' 
 
 ' Oglu,' said Hassan to one of his officers. ' To horse ! 
 You need not strike the tents. Can we reach the city by 
 sunset, merchant?' 
 
 ' An hour before, if you be off at once.' 
 
 ' Sound the drums. To horse ! to horse ! ' 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE Seljuks halted before the walls of the deserted city. 
 Their commander ordered a detachment to enter and re- 
 connoitre. They returned and reported its apparent deso- 
 lation. Hassan Subah, then directing that a guard should 
 Burround the walls to prevent any of the enemy from es- 
 caping, passed with his warriors through the vast portal 
 into the silent street. 
 
 The still magnificence of the strange and splendid scene 
 influenced the temper even of this ferocious cavalry. They 
 gazed around them with awe and admiration. The fierce- 
 ness of their visages was softened, the ardour of their im- 
 pulse stilled. A supernatural feeling of repose stole over 
 their senses. No one brandished his scimetar, the fiery 
 courser seemed as subdued as his lord, and no sound was 
 heard but the melancholy, mechanical tramp of the dis- 
 ciplined march, unrelieved by martial music, inviolate by 
 oath or jest, and unbroken even by the ostentatious cara- 
 coling of any showy steed.
 
 ALROY. 109 
 
 It was sunset ; the star of eve glittered over the white 
 Ionian fane that rose serene and delicate in the flashing and 
 purple sky. 
 
 ' This way, my lord ! ' said the merchant guide, turning 
 round to Hassan Subah, who, surrounded by his officers, 
 led the van. The whole of the great way of the city was 
 filled with the Seljukian warriors. Their ebon steeds, their 
 snowy turbans, adorned with plumes of the black eagle and 
 the red heron, their dazzling shawls, the blaze of their 
 armour in the sunset, and the long undulating perspective 
 of beautiful forms and brilliant colours, this regiment of 
 heroes in a street of palaces. War had seldom afforded a 
 more imposing or more picturesque spectacle. 
 
 ' This way, my lord ! ' said the merchant, pointing to the 
 narrow turning that, at the foot of the temple, led through 
 ruined streets to the amphitheatre. 
 
 ' Halt ! ' exclaimed a wild shrill voice. Each warrior 
 suddenly arrested his horse. 
 
 ' Who spoke ? ' exclaimed Hassan Subah. 
 
 ' I ! ' answered a voice. A female form stood in the por- 
 tico of the temple, with uplifted arms. 
 
 ' And who art thou ?' enquired Hassan Subah, not a little 
 disconcerted. 
 
 ' Thine evil genius, Seljnk ! ' 
 
 Hassan Subah, pale as his ivory battle-axe, did not an- 
 swer ; every man within hearing shuddered ; still the dread 
 woman remained immovable within the porch of the 
 temple. 
 
 'Woman, witch, or goddess,' at length exclaimed Hassan 
 Subah, ' what wouldst thou here ? ' 
 
 ' Seljuk ! behold this star. 'Tis a single drop of light, 
 yet who even of thy wild band can look upon it without 
 awe? And yet thou worse than Sisera, thou comest-to 
 combat against those, for whom even " the stars in their 
 courses fought." ' 
 
 ' A Jewish witch ! ' exclaimed the Seljuk. 
 
 ' A Jewish witch ! Be it so ; behold, then, my spell falls 
 upon thee, and that spell is Destruction.
 
 1 10 ALROY. 
 
 ' Awake, awake, Deborah : awake, awake, titter a song ; 
 arise Barak, and lead thy captivity captive, thou son of 
 Abinoam ! ' 
 
 Immediately the sky appeared to darken, a cloud of 
 arrows and javelins broke from all sides upon the devoted 
 Seljuks : immense masses of stone and marble were hurled 
 from all directions, horses were stabbed by spears impelled 
 by invisible hands, and riders fell to the ground without a 
 struggle, and were trampled upon by their disordered and 
 affrighted brethren. 
 
 ' We are betrayed,' exclaimed Hassan Snbah, hurling a 
 javelin at the merchant, but the merchant was gone. The 
 Seljuks raised their famous war cry. 
 
 ' Oglu, regain the desert,' ordered the chieftain. 
 
 But no sooner had the guard without the walls heard 
 the war cry of their companions, than, alarmed, for their 
 safety, they rushed to their assistance. The retreating 
 forces of Subah, each instant diminishing as they retreated, 
 were baffled in their project by the very eagerness of their 
 auxiliaries. The unwilling contention of the two parties 
 increased the confusion ; and when the Seljuks, recently 
 arrived, having at length formed into some order, had re- 
 gained the gate, they found to their dismay that the portal 
 was barricadoed and garrisoned by the enemy. Uninspired 
 by the presence of their commander, who was in the rear, 
 the puzzled soldiers were seized with a panic, and spurring 
 their horses, dispersed in all directions of the city. In'vain 
 Hassan Subah endeavoured to restore order. The moment 
 was past. Dashing with about thirty men to an open 
 ground, which his quick eye had observed in his progress 
 down the street, and dealing destruction with every blow, 
 the dreaded Governor of Hamadan, like a true soldier, 
 awaited an inevitable fate, not wholly despairing that some 
 chance might yet turn up to extricate him from his forlorn 
 situation. 
 
 And now, as it were by enchantment, wild armed men 
 seemed to arise from every part of the city. From every 
 mass of ruin, from every crumbling temple and mouldering
 
 ALHOY. Ill 
 
 mansion, from every catacomb and cellar, from behind 
 every column and every obelisk, upstarted some desperate 
 warrior with a bloody weapon. The massacre of the Sel- 
 juks was universal. The horsemen dashed wildly about 
 the ruined streets, pursued by crowds of footmen ; some- 
 times, formed in small companies, the Seljuks charged and 
 fought desperately ; but, however stout might be their re- 
 sistance to the open foe, it was impossible to withstand 
 their secret enemies. They had no place of refuge, no 
 power of gaining even a moment's breathing time. If 
 they retreated to a wall it instantly bristled with spears ; if 
 they endeavoured to form in a court, they sank under the 
 falling masses which were showered upon them. Strange 
 shouts of denunciation blended with the harsh braying of 
 horns, and the clang and clash of cymbals and tambours 
 sounded in every quarter of the city. 
 
 ' If we could only mount the walls, Ibrahim, and leap into 
 the desert!' exclaimed Hassan Subah to one of his few re- 
 maining comrades ; ' 'tis our only chance. We die here like 
 dogs ! Could I but meet Alroy ! ' 
 
 Three of the Seljuks dashed swiftly across the open 
 ground in front, followed by several Hebrew horsemen. 
 
 ' Smite all, Abner. Spare none, remember Amalek,' ex- 
 claimed their youthful leader, waving his bloody scimetar. 
 
 ' They are down ; one, two, there goes the third. My 
 javelin has done for him.' 
 
 'Your horse bleeds freely. Where's Jabaster?' 
 
 ' At the gates ; my arm aches with slaughter. The Lord 
 hath delivered them into our hands. Could I but meet their 
 chieftain ! ' 
 
 ' Turn, bloodhound, he is here,' exclaimed Hassan 
 Subah. 
 
 ' Away, Abner, this affair is mine.' 
 
 ' Prince, you have already slain your thousands.' 
 
 ' And Abner his tens of thousands. Is it so ? This business 
 is for me only. Come on, Turk.' 
 
 ' Art thou Alroy?' 
 
 The same.'
 
 112 ALROY. 
 
 'The slayer of Alschiroch ? ' 
 
 ' Even so.' 
 
 ' A rebel and a murderer.' 
 
 ' What you please. Look to yourself.' 
 
 The Hebrew Prince flung a javelin at the Seljuk. It 
 glanced from the breastplate ; but Hassan Subah stag- 
 gered in his seat. Recovering, he charged Alroy with 
 great force. Their scimetars crossed, and the blade of 
 Hassan shivered. 
 
 ' He who sold me that blade told me it was charmed, and 
 could be broken only by a caliph,' said Hassan Subah. ' He 
 was a liar.' 
 
 'As it may be,' said Alroy, and he cut the Seljuk to 
 the ground. Abner had dispersed his comrades. Alroy 
 leaped from his fainting steed, and, mounting the ebon 
 courser of his late enemy, dashed again into the thickest of 
 the fight. 
 
 The shades of night descended, the clamour gradually 
 decreased, the struggle died away. A few unhappy Mos- 
 lemin who had quitted their saddles and sought concealment 
 among the ruins, were occasionally hunted out, and brought 
 forward and massacred. Long ere midnight the last of the 
 Seljuks had expired. 66 
 
 The moon shed a broad light upon the street of palaces 
 crowded with the accumulated slain and the living victors. 
 Fires were lit, torches illumined, the conquerors prepared 
 the eager meal as they sang hymns of praise and thanks- 
 giving. 
 
 A procession approached. Esther the prophetess, clash- 
 ing her cymbals, danced before the Messiah of Israel, who 
 leant upon his victorious scimetar, surrounded by Jabaster, 
 Abner, Scherirah, and his chosen chieftains. Who could 
 now doubt the validity of his mission? The wide and 
 silent desert rang with the acclamations of his enthusiastic 
 votaries.
 
 ALKOY. 113 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 HEAVILY the anxious hours crept on in the Jewish quarter 
 of Hamadan. Again and again the venerable Bostenay 
 discussed the chances of success with, the sympathising but 
 desponding elders. Miriam was buried in constant prayer. 
 Their most sanguine hopes did not extend beyond the escape 
 of their Prince. 
 
 A fortnight had elapsed, and no news had been received 
 of the progress of the expedition, when suddenly, towards 
 sunset, a sentinel on a watch-tower announced the appear- 
 ance of an armed force in the distance. The walls were 
 instantly lined with the anxious inhabitants, the streets and 
 squares filled with curious crowds. Exultation sat on the 
 triumphant brow of the Moslemin ; a cold tremor stole over 
 the fluttering heart of the Hebrew. 
 
 ' There is but one God,' said the captain of the gate. 
 
 ' And Mohammed is His prophet,' responded a sentinel. 
 
 ' To-morrow we will cut off the noses of all these Jewish, 
 dogs.' 
 
 ' The sceptre has departed,' exclaimed the despairing 
 Bostenay. 
 
 ' Lord remember David ! ' whispered Miriam, as she 
 threw herself upon the court of the palace, and buried her 
 face in ashes. 
 
 The Mollahs in solemn procession advanced to the ram- 
 parts, to shed their benediction on the victorious Hassan 
 Subah. The Muezzin ascended the minarets to watch the 
 setting sun, and proclaim the power of Allah with renewed 
 enthusiasm. 
 
 ' I wonder if Alroy be dead or alive,' said the captain of 
 the gate. 
 
 ' If he be alive, he will be impaled,' responded a sentinel. 
 
 ' If dead, the carcass will be given to the dogs,' rejoined 
 the captain ; ' that is the practice.' 
 
 4 Bostenay will be hung,' said the sentinel. 
 
 ' And his niece, too,' answered the captain. 
 I
 
 114 ALROY. 
 
 ' Hem ! ' said the sentinel. ' Hassan Subah loves a black 
 eye.' 
 
 ' I hope a true Moslem will not touch a Jewess,' exclaimed 
 an indignant black eunuch. 
 
 ' They approach. What a dust ! ' said the captain of the 
 gate. 
 
 ' I see Hassan Subah ! ' said the sentinel. 
 
 ' So do I,' said the eunuch, ' I know his black horse.' 
 
 ' I wonder how many dirhems old Bostenay is worth,' said 
 the captain. 
 
 ' Immense ! ' said the sentinel. 
 
 ' No plunder, I suppose ? ' said the eunuch. 
 
 ' We shall see,' said the captain ; ' at any rate, I owe a 
 thousand to old Shelomi. We need not pay now, you 
 know.' 
 
 ' Certainly not,' said the black eunuch. ' The rebels ! ' 
 
 A body of horsemen dashed forward. Their leader in ad- 
 vance reined in his fiery charger beneath the walls. 
 
 'In the name of the Prophet, who is that?' exclaimed 
 the captain of the gate, a little confused. 
 
 ' I never saw him before,' said the sentinel, ' although he 
 is in the Seljuk dress. 'Tis some one from Bagdad, I 
 guess.' 
 
 A trumpet sounded. 
 
 ' Who keeps the gate ? ' called out the warrior. 
 
 ' I am the captain of the gate,' answered our friend. 
 
 ' Open it, then, to the King of Israel.' 
 
 ' To whom ? ' enquired the astonished captain. 
 
 'To King David. The Lord hath delivered Hassan 
 Subah and his host into our hands, and of all the proud 
 Seljuks none remaineth. Open thy gates, I say, and lose 
 no time. I am Jabaster, a lieutenant of the Lord ; this 
 scimetar is my commission. Open thy gates, and thou and 
 thy people shall have that mercy which they have never 
 shown ; but if thou delayest one instant, thus saith the King 
 our master, " I will burst open your portal, and smite, and 
 utterly destroy all that you have, and spare them not ; but
 
 ALKOY. 115 
 
 slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and 
 sheep, camel and ass." ' 
 
 ' Call forth the venerable Lord Bostenay,' said the cap- 
 tain of the gate, with chattering teeth. ' He will intercede 
 for us.' 
 
 ' And the gentle Lady Miriam,' said the sentinel. ' She 
 is ever charitable.' 
 
 ' I will head the procession,' said the black eunuch ; ' I 
 am accustomed to women.' 
 
 The procession of Mollahs shuffled back to their college 
 with profane precipitation ; the sun set, and the astounded 
 Muezzin stood with their mouths open, and quite forgot to 
 announce the power of their Deity, and the validity of their 
 Prophet. The people all called out for the venerable Lord 
 Bostenay and the gentle Lady Miriam, and ran in crowds to 
 see who could first kiss the hem of their garments. 
 
 The principal gate of Hamadan opened into the square 
 of the great mosque. Here the whole population of the 
 city appeared assembled. The gates were thrown open ; 
 Jabaster and his companions mounted guard. The short 
 twilight died away, the shades of night descended. The 
 minarets were illumined, 57 the houses hung with garlands, 
 the ramparts covered with tapestry and carpets. 
 
 A clang of drums, trumpets, and cymbals announced the 
 arrival of the Hebrew army. The people shouted, the 
 troops without responded with a long cheer of triumph. 
 Amid the blaze of torches, a youth waving his scimetar, 
 upon a coal-black steed, bounded into the city, at the head 
 of his guards, the people fell upon their knees, and shouted 
 ' Long live Alroy ! ' 
 
 A venerable man, leading a beauteous maiden with down- 
 cast eyes, advanced. They headed a deputation of the 
 chief inhabitants of the city. They came to solicit mercy 
 and protection. At the sight of them, the youthful warrior 
 leaped from his horse, flung away his scimetar, and clasp- 
 ing the maiden in his arms, exclaimed, ' Miriam, my sister, 
 this, this indeed is triumph ! ' 
 
 i 2
 
 116 ALROY. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 ' DRINK,' said Kisloch the Kourd to Calidas the Indian ; 
 ' you. forget, comrade, we are no longer Moslemin.' 
 
 ' Wine, methinks, has a peculiarly pleasant flavour in a 
 golden cup,' said the Gnebre. ' I got this little trifle to- 
 day in the Bazaar,' he added, holding up a magnificent vase 
 studded with gems. 
 
 ' I thought plunder was forbidden,' grinned the Negro. 
 
 ' So it is,' replied the Guebre ; ' but we may purchase 
 what we please, upon credit.' 
 
 ' Well, for my part, I am a moderate man,' exclaimed 
 Calidas the Indian, ' and would not injure even these 
 accursed dogs of Turks. I have not cut my host's throat, 
 but only turned him into my porter, and content myself 
 with his harem, his baths, his fine horses, and other little 
 trifles.' 
 
 ' What quarters we are in ! There is nothing like a true 
 Messiah ! ' exclaimed Kisloch, devoutly. 
 
 ' Nothing,' said Calidas ; ' though to speak truth, I did 
 not much believe in the efficacy of Solomon's sceptre, 
 till his Majesty clove the head of the valliant Seljuk with 
 it.' 
 
 ' But now there's no doubt of it,' said the Guebre. 
 
 'We should indeed be infidels if we doubted now,' re- 
 plied the Indian. 
 
 ' How lucky,' grinned the Negro, ' as I had 'no religion 
 before, that I have now fixed upon the right one ! ' 
 
 ' Most fortunate ! ' said the Guebre. ' What shall we do 
 to amuse ourselves to-night? ' 
 
 'Let us go to the coffee-houses and make the Turks 
 drink wine,' said Calidas the Indian. 
 
 ' What say you to burning down a mosque ? ' said Kisloch 
 the Kourd. 
 
 ' I had great fun with some Dervishes this morning,' said 
 the Guebre. ' I met one asking alms with a wire run
 
 ALROY. 117 
 
 through his cheek, 58 so 1 caught another, bored his nose, 
 and tied them both together ! ' 
 
 ' Hah ! hah ! hah ! ' burst the Negro. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 ASIA resounded with the insurrection of the Jews and the 
 massacre of the Seljuks. Crowds of Hebrews, from the 
 rich cities of Persia and the populous settlements on the 
 Tigris and the Euphrates, hourly poured into Hamadan. 
 
 The irritated Moslemin persecuted the brethren of the 
 successful rebel, and this impolicy precipitated their flight. 
 The wealth of Bagdad flowed into the Hebrew capital. 
 Seated on the divan of Hassan Subah, and wielding the 
 sceptre of Solomon, the King of Israel received the hom- 
 age of his devoted subjects, and despatched his envoys 
 to Syria and to Egypt. The well-stored magazines and 
 arsenals of Hamadan soon converted the pilgrims into 
 warriors. The city was unable to accommodate the in- 
 creased and increasing population. An extensive camp, 
 under the command of Abner, was formed without the 
 walls, where the troops were daily disciplined, and where 
 they were prepared for greater exploits than a skirmish in 
 a desert. 
 
 Within a month after the surrender of Ramadan, the 
 congregation of the people assembled in the square of the 
 great mosque, now converted into a synagogue. The mul- 
 titude was disposed in ordered ranks, and the terrace of 
 every house was crowded. In the centre of the square was 
 an altar of cedar and brass, and on each side stood a com- 
 pany of priests guarding the victims, one young bullock, 
 and two rams without blemish. 
 
 Amid the flourish of trumpets, the gates of the synagogue 
 opened, and displayed to the wondering eyes of the Hebrews 
 a vast and variegated pavilion planted in the court. The 
 holy remnant, no longer forlorn, beheld that tabernacle of
 
 118 ALROY. 
 
 which they had so long dreamed, once more shining in the 
 sun, with its purple and scarlet hangings, its curtains of 
 rare skins, and its furniture of silver and gold. 
 
 A procession of priests advanced, bearing, with staves of 
 cedar, run through rings of gold, a gorgeous ark, the work 
 of the most cunning artificers of Persia. Night and day 
 had they laboured, under the direction of Jabaster, to pro- 
 duce this wondrous spectacle. Once more the children of 
 Israel beheld the cherubim. They burst into a triumphant 
 hymn of thanksgiving, and many drew their swords, and 
 cried aloud to be led against the Canaanites. 
 
 From the mysterious curtains of the tabernacle, Alroy 
 came forward, leading Jabaster. They approached the altar. 
 And Alroy took robes from the surrounding priests, and 
 put them upon Jabaster, and a girdle, and a breast-plate of 
 jewels. And Alroy took a mitre, and placed it upon the 
 head of Jabaster, and upon the mitre he placed a crown ; 
 and, pouring oil upon his head, the pupil anointed the master 
 High Priest of Israel. 
 
 The victims were slain, the sin-offering burnt. Amid 
 clouds of incense, bursts of music, and the shouts of a 
 devoted people ; amid odour, and melody, and enthusiasm ; 
 Alroy mounted his charger, and at the head of twenty 
 thousand men, departed to conquer Media. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE extensive and important province of Aderbijan, of 
 which Hamadan was the capital, was formed of the ancient 
 Media. Its fate was decided by one battle. On the plain 
 of Nehauend, Alroy met the hastily-raised levies of the 
 Atabek of Kermanshah, and entirely routed them. In the 
 course of a month, every city of the province had acknow- 
 ledged the supremacy of the new Hebrew monarch, and, 
 leaving Abner to complete the conquest of Louristan, Alroy 
 entered Persia.
 
 ALEOY. 119 
 
 The incredible and irresistible progress of Alroy roused 
 Togrul, the Turkish Sultan of Persia, from the luxurious 
 indolence of the palaces of Nishabur. He summoned his 
 emirs to meet him at the imperial city of Rhey, and crush, 
 by one overwhelming effort, the insolent rebel. 
 
 Religion, valour, and genius, alike inspired the arms of 
 Alroy, but he was, doubtless, not a little assisted by the 
 strong national sympathy of his singular and scattered 
 people, which ever ensured him prompt information of all 
 the movements of his enemy. Without any preparation, 
 he found agents in every court, and camp, and cabinet ; and, 
 by their assistance, he anticipated the designs of his adver- 
 saries, and turned even their ingenuity to their confusion. 
 The imperial city of Rhey was surprised in the night, 
 sacked, and burnt to the ground. The scared and baffled 
 emirs "who escaped, flew to the Sultan Togrul, tearing their 
 beards, and prophesying the approaching termination of the 
 world. The palaces of Nishabur resounded -with the im- 
 precations of their master, who, cursing the Jewish dogs, 
 and vowing a pilgrimage to Mecca, placed himself at the 
 head of a motley multitude of warriors, and rushed upon the 
 plains of Irak, to exterminate Alroy. 
 
 The Persian force exceeded the Hebrew at least five times 
 in number. Besides a large division of Seljuks, the Cau- 
 casus had poured forth, its strange inhabitants to swell the 
 ranks of the Faithful. The wild tribes of the Bactiari were 
 even enlisted, with their fatal bows, and the savage Turk- 
 mans, tempted by the sultan's gold, for a moment yielded 
 their liberty, and shook their tall lances in his ranks. 
 
 But what is a wild Bactiari, and what is a savage Turk- 
 man, and what even a disciplined and imperious Seljuk, to 
 the warriors of the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of 
 Jacob ? At the first onset, Alroy succeeded in dividing 
 the extended centre of Togrul, and separating the greater 
 part of the Turks from their less disciplined comrades. At 
 the head of his Median cavalry, the Messiah, charged and 
 utterly routed the warriors of the Caucasus. The wild 
 tribes of the Bactiari discharged their arrows and fled, and
 
 1 20 ALKOY. 
 
 the savage Turkmans plundered the baggage of their own 
 commander. 
 
 The Turks themselves fought desperately ; but, deserted 
 by their allies, and surrounded by an inspired foe, their 
 efforts were unavailing, and their slaughter terrible. 
 Togrul was slain while heading a desperate and fruitless 
 charge, and, after his fall, the battle resembled a massacre 
 rather than a combat. The plain was glotted with Seljuk 
 gore. No quarter was given or asked. Twenty thousand 
 chosen troops fell on the side of the Turks ; the rest dis- 
 persed and gained the mountains. Leaving Scherirah to 
 restore order, Alroy the next morning pushed on to Nisha- 
 bur at the head of three thousand horsemen, and sum- 
 moned the city ere the inhabitants were apprised of the 
 defeat and death of their sultan. The capital of Persia 
 escaped the fate of Khey by an inglorious treaty and a 
 lavish tribute. The treasures of the Chosroes and the Gras- 
 nevides were despatched to Hamadan, on which city day 
 dawned, only to bring intelligence of a victory or a con- 
 quest. 
 
 While Alroy dictated peace on his own terms in the 
 palaces of Nishabur, Abner, having reduced Louristan, 
 crossed the mountains, and entered Persia with the rein- 
 forcements he had received from Jabaster. Leaving the 
 government and garrisoning of his new conquests to this 
 valiant captain, Alroy, at the head of the conquerors of 
 Persia, in consequence of intelligence received from Hama- 
 dan, returned by forced marches to that city. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 LEAVING the army within a day's march of the capital, 
 Alroy, accompanied only by his staff, entered Hamadan in 
 the evening, and, immediately repairing to the citadel, 
 summoned Jabaster to council. The night was passed by 
 the king and the high priest in deep consultation. The
 
 ALROY. 121 
 
 next morning, a decree apprised the inhabitants of the 
 return of their monarch, of the creation of the new ' King- 
 dom, of the Medes and Persians,' of which Hamadan was 
 declared the capital, and Abner the viceroy, and of the in- 
 tended and immediate invasion of Syria, and re-conquest 
 of the Land of Promise. 
 
 The plan of this expedition had been long matured, and 
 the preparations to effect it were considerably advanced. 
 Jabaster had not been idle during the absence of his pupil. 
 One hundred thousand warriors were now assembled 59 at 
 the capital of the kingdom of the Medes and Persians ; of 
 these the greater part were Hebrews, but many Arabs, 
 wearied of the Turkish yoke, and many gallant adventurers 
 from the Caspian, easily converted from a vague idolatry 
 to a religion of conquest, swelled the ranks of the army of 
 the Lord of Hosts. 
 
 The plain of Hamadan was covered with tents, the 
 streets were filled with passing troops, the bazaars loaded 
 with military stores ; long caravans of camels laden with 
 supplies every day arrived from the neighbouring towns ; 
 each instant some high-capped Tartar with despatches 60 
 rushed into the city and galloped his steed up the steep of 
 the citadel. The clang of arms, the prance of horses, the 
 flourish of warlike music, resounded from all quarters. 
 The business and the treasure of the world seemed, as it 
 were in an instant, to have become concentrated in Hamadan. 
 Every man had some great object ; gold glittered in every 
 hand. All great impulses were stirring ; all the causes of 
 human energy were in lively action. Every eye sparkled, 
 every foot trod firm and fast. Each man acted as if the 
 universal fate depended upon his exertions ; as if the uni- 
 versal will sympathised with his particular desire. A vast 
 population influenced by a high degree of excitement is the 
 most sublime of spectacles. 
 
 The commander of the Faithful raised the standard of 
 the Prophet on the banks of the Tigris. It was the secret 
 intelligence of this intended event that had recalled Alroy 
 so suddenly from Persia. The latent enthusiasm of the
 
 122 ALROY. 
 
 Moslemin was excited by the rare and mystic ceremony, 
 and its effects were anticipated by previous and judicious 
 preparations. The Seljuks of Bagdad alone amounted to 
 fifty thousand men ; the Sultan of Syria contributed the 
 warriors who had conquered the Arabian princes of Da- 
 mascus and Aleppo ; while the ancient provinces of Asia 
 Minor, which formed the rich and powerful kingdom of 
 Seljukian Roum, poured forth a myriad of that matchless 
 cavalry, which had so often baffled the armies of the 
 Caesars. Never had so imposing a force been collected on 
 the banks of the Tigris since the reign of Haroun Alras- 
 chid. Each day some warlike Atabek, at the head of his 
 armed train, poured into the capital of the caliphs, 61 or 
 pitched his pavilion on the banks of the river ; each day 
 the proud emir of some remote principality astonished or 
 affrighted the luxurious Babylonians by the strange or 
 uncouth warriors that had gathered round his standard in 
 the deserts of Arabia, or on the shores of the Euxine. For 
 the space of twenty miles, the banks of the river were, on 
 either side, far as the eye could reach, covered with the 
 variegated pavilions, the glittering standards, the flowing 
 streamers and twinkling pennons of the mighty host, of 
 which Malek, the Grand Sultan of the Seljuks, and Go- 
 vernor of the Caliph's palace, was chief commander. 
 
 Such was the power assembled on the plains of Asia to 
 arrest the progress of the Hebrew Prince, and to prevent 
 the conquest of the memorable land promised to the faith 
 of his fathers, and forfeited by their infidelity. Before the 
 walls of Hamadan, Alroy reviewed the army of Israel, 
 sixty thousand heavy-armed footmen, thirty thousand 
 archers and light troops, and twenty thousand cavalry. 
 Besides these, there had been formed a body of ten 
 thousand picked horsemen, styled the ' Sacred Guard,' all 
 of whom had served in the Persian campaign. In their 
 centre, shrouded in a case of wrought gold, studded with 
 carbuncles, and carried on a lusty lance of cedar, a 
 giant, for the height of Elnebar exceeded that of common 
 men by three feet, bore the sceptre of Solomon. The
 
 ALROY. 123 
 
 Sacred Guard was commanded by Asriel, the brother of 
 Abner. 
 
 The army was formed into three divisions. All marched 
 in solemn order before the throne of Alroy, raised upon the 
 ramparts, and drooped their standards and lances as 
 they passed their heroic leader. Bostenay, and Miriam, 
 and the whole population of the city witnessed the in- 
 spiring spectacle from, the walls. That same eve, Scherirah, 
 at the head of forty thousand men, pushed on towards 
 Bagdad, by Kermanshah ; and Jabaster, who commanded 
 in his holy robes, and who had vowed not to lay aside his 
 sword until the rebuilding of the temple, conducted his 
 division over the victorious plain of Nehauend. They 
 were to concentrate at the pass of Kerrund, which con- 
 ducted into the province of Bagdad, and await the arrival 
 of the king. 
 
 At the dawn of day, the royal division and the Sacred 
 Guard, the whole under the command of Asriel, quitted the 
 capital. Alroy still lingered, and for some hours the warriors 
 of his staff might have been observed lounging about the 
 citadel, or practising their skill in throwing the jerreed as 
 they exercised their impatient chargers before the gates. 
 
 The king was with the lady Miriam, walking in the 
 garden of their uncle. One arm was wound round her 
 delicate waist, and with the other he clasped her sofb and 
 graceful hand. The heavy tears burst from her downcast 
 eyes, and stole along' her pale and pensive cheek. They 
 walked in silence, the brother and the sister, before the 
 purity of whose surpassing love even ambition vanished. 
 He opened the lattice gate. They entered into the valley 
 small and green ; before them was the marble fountain 
 with its columns and cupola, and in the distance the 
 charger of Alroy and his single attendant. 
 
 They stopped, and Alroy gathered flowers, and placed 
 them in the hair of Miriam. He would have softened the 
 bitterness of parting with a smile. Gently he relaxed his 
 embracing arm, almost insensibly he dropped her quiver- 
 ing hand.
 
 124 ALROY. 
 
 ' Sister of my soul,' he whispered, ' when we last parted 
 here, I was a fugitive, and now I quit you a conqueror.' 
 
 She turned, she threw herself upon his neck, and buried 
 her face in his breast. 
 
 ' My Miriam, we shall meet at Bagdad.' 
 
 He beckoned to her distant maidens ; they advanced, he 
 delivered Miriam into their arms. He pressed her hand 
 to his lips, and, rushing to his horse, mounted and dis- 
 appeared. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 A BODY of irregular cavalry feebly defended the pass of 
 Kerrund. It was carried, with slight loss, by the vanguard 
 of Scherirah, and the fugitives prepared the host of the 
 caliph for the approach of the Hebrew army. 
 
 Upon the plain of the Tigris the enemy formed into 
 battle array. The centre was commanded by Malek, the 
 Grand Sultan of the Seljuks himself, the right wing, headed 
 by the Sultan of Syria, was protected by the river ; and the 
 left, under the Sultan of Rourn, was posted upon the ad- 
 vantageous position of some irregular and rising ground. 
 Thus proud in the number, valour, discipline, and dispo- 
 sition of his forces, Malek awaited the conqueror of Persia. 
 
 The glittering columns of the Hebrews might even now 
 be perceived defiling from the mountains, and forming at 
 the extremity of the plain. Before nightfall the camp of the 
 invaders was pitched within hearing of that of Malek. The 
 moving lights in the respective tents might plainly be dis- 
 tinguished ; and ever and anon the flourish of hostile music 
 fell with an ominous sound upon the ears of the opposed 
 foemen. A few miles only separated those mighty hosts. 
 Upon to-morrow depended, perhaps, the fortunes of ages. 
 How awful is the eve of battle ! 
 
 Alroy, attended by a few chieftains, personally visited 
 the tents of the soldiery, promising them on the morrow a 
 triumph, before which the victories of Nehauend and Nisha-
 
 ALKOY. 125 
 
 bur would sink into insignificance. Their fiery and excited 
 visages proved at once their courage and their faith. The 
 sceptre of Solomon was paraded throughout the camp in 
 solemn procession. On the summit of a huge tumulus, per- 
 haps the sepulchre of some classic hero, Esther, the pro- 
 phetess, surrounded by the chief zealots of the host, poured 
 forth her exciting inspirations. It was a grand picture, that 
 beautiful wild girl, the groups of stern devoted warriors, 
 the red flame of the watch-fires mixing with the silver 
 shadows of the moon as they illumined the variegated tur- 
 bans and gleaming armour of her votaries ! 
 
 In the pavilion of Alroy, Jabaster consulted with his 
 pupil on the conduct of the morrow. 
 
 ' This is a different scene from the cavern of the Cau- 
 casus,' said Alroy, as the high priest rose to retire. 
 
 ' It has one great resemblance, sire ; the God of our 
 fathers is with us.' 
 
 ' Ay ! the Lord of Hosts. Moses was a great man. There 
 is no career except conquest.' 
 
 ' You muse.' 
 
 ' Of the past. The present is prepared. Too much thought 
 will mar it.' 
 
 ' The past is for wisdom, the present for action, but for 
 joy the future. The feeling that the building of the temple 
 is at hand, that the Lord's anointed will once again live in 
 the house of David, absorbs my spirit ; and, when I muse 
 over our coming glory, in my fond ecstacy I almost lose 
 the gravity that doth beseem my sacred office.' 
 
 ' Jerusalem ; I have seen it. How many hours to 
 dawn ? ' 
 
 ' Some three.' 
 
 ' 'Tis strange I could sleep. I remember, on the eve of 
 battle I was ever anxious. How is this, Jabaster ? ' 
 
 ' Your faith, sire, is profound.' 
 
 ' Yes, I have no fear. My destiny is not complete. 
 Good night, Jabaster. See, Asriel, valiant priest. Pharez 1 ' 
 
 ' My lord ! ' 
 
 ' Rouse me at the second watch. Good night, boy.'
 
 126 ALKOY. 
 
 ' Good night, my lord.' 
 
 ' Pharez ! Be sure you rouse me at the second watch. 
 Think you it wants three hours to dawn ? ' 
 ' About three hours, my lord.' 
 'Well ! at the second watch, remember; good night.' 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 ' IT is the second watch, my lord.' 
 
 ' So soon ! Have I slept ? I feel fresh as an eagle. 
 Call Scherirah, boy.' 
 
 ' 'Tis strange I never dream now. Before my flight my 
 sleep was ever troubled. Say what they like, man is 
 made for action. My life is now harmonious, and sleep has 
 now become what nature willed it, a solace, not a contest. 
 Before, it was a struggle of dark passions and bright 
 dreams, in whose creative fancy and fair vision my soul 
 sought refuge from the dreary bale of daily reality. 
 
 ' I will withdraw the curtains of my tent. most 
 majestic vision ! And have I raised this host ! Over the 
 wide plain, far as my eye can range, their snowy tents 
 studding the purple landscape, embattled legions gather 
 round their flags to struggle for my fate. It is the agony 
 of Asia. 
 
 ' A year ago, upon this very spot, I laid me down to die, 
 an unknown thing, or known and recognised only to be 
 despised, and now the sultans of the world come forth to 
 meet me. I have no fear. My destiny is not complete. 
 And whither tends it? Let that power decide which 
 hitherto has fashioned all my course. 
 
 'Jerusalem, Jerusalem! ever harping on Jerusalem. With 
 all his lore, he is a narrow-minded zealot whose dreaming 
 memory would fondly make a future like the past. Bag- 
 dad, Bagdad, within thy glittering halls, there is a charm 
 worth all his Cabala ! 
 
 ' Hah ! Scherirah ! The dawn is near at hand ; the
 
 ALEOY. 127 
 
 starn still shining. The air is very pleasant. To-morrow 
 will be a great day, Scherirah, for Israel and for you. 
 You lead the attack. A moment in my tent, my brave 
 Scherirah ! ' 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE dawn broke ; a strong column of the Hebrews, com- 
 manded by Scherirah, poured down upon the centre of the 
 army of the caliph. Another column, commanded by 
 Jabaster, attacked the left wing, headed by the Sultan of 
 Roum. No sooner had Alroy perceived that the onset of 
 Scherirah had succeeded in penetrating the centre of the 
 Turks, than he placed himself at the head of the Sacred 
 Guard, and by an irresistible charge completed their dis- 
 order and confusion. The division of the Sultan of Syria, 
 and a great part of the centre, were entirely routed and 
 driven into the river, and the remainder of the division of 
 Malek was effectually separated from his left wing. 
 
 But while to Alroy the victory seemed already decided, a 
 far different fate awaited the division of Jabaster. The 
 Sultan of Roum, posted in an extremely advantageous 
 position, and commanding troops accustomed to the disci- 
 pline of the Romans of Constantinople, received the onset of 
 Jabaster without yielding, and not only repelled his at- 
 tack, but finally made a charge which completely disordered 
 and dispersed the column of the Hebrews. In vain 
 Jabaster endeavoured to rally his troops, in vain he per- 
 formed prodigies of valour, in vain he himself struck down 
 the standard-bearer of the sultan, and once even pene- 
 trated to the pavilion of the monarch. His division was 
 fairly routed. The eagerness of the Sultan of Roum to 
 effect the annihilation of his antagonists prevented him 
 from observing the forlorn condition of the Turkish centre. 
 Had he, after routing the division of Jabaster, only attacked 
 Alroy in the rear, the fortune of the day might have been 
 widely different. As it was, the eagle eye of Alroy soon
 
 123 ALKOY. 
 
 detected his inadvertence, and profited by his indiscretion. 
 Leaving Ithamar to keep the centre in check, he charged 
 the Sultan of Roum with the Sacred Guard, and afforded 
 Jabaster an opportunity of rallying some part of his forces. 
 The Sultan of Roum perceiving that the day was lost by the 
 ill-conduct of his colleagues, withdrew his troops, retreated in 
 haste, but in good order to Bagdad, carried off the caliph, 
 his harem, and some of his treasure, and effected his escape 
 into Syria. In the meantime the discomfiture of the remain- 
 ing Turkish army was complete. The Tigris was dyed with 
 their blood, and the towns through which the river flowed 
 were apprised of the triumph of Alroy by the floating 
 corpses of his enemies. Thirty thousand Turks were 
 slain in battle : among them the Sultans of Bagdad and 
 Syria, and a vast number of atabeks, emirs, and chieftains. 
 A whole division, finding themselves surrounded, surren- 
 dered on terms, and delivered up their arms. The camps 
 and treasures of the three sultans were alike captured, and 
 the troops that escaped so completely dispersed, that they 
 did not attempt to rally, but, disbanded and desperate, 
 prowled over and plundered the adjoining provinces. The 
 loss of the division of Jabaster was also severe, but the rest 
 of the army suffered little. Alroy himself was slightly 
 wounded. The battle lasted barely three hours. Its 
 results were immense. David Alroy was now master of the 
 East. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE plain was covered with the corpses of men and horses, 
 arms and standards, and prostrate tents. Returning from 
 the pursuit of the Sultan of Roam, Alroy ordered the trum- 
 pets to sound to arms, and, covered with gore and dust, 
 dismounted from his charger, and stood before the pavilion 
 of Malek, leaning on his bloody scimetar, and surrounded 
 by his victorious generals. 
 
 'Ah, Jabaster ! ' said the conqueror, giving his hand to tho
 
 ALROY. 129 
 
 pontiff, ' 'twas well your troops had such a leader. No one 
 but you could have rallied them. You must drill your lads 
 a little before they again meet the Cappadocian cavalry. 
 Brave Scherirah, we shall not forget our charge. Asriel, 
 tell the guard, from me, that the victory of the Tigris was 
 owing to their scimetars. Ithamar, what are our freshest 
 troops ? ' 
 
 ' The legion of Aderbijan, sire.' 
 
 ' How strong can they muster ? ' 
 
 ' It counts twelve thousand men : we might collect two- 
 thirds.' 
 
 ' Valiant Ithamar, take the Aderbijans and a division of 
 the guards, push on towards Bagdad, and summon the city. 
 If his sultanship of Roum offer battle, take np a position, 
 and he shall quickly have his desire. For the present, after 
 these hasty marches and sharp fighting, the troops must 
 rest. I guess he will not tarry. Summon the city, and say 
 that if any resistance be offered, I will make it as desolate 
 as old Babylon. Treat with no armed force. Where is the 
 soldier that saved me a cracked skull ; his name Benaiah ? ' 
 
 ' I wait your bidding, sire.' 
 
 ' You're a captain. Join the division of Ithamar, and win 
 fresh laurels ere we meet again. Gentle Asriel, let your 
 brother know our fortune.' 
 
 ' Sire, several Tartars have already been despatched to 
 Hamadan.' 
 
 ' 'Tis well. Send another with these tablets to the Lady 
 Miriam. Despatch the pavilion of Malek as a trophy for 
 the town. Elnebar, Goliath of the Hebrews, you bore our 
 sacred standard like a hero ! How fares the prophetess ? 
 I saw her charging in our ranks, waving a sabre with her 
 snowy arm, her long, dark hair streaming like a storm, from 
 which her eyes flashed lightning.' 
 
 ' The king bleeds,' said Jabaster. 
 
 ' Slightly. It will do me service. I am somewhat feverish. 
 A kingdom for a draught of water ! And now for our 
 wounded friends. Asriel, do you marshal the camp. It- 
 is the Sabbath eve. 62 Time presses.' 
 
 K
 
 130 ALEOY. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE dead were plundered, and thrown into the river, the 
 encampment of the Hebrews completed. Alroy, with his 
 principal officers, visited the wonnded, and praised the 
 valiant. The bustle which always succeeds a victory was 
 increased in the present instance by the anxiety of the army 
 to observe with grateful strictness the impending Sabbath. 
 
 When the sun set, the Sabbath was to commence. The 
 undulating horizon rendered it difficult to ascertain the pre- 
 cise moment of his fall. The crimson orb sunk behind the 
 purple mountains, the sky was flushed with a rich and rosy 
 glow. Then might be perceived the zealots, proud in their 
 Talmudical lore, holding a skein of white silk in their hands, 
 and announcing the approach of the Sabbath by their obser- 
 vation of its shifting tints. While the skein was yet golden, 
 the forge of the armourer still sounded, the fire of the cook 
 still blazed, still the cavalry led their steeds to the river, 
 and still the busy footmen braced up their tents, and ham- 
 mered at their palisades. The skein of silk became rosy, 
 the armourer worked with renewed energy, the cook puffed 
 with increased zeal, the horsemen scampered from the river, 
 the footmen cast an anxious glance at the fading twilight. 
 
 The skein of silk became blue ; a dim, dull, sepulchral, 
 leaden tinge fell over its purity. The hum of gnats arose, 
 the bat flew in circling whirls over the tents, horns sounded 
 from all quarters, the sun had set, the Sabbath had com- 
 menced. The forge was mute, the fire extinguished, the 
 prance of horses and the bustle of men in a moment ceased. 
 A deep, a sudden, an all-pervading stillness dropped over 
 that mighty host. It was night ; the sacred lamp of the 
 Sabbath sparkled in every tent of the camp, which vied in 
 silence and in brilliancy with the mute and glowing heavens. 
 
 Morn came ; the warriors assembled around the altar and 
 tho sacrifice. The high priest and his attendant Levites
 
 ALROY. 131 
 
 proclaimed the unity and the omnipotence of the God of 
 Israel, and the sympathetic responses of his conquering and 
 chosen people re-echoed over the plain. They retired again 
 to their tents, to listen to the expounding of the law ; even 
 the distance of a Sabbath walk was not to exceed that space 
 which lies between Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives. 
 This was the distance between the temple and the tabernacle ; 
 it had been nicely measured, and every Hebrew who ventured 
 forth from the camp this day might be observed counting 
 the steps of a Sabbath-day's journey. At length the sun 
 again set, and on a sudden fires blazed, voices sounded, men 
 stirred, in the same enchanted and instantaneous manner 
 that had characterised the stillness of the preceding eve. 
 Shouts of laughter, bursts of music, announced the festivity 
 of the coming night ; supplies poured in from all the 
 neighbouring villages, and soon the pious conquerors com- 
 memorated their late triumph in a round of banqueting. 
 
 On the morrow, a Tartar arrived from Ithamar, informing 
 Alroy that the Sultan of Roum had retreated into Syria, 
 that Bagdad was undefended, but that he had acceded to 
 the request of the inhabitants that a deputation should wait 
 upon Alroy before the troops entered the city, and had 
 granted a safe conduct for their passage. 
 
 CHAPTER XVH. 
 
 ON the morrow, messengers announced the approach of 
 the deputation. All the troops were under arms. Alroy 
 directed that the suppliants should be conducted through 
 the whole camp before they arrived at the royal pavilion, 
 on each side of which the Sacred Guard was mustered in 
 array. The curtains of his tent withdrawn, displayed the 
 conqueror himself, seated on a sumptuous divan. On his 
 right hand stood Jabaster in his priestly robes, on his left 
 Scherirah. Behind him, the giant Elnebar supported the 
 sacred sceptre. A crowd of chieftains was ranged on each 
 side of the pavilion. 
 
 x 2
 
 132 ALROY. 
 
 Cymbals sounded, muffled kettle-drums, and the faint 
 flourish of trumpets ; the commencement of the procession 
 might be detected in the long perspective of the tented 
 avenue. First came a company of beauteous youths, walking 
 two by two, and strewing flowers, then a band of musicians 
 in flowing robes of cloth of gold, plaintively sounding their 
 silver trumpets. After these followed slaves of all climes, 
 bearing a tribute of the most rare and costly productions of 
 their countries : Negroes with tusks and teeth of the ele- 
 phant, plumes of ostrich feathers, and caskets of gold dust ; 
 Syrians with rich armour ; Persians with vases of atar-gul, 
 and Indians with panniers of pearls of Ormuz, and soft 
 shawls of Cashmere. Encircled by his children, each of 
 whom held alternately a white or fawn-coloured gazelle, an 
 Arab, clothed in his blue bornouz, led by a thick cord of 
 crimson silk a tall and tawny giraffe. Fifty stout men suc- 
 ceeded two by two, carrying in company a silver shield 
 laden with gold coin, or chased goblets studded with gems. 
 
 The clash of cymbals announced the presence of the robes 
 of honour, 63 culled from the wardrobe of the commander of 
 the Faithful ; the silk of Aleppo and the brocade of Damas- 
 cus, lined with the furs of the sable and the ermine, down 
 from the breast of the swan, and the skins of white foxes. 
 
 After these followed two grey dromedaries, with furniture 
 of silver, and many caparisoned horses, each led by a 
 groom in rich attire. The last of these was a snow-white 
 steed, upon whose front was the likeness of a ruby star, a 
 courser of the sacred stud of Solomon, and crossed only by 
 the descendants of the Prophet. 
 
 The muffled kettle-drums heralded the company of black 
 eunuchs, with their scarlet vests and ivory battle-axes. 
 They surrounded, and shrouded from the vulgar gaze, four- 
 teen beautiful Circassian girls, whose brilliant visages and 
 perfect forms were otherwise concealed by their long veils 
 and ample drapery. 
 
 The gorgeous procession, as they approached the con- 
 queror, bowed humbly to Alroy, and formed in order on 
 each side of the broad avenue. The deputation appeared ;
 
 ALEOY. 133 
 
 twelve of the principal citizens of Bagdad, with folded arms, 
 and downcast eyes, and disordered raiment. Meekly and 
 mutely each touched the earth with his hand, and kissed it 
 in token of submission, and then, moving aside, made way 
 for the chief envoy and orator of the company, Honain ! 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 HUMBLY, but gracefully, the physician of the caliph bowed 
 before the conqueror of the East. His appearance and de- 
 meanour afforded a contrast to the aspect of his brother 
 envoys ; not less calm or contented his countenance, not 
 less sumptuous or studied his attire, than when he first res- 
 cued Alroy in the Bazaar of Bagdad from the gripe of the 
 false Abdallah. 
 
 He spoke, and every sound was hushed before the music 
 of his voice. 
 
 ' Conqueror of the world, that destiny with which it is in 
 vain to struggle, has placed our lives and fortunes in your 
 power. Your slaves offer for your approbation specimens 
 of their riches ; not as tribute, for all is yours ; but to show 
 you the products of security and peace, and to induce you 
 to believe that mercy may be a policy as profitable to the 
 conqueror as to the conquered ; that it may be better to 
 preserve than to destroy ; and wiser to enjoy than to ex- 
 tirpate. 
 
 ' Fate ordained that we should be born the slaves of the 
 caliph ; that same fate has delivered his sceptre into your 
 hands. We offer you the same devotion that we yielded to 
 him, and we entreat the same protection which he granted 
 to us. 
 
 'Whatever may be your decision, we must bow to your 
 decree with the humility that recognises superior force. 
 Yet we are not without hope. We cannot forget that it is 
 our good fortune not to be addressing a barbarous chieftain, 
 unable to sympathise with the claims of civilisation, the
 
 134 ALEOY. 
 
 creations of art, and the finer impulses of humanity. We 
 acknowledge your irresistible power, but we dare to hope 
 everything from a prince whose genius all acknowledge and 
 admire, who has spared some portion of his youth from the 
 cares of government and the pursuits of arms to the enno- 
 bling claims of learning, whose morality has been moulded 
 by a pure and sublime faith, and who draws his lineage 
 from a sacred and celebrated race, the unrivalled antiquity 
 of which even the Prophet acknowledges.' 
 
 He ceased : a buzz of approbation sounded tliroughout 
 the pavilion, which was hushed instantly as the lips of the 
 conqueror moved. 
 
 ' Noble emir,' replied Alroy, 'return to Bagdad, and tell 
 your fellow-subjects that the King of Israel grants protec- 
 tion to their persons, and security to their property.' 
 
 'And for their faith?' enquired the envoy, in a lower 
 voice. 
 
 ' Toleration,' replied Alroy, turning to Jabaster. 
 
 ' Until further regulations,' added the high priest. 
 
 ' Emir,' said Alroy, ' the person of the caliph will be re- 
 spected.' 
 
 ' May it please your highness,' replied Honain, ' the Sul- 
 tan of E-oum has retired with our late ruler.' 
 
 ' And his harem ?' 
 
 ' And his harem.' 
 
 * It was needless. We war not with women.' 
 
 ' Men, as well as women, must acknowledge the gracious 
 mercy of your highness.' 
 
 ' Benomi,' said Alroy, addressing himself to a young offi- 
 cer of the guard, ' command the guard of honour that will 
 attend this noble emir on his return. We soldiers deal 
 only in iron, sir, and cannot vie with the magnificence of 
 Bagdad, yet wear this dagger for the donor's sake :' and 
 Alroy held out to Honain a poniard flaming with gems. 
 
 The Envoy of Bagdad advanced, took the dagger, pressed 
 it to his lips, and placed it in his vest. 64 
 
 ' Scherirah,' continued Alroy, ' this noble emir is your 
 charge. See that a choice pavilion of the host be for his
 
 ALROY. 1 35 
 
 use, and that his train complain not of the rough customs 
 of our camp.' 
 
 'May it please your highness,' replied Honain, ' I have 
 fulfilled my office, and, with your gracious permission, would 
 at once return. I have business only less urgent than the 
 present, because it concerns myself.' 
 
 ' As you will, noble emir. Benomi, to your post. Fare- 
 well, sir.' 
 
 The deputation advanced, bowed, and retired. Alroy 
 turned to Jabaster. 
 
 ' No common person that, Jabaster ?' 
 
 ' A very gracious Turk, sire.' 
 
 ' Think you he is a Turk?' 
 
 ' By his dress.' 
 
 ' It may be so. Asriel, break up the camp. We'll march 
 at once to Bagdad.' 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE chiefs dispersed to make the necessary arrangements 
 for the march. The news that the army was immediately 
 to advance to Bagdad soon circulated throughout the camp, 
 and excited the most lively enthusiasm. Every hand was 
 at work, striking the tents, preparing the arms and horses. 
 Alroy retired to his pavilion. The curtains were drawn. 
 He was alone, and plunged in profound meditation. 
 
 'Alroy!' a voice sounded. 
 
 He started, and looked up. Before him stood Esther the 
 prophetess. 
 
 'Esther! isitthou?' 
 
 ' Alroy ! enter not into Babylon.' 
 
 ' Indeed.' 
 
 'As I live, the Lord hath spoken it. Enter not into 
 Babylon.' 
 
 ' Not enjoy my fairest conquest, maiden ?' 
 
 'Enter not into Babylon.' 
 
 ' What affirights thee ?'
 
 136 ALROY. 
 
 ' Enter not into Babylon.' 
 
 ' I shall surely change the fortunes of my life without a 
 cause ! ' 
 
 ' The Lord hath spoken. Is not that a cause ?' 
 
 ' I am the Lord's anointed. His warning has not reached 
 me.' 
 
 ' Now it reaches thee. Doth the king despise the pro- 
 phetess of the Lord ? It is the sin of Ahab.' 
 
 ' Despise thee ! despise the mouth that is the herald of my 
 victories ! 'Twere rank blasphemy. Prophecy triumph, 
 Esther, and Alroy will never doubt thy inspiration.' 
 
 ' He doubts it now. I see he doubts it now. my king, 
 I say again, enter not into Babylon.' 
 
 ' Beauteous maiden, those eyes flash lightning. Who can 
 behold their wild and liquid glance, and doubt that Esther 
 is inspired ! Be calm, sweet girl, some dream disturbs thy 
 fancy.' 
 
 'Alroy, Alroy, enter not into Babylon !' 
 
 ' I have no fear, I bear a charmed life.' 
 
 ' Ah me ! he will not listen. All is lost !' 
 
 ' All is gained, my beautiful.' 
 
 ' I would we were upon the Holy Mount, and gazing on 
 the stars of sacred Zion.' 
 
 ' Esther,' said Alroy, advancing, and gently taking her 
 hand, ' the capital of the East will soon unfold its marvels 
 to thy sight. Prepare thyself for wonders. Girl, we are no 
 longer in the desert. Forget thy fitful fancies. Come, 
 choose a husband from my generals, child, and I will give 
 a kingdom for thy dower. I would gladly see a crown 
 upon that imperial brow. It well deserves one.' 
 
 The prophetess turned her dark eyes full upon Alroy. 
 What passed in her mind was neither evident nor expressed. 
 She gazed intently upon the calm and inscrutable counte- 
 nance of the conqueror, she flung away his hand, and 
 rushed out of the pavilion.
 
 PART THE EIGHTH. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE waving of banners, the flourish of trumpets, the 
 neighing of steeds, and the glitter of spears ! On the dis- 
 tant horizon they gleam like the morning, when the gloom 
 of the night shivers bright into day. 
 
 Hark ! the tramp of the foemen, like the tide of the 
 ocean, flows onward and onward, and conquers the shore. 
 From the brow of the mountain, like the rush of a river, 
 the column defiling melts into the plain. 
 
 Warriors of Judah ! holy men that battle for the Lord ! 
 The land wherein your fathers wept, and touched their 
 plaintive psaltery ; the haughty city where your sires be- 
 wailed their cold and distant hearth ; your steeds are 
 prancing on its plain, and you shall fill its palaces. Warriors 
 of Judah ! holy men that battle for the Lord ! 
 
 March, onward march, ye valiant tribes, the hour has 
 come, the hour has come ! All the promises of ages, all 
 the signs of sacred sages, meet in this ravishing hour. 
 Where is now the oppressor's chariot, where your tyrant's 
 purple robe ? The horse and the rider are both overthrown, 
 the horse and the rider are both overthrown ! 
 
 Rise, Rachel, from thy wilderness, arise^ and weep no 
 more. No more thy lonely palm-tree's shade need shroud 
 thy secret sorrowing. The Lord hath heard the widow's 
 sigh, the Lord hath stilled the widow's tear. Be comforted, 
 be comforted, thy children live again ! 
 
 Yes ! yes ! upon the bounding plain fleet Asriel glances 
 like a star, and stout Scherirah shakes his spear by stern 
 Jabaster's scimetar. And He is there, the chosen one,
 
 138 ALKOY. 
 
 hymned by prophetic harps, whose life is like the morning 
 dew on Sion's holy hill : the chosen one, the chosen one, 
 that leads his race to victory ; warriors of Judah ! holy 
 men that battle for the Lord ! 
 
 They come, they come, they come ! 
 
 The ramparts of the city were crowded with the inhabit, 
 ants, the river sparkled with ten thousand boats, the bazaars 
 were shut, the streets lined with the populace, and the ter- 
 race of every house covered with spectators. In the morn- 
 ing, Ithamar had entered with his division and garrisoned 
 the city. And now the vanguard of the Hebrew army, 
 after having been long distinguished in the distance, ap- 
 proached the walls. A large body of cavalry dashed for- 
 ward at full speed from the main force. Upon a milk-white 
 charger, and followed by a glittering train of warriors, 
 amid the shouts of the vast multitude, Alroy galloped up 
 to the gates. 
 
 He was received by Ithamar and the members of the 
 deputation, but Honain was not there. Accompanied by 
 his staff and a strong detachment of the Sacred Guard, 
 Alroy was conducted through the principal thoroughfares 
 of the city, until he arrived at the chief entrance of the 
 serail, or palace, of the caliph. The vast portal conducted 
 him into a large quadrangular court, where he dismounted, 
 and where he was welcomed by the captain of the eunuch 
 guard. Accompanied by his principal generals and his im- 
 mediate attendants, Alroy was then ushered through a suite 
 of apartments which reminded him of his visit with Honain, 
 until he arrived at the grand council-chamber of the 
 caliphs. 
 
 The conqueror threw himself upon the gorgeous divan 
 of the commander of the Faithful. 
 
 'An easy seat after a long march,' said Alroy, as he 
 touched with his lips the coffee, which the chief of the 
 eunuchs presented to him in a cup of transparent pink 
 porcelain, studded with pearls. 65 ' Ithamar, now for your 
 report. What is the temper of the city ? Where is his 
 sultanship of Roum ?'
 
 ALROY. 139 
 
 4 The city, sire, is calm, and I believe content. The 
 sultan and the caliph are still hovering on the borders of 
 the province.' 
 
 ' So I supposed. Scherirah -will settle that. Let the 
 troops be encamped without the walls, the garrison, ten 
 thousand strong, must be changed monthly. Ithamar, you 
 are governor of the city : Asriel commands the forces. 
 Worthy Jabaster, draw up a report of the civil affairs of 
 the capital. Your quarters are the College of the Dervishes. 
 Brave Scherirah, I cannot afford you a long rest. In three 
 days you must have crossed the river with your division. 
 It will be quick work. I foresee that they will not fight. 
 Meet me all here in council by to-morrow's noon. Farewell.' 
 
 The chieftains retired, the high priest lingered. 
 
 ' Were it not an intrusion, sire, I would fain entreat a 
 moment's audience.' 
 
 ' My own Jabaster, you have but to speak.' 
 
 ' Sire, I would speak of Abidan, as valiant a warrior as 
 any in the host. It grieves me much, that by some fatality, 
 his services seem ever overlooked.' 
 
 ' Abidan ! I know him well, a valiant man, but a dreamer, 
 a dreamer.' 
 
 ' A dreamer, sire ! Believe me, a true son of Israel, and 
 one whose faith is deep.' 
 
 ' Good Jabaster, we are all true sons of Israel. Yet let 
 me have men about me who see no visions in a mid-day 
 sun. We must beware of dreamers.' 
 
 ' Dreams are the oracles of God.' 
 
 4 When God sends them. Very true, Jabaster. But this 
 Abidan, and the company with whom he consorts, are filled 
 with high-flown notions, caught from old traditions, which, 
 if acted on, would render government impracticable, in a 
 word, they are dangerous men.' 
 
 * The very flower of Israel ! Some one has poisoned your 
 sacred ear against them.' 
 
 ' No one, worthy Jabaster. I have no counsellor except 
 yourself. They may be the flower of Israel, but they are 
 not the fruit. Good warriors, bad subjects: excellent
 
 140 ALROY. 
 
 means, by which we may accomplish greater ends. I'll 
 have no dreamers in authority. I must have practical men 
 about me, practical men. See how Abner, Asriel, Ithamar, 
 Medad, see how these conform to what surrounds them, 
 yet invincible captains, invincible captains. But then they 
 are practical men, Jabaster ; they have eyes and use them 
 They know the difference of times and seasons. But this 
 Abidan, he has no other thought but the rebuilding of the 
 temple : a narrow- souled bigot, who would sacrifice the 
 essence to the form. The rising temple soon would fall again 
 with such constructors. Why, sir, what think you, this 
 same Abidan preached in. the camp against my entry into 
 what the quaint fanatic chooses to call "Babylon," because 
 he had seen what he calls a vision.' 
 
 ' There was a time your Majesty thought not so ill of 
 visions.' 
 
 ' Am I Abidan, sir ? Are other men to mould their con- 
 duct or their thoughts by me ? In this world I stand alone, 
 a being of a different order from yourselves, incomprehen- 
 sible even to you. Let this matter cease. I'll hear no more, 
 and have heard too much. To-morrow at council.' 
 
 The high priest withdrew in silence. 
 
 ' He is gone ; at length I am alone. I cannot bear the 
 presence of these men, except in action. Their words, even 
 their looks, disturb the still creation of my brooding thought. 
 I am once more alone, and loneliness hath been the cradle 
 of my empire. Now I do feel inspired. There needs no 
 mummery now to work a marvel.' 
 
 ' The sceptre of Solomon ! It may be so. What then ? 
 Here's now the sceptre of Alroy. What's that without his 
 mind ? The legend said that none should free our people 
 but he who bore the sceptre of great Solomon. The legend 
 knew that none could gain that sceptre, but with a mind 
 to whose supreme volition the fortunes of the world would 
 bow like fate. I gained it ; I confronted the spectre mo- 
 narchs in their sepulchre ; and the same hand that grasped 
 their shadowy rule hath seized the diadem of the mighty 
 caliphs by the broad rushing of their imperial river.
 
 ALKOY. 141 
 
 ' The world is mine : and shall I yield the prize, the uni- 
 versal and heroic prize, to realise the dull tradition of some 
 dreaming priest, and consecrate a legend ? He conquered 
 Asia, and he built the temple. Are these my annals ? 
 Shall this quick blaze of empire sink to a glimmering and a 
 twilight sway over some petty province, the decent patriarch 
 of a pastoral horde ? Is the Lord of hosts so slight a God, 
 that we must place a barrier to His sovereignty, and fix the 
 boundaries of Omnipotence between the Jordan and the 
 Lebanon ? It is not thus written ; and were it so, I'll pit 
 my inspiration against the prescience of my ancestors. I 
 also am a prophet, and Bagdad shall be my Sion. The 
 daughter of the Voice ! Well, I am clearly summoned. 
 I am the Lord's servant, not Jabaster's. Let me make His 
 worship universal as His power ; and where's the priest shall 
 dare impugn my faith, because His altars smoke on other 
 hills than those of Judah ? 
 
 ' I must see Honain. That man has a great mind. He 
 alone can comprehend my purpose. Universal empire must 
 not be founded on sectarian prejudices and exclusive rights. 
 Jabaster would massacre the Moslemin like Amalek ; the 
 Moslemin, the vast majority, and most valuable portion, of 
 my subjects. He would depopulate my empire, that it 
 might not be said that Ishmael shared the heritage of 
 Israel. Fanatic ! I'll send him to conquer Judah. We 
 must conciliate. Something must be done to bind the con- 
 quered to our conquering fortunes. That bold Sultan of 
 Roum : I wish Abner had opposed him. To run off with 
 the harem ! I have half a mind to place myself at the 
 head of the pursuing force, and Passion and policy alike 
 combine : and yet Honain is the man ; I might send him on 
 a mission. Could we make terms? I detest treaties. My 
 fancy flies from all other topics. I must see him. Could I 
 but tell him all I think ! This door, whither leads it? 
 Hah ! mothinks I do remember yon glittering gallery ! No 
 one in attendance. The discipline of our palace is some- 
 what lax. My warriors are no courtiers. What an ad- 
 mirable marshal of the palace Honain would make ! Silence
 
 142 ALKOY. 
 
 everywhere. So! 'tis well. These saloons I have clearly 
 passed through before. Could I but reach the private 
 portal by the river side, unseen or undetected ! 'Tis not 
 impossible. Here are many dresses. I will disguise my- 
 self. Trusty scimetar, thou hast done thy duty, rest awhile. 
 'Tis lucky I am beardless. I shall make a capital eunuch. 
 So ! a handsome robe. One dagger for a pinch, slippers 
 powdered with pearls, 66 a caftan of cloth of gold, a Cash- 
 mere girdle, and a pelisse of sables. One glance at the 
 mirror. Good ! I begin to look like the conqueror of the 
 world ! ' 
 
 CHAPTER H. 
 
 IT was twilight : a small and solitary boat, with a single 
 rower, glided along the Tigris, and stopped at the archway 
 of a house that descended into the river. It stopped, the 
 boatman withdrew the curtains, and his single passenger 
 disembarked, and ascended the stairs of the archway. 
 
 The stranger reached the landing-place, and, unfastening 
 a golden grate, proceeded along a gallery, and entered a 
 beautiful saloon of white and green marble, opening into 
 gardens. No one was in the apartment; the stranger 
 threw himself upon a silver couch, placed at the side of a 
 fountain that rose from the centre of the chamber and fell 
 into a porphyry basin. A soft whisper roused the stranger 
 from his reverie, a soft whisper, that faintly uttered the 
 word ' Honain.' The stranger looked up, a figure, en- 
 veloped in a veil, that touched the ground, advanced from 
 the gardens. 
 
 ' Honain ! ' said the advancing figure, throwing off the 
 veil. ' Honain ! Ah ! the beautiful mute returned ! ' 
 
 A woman more lovely than the rosy morn, beheld an un- 
 expected guest. They stood, the lady and the stranger, 
 gazing on each other in silence. A man, with a light, 
 entered the extremity of the hall. Carefully he closed the
 
 ALHOY. 143 
 
 portal, slowly he advanced, with a subdued step ; he ap- 
 proached the lady and the stranger. 
 
 ' Alroy ! ' said the astonished Honain, the light fell from 
 his hand. 
 
 ' Alroy ! ' exclaimed the lady, with a bewildered air : she 
 turned pale, and leant against a column. 
 
 ' Daughter of the caliph ! ' said the leader of Israel ; and 
 he advanced, and fell upon his knee, and stole her passive 
 hand. ' I am indeed that Alroy to whom destiny has deli- 
 vered the empire of thy sire ; but the Princess Schirene can 
 have nothing to fear from one who values above all his vic- 
 tories this memorial of her goodwill ;' and he took from his 
 breast a rosary of pearls and emeralds, and, rising slowly, 
 left it in her trembling hand. 
 
 The princess turned and hid her face in her arm, which 
 reclined against the column. 
 
 ' My kind Honain,' said Alroy, ' you thought me forgetful 
 of the past ; you thought me ungrateful. My presence here 
 proves that I am not so. I come to enquire all your wishes. 
 I come to gratify and to fulfil them, if that be in my 
 power.' 
 
 ' Sire,' replied Honain, who had recovered from the emo- 
 tion in which he rarely indulged, and from the surprise 
 which seldom entrapped him, ' Sire, my wishes are slight. 
 You see before you the daughter of my master. An inter- 
 view, for which I fear I shall not easily gain that lady's 
 pardon, has made you somewhat acquainted with her situa- 
 tion and her sentiments. The Princess Schirene seized the 
 opportunity of the late convulsions to escape from a mode 
 of life long repugnant to all her feelings, and from a des- 
 tiny at which she trembled. I was her only counsellor, and 
 she may feel assured, a faithful, although perhaps an indis- 
 creet one. The irresistible solicitation of the inhabitants 
 that I should become their deputy to their conqueror, pre- 
 vented us from escaping as we had intended. Since then, 
 from the movement of the troops, I have deemed it more 
 prudent that we should remain at present here, although I 
 have circulated the intelligence of my departure. In tiro
 
 144 ALEOY. 
 
 kiosk of my garden, the princess is now a willing prisoner. 
 At twilight she steals forth for the poor relaxation of my 
 society, to listen to the intelligence which I acquire during 
 the day in disguise. The history, sire, is short and simple. 
 We are in your power : but instead of deprecating your in- 
 terference, I now solicit your protection.' 
 
 'Dear Honain, 'tis needless. The Princess Schirene has 
 only to express a wish that it may be fulfilled. I came to 
 speak with you on weighty matters, Honain, but I retire, 
 for I am an intruder now. To-morrow, if it please you, at 
 this hour, and in this disguise, I will again repair hither. 
 In the meantime, this lady may perchance express to you 
 her wishes, and you will bear them to me. If an escort to 
 any country, if any palace or province for her rule and resi- 
 dence But I will not offer to one who should com- 
 mand. Lady! farewell. Pardon the past! To-morrow, good 
 Honain ! pr'ythee let us meet. Good even ! ' 
 
 CHAPTER IH. 
 
 ' THE royal brow was clouded,' said Ithamar to Asriel, as, 
 departing from the council, they entered their magnificent 
 barque. 
 
 ' With thought ; he has so much upon his mind, 'tis 
 wondrous how he bears himself.' 
 
 * I have seen him gay on the eve of battle, and lively 
 though calm, with weightier matters than now oppress 
 him. His brow was clouded, but not, methinks, with 
 thought; one might rather say with temper. Mark you, 
 how he rated Jabaster?' 
 
 'Roundly! The stern priest writhed under it; and as 
 he signed the ordinance, shivered his reed in rage. I 
 never saw a man more pale.' 
 
 ' Or more silent. He looked like an embodied storm. I 
 tell you what, Asriel, that stern priest loves nt us.'
 
 ALROY. 145 
 
 ' Have you just discovered that secret, Ithamar? We 
 are not of his school. !Nbr, in good faith, is our ruler. I 
 am glad to sec the king is so staunch about Abidan. Were 
 he in council he would support Jabaster.' 
 
 'Oh! his mere tool. What think you of Scherirah?' 
 
 'I would not trust him. As long as there is fighting, he 
 will meddle with nothing else ; but, mark my words, 
 Ithamar : in quiet times he will support the priest.' 
 
 ' Medad will have a place in council. He is with us.' 
 
 ' Heart and soul. I would your brother were here, Asriel : 
 he alone could balance Jabaster. Alroy loves your brother 
 like himself. Is it true that he marries the Lady Miriam? 
 
 ' So the king wishes. 'Twill be a fine match for Abner.' 
 
 ' The world is all before us. I wonder who will be vice- 
 roy of Syria.' 
 
 ' When we conquer it. Not Scherirah. Mark my words, 
 Ithamar: he never will have a government. You or I per- 
 chance. For my own part, I would rather remain as I am.' 
 
 ' Yours is a good post ; the best.' 
 
 ' With the command of the city. It should go with the 
 guard.' 
 
 ' Well then help me in getting Syria, and you can ask 
 for my command.' 
 
 'Agreed. Jabaster will have it that, in a Hebrew 
 monarchy, the chief priest is in fact the grand vizir.' 
 
 ' Alroy will be his own minister.' 
 
 4 1 am not so sure of that. He may choose to command 
 the Syrian expedition in person ; he must leave some head 
 at Bagdad. Jabaster is no general.' 
 
 'Oh! none at all. Alroy will be glad to leave him at 
 home. The Sultan of Bxram may not be always so 
 merciful.' 
 
 ' Hah ! hah ! that was an escape ! ' 
 
 'By heavens ! I thought it was all over. You made a 
 fine charge.' 
 
 'I shall never forget it. I nearly ran over Jabaster.' 
 
 ' Would that you had ! ' 
 
 L
 
 146 ALKOY. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 IT is the tender twilight hour, when maidens in their 
 lonely bower, sigh softer than the eve ! The languid rose 
 her head upraises, and listens to the nightingale, while his 
 wild and th'rilling praises, from his trembling bosom gush : 
 the languid rose her head upraises, and listens with a blush. 
 
 In the clear and rosy air, sparkling with a single star, the 
 sharp and spiry cypress-tree rises like a gloomy thought, 
 amid the flow of revelry. A singing bird, a single star, a 
 solemn tree, an odorous flower, are dangerous in the tender 
 hour, when maidens in their twilight bower, sigh softer than 
 the eve ! 
 
 The daughter of the caliph comes forth to breathe the 
 air : her lute her only company. She sits her down by a 
 fountain's side, and gazes on the waterfall. Her cheek 
 reclines upon her arm, like fruit upon a graceful bough. 
 Very pensive is the face of that bright and beauteous lady. 
 She starts ; a warm voluptuous lip presses her soft and idle 
 hand. It is her own gazelle. With his large and lustrous 
 eyes, more eloquent than many a tongue, the fond attendant 
 mutely asks the cause of all her thoughtfulness. 
 
 ' Ah ! bright gazelle ! ah ! bright gazelle ! ' the princess 
 cried, the princess cried ; 'thy lips are softer than the swan, 
 thy lips are softer than the swan ; but his breathed passion, 
 when they pressed, my bright gazelle ! my bright gazelle ! ' 
 
 ' All ! bright gazelle ! ah ! bright gazelle ! ' the princess 
 cried, the princess cried ; ' thine eyes are like the stars of 
 night, thine eyes are like the stars of night; but his glanced 
 passion when they gazed, my bright gazelle ! my bright 
 gazelle ! ' 
 
 She seized her lute, she wildly threw her fingers o'er its 
 thrilling cords, and, gazing on the rosy sky, to borrow all 
 its poetry, thus, thus she sang ; thus, thus she sang : 
 
 1. 
 
 He rose in beauty like the morn 
 That brightens in our Syrian skies ; 
 Dark passion glittered in his eye, 
 And Empire sparkled in his form I
 
 ALROY. 147 
 
 2. 
 
 My soul ! thou art the dusky earth, 
 
 On which his sunlight fell ; 
 
 The dusky earth, that dim no longer, 
 
 Now breathes with light, now beams with lore I 
 
 3. 
 
 He rose in beauty, like the morn 
 That brightens in our Syrian skies ; 
 Dark Passion glittered in his eye, 
 And Empire sparkled in his form ! 
 
 ' Once more, once more ! All ! sing that strain once 
 more !' 
 
 The princess started and looked round. Before her stood 
 Alroy. She rose, she would have retired ; but, advancing, 
 the conqueror stole her hand. 
 
 'Fair princess,' said Alroy, 'let it not be said that my 
 presence banished at once beauty and music.' 
 
 ' Sire, I doubt not that Honain awaits you. Let me 
 summon him.' 
 
 ' Lady, it is not with Honain that I would speak.' 
 
 He seated himself by her side. His countenance was 
 pale, his heart trembled. 
 
 ' This garden,' at length he observed in a low voice, 
 'this garden, a brief, brief space has glided away since first 
 I wandered within its beauteous limits, and yet those days 
 seem like the distant memory of another life.' 
 
 ' It is another life,' said the princess. ' Ourselves, the 
 world, all forms and usages, all feelings and all habits, verily 
 they have changed, as if we had breathed within another 
 sphere.' 
 
 ' 'Tis a great change.' 
 
 ' Since first you visited my bright kiosk. Pretty bauble! 
 I pray it may be spared.' 
 
 ' It is sacred, like yourself.' 
 
 ' You are a courteous conqueror.' 
 
 ' I am no conqueror, fair Schirene, but a slave more lowly 
 than when I first bowed humbly in your presence.' 
 
 ' And bore away a token not forgotten. Your rosary is 
 here.' 
 
 L 2
 
 US ALEOY. 
 
 ' Let me claim it. It has been my consolation in much 
 peril, beauteous lady. On the eve of battle I wound it 
 round my heart.' 
 
 She held forth the rosary, and turned away her head. 
 Her hand remained in his ; he pressed it to his lips. His 
 right arm retained her hand ; he wound the other round her 
 waist, as he fell upon his knee. 
 
 ' beautiful ! O more than beautiful ! for thou to me art 
 like a dream unbroken,' exclaimed the young leader of 
 Israel, ' let me, let me breathe my adoration. I offer thee 
 uot empire : I offer thee not wealth ; I offer thee not all the 
 boundless gratification of magnificent fancy, these may be 
 thine, but all these thou hast proved ; but, if the passionate 
 affections of a spirit which never has yielded to the power 
 of woman or the might of man, if the deep devotion of the 
 soul of Alroy, be deemed an offering meet for the shrine of 
 thy surpassing loveliness, I worship thee, Schirene, I 
 worship thee, I worship thee ! 
 
 ' Since I first gazed upon thee, since thy beauty first rose 
 upon my presence like a star bright with my destiny, in the 
 still sanctuary of my secret love, thy idol has ever rested. 
 Then, then, I was a thing whose very touch thy creed might 
 count a contumely. I have avenged the insults of long 
 centuries in the best blood of Asia ; I have returned, in 
 glory and in pride, to claim my ancient sceptre ; but sweeter 
 far than vengeance, sweeter far than the quick gathering of 
 my sacred tribes, the rush of triumph and the blaze of 
 empire, is this brief moment of adoring love, wherein I pour 
 the passion of my life ! 
 
 ' my soul, my life, my very being ! thou art silent, but 
 thy silence is sweeter than others' speech. Yield, yield thee, 
 dear Schirene, yield to thy suppliant ! Thy faith, thy 
 father's faith, thy native customs, these, these shall be re- 
 spected, beauteous lady ! Pharaoh's daughter yielded her 
 dusky beauty to my great ancestor. Thy face is like the 
 bright inspiring day ! Let it not be said that the daughter 
 of the Nile shared Israel's crown, the daughter of the -Tigris 
 spumed our sceptre. I am not Solomon, but I am one that
 
 ALROY. 149 
 
 wore Schirene the partner of my throne, would mate his 
 glowing annals read like a wearisome and misty tale to our 
 surpassing lustre ! ' 
 
 He ceased, the princess turned her hitherto hidden 
 countenance, and bowed it on his heart. ' O Alroy ! ' she 
 exclaimed, ' I have no creed, no country, no life, but thee ! ' 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ' THE king is late to-day.' 
 
 ' Is it true, Asriel, there is an express from Hamadan ? ' 
 
 ' Of no moment, Ithamar. I had private letters from 
 Abner. All is quiet.' 
 
 ' 'Tis much past the hour. When do you depart, Sche- 
 rirah ? ' 
 
 ' The troops are ready. I wait orders. This morning's 
 council will perchance decide.' 
 
 ' This morning's council is devoted to the settlement of 
 the civil affairs of the capital,' remarked Jabaster. 
 
 ' Indeed ! ' said Asriel. ' Is your report prepared, 
 Jabaster ? ' 
 
 ' 'Tis here,' replied the high priest. c The Hebrew legis- 
 lator requires but little musing to shape his order. He has 
 a model which time cannot destroy, nor thought improve.' 
 
 Ithamar and Asriel exchanged significant glances. Sche- 
 rirah looked solemn. There was a pause, which was broken 
 by Asriel. 
 
 ' 'Tis a noble city, this Bagdad. I have not yet visited 
 your quarters, Jabaster. You are well placed.' 
 
 ' As it may be. I hope we shall not tarry here long. 
 The great point is still not achieved.' 
 
 ' How far is it to the holy city ? ' enquired Scherirah. 
 
 ' A month's march,' replied Jabaster. 
 
 ' And when you get there ? ' enquired Ithamar. 
 
 'You may fight with the Franks,' replied Asriel. 
 
 ' Jabaster, how large is Jerusalem ? ' enquired Ithamar.
 
 150 ALROY. 
 
 'Is it true, as I have sometimes heard, that it is not bigger 
 than the serail here, gardens and all ? ' 
 
 ' Its glory hath departed,' replied the high priest ; ' the 
 bricks have fallen, but we will rebuild with marble ; and 
 Sion, that is now without the Christian walls, shall yet 
 sparkle, as in the olden time, with palaces and pavilions.' 
 
 A flourish of trumpets, the portals flew open, and Alroy 
 entered, leaning on the arm of the envoy of Bagdad. 
 
 ' Valiant leaders,' said Alroy to the astonished chieftains, 
 ' in this noble stranger, you see one like yourselves entrusted 
 with my unbounded confidence. Jabaster, behold thy 
 brother ! ' 
 
 ' Honain ! art tliou Honain ? ' exclaimed the pontiff start- 
 ing from his seat. ' I have a thousand messengers after 
 thee.' With a countenance alternately pallid with surprise 
 and burning with affection, Jabaster embraced his brother, 
 and, overpowered with emotion, hid his face on his shoulder. 
 
 ' Sire,' at length exclaimed the high priest in a low and 
 tremulous voice, ' I must pray your pardon that for an instant 
 in this character I have indulged in any other thoughts than 
 those that may concern your welfare. "Tis past : and you, 
 who know all, will forgive me.' 
 
 'All that respects Jabaster must concern my welfare. He 
 is the pillar of my empire ; ' and holding forth his hand, 
 Alroy placed the high priest on his right. ' Scherirah, 
 you depart this eve.' 
 
 The rough captain bowed in silence. 
 
 * What is this ? ' continued Alroy, as Jabaster offered him 
 a scroll. 'Ah ! your report.' "Order of the Tribes," "Ser- 
 vice of the Levites," "Princes of the People," " Elders of 
 Israel ! " The day may come when this may be effected. 
 At present, Jabaster, we must be moderate, and content 
 ourselves with arrangements which may ensure that order 
 shall be maintained, property respected, and justice ad- 
 ministered. Is it true that a gang has rifled a mosque ? ' 
 
 ' Sire ! of that I would speak. They are no plunderers, 
 but men, perhaps too zealous, who have read and who have 
 remembered that " Ye shall utterly destroy all the places
 
 ALROY. 151 
 
 wherein the nations which ye shall possess, served their 
 gods upon the high mountains, and upon the hill, and under 
 every green tree. And ye shall overthrow their altars, 
 and" ' 
 
 ' Jabaster, is this a synagogue ? Come I to a council of 
 valiant statesmen or dreaming Rabbis ? For a thousand 
 years we have been quoting the laws we dared not practise. 
 Is it with such aid that we captured Nishabur and crossed 
 the Tigris? Valiant, wise Jabaster, thou art worthy of 
 better things, and capable of all. I entreat thee, urge such 
 matters for the last time. Are these fellows in custody ? ' 
 
 ' They were in custody. I have freed them.' 
 
 ' Freed them ! Hang them ! Hang them on the most 
 public grove. Is this the way to make the Moslem a 
 duteous subject ? Jabaster ! Israel honours thee ; and I, 
 its chief, know that one more true, more valiant, or more 
 learned, crowds not around our standard ; but I see, the 
 caverns of the Caucasus are not a school for empire.' 
 
 ' Sire, I had humbly deemed the school for empire was 
 the law of Moses.' 
 
 ' Ay ! adapted to these times.' 
 
 ' Can aught divine be changed ? ' 
 
 ' Am I as tall as Adam ? If man, the crown, the rose of 
 all this fair creation, the most divine of all divine inven- 
 tions, if Time have altered even this choicest of all godlike 
 works, why shall it spare a law made but to rule his con- 
 duct ? Good Jabaster, we must establish the throne of Israel, 
 that is my mission, and for the means, no matter how, or 
 where. Asriel, what news of Medad ? ' 
 
 ' All is quiet between the Tigris and Euphrates. It would 
 be better to recall his division, which has been much 
 harassed. I thought of relieving him by Abidan.' 
 
 ' I think so, too. We may as well keep Abidan out of 
 the city. If the truth were known, I'll wager some of his 
 company plundered the mosque. We must issue a procla- 
 mation on that subject. My good Jabaster, we'll talk over 
 these matters alone. At present I will leave you with your 
 brother. Scherirah, sup with me to night ; before you quit 
 Asriel, come with me to my cabinet.'
 
 152 ALROY. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ' I MUST see the king ! ' 
 
 'Holy priest, his highness has retired. It is impossible.' 
 
 ' I must see the king. Worthy Pharez, I take all peril 
 on myself.' 
 
 ' Indeed his highness' orders are imperative. Yon cannot 
 see him.' 
 
 ' Knowest thou who I am ? ' 
 
 ' One whom all pious Hebrews reverence.' 
 
 ' I say I must see the king.' 
 
 4 Indeed, indeed, holy Jabaster, it cannot be.' 
 
 ' Shall Israel perish for a menial's place ? Go to ; I will 
 see him.' 
 
 ' Nay ! if you will, I'll struggle for my duty.' 
 
 ' Touch not the Lord's anointed. Dog, you shall suffer 
 for this ! ' 
 
 So saying, Jabaster threw aside Pharez, and, with the 
 attendant clinging to his robes, rushed into the royal 
 chamber. 
 
 ' What is all this ? ' exclaimed Alroy, starting from the 
 divan. ' Jabaster ! Pharez, withdraw ! How now, is Bag- 
 dad in insurrection ? ' 
 
 'Worse, much worse, Israel soon will be.' 
 
 'Ay!' 
 
 ' My fatal brother has told me all, nor would I sleep, 
 until I lifted up my voice to save thee.' 
 
 ' Am I in danger ? ' 
 
 ' In the wilderness, when the broad desert quivered 
 beneath thy trembling feet, and the dark heavens poured 
 down their burning torrents, thou wert less so. In that 
 hour of death, One guarded thee, who never forgets his fond 
 and faithful offspring, and now, when He has brought thee 
 out of the house of bondage ; now, when thy fortunes, like 
 a noble cedar, swell in the air and shadow all the land ; 
 thou, the very leader of His people, His chosen one, for 
 whom He hath worked such marvels, thy heart is turned
 
 ALROY. 153 
 
 from thy fathers' God, and hankers after strange abomina- 
 tions.' 
 
 Through the broad arch that led into the gardens of the 
 serail, the moonlight fell npon the tall figure and the up- 
 raised arm of the priest ; Alroy stood with folded arms at 
 some distance, watching Jabaster as he spoke, with a calm 
 but searching glance. Suddenly he advanced with a quick 
 step, and, placing his hand upon Jabaster's arm, said, in 
 a low, enquiring tone, ' You are speaking of this marriage?' 
 
 ' Of that which ruined Solomon.' 
 
 ' Listen to me, Jabaster,' said Alroy, interrupting him, 
 in a calm but peremptory tone. ' I cannot forget that I am 
 speaking to my master, as well as to my friend. The Lord, 
 who knoweth all things, hath deemed me worthy of His 
 mission. My fitness for this high and holy office was not 
 admitted without proof. A lineage, which none else could 
 offer, mystic studies shared by few, a mind that dared en- 
 counter all things, and a frame that could endure most, 
 these were my claims. But no more of this. I have passed 
 the great ordeal ; the Lord of Hosts hath found me not 
 unworthy of His charge ; I have established His ancient 
 people ; His altars blaze with sacrifices ; His p7-iests are 
 honoured, bear witness thou, Jabaster, His omnipotent unity 
 is declared. What wouldst thou more ? ' 
 
 'All!' 
 
 ' Then Moses knew you well. It is a stiff-necked people.' 
 
 ' Sire, bear with me. If I speak in heat, I speak in zeal. 
 Tou ask me what I wish : my answer is, a national existence, 
 which we have not. You ask me what I wish : my answer 
 is, the Land of Promise. You ask me what I wish : my 
 answer is, Jerusalem. You ask me what I wish : my 
 answer is, the Temple, all we have forfeited, all we have 
 yearned after, all for which we have fought, our beauteous 
 country, our holy creed, our simple manners, and our 
 ancient customs.' 
 
 ' Manners, change with time and circumstances ; customs 
 may be observed everywhere. The ephod on thy breast 
 proves our faith ; and, for a country, is the Tigris less than 
 Siloah, or the Euphrates inferior to the Jordan r '
 
 154 ALKOY. 
 
 ' Alas ! alas ! there was a glorious prime when Israel 
 stood aloof from other nations, a fair and holy thing that 
 God had hallowed. We were then a chosen family, a most 
 peculiar people, set apart for God's entire enjoyment. All 
 about us was solemn, deep, and holy. We shunned the 
 stranger as an unclean thing that must defile our solitary 
 sanctity, and, keeping to ourselves and to our God, our 
 lives flowed on in one great solemn tide of deep religion, 
 making the meanest of our multitude feel greater than the 
 kings of other lands. It was a glorious time : I thought it 
 had returned ; but I awake from this, as other dreams.' 
 
 ' We must leave off dreaming, good Jabaster, we must 
 act. Were I, by any chance, to fall into one of those 
 reveries, with which I have often lost the golden hours at 
 Hamadan, or in our old cave, I should hear, some fine 
 morning, his sultanship of Roum rattling at my gates.' 
 Alroy smiled as he spoke ; he would willingly have intro- 
 duced a lighter tone into the dialogue, but the solemn coun- 
 tenance of the priest was not sympathetic with his levity. 
 
 ' My heart is full, and yet I cannot speak : the memory 
 of the past overpowers my thought. I had vainly deemed 
 that my voice, inspired by the soul of truth, might yet pre- 
 serve him ; and now I stand here in his presence, silent and 
 trembling, like a guilty thing. O, my prince ! my pupil ! ' 
 said the priest, advancing, falling on his knee, and seizing 
 the robe of Alroy, ' by thy sacred lineage ; by the sweet 
 memory of thy ardent youth, and our united studies ; by 
 all thy zealous thoughts, and solemn musings, and glorious 
 aspirations after fame ; by all thy sufferings, and by all thy 
 triumphs, and chiefly by the name of that great God, who 
 hath elected thee his favoured child ; by all the marvels of 
 thy mighty mission, I do adjure thee ! Arise, Alroy, arise 
 and rouse thyself. The lure that snared thy fathers may 
 trap thee, this Delilah may shear thy mystic locks. Spirits 
 like thee act not by halves. Once fall out from the straight 
 course before thee, and, though thou deemest 'tis but to 
 saunter mid the summer trees, soon thou wilt find thyself 
 in the dark depths of some infernal forest, where none may 
 rescue thee ! '
 
 ALROY. 155 
 
 ' What if I do inherit the eager blood of my great ances- 
 tor, at least I hold his sceptre. Shall aright of earthly 
 power prevail against the supernatural sway of Heaven and 
 Hades ? ' 
 
 ' Sire, sire, the legend that came from Sinai is full of 
 high instruction. But shape thy conduct by its oracles, 
 and all were well. It says our people can be established 
 only by him who rules them with the rod of Solomon. 
 Sire, when the Lord offered his pleasure to that mighty 
 king, thou knowest his deep discretion. Riches and length 
 of days, empire and vengeance, these were not the choice of 
 one to whom all accidents were proffered. The legend bears 
 an inward spirit, as well as an outward meaning. The 
 capture of the prize was a wise test of thy imperial fitness. 
 Thou hast his sceptre, but, without his wisdom, 'tis but a 
 staff of cedar.' 
 
 ' Hah ! Art thou there ? I am glad to see Jabaster 
 politic. Hear me, my friend. What my feelings be unto 
 this royal lady, but little matters. Let them pass, and let 
 us view this question by the light wherein you have placed 
 it, the flame of policy and not of passion. I am no traitor 
 to the God of Israel, in whose name I have conquered, and 
 in whose name I shall rule ; but thou art a learned doctor, 
 thou canst inform us. I have heard no mandate to yield 
 my glorious empire for my meanest province. I am Lord 
 of Asia, so would I have my long posterity. Our people 
 are but a remnant, a feeble fraction of the teeming millions 
 that own my sway. What I hold I can defend ; but my 
 children may not inherit the spirit of their sire. The Mos- 
 lemin will recognise their rule with readier hearts, when 
 they remember that a daughter of their caliphs gave them 
 life. You see I too am politic, my good Jabaster !' 
 
 ' The policy of the son of Kareah 67 : 'twas fatal. He pre- 
 ferred Egypt to Judah, and he suffered. Sire, the Lord 
 hath blessed Judah : it is His land. He would have it filled 
 by His peculiar people, so that His worship might ever 
 flourish. For this He has, by many curious rites and 
 customs, marked us out from all other nations, so that wo 
 cannot, at the same time, mingle with them and yet be true
 
 156 ALEOY. 
 
 to Him. We must exist alone. To preserve that loneliness, 
 is the great end and essence of our law. What have we to 
 do with Bagdad, or its people, where every instant we must 
 witness some violation of our statutes ? Can we pray with 
 them ? Can we eat with them ? Alike in the highest 
 duties, and the lowest occupations, of existence, we cannot 
 mingle. From the altar of our God to our domestic boards, 
 we are alike separated from them. Sire, you may be King 
 of Bagdad, but you cannot, at the same time, be a Jew.' 
 
 ' I am what I am. I worship the Lord of Hosts. Per- 
 haps, in His mercy, He will accept the days of Nishabur 
 and the Tigris^ as a compensation for some slight relaxation 
 in the ritual of the baker and the bath.' 
 
 ' And mark my words : it was by the ritual of the baker 
 and the bath that Alroy rose, and without it he will fall. 
 The genius of the people, which he shared, raised him ; 
 and that genius has been formed by the law of Moses. 
 Based on that law, he might indeed have handed down an 
 empire to his long posterity ; and now, though the tree of 
 his fortunes seems springing up by the water-side, fed by a 
 thousand springs, and its branches covered with dew, there 
 is a gangrene in the sap, and to-morrow he may shrink like 
 a shrivelled gourd. Alas ! alas ! for Israel ! We have 
 long fed on mallows ; but to lose the vintage in the very 
 day of fruition, 'tis very bitter. Ah ! when I raised thy 
 exhausted form in the cavern of Genthesma, and the star 
 of David beamed brightly in the glowing heavens upon thy 
 high fulfilment, who could have dreamed of a night like 
 this ? Farewell, sire.' 
 
 ' Stop, Jabaster ! earliest, dearest friend, pr'ythee, pr'y- 
 thee stop ! ' 
 
 The priest slowly turned, the prince hesitated. 
 
 ' Part not in anger, good Jabaster.' 
 
 ' In sorrow, sire, only in sorrow ; but deep and terrible.' 
 
 ' Israel is Lord of Asia, my Jabaster. Why should we 
 fear?' 
 
 ' Solomon built Tadmor in the wilderness, and his fleet 
 brought gold from Ophir ; and yet Alroy was born a slave.'
 
 ALKOY. 157 
 
 ' But did not die one. The sultans of the world have 
 fallen before me. I have no fear. Nay, do not go. At 
 least you will give some credence to the stars, my learned 
 Cabalist. See, my planet shines as brightly as my fortunes.' 
 Alroy withdrew the curtain, and with Jabaster stepped out 
 upon the terrace. A beautiful star glittered on high. As 
 they gazed, its colour changed, and a blood-red meteor 
 burst from its circle, and fell into space. The conqueror 
 and the priest looked at each other at the same time. 
 Their countenances were pale, enquiring, and agitated. 
 
 ' Sire,' said Jabaster, ' march to Judah.' 
 
 ' It portends war,' replied Alroy, endeavouring to re- 
 cover himself. ' Perchance some troubles in Persia.' 
 
 ' Troubles at home, no other. The danger is nigh. Look 
 to thyself.' 
 
 A wild scream was heard in the gardens. It sounded 
 thrice. 
 
 'What is this?' exclaimed Alroy, really agitated. 
 ' Rouse the guard, Jabaster, search the gardens.' 
 
 ' 'Tis useless and may do harm. It was a spirit that 
 shrieked.' 
 
 'What said it?' 
 
 ' MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN ! ' 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ' THE old story, the priest against the king,' said Honain 
 to Alroy, when at his morrow's interview, he had listened 
 to the events of the preceding night. ' My pious brother 
 wishes to lead you back to the Theocracy, and is fearful 
 that, if he prays at Bagdad instead of Sion, he may chance 
 to become only the head of an inferior sect, instead of re- 
 velling in the universal tithes of a whole nation. As for 
 the meteor, Scherirah must have crossed river about the 
 same time, and the Sultan of Roum may explain the bloody 
 portent. For the shriek, as I really have no acquaintance
 
 1 58 ALKOY. 
 
 with spirits, I must leave the miraculous communication to 
 the favoured ears and initiated intelligences of your high- 
 ness and my brother. It seems that it differed from " the 
 Daughter of the Voice " in more respects than one, since it 
 was not only extremely noisy, but, as it would appear, quite 
 unintelligible except to the individual who had an interest 
 in the interpretation, an ingenious one I confess. When I 
 enter upon my functions as your highness's chamberlain, 
 I will at least guarantee that your slumbers shall not be 
 disturbed either by spirits or more unwelcome visitors.' 
 
 ' Enter upon them at once, good Honain. How fares my 
 Persian rose to-day, my sweet Schirene ? ' 
 
 ' Feeding on your image in your absence. She spares no 
 word to me, I do assure your Highness.' 
 
 ' Nay, nay, we know you are a general favourite with the 
 sex, Honain. I'faith I'm jealous.' 
 
 ' I would your highness had cause,' said Honain, 
 demurely. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE approaching marriage between the King of the Hebrews 
 and the Princess of Bagdad was published throughout 
 Asia. Preparations were made on the plain of the Tigris 
 for the great rejoicing. Whole forests were felled to pi'o- 
 vide materials for the buildings and fuel for the banqueting. 
 All the governors of provinces and cities, all the chief 
 officers and nobility of both nations, were specially invited, 
 and daily arrived in state at Bagdad. Among them the 
 Viceroy of the Medes and Persians, and his recent bride, 
 the Princess Miriam, were conspicuous, followed by a train 
 of nearly ten thousand persons. 
 
 A throne, ascended by one hundred steps covered with 
 crimson cloth, and crowned by a golden canopy, was raised 
 in the middle of the plain ; on each side was a throne less 
 elevated, but equally gorgeous. In the front of these thrones
 
 ALROY. 159 
 
 an immense circus was described, formed by one hundred 
 chartaks or amphitheatres, ample room for the admittance 
 of the multitude being left between the buildings. These 
 chartaks were covered with bright brocades and showy 
 carpets ; on each was hoisted a brilliant banner. In some of 
 them were bands of choice musicians, in others companies of 
 jugglers, buffoons, and storiers. Five chartaks on each side 
 of the thrones were allotted for the convenience of the court ; 
 the rest were filled by the different trades of the city. In 
 one the fruiterers had formed a beautiful garden, glowing 
 with pomegranates, and gourds, and water-melons, oranges, 
 almonds, and pistachio-nuts ; in another the butchers ex- 
 hibited their meats carved in fanciful shapes, and the skins 
 of animals formed into ludicrous figures. Here assembled 
 the furriers, all dressed in masquerade, like leopards, lions, 
 tigers and foxes ; and in another booth mustered the up- 
 holsterers, proud of a camel made of wood, and reeds, and 
 cord, and painted linen, a camel which walked about as if 
 alive, though ever and anon a curtain drawn aside dis- 
 covered to the marvelling multitude the workman within, 
 performing in his own piece. Further on might be per- 
 ceived the cotton manufacturers, whose chartak was full of 
 birds of all shapes and plumage, formed nevertheless of 
 their curious plant ; and, in the centre rose a lofty minaret, 
 constructed of the same material, with the help of reeds, 
 although every one imagined it to be built with bricks and 
 mortar. It was covered with embroidered work, and on 
 the top was placed a stork, so cunningly devised that the 
 children pelted it with pistachio-nuts. The saddlers showed 
 their skill in two litters, open at top, each carried on a 
 dromedary, and in each a beautiful woman, who diverted 
 the spectators with light balls of gilt leather, throwing them 
 up both with their hands and feet. Nor were the mat- 
 makers backward in the proof of their dexterity, since, 
 instead of a common banner, they exhibited a large standard 
 of reeds worked with two lines of writing in Kufic, pro- 
 claiming the happy names of Alroy and Schirene. But 
 indeed in every chartak might be seen some wondrous
 
 160 ALKOY. 
 
 specimens of the wealth of Bagdad, and of the ingenuity 
 of its unrivalled artisans. 
 
 Around this mighty circus, on every side for the space of 
 many miles, the plain was studded with innumerable pavi- 
 lions. At measured intervals were tables furnished with 
 every species of provision, and attended by appointed 
 servants ; flagons of wine and jars of sherbets, mingled 
 with infinite baskets of delicious fruits and trays of re- 
 freshing confectionery. Although open to all comers, so 
 great and rapid was the supply, that these banqueting tables 
 seemed ever laden ; and that the joys of the people might 
 be complete, they were allowed to pursue whatever pleasures 
 they thought fit without any restraint, by proclamation, in 
 these terms. 
 
 ' THIS IS THE TIME OF FEASTING, PLEASURE, AND REJOICING. 
 LET NO PERSON REPRIMAND OR COMPLAIN OF ANOTHER : LET NOT 
 THE RICH INSULT THE POOR, OB THE STRONG THE WEAK : LET NO 
 ONE ASK ANOTHER, " WHY HAVE YOU DONE THIS? " ' 
 
 Millions of people were collected in this Paradise. They 
 rejoiced, they feasted, they frolicked, they danced, they sang. 
 They listened to the tales of the Arabian storier, at once 
 enchanted and enchanting, or melted to the strain of the 
 Persian poet, as he painted the moon-lit forehead of his 
 heroine, and the wasting and shadowy form of his love-sick 
 hero ; they beheld with amazement the feats of the juggler of 
 the Ganges, or giggled at the practised wit and the practical 
 buffoonery of the Syrian mime. And the most delighted 
 could still spare a fascinating glance to the inviting gestures 
 and the voluptuous grace of the dancing girls of Egypt. 68 
 Everywhere reigned melody and merriment, rarity and 
 beauty. For once mankind forgot their cares, and delivered 
 themselves up to infinite enjoyment. 
 
 ' I grow courteous,' said Kisloch the Kourd, assisting a 
 party into one of .the shows. 
 
 ' And I humane,' said Calidas the Indian. ' Fellow, how 
 dare yon violate the proclamation, by thrashing that child ? ' 
 He turned to one of the stewards of the table, who was
 
 ALROY. 16i 
 
 belabouring the unfortunate driver of a camel which had 
 stumbled and in its fall had shivered its burden, two panniers 
 of porcelain. 
 
 ' Mind your own business, fellow,' replied the steward, 
 and be thankful that for once in your life you can dine.' 
 
 ' Is this the way to speak to an officer?' said Calidas the 
 Indian ; ' I have half a mind to cut your tongue out.' 
 
 ' Never mind, little fellow,' said the Guebre, ' here is a 
 dirhem for you. Bun away and be merry.' 
 
 ' A miracle ! ' grinned the Negro ; ' he giveth alms.' 
 
 ' And you are witty,' rejoined the Guebre. ' 'Tis a won- 
 drous day.' 
 
 ' What shall we do ? ' said Kisloch. 
 
 ' Let us dine,' proposed the Negro. 
 
 'Ay! under this plane-tree,' said Calidas. "Tis pleasant 
 to be alone. I hate everybody but ourselves.' 
 
 ' Here stop, you rascal,' said the Guebre. ' "What's your 
 name ? ' 
 
 ' I am a Hadgee,' said our old friend Abdallah, the servant 
 of the charitable merchant Ali, and who was this day one of 
 the officiating stewards. 
 
 ' Are you a Jew, you scoundrel ? ' said the Guebre, ' that 
 is the only thing worth being. Bring some wine, you 
 accursed Giaour ! ' 
 
 ' Instantly,' said Kisloch, ' and a pilau.' 
 
 ' And a gazelle stuffed with almonds,' said Calidas. 
 
 'And some sugar-plums,' said the Negro. 
 
 ' Quick, you infernal Gentile, or I'll send this javelin in 
 your back,' hallooed the Guebre. 
 
 The servile Abdallah hastened away, and soon bustled 
 back, bearing two flagons of wine, and followed by four 
 servants, each with a tray covered with dainties. 
 
 'Where are you going, you accursed scoundrels?' grum- 
 bled Kisloch ; ' wait upon the true believers.' 
 
 ' We shall be more free alone,' whispered Calidas. 
 
 'Away, then, dogs,' growled Kisloch. 
 
 Abdallah and his attendants hurried off, but were soon 
 summoned back. 
 
 U
 
 162 ALROY. 
 
 ' Why did you not bring Schiraz wine ? ' asked Calidas, 
 with an eye of fire. 
 
 'The pilau is overdone,' thundered Kisloch. 
 
 ' You have brought a lamb stuffed with pistachio-nuts, 
 instead of a gazelle with almonds,' said the Guebre. 
 
 'Not half sugar- plums enough,' said the Negro. 
 
 ' Everything is wrong,' said Kisloch. ' Go, and get us a 
 Kabob.' 
 
 In time, however, even this unmanageable crew were 
 satisfied ; and, seated under their plane-tree, and stuffing 
 themselves with all the dainties of the East, they became 
 more amiable as their appetites decreased. 
 
 ' A bumper, Calidas, and a song,' said Kisloch. 
 
 * "Tis rare stuff,' said the Guebre ; ' come, Cally, it should 
 inspire you.' 
 
 ' Here goes, then ; mind the chorus.' 
 
 THE SONG OP CALIDAS. 
 
 Drink, drink, deeply drink, 
 
 Never feel, and never think ; 
 What's love ? what's fame ? a sigh, a smilo. 
 
 Friendship ? but a hollow wile. 
 
 If you've any thought or woe, 
 
 Drown them in the goblet's flow. 
 Yes ! dash them in this brimming cup ; 
 Dash them in, and drink them up. 
 Drink, drink, deeply drink, 
 Never feel, and never think. 
 
 ' Hark, the trumpets ! The King and Queen ! The pro- 
 cession is coming. Let's away.' 
 
 ' Again ! they must be near. Hurry, hurry, for good 
 places.' 
 
 ' Break all the cups and dishes. Come along ! ' 
 
 The multitude from all quarters hurried to the great cir- 
 cus, amid the clash of ten thousand cymbals and the blast 
 of innumerable trumpets. In the distance, issuing from the 
 gates of Bagdad, might be discerned a brilliant crowd, the 
 advance company of the bridal procession. 
 
 There came fivo hundred maidens crowned with flowers,
 
 ALROY. 163 
 
 and beauteous as the buds that girt their hair. Their 
 flowing robes were whiter than the swan, and each within 
 her hand a palm-branch held. 
 
 Followed these a band of bright musicians, clothed in 
 golden robes, and sounding silver trumpets. 
 
 Then five hundred youths, brilliant as stars, clad in jackets 
 of white fox-skin, and alternately bearing baskets of fruit or 
 flowers. 
 
 Followed these a band of bright musicians, clothed in 
 silver robes, and sounding golden trumpets. 
 
 Six choice steeds, sumptuously caparisoned, each led by 
 an Arab groom. 69 
 
 The household of Medad, in robes of crimson, lined with 
 sable. 
 
 The standard of Medad. 
 
 Medad, on a coal-black Arab, followed by three hundred 
 officers of his division, all mounted on steeds of pure race. 
 
 Slaves, bearing the bridal present of Medad; six Damas- 
 cus sabres of unrivalled temper. 70 
 
 Twelve choice steeds, sumptuously caparisoned, each led 
 by an Anatolian groom. 
 
 The household of Ithamar, in robes of violet, lined with 
 ermine. 
 
 The standard of Ithamar. 
 
 Ithamar, on a snow-white Anatolian charger, followed by 
 six hundred officers of his division, all mounted on steeds of 
 pure race. 
 
 Slaves bearing the marriage present of Ithamar; a golden 
 vase of rubies borne on a violet throne. 
 
 One hundred Negroes, their noses bored, and hung with 
 rings of brilliants, playing upon wind instruments and 
 kettle-drums. 
 
 The standard of the City of Bagdad. 
 
 The deputation from the citizens of Bagdad. 
 
 Two hundred mules, with caparisons of satin, embroi- 
 dered with gold, and adorned with small golden bells. 
 These bore the sumptuous wardrobe, presented by the city 
 to their princess. Each mule was attended by a girl,
 
 164 ALKOY. 
 
 dressed like a Pei-i, with starry wings, and a man, masked 
 as a hideous Dive. 
 
 The standard of Egypt. 
 
 The deputation from the Hebrews of Egypt, mounted on 
 dromedaries, with silver furniture. 
 
 Fifty slaves, bearing their present to the princess, with 
 golden cords, a mighty bath of jasper, beatifully carved, the 
 sarcophagus of some ancient temple, and purchased for an 
 immense sum. 
 
 The standard of Syria. 
 
 The deputation from the Hebrews of the Holy Land, 
 headed by Rabbi Zimri himself, each carrying in his hand 
 his offering to the nuptial pair, a precious vase, containing 
 earth from the Mount of Sion. 
 
 The standard of Hamadan. 
 
 The deputation from the citizens of Hamadan, headed by 
 the venerable Bostenay himself, whose sumptuous charger 
 was led by Caleb. 
 
 The present of the city of Hamadan to David Alroy, 
 offered at his own suggestion ; the cup in which the Prince 
 of the Captivity carried his tribute, now borne full of sand. 
 
 Fifty choice steeds, sumptuously caparisoned, each led by 
 a Median or Persian groom. 
 
 The household of Abner and Miriam, in number twelve 
 hundred, clad in chain armour of ivory and gold. 
 
 The standard of the Medes and Persians. 
 
 Two white elephants, with golden litters, bearing the 
 Viceroy and his Princess. 
 
 The offering of Abner to Alroy ; twelve elephants of 
 state, with furniture embroidered with jewels, each tended 
 by an Indian clad in chain armour of ivory and gold. 
 
 The offering of Miriam to Schirene ; fifty plants of roses 
 from Rocnabad ; 71 a white shawl of Cashmere fifty feet in 
 length, which folded into the handle of a fan ; fifty screens, 
 each made of a feather of the roc ; 72 and fifty vases of crystal 
 full of exquisite perfumes, and each sealed with a talisman 
 of precious stones. 
 
 After these followed the eunuch guard.
 
 ALROY. 165 
 
 Then came the band of the serail, consisting of three 
 hundred dwarfs, hideous indeed to behold, but the most 
 complete musicians in the world. 
 
 The steeds of Solomon, in number one hundred, each 
 with a natural star upon its front, un caparisoned, and led 
 only by a bridle of diamonds. 
 
 The household of Alroy and Schirene. Foremost, the 
 Lord Honain riding upon a chestnut charger, shod with 
 silver ; the dress of the rider, pink with silver stars. From 
 his rosy turban depended a tremulous aigrette of brilliants, 73 
 blazing with a thousand shifting tints. 
 
 Two hundred pages followed him ; and then servants of 
 both sexes, gorgeously habited, amounting to nearly two 
 thousand, carrying rich vases, magnificent caskets, and 
 costly robes. The treasurer and two hundred of his under- 
 lings came next, showering golden dirhems on all sides. 
 
 The sceptre of Solomon borne by Asriel himself. 
 
 A magnificent and lofty car, formed of blue enamel with 
 golden wheels, and axletrees of turquoises and brilliants, 
 and drawn by twelve snow-white and sacred horses, four 
 abreast ; in the car Alroy and Schirene. 
 
 Five thousand of the sacred guard closed the procession. 
 
 Amid the exclamations of the people, this gorgeous pro- 
 cession crossed the plain, and moved around the mighty 
 circus. The conqueror and his bride ascended their throne ; 
 its steps were covered by the youths and maidens. On 
 the throne upon their right sat the venerable Bostenay ; on 
 the left, the gallant Viceroy and his Princess. The char- 
 taks on each side were crowded with the court. 
 
 The deputations made their offerings, the chiefs and 
 captains paid their homage, the trades of the city moved 
 before the throne in order, and exhibited their various in- 
 genuity. Thrice was the proclamation made, amid the 
 sound of trumpets, and then began the games. 
 
 A thousand horsemen dashed into the arena and threw 
 the jerreed. They galloped at full speed ; they arrested 
 their fiery charges in mid course, and flung their long 
 javelins at the minute but sparkling target, the imitative
 
 166 ALROY. 
 
 form of a rare and brilliant bird. The conquerors received 
 their prizes from the hand of the princess herself, bright 
 shawls, and jewelled daggers, and rosaries of gems. Some- 
 times the trumpets announced a prize from the vice-queen, 
 sometimes from the venerable Bostenay, sometimes from 
 the victorious generals, or the loyal deputations, sometimes 
 from the united trades, sometimes from the city of Bagdad, 
 sometimes from the city of Hamadan. The hours flew 
 away in gorgeous and ceaseless variety. 
 
 ' I would we were alone, my own Schirene,' said Alroy 
 to his bride. 
 
 ' I would so too ; and yet I love to see all Asia prostrate 
 at the feet of Alroy.' 
 
 ' Will the sun never set ? Give me thy hand to play 
 with.' 
 
 ' Hush ! See Miriam smiles.' 
 
 ' Lovest thou my sister, my own Schirene ? ' 
 
 ' None dearer but thyself.' 
 
 ' Talk not of my sister, but ourselves. Thinkest thou 
 the sun is nearer setting, love ? ' 
 
 ' I cannot see ; thine eyes they dazzle me, they are so 
 brilliant, sweet!' 
 
 '0 ! my soul, I could pour out my passion on thy breast.' 
 
 ' Thou art very serious.' 
 
 ' Love is ever so.' 
 
 ' Nay, sweet ! It makes me wild and fanciful. Now I 
 could do such things, but what I know not. I would wo 
 had wings, and then we would fly away.' 
 
 ' See, I must salute this victor in the games. Must I 
 unloose thy hand! Dear hand, farewell! Think of me 
 while I speak, my precious life. 'Tis done. Give back 
 thy hand, or else methinks I shall die. What's this ? ' 
 
 A horseman, in no holiday dress, but covered with dust, 
 rushed into the circus, bearing in his hand a tall lance, on 
 which was fixed a scroll. The marshals of the games 
 endeavoured to prevent his advance, but he would not be 
 stayed. His message was to the king alone. A rumour of 
 news from the army circulated throughout the crowd. And
 
 ALEOY. 167 
 
 news from the army it was. Another victory ! Scherirah 
 had defeated the Sultan of Bourn, who was now a suppliant 
 for peace and alliance. Sooth to say, the intelligence had 
 arrived at dawn of day, but the courtly Honain had con- 
 trived that it should be communicated at a later and more 
 effective moment. 
 
 There scarcely needed this additional excitement to this 
 glorious day. But the people cheered, the golden dirhems 
 were scattered with renewed profusion, and the intelligence 
 was received by all parties as a solemn ratification by 
 Jehovah, or by Allah, of the morning ceremony. 
 
 The sun set, the court rose, and returned in the same 
 pomp to the serail. The twilight died away, a beacon 
 fired on a distant eminence announced the entrance of Alroy 
 and Schirene into the nuptial chamber, and suddenly, as by 
 magic, the mighty city, every mosque, and minaret, and 
 tower, and terrace, and the universal plain, and the num- 
 berless pavilions, and the immense circus, and the vast and 
 winding river, blazed with light. From every spot a lamp, 
 a torch, a lantern, tinted with every hue, burst forth ; enor- 
 mous cressets of silver radiancy beamed on the top of each 
 chartak, and huge bonfires of ruddy flame started up along 
 the whole horizon. 
 
 For seven days and seven nights this unparalleled scene of 
 rejoicing, though ever various, never ceased. Long, long 
 was remembered the bridal feast of the Hebrew prince and 
 the caliph's daughter ; long, long did the peasantry on the 
 plains of Tigris sit down by the side of that starry river, 
 and tell the wondrous tale to their marvelling posterity. 
 
 Now what a glorious man was David Alroy, lord of the 
 mightiest empire in the world, and wedded to the most 
 beautiful princess, surrounded by a prosperous and obe- 
 dient people, guarded by invincible armies, one on whom 
 Earth showered all its fortune, and Heaven all its favour; 
 and all by the power of his own genius!
 
 1G8 
 
 PART IX. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 'TWAS midnight, and the storm still raged ; 'mid the roar 
 of the thunder and the shrieks of the wind, the floods of 
 ibrky lightning each instant revealed the broad and fcJllo?vy 
 breast of the troubled Tigris. 
 
 Jabaster stood gazing upon the wild scene from the gal- 
 lery of his palace. His countenance was solemn, but dis- 
 quieted. 
 
 ' I would that he were here ! ' exclaimed the high priest. 
 'Yet why should I desire his presence, who heralds only 
 gloom? Yet in his absence am I gay? I am nothing. 
 This Bagdad weighs upon me like a cloak of lead: my 
 spirit is dull and broken.' 
 
 ' They say Alroy gives a grand banquet in the serail to- 
 night, and toasts his harlot 'mid the thunderbolts. Is 
 there no hand to write upon the wall ? He is found want- 
 ing, he is weighed, and is indeed found wanting. The 
 parting of his kingdom soon will come, and then, I could 
 weep, oh ! I could weep, and down these stern and sel- 
 dom yielding cheeks pour the wild anguish of my des- 
 perate woe. So young, so great, so favoured! But one 
 more step a God, and now a foul Belshazzar ! 
 
 ' Was it for this his gentle youth was passed in musing 
 solitude and mystic studies? Was it for this the holy 
 messenger summoned his most religious spirit ? Was it 
 for this he crossed the fiery desert, and communed with 
 his fathers in their tombs? Is this the end of all his vic- 
 tories and all his vast achievements ? To banquet with a 
 wanton ! 
 
 ' A year ago, this very night, it was the eve of battle, I
 
 ALROY. 169 
 
 stood within his tent to wait his final word. He mused 
 awhile, and then he said, " Good night, Jabaster !" I believed 
 myself the nearest to his heart, as he has ever been nearest to 
 mine, but that's all over. He never says, " Good night, Jabas- 
 ter," now. Why, what's all this ? Methinks I am a child. 
 
 ' The Lord's anointed is a prisoner now in the light grat- 
 ing of a bright kiosk, and never gazes on the world he con- 
 quered. Egypt and Syria, even farthest Ind, send forth 
 their messengers to greet Alroy, the great, the proud, the 
 invincible. And where is he ? In a soft Paradise of girls 
 and eunuchs, crowned with flowers, listening to melting lays, 
 and the wild trilling of the amorous lute. He spares no 
 hours to council ; all is left to his prime favourites, of 
 whom the leader is that juggling fiend I sometime called 
 my brother. 
 
 * Why rest I here ? Whither should I fly ? Methinks my 
 presence is still a link to decency. Should I tear off the 
 ephod, I scarcely fancy 'twould blaze upon another's breast. 
 He goes not to the sacrifice ; they say he keeps no fast, ob- 
 serves no ritual, and that their festive fantasies will not be 
 balked, even by the Sabbath. I have not seen him thrice 
 since the marriage. Honain has told her I did oppose it, 
 and she bears to me a hatred that only women feel. Our 
 strong passions break into a thousand purposes : women 
 have one. Their love is dangerous, but their hate is fatal. 
 
 ' See ! a boat bounding on the waters. On such a night, 
 but one would dare to venture.' 
 
 Now visible, now in darkness, a single lantern at the 
 prow, Jabaster watched with some anxiety the slight bark 
 buffeting the waves. A flash of lightning illumined the 
 whole river, and tipped with a spectral light even the dis- 
 tant piles of building. The boat and the toiling figure of 
 the single rower were distinctly perceptible. Now all again 
 was darkness ; the wind suddenly subsided ; in a few 
 minutes the plash of the oars was audible, and the boat 
 apparently stopped beneath the palace. 
 
 There was a knocking at the private portal. 
 
 ' Who knocks ?' enquired Jabaster.
 
 170 ALROY. 
 
 ' A friend to Israel.' 
 
 ' Abidan, by bis voice. Art thou alone ?' 
 
 ' The prophetess is with me ; only she.' 
 
 ' A moment. I'll open the gate. Draw the boat within 
 the arch.' 
 
 ' Jabaster descended from the gallery, and in a few mo- 
 ments returned with two visitors : the youthful prophetess 
 Esther, and her companion, a man short in stature, but with 
 a powerful and well-knit frame. His countenance was me- 
 lancholy, and, with harshness in the lower part, not with- 
 out a degree of pensive beauty in the broad clear brow and 
 sunken eyes, unusual in Oriental visages. 
 
 ' A rough night,' said Jabaster. 
 
 ' To those who fear it,' replied Abidan. ' The sun has 
 brought so little joy to me, I care not for the storm.' 
 
 ' What news ?' 
 
 ' Woe ! woe ! woe ! ' 
 
 ' Thy usual note, my sister. Will the day never come 
 when we may change it ?' 
 
 ' Woe ! woe ! woe ! unutterable woe !' 
 
 ' Abidan, how fares it ?' 
 
 * Very well.' 
 'Indeed!' 
 
 ' As it may turn out.' 
 
 ' You are brief.' 
 
 ' Bitter.' 
 
 ' Have you been to court, that you have learnt to be so 
 wary in your words, my friend ?' 
 
 ' I know not what may happen. In time we may all be- 
 come courtiers, though I fear, Jabaster, we have done too 
 much to be rewarded. I gave him my blood, and you some- 
 thing more, and now we are at Bagdad. 'Tis a fine city. I 
 wish to Heaven the shower of Sodom would rain upon its 
 terraces.' 
 
 * I know thou hast something terrible to tell. I know it 
 by that gloomy brow of thine, that lowers like the tempest. 
 Speak out, man, I can bear the worst, for which I am pre- 
 pared.'
 
 ALKOY. 171 
 
 ' Take it, then. Alroy has proclaimed himself Caliph. 
 Abner is made Sultan of Persia ; Asriel, Ithamar, Medadj 
 and the chief captains, Vizirs, Honain their chief. Four 
 Moslem nobles are sworn into the council. The Princess 
 goes to mosque in state next Friday ; 'tis said thy pupil 
 doth accompany her.' 
 
 ' I'll not believe it ! By the God of Sinai, I'll not believe 
 it ! Were my own eye the accursed witness of the deed, 
 I'd not believe it. Go to mosque ! They play with thee, 
 my good Abidan, they play with thee.' 
 
 ' As it may be. 'Tis a rumour, but rumours herald deeds. 
 The rest of my intelligence is true. I had it from my kins- 
 man, stout Zalmunna. He left the banquet.' 
 
 ' Shall I go to him ? Methinks one single word, To 
 mosque ! only a rumour and a false one. I'll never believe 
 it ; no, no, no, never, never ! Is he not the Lord's anointed ? 
 The ineffable curse upon this daughter of the Moabite ! No 
 marvel that it thunders ! By heavens, I'll go and beard 
 him in his orgies ! ' 
 
 ' You know your power better than Abidan. You bearded 
 him before his marriage, yet ' 
 
 ' He married. 'Tis true. Honain, their chief. And I 
 kept his ring ! Honain is my brother. Have I ne'er a 
 dagger to cut the bond of brotherhood ?' 
 
 ' We have all daggers, Jabaster, if we knew but how to 
 use them.' 
 
 ' 'Tis strange, we met after twenty years of severance. 
 You were not in the chamber, Abidan. 'Twas at council. 
 We met after twenty years of severance. He is my brother. 
 'Tis strange, I say: I felt that man shrink from my em- 
 brace.' 
 
 ' Honain is a philosopher, and believes in sympathy. 
 'Twould appear there was none between you. His system, 
 then, absolves you from all ties.' 
 
 'You are sure the rest of the intelligence is true ? I'll not 
 believe the mosque, the rest is bad enough.' 
 
 ' Zalmunna left the banquet. Hassan Subah's brother 
 sat above him.'
 
 172 ALROY. 
 
 ' Subali's brother ! 'Tis all over, then. Is he of the 
 council ?' 
 
 ' Ay, and others.' 
 
 * Where now is Israel?' 
 
 ' She should be in her tents.' 
 
 ' Woe ! woe ! unutterable woe ! ' exclaimed the prophetess, 
 who, standing motionless at the back of the chamber, seemed 
 inattentive to their conversation. 
 
 ' Jabaster paced the gallery with agitated steps. Sud- 
 denly he stopped, and, walking up to Abidan, seized his 
 arm, and looked him sternly in the face. ' I know thy 
 thoughts, Abidan,' exclaimed the priest ; ' but it cannot be. 
 I have dismissed, henceforth and for ever I have dismissed 
 all feeling from my mind ; now I have no brother, no friend, 
 no pupil, and, I fear, no Saviour. Israel is all in all to me. 
 I have no other life. 'Tis not compunction, then, that stays 
 my arm. My heart's as hard as thine.' 
 
 'Why stays it, then ?' 
 
 ' Because with him we fall. He is the last of all his 
 sacred line. There is no other hand to grasp our sceptre.' 
 
 ' Our sceptre ! what sceptre ?' 
 
 ' The sceptre of our kings.' 
 
 Kings ! ' 
 
 * Ay,, why dost thou look so dark ?' 
 
 * How looked the prophet when the stiff-necked populace 
 forsooth must have a king ! Did he smile ? Did he shout, 
 and clap his hands, and cry, God save his Majesty ! O, Ja- 
 baster ! honoured, rare Jabaster ! thou second Samuel of 
 our lightheaded people ! there was a time when Israel had 
 no king except their God. Were we viler then ? Did 
 kings conquer Canaan ? Who was Moses, who was Aaron, 
 who was mighty Joshua ? Was the sword of Gideon a 
 kingly sword ? Did the locks of Samson shade royal tem- 
 ples ? Would a king have kept his awful covenant like 
 solemn Jephtha ? Royal words are light as air, when, to 
 maintain them, you injure any other than a subject. 
 
 ' Kings ! why what's a king ? Why should one man break 
 the equal sanctity of our chosen race ? Is their blood purer
 
 ALKOY. 1 73 
 
 than our own ? We are all the seed of Abraham. Who was 
 Saul, and who was David ? I never heard that they were 
 a different breed from our fathers. Grant them devout, 
 which they were not ; and brave and wise, which other men 
 were ; have their posterity a patent for all virtues ? No, 
 Jabaster ! thou ne'er didst err, but when thou placedst a 
 crown upon this haughty stripling. What he did, a thou- 
 sand might have done. 'Twas thy mind inspired the deed. 
 And now he is a king ; and now Jabaster, the very soul of 
 Israel, who should be our Judge and leader, Jabaster trem- 
 bles in disgrace, while our unhallowed Sanhedrim is filled 
 with Ammonites ! ' 
 
 ' Abidan, thou hast touched me to the quick ; thou hast 
 stirred up thoughts that ever and anon, like strong and fatal 
 vapours, have risen from the dark abyss of thought, and I 
 have quelled them.' 
 
 ' Let them rise, I say ; let them drown the beams of 
 that all-scorching sun we suffer under, that drinks all 
 vegetation up, and makes us languish with a dull ex- 
 haustion !' 
 
 ' Joy ! joy ! unutterable joy !' 
 
 ' Hark ! the prophetess has changed her note ; and yet 
 she hears us not. The spirit of the Lord is truly with her. 
 Come, Jabaster, I see thy heart is opening to thy people's 
 sufferings ; thy people, my Jabaster, for art not thou our 
 Judge ? at least, thou shalt be.' 
 
 ' Can we call back the Theocracy ? Is't possible ?' 
 
 ' But say the word, and it is done, Jabaster. Nay, stare 
 not. Dost thou think there are no true hearts in Israel ? 
 Dost thou. suppose thy children have beheld, without a 
 thought, the foul insults poured on thee ; thee, their priest, 
 their adored high priest, one who recalls the best days of 
 the past, the days of their great Judges ? But one word, 
 
 one single movement of that mitred head, and But I 
 
 speak unto a mind that feels more than I can express. Be 
 silent, tongue, thou art a babbling counsellor. Jabaster's 
 patriot soul needs not the idle schooling of a child. If he 
 be silent, 'tis that his wisdom deems that the hour is not
 
 174 ALEOY. 
 
 ripe; but, -when her leader speaks, Israel will not "be 
 slack.' 
 
 ' The Moslemin in council ! We know what must come 
 next. Our national existence is in its last agony. Me- 
 thinks the time is very ripe, Abidan.' 
 
 ' Why, so we think, great sir ; and say the word, and 
 twenty thousand spears will guard the Ark. I'll answer 
 for my men. Stout Scherirah looks grimly on the Moabites. 
 A word from thee, and the whole Syrian army will join our 
 banner, the Lion of Judah, that shall be our flag. The 
 tyrant and his satraps, let them die, and then the rest must 
 join us. We'll proclaim the covenant, and, leaving Babylon 
 to a bloody fate, march on to Sion !' 
 
 ' Sion, his youthful dream, Sion !' 
 
 'You muse !' 
 
 ' King or no king, he is the Lord's anointed. Shall this 
 hand, that poured the oil on his hallowed head, wash out 
 the balmy signet with his blood ? Must I slay him ? 
 Shall this kid be seethed even in its mother's milk ?' 
 
 ' His voice is low, and yet his face is troubled. How 
 now, sir?' 
 
 ' What art thou ? Ah ! Abidan, trusty, stanch Abidan ! 
 You see, Abidan, I was thinking, my good Abidan, all this 
 may be the frenzy of a revel. To-morrow's dawn may 
 summon cooler counsels. The tattle of the table, it is 
 sacred. Let us forget it ; let us pass it over. The Lord 
 may turn his heart. Who knows, who knows, Abidan !' 
 
 4 Noble sir, a moment since your mind was like your faith, 
 firm and resolved, and now ' 
 
 ' School me not, school me not, good Abidan. There is 
 that within my mind you cannot fathom ; some secret sor- 
 rows which are all my own. Leave me, good friend, leave 
 me awhile. When Israel calls me I shall not be wanting. 
 Be sure of that, Abidan, be sure of that. Nay, do not go ; 
 the night is very rough, and the fair prophetess should not 
 again stem the swelling river. I'll to my closet, and will 
 soon return.' 
 
 Jabaster quitted the gallery, and entered a small apart-
 
 ALEOY. 173 
 
 ment. Several large volumes, unclasped and open, were 
 lying on various parts of the divan. Before them stood his 
 brazen cabalistic table. He closed the chamber with a 
 cautious air. He advanced into the centre of the apart- 
 ment. He lifted up his hands to heaven, and clasped them 
 with an expression almost of agony. 
 
 ' Is it come to this ?' he muttered in a tone of deep op- 
 pression. ' Is it come to this ? What is't I have heard ? 
 what done ? Down, tempting devil, down ! O life ! O 
 glory ! my country, my chosen people, and my sacred 
 creed ! why do we live, why act ? "Why have we feeling 
 for aught that's famous, or for aught that's holy ? Let me 
 die ! let, let me die ! The torture of existence is too great.' 
 
 He flung himself upon the couch ; he buried his awful 
 countenance in his robes. His mighty heart was convulsed 
 with passion. There did he lie, that great and solemn inaii, 
 prostrate and woe-begone. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ' THE noisy banquet lingers in my ear ; I love to be alone.' 
 
 'With me?' 
 
 ' Thou art myself ; I have no other life.' 
 
 ' Sweet bird ! It is now a caliph.' 
 
 ' I am what thou wiliest, soul of my sweet existence ! 
 Pomp and dominion, fame and victory, seem now but flawed 
 and dimly-shaded gems compared with thy bright smile !' 
 
 ' My plaintive nightingale, shall we hunt to-day ?' 
 
 ' Alas ! my rose, I would rather lie upon this lazy couch, 
 and gaze upon thy beauty !' 
 
 ' Or sail upon the cool and azure lake, in some bright 
 barque, like to a sea-nymph's shell, and followed by the 
 swans ?' 
 
 ' There is no lake so blue as thy deep eye ; there is no 
 swan so white as thy round arm !' 
 
 ' Or shall we launch our falcons in the air, and bring the 
 golden pheasant to our feet ?'
 
 ALKOY. 
 
 ' I am the golden pheasant at thy feet ; why wouldst thou 
 richer prey ?' 
 
 ' Rememberest thou thy earliest visit to this dear kiosk, 
 my gentle mute ? There thou stoodst with folded arms 
 and looks demure as day, and ever and anon with those 
 dark eyes stealing a glance which made my cheek quite 
 pale. Methinks I see thee even yet, shy bird. Dost know, 
 I was so foolish when it quitted me, dost know I cried ?' 
 
 ' Ah, no ! thou didst not cry ?' 
 
 ' Indeed, I think I did.' 
 
 ' Tell me again, my own Schirene, indeed didst cry ?' 
 
 ' Indeed I did, my soul !' 
 
 ' I would those tears were in some crystal vase, I'd give 
 a province for the costly urn.' 
 
 She threw her arms around his neck and covered his face 
 with kisses. 
 
 Sunset sounded from the minarets. They arose and wan- 
 dered together in the surrounding paradise. The sky was 
 tinted with a pale violet flush, a single star floating by the 
 side of the white moon, that beamed with a dim lustre, soft 
 and shapely as a pearl. 
 
 ' Beautiful !' exclaimed the pensive Schirene, as she gazed 
 upon the star. O, my Alroy, why cannot we ever live 
 alone, and ever in a Paradise ?' 
 
 ' I am wearied of empire,' replied Alroy with a smile, 'let 
 us fly!' 
 
 ' Is there no island, with all that can make life charming, 
 and yet impervious to man ? How little do we require ! 
 Ah ! if these gardens, instead of being surrounded by hate- 
 ful Bagdad, were only encompassed by some beautiful ocean! ' 
 
 ' My heart, we live in a paradise, and are seldom dis- 
 turbed, thanks to Honain !' 
 
 ' But the very consciousness that there are any other per- 
 sons existing besides ourselves is to me painful. Every one 
 who even thinks of you seems to rob me of a part of your 
 being. Besides, I am weary of pomp and palaces. I should 
 like to live in a sparry grot, and sleep upon a couoh of 
 sweet leaves !'
 
 ALROY. 177 
 
 This interesting discussion was disturbed by a dwarf, 
 who, in addition to being very small and very ugly, was 
 dumb. He bowed before the Princess, and then had re- 
 course to a great deal of pantomimic action, by which she 
 discovered that it was dinner-time. No other person could 
 have ventured to disturb the royal pair, but this little being 
 was a privileged favourite. 
 
 So Alroy and Schirene entered the Serail. An immense 
 cresset-lamp, fed with perfumed oil, threw a soft light round 
 the sumptuous chamber. At the end stood a row of 
 eunuchs in scarlet dresses, and each holding a tall silver 
 staff. The Caliph and the Sultana threw themselves upon 
 a couch covered with a hundred cushions ; on one side stood 
 a group consisting of the captain of the guard and other 
 officers of the household, on the other, of beautiful female 
 slaves magnificently attired. 
 
 The line of domestics at the end of the apartment 
 opened, and a body of slaves advanced, carrying trays of 
 ivory and gold, and ebony and silver, covered with the 
 choicest dainties, curiously prepared. These were in turn 
 offered to the Caliph and the Sultana by their surrounding 
 attendants. The Princess accepted a spoon made of a single 
 pearl, the long, thin golden handle of which was studded 
 with rubies, and condescended to partake of some saffron 
 soup, of which she was fond. Afterwards she regaled her- 
 self with the breast of a cygnet, stuffed with almonds, and 
 stewed with violets and cream. Having now a little satis- 
 fied her appetite, and wishing to show a mark of her favour 
 to a particular individual, she ordered the captain of the 
 guard instantly to send him the whole of the next course ' 4 
 with her compliments. Her attention was then engaged 
 with a dish of those delicate ortolans that feed upon the 
 vine-leaves of Schiraz, and with which the Governor of 
 Nishabur took especial care that she should be well provided. 
 Tearing the delicate birds to pieces with her still more deli- 
 cate fingers, she insisted upon feeding Alroy, who of course 
 yielded to her solicitations. In the meantime, they re- 
 freshed themselves with their favourite sherbet of pome- 
 
 N
 
 178 ALROY. 
 
 granates, and the golden wine of Mount Lebanon. 75 The 
 Caliph, who could eat no more ortolans, although fed by 
 such delicate fingers, was at length obliged to call for ' rice,' 
 which was synonymous to commanding the banquet to 
 disappear. The attendants now brought to each basins of 
 gold, and ewers of rock crystal filled with rose water, with 
 towels of that rare Egyptian linen which can be made only 
 of the cotton that grows upon the banks of the Nile. 
 While they amused themselves with eating sugar-plums, 
 and drinking coffee flavoured with cinnamon, the female 
 slaves danced before them in the most graceful attitudes to 
 the melody of invisible musicians. 
 
 ' My enchanting Schirene,' said the Caliph, ' I have dined, 
 thanks to your attention, very well. These slaves of yours 
 dance admirably, and are exceedingly beautiful. Your 
 music, too, is beyond all praise ; but, for my own part, I 
 would rather be quite alone, and listening to one of your 
 songs.' 
 
 ' I have written a new one to-day. You shall hear it.' 
 So saying, she clapped her little white hands, and all the 
 attendants immediately withdrew. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 ' THE stars are stealing forth, and so will I. Sorry sight ! 
 to view Jabaster, with a stealthy step, skulk like a thing 
 dishonoured ! Oh ! may the purpose consecrate the deed ! 
 the die is cast.' 
 
 So saying, the High Priest, muffled up in his robe, 
 emerged from his palace into the busy streets. It is at 
 night that the vitality of Oriental life is most impressive. 
 The narrow winding streets, crowded with a population 
 breathing the now sufferable air, the illuminated coffee- 
 houses, the groups of gay yet sober revellers, the music, 
 and the dancing, and the animated recitals of the poet and 
 the storier, all combine to invest the starry hours with a
 
 ALROY. 179 
 
 beguiling and even fascinating character of enjoyment and 
 adventure. 
 
 It was the night after the visit of Abidan and the pro- 
 phetess. Jabaster had agreed to meet Abidan in the square 
 of the great mosque two hours after sunset, and thither he 
 now repaired. 
 
 ' I am somewhat before my time,' he said, as he entered 
 the great square, over which the rising moon threw a full 
 flood of light. A few dark shadows of human beings alone 
 moved in the distance. The world was in the streets and 
 coffee-houses. ' I am somewhat before my time,' said Ja- 
 baster. ' Conspirators are watchful. I am anxious for the 
 meeting, and yet I dread it. Since he broke this business, 
 I have never slept. My mind is a chaos. I will not think. 
 If 'tis to be done, let it be done at once. I am more 
 tempted to sheathe this dagger in Jabaster's breast than in 
 Alroy's. If life or empire were the paltry stake, I would 
 end a life that now can bring no joy, and yield authority 
 that hath no charm ; but Israel, Israel, thou for whom 
 I have endured so much, let me forget Jabaster had a 
 mother ! 
 
 'But for this thought that links me with my God, and 
 leads my temper to a higher state, how vain and sad, how 
 wearisome and void, were this said world they think of! 
 But for this thought, I could sit down and die. Yea ! my 
 great heart could crack, worn out, worn out ; my mighty 
 passions, with their fierce but flickering flame, sink down 
 and die ; and the strong brain that ever hath urged my 
 course, and pricked me onward with perpetual thought, 
 desert the rudder it so long hath held, like some baffled 
 pilot in blank discomforture, in the far .centre of an un- 
 known sea. 
 
 ' Study and toil, anxiety and sorrow, mighty action, per- 
 chance Time, and disappointment, which is worse than all, 
 have done their work, and not in vain. I am no longer tho 
 same Jabaster that gazed upon the stars of Caucasus. Me- 
 thinks even they look dimmer than of yore. The glory 
 of my life is fading. My leaves are sear, tinged, but not 
 
 N 2
 
 180 ALKOY. 
 
 tainted. I am still the same in one respect ; I have not left 
 my God, in deed or thought. Ah ! who art thou ? ' 
 
 ' A friend to Israel.' 
 
 ' I am glad that Israel hath a friend. Noble Abidan, I 
 have well considered all that hath passed between us. 
 Sooth to say, you touched upon a string I've played before, 
 but kept it for my loneliness ; a jarring tune, indeed a jar- 
 ring tune, but so it is, and being so, let me at once unto 
 your friends, Abidan.' 
 
 ' Noble Jabaster, thou art what I deemed thee.' 
 
 ' Abidan, they say the consciousness of doing justly is the 
 best basis of a happy inind.' 
 
 ' Even so.' 
 
 ' And thou believest it ? ' 
 
 ' Without doubt.' 
 
 ' We are doing very justly ? ' 
 
 ' Tis a weak word for such a holy purpose.' 
 
 ' I am most wretched ! ' 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE High Priest and his companion entered the house of 
 Abidan. Jabaster addressed the already assembled guests. 
 
 ' Brave Scherirah, it joys me to find thee here. In Israel's 
 cause when was Scherirah wanting ? Stout Zalmunna, we 
 have not seen enough of each other : the blame is mine. 
 Gentle prophetess, thy blessing ! 
 
 ' Good friends, why we meet here is known to all. Little 
 did we dream of such a meeting when we crossed the Tigris. 
 But that is nothing. We come to act, and not to argue. 
 Our great minds, they are resolved : our solemn purpose 
 requires no demonstration. If there be one among us who 
 would have Israel a slave to Ishmael, who would lose all 
 we have prayed for, all we have fought for, all we have won, 
 and all for which we are prepared to die, if there be one 
 among us who would have the ark polluted, and Jehovah's 
 nltar stained with a Gentile sacrifice, if there be one among
 
 ALROY. 181 
 
 us who does not sigh for Sion, who would not yield his 
 breath to build the Temple and gain the heritage his fathers 
 lost, why, let him go ! There is none such among us : then 
 stay, and free your country ! ' 
 
 ' We are prepared, great Jabaster ; we are prepared, all, 
 all!' 
 
 ' I know it ; you are like myself. Necessity hath taught 
 decision. Now for our plans. Speak, Zalmunna.' 
 
 ' Noble Jabaster, I see much difficulty. Alroy no longer 
 quits his palace. Our entrance un watched is, you well know, 
 impossible. "What say you, Scherirah ? ' 
 
 ' I doubt not of my men, but war against Alroy is, to say 
 nought of danger, of doubtful issue.' 
 
 'I am prepared to die, but not to fail,' said Abidan. 
 'We must be certain. Open war I fear. The mass of 
 the army will side with their leaders, and they are with 
 the tyrant. Let us do the deed, and they must join us.' 
 
 ' Is it impossible to gain his presence to some sacrifice in 
 honour of some by-gone victory ; what think ye ? ' 
 
 ' I doubt much, Jabaster. At this moment he little 
 wishes to sanction our national ceremonies with his royal 
 person. The woman assuredly will stay him. And, even 
 if he come, success is difficult, and therefore doubtful.' 
 
 'Noble warriors, list to a woman's voice,' exclaimed the 
 prophetess, coming forward. ' 'Tis weak, but with such 
 instruments, even the aspirations of a child, the Lord will 
 commune with his chosen people. There is a secret way 
 by which I can gain the gardens of the palace. To-morrow 
 night, just as the moon is in her j midnight bower, behold 
 the accursed pile shall blaze. Let Abidan's troop be all 
 prepared, and at the moment when the flames first ascend, 
 march to the Seraglio gate as if with aid. The affrighted 
 guard will offer no opposition. While the troops secure 
 the portals, you yourselves, Zalmunna, Abidan, and Jabas- 
 ter, rush to the royal chamber and do the deed. In the 
 meantime, let brave Scherirah, with his whole division, 
 surround the palace, as if unconscious of the mighty 
 work. Then come you forward, show, if it need, with
 
 182 ALROY. 
 
 tears, the fated body to the soldiery, and announce the 
 Theocracy.' 
 
 ' It is the Lord who speaks,' said Abidan, who was 
 doubtless prepared for the proposition. ' He has delivered 
 them into our hands.' 
 
 ' A bold plan,' said Jabaster, musing, ' and yet I like it. 
 'Tis quick, and that is something. I think 'tis sure.' 
 
 ' It cannot fail,' exclaimed Zalmunna, ' for if the flame 
 ascend not, still we are but where we were.' 
 
 ' I am for it,' said Scherirah. 
 
 'Well, then,' said Jabaster, 'so let it be. To-morrow's 
 eve will see us here again prepared. Good night.' 
 
 ' Good night, holy Priest. How seem the stars, Jabaster ? ' 
 
 ' Very troubled ; so have they been some days. What 
 they portend I know not.' 
 
 ' Health to Israel.' 
 
 ' Let us hope so. Good night, sweet friends.' 
 
 ' Good night, holy Jabaster. Thou art our corner-stone.' 
 
 ' Israel hath no other hope but in Jabaster.' 
 
 ' My Lord,' said Abidan, ' remain, I pray, one moment.' 
 
 ' What is't ? I fain would go.' 
 
 ' Alroy must die, my Lord, but dost thou think a single 
 death will seal the covenant?' 
 
 'The woman?' 
 
 ' Ay ! the woman ! I was not thinking of the woman. 
 Asrael, Ithamar, Medad ? ' 
 
 ' Valiant soldiers ! doubt not we shall find them useful 
 instruments. I do not fear such loose companions. They 
 follow their leaders, like other things born to obey. Having 
 no head themselves, they must follow us who have.' 
 
 ' I think so too. There is no other man who might be 
 dangerous ? ' 
 
 Zalmunna and Scherirah cast their eyes upon the ground. 
 There was a dead silence, broken by the prophetess. 
 
 ' A judgment hath gone forth against Honain ! ' 
 
 'Nay! he is Lord Jabaster's brother,' said Abidan. 'It 
 is enough to save a more inveterate foe to Israel, if such 
 there be.'
 
 ALKOY. 183 
 
 ' I have no brother, Sir. The man you speak of I will 
 not slay, since there are others who may do that deed. And 
 so again, good night.' 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 IT was the dead of night, a single lamp burned in the cham- 
 ber, which opened into an arched gallery that descended by 
 a flight of steps into the gardens of the Serail. 
 
 A female figure ascended the flight with slow and cautious 
 steps. She paused on the gallery, she looked around, one 
 foot was in the chamber. 
 
 She entered. She entered a chamber of small dimensions, 
 but richly adorned. In the farthest corner was a couch of 
 ivory, hung with a gauzy curtain of silver tissue, which, 
 without impeding respiration, protected the slumberer from, 
 the fell insects of an Oriental night. Leaning against an 
 ottoman was a large brazen shield of ancient fashion, and 
 near it some helmets and curious weapons. 
 
 ' An irresistible impulse hath carried me into this cham- 
 ber!' exclaimed the prophetess. 'The light haunted me 
 like a spectre ; and wheresoever I moved, it seemed to 
 summon me. 
 
 ' A couch and a slumberer ! ' 
 
 She approached the object, she softly withdrew the cur- 
 tain. Pale and panting, she rushed back, yet with a light 
 step. She beheld Alroy! 
 
 For a moment she leant against the wall, overpowered by 
 her emotions. Again she advanced, and gazed on her 
 unconscious victim. 
 
 ' Can the guilty sleep like the innocent ? Who would 
 deem this gentle slumberer had betrayed the highest trust 
 that ever Heaven vouchsafed to favoured man ? He looks 
 not like a tyrant and a traitor : calm his brow, and mild his 
 placid breath! His long dark hair, dark as the raven's 
 wing, hath broken from its fillet, and courses, like a wild
 
 184 ALROY. 
 
 and stormy night, over his pale and moon-lit brow. His 
 cheek is delicate, and yet repose hath brought a flush ; arid 
 on his lip there seems some word of love, that will not quit 
 it. It is the same Alroy that blessed our yision "when, 
 like the fresh and glittering star of morn, he rose up 
 in the desert, and bringing joy to others, brought to me 
 only 
 
 ' Oh ! hush my heart, and let thy secret lie hid in the 
 charnel-house of crushed affections. Hard is the lot of 
 woman : to love and to conceal is our sharp doom ! O bitter 
 life ! most unnatural lot ! Man made society, and made 
 us slaves. And so we droop and die, or else take refuge in 
 idle fantasies, to which we bring the fervour that is meant 
 for nobler ends. 
 
 ' Beauteous hero ! whether I bear thee most hatred or 
 most love I cannot tell. Die thou must ; yet I feel I should 
 die with thee. Oh ! that to-night could lead at the same 
 time unto our marriage bed and funeral pyre. Must that 
 white bosom bleed ? and must those delicate limbs be hacked 
 and handled by these bloody butchers ? Is that justice ? 
 They He, the traitors, when they call thee false to our God. 
 Thou art thyself a god, and I could worship thee ! See 
 those beauteous lips ; they move. Hark to the music ! ' 
 
 ' Schirene, Schirene ! ' 
 
 ' There wanted bat that word to summon back my 
 senses. Fool ! whither is thy fancy wandering ? I will not 
 wait for tardy justice. I will do the deed myself. Shall I 
 not kill my Sisera ? ' She seized a dagger from the ottoman, 
 a rare and highly-tempered blade. Up she raised it in the 
 air, and dashed it to his heart with superhuman force. It 
 struck against the talisman which Jabaster had given to 
 Alroy, and which, from a lingering superstition, he still wore ; 
 it struck, and shivered into a thousand pieces. The Caliph 
 sprang from his couch ; his eyes met the prophetess, standing 
 over him in black despair, with the hilt of the dagger in her 
 hand. 
 
 ' What is all this ? Schirene ! Who art thou ? Esther ! ' 
 He jumped from the couch, called to Pharez, and seized her
 
 ALKOY. 185 
 
 by both hands. ' Speak ! ' he continued. 'Art thon Esther ? 
 What dost thou here ? ' 
 
 She broke into a wild laugh ; she wrestled with his grasp, 
 and pulled him towards the gallery. He beheld the chief 
 tower of the Serail in flames. Joining her hands together, 
 grasping them both in one of his, and dragging her towards 
 the ottoman, he seized a helmet and flung it upon the mighty 
 shield. It sounded like a gong. Pharez started from his 
 slumbers, and rushed into the chamber. 
 
 ' Pharez ! Treason ! treason ! Send instant orders that 
 the palace gates be opened on no pretence whatever. Go, 
 fly ! See the captain himself. Summon the household. 
 Order all to arms. Speed, for our lives !' 
 
 The whole palace was now roused. Alroy delivered 
 Esther, exhausted, and apparently senseless, to a guard of 
 eunuchs. Slaves and attendants poured in from all direc- 
 tions. Soon arrived Schirene, with dishevelled hair and 
 hurried robes, attended by a hundred maidens, each bearing 
 a torch. 
 
 ' My soul, what ails thee ? ' 
 
 ' Nothing, sweetest ; all will soon be well,' replied Alroy, 
 picking up, and examining the fragments of the shivered 
 dagger, which he had just discovered. 
 
 ' My life has been attempted ; the palace is in flames ; I 
 suspect the city is in insurrection. Look to your mistress, 
 maidens!' Schirene fell into their arms. 'I will soon be 
 back.' So saying, he hurried to the grand court. 
 
 Several thousand persons, for the population of the Serail 
 and its liberties was very considerable, were assembled in 
 the grand court ; eunuchs, women, pages, slaves, and ser- 
 vants, and a few soldiers ; all in confusion and alarm, fire 
 raging within, and mysterious and terrible outcries without. 
 A cry of ' The Caliph ! the Caliph ! ' announced the arrival 
 of Alroy, and produced a degree of comparative silence. 
 
 ' Where is the captain of the guard ? ' he exclaimed. 
 ' That's well. Open the gates to none. Who will leap the 
 wall, and bear a message to Asriel ? You ? That's well too. 
 To-morrow you shall yourself command. Where's Mesrour ?
 
 186 ALROY. 
 
 Take the eunuch guard and the company of gardeners, 76 and 
 suppress the flames at all cost. Pull down the intervening 
 buildings. Abidan's troop arrived with succour, eh ! I 
 doubt it not. I expected them. Open to none. They force 
 an entrance, eh ! I thought so. So that javelin has killed 
 a traitor. Feed me with arms. I'll keep the gate. Send 
 again to Asriel. Where's Pharez ? ' 
 
 ' By your side, my lord.' 
 
 ' Run to the Queen, my faithful Pharez, and tell her that 
 all's well. I wish it were ! Didst ever hear a din so awful ? 
 Methinks all the tambours and cymbals of the city are in 
 full chorus. Foul play, I guess. Oh! for Asriel! Has 
 Pharez returned ? ' 
 
 ' I am by your side, my lord.' 
 
 How's the Queen ? ' 
 
 ' She would gladly join your side.' 
 
 ' No, no ! Keep the gates there. Who says they are 
 making fires before them ? 'Tis true. We must' sally, if the 
 worst come to the worst, and die at least like soldiers. 
 Asriel ! Asriel ! ' 
 
 ' May it please your Highness, the troops are pouring in 
 from all quarters.' 
 
 ' 'Tis Asriel.' 
 
 ' No, your Highness, 'tis not the guard. Methinks they 
 are Scherirah's men.' 
 
 ' Hum ! What it all is, I know not ; but very foul play, 
 I do not doubt. Where's Honain ? ' 
 
 ' With the Queen, Sire.' 
 
 'Tis well. What's that shout ? ' 
 
 ' Here's the messenger from Asriel. Make way ! way ! 
 
 ' Well ! how is't, Sir ? ' 
 
 ' Please your Highness, I could not reach the guard.' 
 
 ' Could not reach the guard ! God of my fathers ! who 
 should let thee?' 
 
 ' Sire, I was taken prisoner.' 
 
 ' Prisoner ! By the thunder of Sinai, are we at war ? 
 Who made thee prisoner ?' 
 
 ' Sire, they have proclaimed thy death.'
 
 ALROY. 187 
 
 'Who?' 
 
 ' The council of the Elders. So I heard, Abidan, Zal- 
 munna ' 
 
 * Rebels and dogs ! Wha else ? ' 
 
 * The High Priest.' 
 
 ' Hah ! Is it there ? Pharez, fetch me some drink. Is it 
 true Scherirah has joined them ? ' 
 
 ' His force surrounds the Serail. No aid can reach us 
 without cutting through his ranks.' 
 
 ' Oh ! that I were there with my good guard ! Are we to 
 die here like rats, fairly murdered ? Cowardly knaves ! 
 Hold out, hold out, my men ! 'Tis sharp work, but some 
 of us will smile at this hereafter. Who stands by Alroy 
 to-night bravely and truly, shall have his heart's content 
 to-morrow. Tear not : I was not born to die in a civic 
 broil. I bear a charmed life. So to it.' 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Go to the Caliph, good Honain, I pray thee, go. I can sup- 
 port myself, he needs thy counsel. Bid him not expose his 
 precious life. The wicked men ! Asriel must soon be here. 
 What sayest thou ? ' 
 
 ' There is no fear. Their plans are ill-devised. I have 
 long expected this stormy night, and feel even now more 
 anxious than alarmed.' 
 
 ' 'Tis at me they aim ; it is I whorrr they hate. The High 
 Priest, too ! Ay, ay! Thy proud brother, good Honain, 
 I have ever felt he would not rest until he drove me from 
 this throne, my right ; or washed my hated name from out 
 our annals in my life's blood. Wicked, wicked Jabaster ! 
 He frowned upon me from the first, Honain. Is he indeed 
 thy brother ? ' 
 
 ' I care not to remember. He aims at something further 
 than thy life ; but Time will teach us more than all our 
 thoughts.'
 
 188 ALROY. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE fortifications of the Serail resisted all the efforts of tlie 
 rebels. Scherirah remained in his quarters, with his troops 
 under arms, and recalled the small force that he had origi- 
 nally sent out as much to watch the course of events as to 
 assist Abidan. Asriel and Ithamar poured down their 
 columns in the rear of that chieftain, and by dawn a divi- 
 sion of the guard had crossed the river, the care of which 
 had been entrusted to Scherirah, and had thrown themselves 
 into the palace. Alroy sallied forth at the head of these 
 fresh ti*oops. His presence decided a result which was per- 
 haps never doubtful. The division of Abidan fought with 
 the desperation that became their fortunes. The carnage 
 was dreadful, but their discomfiture complete. They no 
 longer acted in masses, or with any general system. They 
 thought only of self-preservation, or of selling their lives 
 at the dearest cost. Some dispersed, some escaped. Others 
 entrenched themselves in houses, others fortified the bazaar. 
 All the horrors of war in the streets were now experienced. 
 The houses were in flames, the thoroughfares flowed with 
 blood. 
 
 At the head of a band of faithful followers, Abidan 
 proved himself, by his courage and resources, worthy of 
 success. At length, he was alone, or surrounded only by 
 his enemies. With his back against a building in a 
 narrow street, where the number of his opponents only 
 embarrassed them, the three foremost of his foes fell before 
 his irresistible scimetar. The barricadoed door yielded to 
 the pressure of the multitude. Abidan rushed up the 
 narrow stairs, and, gaining a landing-place, turned sud- 
 denly round, and cleaved the skull of his nearest pursuer. 
 He hurled the mighty body at his followers, and, retarding 
 their advance, himself dashed onward, and gained the 
 terrace of the mansion. Three soldiers of the guard fol- 
 lowed him as he bounded from terrace to terrace. One, 
 armed with a javelin, hurled it at the chieftain. The
 
 ALROY. 189 
 
 weapon slightly wounded Abidan, who, drawing it from 
 his arm, sent it back to the heart of its owner. The two 
 other soldiers, armed only with swords, gained npon him. 
 He arrived at the last terrace in/the cluster of buildings. 
 He stood at bay on the brink of the precipice. He re- 
 gained his breath. They approached him. He dodged 
 them in their course. Suddenly, with admirable skill, he 
 flung his scimetar edgewise at the legs of his farthest foe, 
 who stopped short, roaring with pain. The chieftain 
 sprang at the foremost, and hurled him down into the 
 street below, where he was dashed to atoms. A trap-door 
 offered itself to the despairing eye of the rebel. He de- 
 scended and found himself in a room filled with women. 
 They screamed, he rushed through them, and descending 
 a staircase, entered a chamber tenanted by a bed-ridden 
 old man. The ancient invalid inquired the cause of the 
 uproar, and died of fright before he could receive an 
 answer, at the sight of the awful being before him, covered 
 with streaming blood. Abidan secured the door, washed 
 his blood-stained face, and disguising himself in the dusty 
 robes of the deceased Armenian, sallied forth to watch the 
 fray. The obscure street was silent. The chieftain pro- 
 ceeded unmolested. At the corner he found a soldier 
 holding a charger for his captain. Abidan, unarmed, seized 
 a poniard from the soldier's belt, stabbed him to the heart, 
 and vaulting on the steed, galloped towards the river. No 
 boat was to be found ; he breasted the stream upon the 
 stout courser. He reached the opposite bank. A com- 
 pany of camels were reposing by the side of a fountain. 
 Alarm had dispersed their drivers. He mounted the 
 fleetest in appearance ; he dashed to the nearest gate of 
 the city. The guard at the gate refused him a passage. 
 He concealed his agitation. A marriage procession, re- 
 turning from the country, arrived. He rushed into the 
 centre of it, and overset the bride in her gilded waggon. 
 In the midst of the confusion, the shrieks, the oaths, and the 
 scuffle, he forced his way through the gate, scoured over the 
 country, and never stopped until he had gained the desert.
 
 190 ALKOY. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE uproar died away. The shouts of warriors, the 
 shrieks of women, the wild clang of warfare, all were silent. 
 The flames were extinguished, the carnage ceased. The 
 insurrection was suppressed, and order restored. The 
 city, all the houses of which were closed, was patrolled by 
 the conquering troops, and by sunset the conqueror him- 
 self, in his hall of state, received the reports and the con- 
 gratulations of his chieftains. The escape of Abidan 
 seemed counterbalanced by the capture of Jabaster. After 
 performing prodigies of valour, the High Priest had been 
 overpowered, and was now a prisoner in the Serail. The 
 conduct of Scherirah was not too curiously criticised ; a 
 commission was appointed to inquire into the mysterious 
 affair, and Alroy retired to the bath 77 to refresh himself 
 after the fatigues of the victory which he could not con- 
 sider a triumph. 
 
 As he reposed upon his couch, melancholy and exhausted, 
 Schirene was announced. The Princess threw herself 
 upon his neck and covered him with embraces. His heart 
 yielded to her fondness, his spirit became lighter, his 
 depression melted away. 
 
 'My ruby!' said Schirene, and she spoke in a low 
 smothered voice, her face hidden and nestled in his breast. 
 * My ruby ! dost thon. love me ? ' 
 
 He smiled in fondness as he pressed her to his heart. 
 
 ' My ruby, thy pearl is so frightened, it dare not look 
 upon thee. Wicked men! 'tis I whom they hate, 'tis I 
 whom they would destroy.' 
 
 ' There is no danger, sweet. 'Tis over now. Speak not, 
 nay, do not think of it.' 
 
 ' Ah ! wicked men ! There is no joy on earth while 
 such things live. Slay Alroy, their mighty master, who, 
 from vile slaves, hath made them princes ! Ungrateful 
 churls ! I am so alarmed, I ne'er shall sleep again. What ! 
 slay my innocent bird, my pretty bird, my very heart ! I'll
 
 ALEOY. 191 
 
 not believe it. It is I whom they hate. I am sore they 
 will kill me. You shall never leave me, no, no, no, no ! 
 You shall not leave me, love, never, never ! Didst hear a 
 noise ? Methinks they are even here, ready to plunge their 
 daggers in our hearts, our soft, softf hearts ! I think you 
 love me, child ; indeed, I think you do ! ' 
 
 ' Take courage, heart ! There is no fear, my soul ; I 
 cannot love thee more, or else I would.' 
 
 ' All joy is gone ! I ne'er shall sleep again. my soul ! 
 art thou indeed alive ? Do I indeed embrace my own Alroy, 
 or is it all a wild and troubled dream, and are my arms 
 clasped round a shadowy ghost, myself a spectre in a sepul- 
 chre ? Wicked, wicked men ! Can it indeed be true ? What, 
 slay Alroy ! my joy, my only life ! Ah ! woe is me ; our 
 bright felicity hath fled for ever ! ' 
 
 ' Not so, sweet child ; we are but as we were. A few 
 quick hours, and all will be as bright as if no storm had 
 crossed our sunny days.' 
 
 ' Hast seen Asriel? He says such fearful things ! ' 
 
 ' How now ? ' 
 
 ' Ah me ! I am desolate. I have no friend.' 
 
 * Schirene ! ' 
 
 ' They will have my blood. I know they will have my 
 blood.' 
 
 ' Indeed, an idle fancy.' 
 
 ' Idle ! Ask Asriel, question Ithamar. Idle ! 'tis written 
 in their tablets, their bloody scroll of rapine and of murder. 
 Thy death led only to mine, and, had they hoped my bird 
 would but have yielded his gentle mate, they would have 
 spared him. Ay ! ay ! 'tis I whom they hate, His I whom 
 they would destroy. This form, I fear it has lost its lustre, 
 but still 'tis thine, and once thou saidst thou lovedst it ; 
 this form was to have been hacked and mangled ; this ivory 
 bosom was to have been ripped up and tortured, and this 
 warm blood, that flows alone for thee, that fell Jabaster 
 was to pour its tide upon the altar of his ancient vengeance. 
 He ever hated me ! ' 
 
 ' Jabaster ! Schirene ! Where are we, and what are
 
 1 92 ALROY. 
 
 we ? Life, life, they lie, that call thee Nature ! Nature 
 never sent these gusts of agony. Oh ! my heart will 
 break. I drove him from my thought, and now she calls 
 him up, and now must I remember he is my prisoner ! God 
 of heaven, God of my fathers, is it come to this ? Why did 
 he not escape ? Why must Abidan, a common cut-throat, 
 save his graceless life, and this great soul, this stern and 
 
 mighty being Ah me ! I have lived long enough. 
 
 Would they had not failed, would ' 
 
 ' Stop, stop, Alroy ! I pray thee, love, be calm. I came 
 to soothe thee, not to raise thy passions. I did not say 
 Jabaster willed thy death, though Asriel says so ; 'tis me 
 he wars against ; and if indeed Jabaster be a man so near 
 thy heart, if he indeed be one so necessary to thy prosperity, 
 and cannot live in decent order with thy slave that's here, 
 I know my duty, Sir. I would not have thy fortunes 
 marred to save my single heart, although I think 'twill 
 break. I will go, I will die, and deem the hardest accident 
 of life but sheer prosperity if it profit thee.' 
 
 ' O Schirene ! what wouldst thou ? This, this is tor- 
 ture.' 
 
 ' To see thee safe and happy ; nothing more.' 
 
 ' I am both, if thou art.' 
 
 ' Care not for me, I am. nothing.' 
 
 ' Thou art all to me.' 
 
 ' Calm thyself, my soul. It grieves me much that when 
 I came to soothe I have only galled thee. All's well, all's 
 well. Say that Jabaster lives. What then ? He lives, and 
 may he prove more duteous than before ; that's all.' 
 
 'He lives, he is my prisoner, he awaits his doom. It 
 must be given.' 
 
 ' Yes, yes ! ' 
 
 ' Shall we pardon? ' 
 
 ' My lord will do that which it pleases him.' 
 
 ' Nay, nay, Schirene, I pray thee be more kind. I iim 
 most wretched. Speak, what wouldst thou ? ' 
 
 ' If I must speak, I say at once his life.' 
 
 4 Ah me!'
 
 ALKOY. 193 
 
 ' If our past loves have any charm, if the hope of future 
 joy, not less supreme, be that which binds thee to this 
 shadowy world, as it does me, and does alone, I say his 
 life, his very carnal life. He stands- between us and our 
 loves, Alroy, and ever has done. There is no happiness 
 if Jabaster breathe ; nor can I be the same Schirene to 
 thee as I have been, if this proud rebel live to spy my 
 conduct.' 
 
 ' Banish him, banish him ! ' 
 
 ' To herd with rebels. Is this thy policy ? ' 
 
 * Schirene ! I love not this man, although methinks 
 I should : yet didst thou know but all ! ' 
 
 ' I know too much, Alroy. From the first he has been 
 to me a hateful thought. Come, come, sweet bird, a boon, 
 a boon unto thy own Schirene, who was so frightened 
 by these wicked men ! I fear it has done more mischief 
 than thou deemest. Ay ! robbed us of our hopes. It 
 may be so. A boon, a boon ! It is not much I ask : a 
 traitor's head. Come, give me thy signet ring. It will 
 not ; nay, then, I'll take it. What, resist ! I know thou 
 oft hast told me a kiss could vanquish all denial. There 
 it is. Is't sweet ? Shalt have another, and another too. 
 I've got the ring! Farewell, my lovely bird, I'll soon 
 return to pillow in thy nest.' 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 SHE has got the ring! What's this? what's this? 
 Schirene ! art gone ? Nay, surely not. She jests. Jabas- 
 ter ! A traitor's head ! What ho ! there. Pharez, 
 Pharez ! ' 
 
 1 My lord.' 
 
 * Passed the Queen that way? ' 
 
 ' She did, my lord.' 
 
 ' In tears? ' 
 
 ' Nay ! very joyful ! ' 
 
 ' Call Honain, quick as my thought. Honain ! Honain !
 
 194 ALKOY. 
 
 He waits without. I have seen the best of life, that's very 
 sure. My heart is cracking. She surely jests ! Hah ! 
 Honain. Pardon these distracted looks. Fly to the Ar- 
 moury ! fly, fly ! ' 
 
 ' For what, my lord? ' 
 
 ' Ay ! for what, for what ! My brain it wanders. Thy 
 brother, thy great brother, the Queen, the Queen has 
 stolen my signet ring, that is, I gave it her. Fly, fly ! 
 or in a word, Jabaster is no more. He is gone. Pharez ! 
 your arm ; I swoon ! ' 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 * His Highness is sorely indisposed to-day.' 
 ' They say he swooned this morn.' 
 
 ' Ay, in the bath.' 
 
 ' No, not in the bath. 'Twas when he heard of Jabaster's 
 death.' 
 
 How died he, Sir ? ' 
 
 ' Self- strangled. His mighty heart could not endure 
 disgrace, and thus he ended all his glorious deeds.' 
 
 ' A great man ! ' 
 
 'We shall not soon see his match. The Queen had 
 gained his pardon, and herself flew to the armoury to bear 
 the news ; alas ! too late.' 
 
 ' These are strange times. Jabaster dead ! ' 
 
 ' A very great event.' 
 
 ' Who will be High Priest? ' 
 
 ' I doubt if the appointment will be filled up. ' 
 
 * Sup you with the Lord Ithamar to-night? ' 
 ' I do.' 
 
 * I also. We'll go together. The Queen had gained his 
 pardon. Hum ! 'tis strange.' 
 
 ' Passing so. They say Abidan has escaped ? ' 
 ' I hear it. Shall we meet Medad to-night? ' 
 ' ' Tis likely.'
 
 ALKOY. 195 
 
 PART X. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ' SHE comes not yet ! her cheerful form, not yet it 
 sparkles in our mournful sky. She comes not yet ! the 
 shadowy stars seem sad and lustreless without their Queen. 
 She comes not yet ! ' 
 
 ' "WE ARE THE WATCHERS OF THE MOON, 78 AND LIVE IN LONE- 
 LINESS TO HERALD LIGHT.' 
 
 ' She comes not yet ! her sacred form, not yet it summons 
 to our holy feast. She comes not yet ! our brethren far 
 wait mute and motionless the saintly beam. She comes 
 not yet ! ' 
 
 ' WE ARE THE WATCHERS OF THE MOON, AND LITE IN LONE- 
 LINESS TO HERALD LIGHT.' 
 
 ' She comes, she comes ! her beauteous form sails with 
 soft splendour in the glittering air. She comes, she comes ! 
 The beacons fire, and tell the nation that the month begins ! 
 She comes, she comes ! ' 
 
 'WE ARE THE WATCHERS OF THE MOON, TO TELL THE 
 NATION THAT THE MONTH BEGINS.' 
 
 Instantly the holy watchers fired the beacons on the 
 mountain top, and anon a thousand flames blazed round 
 the land. From Caucasus to Lebanon, on every peak a 
 crown of light. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ' SIRE ! a Tatar has arrived from Hamadan, who will see 
 none but thyself. I have told him your Highness was en- 
 gaged, and sent him to the Lord Honain ; but all denial is 
 
 o 2
 
 196 ALROY. 
 
 lost upon him. And as I thought perhaps the Lady 
 Miriam ' 
 
 ' From Hamadan ? You did well, Pharez. Admit him.' 
 
 The Tatar entered. 
 
 ' Well, Sir ; good news, I hope ! ' 
 
 ' Sire, pardon me, the worst. I come from the Lord 
 Abner, with orders to see the Caliph, and none else.' 
 
 ' Well, Sir, you see the Caliph. Yonr mission ? What 
 of the Viceroy ? ' 
 
 ' Sire, he bade me tell thee, that, the moment the beacon 
 that announced the Feast of the New Moon was fired on 
 Caucasus, the dreaded monarch of Karasme, the great Alp 
 Arslan, entered thy kingdom, and now overruns all Persia.' 
 
 ' Hah ! and Abner ? ' 
 
 ' Is in the field, and prays for aid.' 
 
 ' He shall have it. This is indeed great news ! When 
 left you Hamadan ? ' 
 
 'Night and day I have journeyed upon the swiftest 
 dromedary. The third morn sees me at Bagdad.' 
 
 ' You have done your duty. See this faithful courier be 
 well tended, Pharez. Summon the Lord Honain.' 
 
 ' Alp Arslan ! Hah ! a very famous warrior. The 
 moment the beacon was fired. No sudden impulse then, 
 but long matured. I like it not.' 
 
 ' Sire,' said Pharez, re-entering, ' a Tatar has arrived 
 from the frontiers of the province, who will see none but 
 thyself. I have told him your Highness was deeply busied, 
 and as methinks he brings but the same news, I " 
 
 ' 'Tis very likely ; yet never think, good Pharez. I'll see 
 the man.' 
 
 The Tatar entered. 
 
 ' Well, Sir, how now ! from whom ? ' 
 
 ' From Mozul. The Governor bade me see the Caliph 
 and none else, and tell your Highness, that the moment 
 the beacon that announced the Feast of the New Moon was 
 fired on the mountains, the fell rebel Abidan raised the 
 standard of Judah in the province, and proclaimed war 
 against your Majesty.'
 
 ALR01'. 197 
 
 * In any force? ' 
 
 ' The royal power keeps -within their walls.' 
 
 ' Sufficient answer. Part of the same movement. We 
 shall have some trouble. Hast summoned Honain ? ' 
 
 ' I have, Sir.' 
 
 ' Go, see this messenger be duly served, and, Pharez, 
 come hither : let none converse with them. You under- 
 stand ? ' 
 
 ' Your Highness may assure yourself.' 
 
 ' Abidan come to life. He shall not escape so well this 
 
 time. I must see Scherirah. I much suspect what's 
 
 this ? More news ! ' 
 
 A third Tatar entered. 
 
 ' May it please your Highness, this Tatar has arrived 
 from the Syrian frontier.' 
 
 ' Mischief in the wind, I doubt not. Speak oufc, knave ! ' 
 
 ' Sire ! pardon me ; I bear but sad intelligence.' 
 
 ' Out with the worst ! ' 
 
 ' I come from the Lord Medad.' 
 
 ' Well ! has he rebelled? It seems a catching fever.' 
 
 ' Ah ! no, dread Sire, Lord Medad has no thought but 
 for thy glory. Alas ! alas ! he has now to guard it against 
 fearful odds. Lord Medad bade me see the Caliph and 
 none else, and tell your Highness, that the moment the 
 beacon which announced the Feast of the New Moon was 
 fired on Lebanon, the Sultan of Roum and the old Arabian 
 Caliph unfurled the standard of their Prophet, in great 
 array, and are now marching towards Bagdad.' 
 
 ' A clear conspiracy ! Has Honain arrived? Summon a 
 council of the Vizirs instantly. The world is up against 
 me. Well ! I'm sick of peace. They shall not find me 
 napping ! ' 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 'You see, my lords,' said Alroy, ere the council broke 
 up, ' we must attack them singly. There can be no doubt 
 of that. If they join, we must combat at great odds. 'Tis
 
 198 ALROY. 
 
 in detail that we must rout them. I will myself to Persia. 
 Ithamar must throw himself between the Sultan and 
 Abidan, Medad fall back on Ithamar. Scherirah must 
 guard the capital. Honain, you are Regent. And so fare- 
 well. I shall set off to-night. Courage, brave companions. 
 "Tis a storm, but many a cedar survives the thunderbolt.' 
 
 The council broke up. 
 
 ' My own Scherirah ! ' said the Caliph, as they retired, 
 ' stay awhile. I would speak with you alone. Honain,' 
 continued Alroy, following the Grand Vizir out of the 
 chamber, and leaving Scherirah alone, ' Honain, I have 
 not yet interchanged a word with you in private. What 
 think you of all this? ' 
 
 ' Sire, I am prepared for the worst, but hope the best.' 
 
 ' 'Tis wise. If Abner could only keep that Karasmian 
 in check ! I am about to speak with Scherirah alone. I do 
 suspect him much.' 
 
 ' I'll answer for his treason.' 
 
 ' Hah ! I do suspect him. Therefore I give him no 
 command. I would not have him too near his old com- 
 panion, eh? We will garrison the city with his rebels.' 
 
 ' Sire, these are not moments to be nice. Scherirah is a 
 valiant captain, a very valiant captain, but lend me tby 
 signet ring, I pray thee, Sire.' 
 
 Alroy turned pale. 
 
 ' No, Sir, it has left me once, and never shall again. 
 You have touched upon a string that makes me sad. There 
 is a burden on my conscience, why, or what, I know not. 
 I am innocent, you know I am innocent, Honain ! ' 
 
 ' I'll answer for your Highness. He who has enough of 
 the milk of human kindness to spare a thing like Scherirah, 
 when he stands in his way, may well be credited for the 
 nobler mercy that spared his better.' 
 
 ' Ah me ! there's madness in the thought. Why is he 
 not here ? Had I but followed ; tush ! tush ! Go see 
 the Queen, and tell her all that has happened. I'll to 
 Scherirah.' 
 
 The Caliph returned.
 
 ALROY. 199 
 
 ' Thy pardon, brave Scherirah ; in these moments my 
 friends will pardon lapse of courtesy.' 
 
 'Your Highness is too considerate.' 
 
 'You see, Scherirah, how the wind blows, brave heart. 
 There's much to do, no doubt. I am in sad want of some 
 right trusty friend, on whose devoted bosom I can. pillow 
 all my necessities. I was thinking of sending you against 
 this Arslan, but perhaps 'tis better that I should go myself. 
 These are moments one should not seem to shrink, and yet 
 we know not how affairs may run ; no, we know not. The 
 capital, the surrounding province : one disaster and these 
 false Moslemin may rise against us. I should stay here, but 
 if I leave Scherirah, I leave myself. I feel that deeply ; 'tis 
 a consolation. It may be that I must fall back upon the 
 city. Be prepared, Scherirah. Let me fall back upon 
 supporting friends. You have a great trust. Oh ! use it 
 wisely ! Worthily I am sure you must do.' 
 
 ' Your Highness may rest assured I have no other thought 
 but for your weal and glory. Doubt not my devotion, Sire. 
 I am not one of those mealy-mouthed youths, full of their 
 own deeds and lip- worship, Sire, but I have a life devoted 
 to your service, and ready at all times to peril all things.' 
 
 ' I know that, Scherirah, I know it ; I feel it deeply. 
 What think you of these movements? ' 
 
 ' They are not ill combined, and yet I doubt not your 
 Majesty will prove your fortunes most triumphant.' 
 
 ' Think you the soldiery are in good cue ? ' 
 
 ' I'll answer for my own. They are rough fellows, like 
 myself, a little too blunt, perhaps, your Highness. We are 
 not holiday guards, but we know our duty, and we will do 
 it.' 
 
 ' That's well, that's all I want. I shall review the troops 
 before I go. Let a donative be distributed among them ; 
 and, by the bye, I have always forgotten it, your legion 
 should be called the Legion of Syria. We owe our fairest 
 province to their arms.' 
 
 ' I shall convey to them your Highness' wish. Were it 
 possible, 'twould add to their devotion.'
 
 200 ALROY. 
 
 ' I do not wish it. They are my very children. Sup at 
 the Serail to-night, Scherirah. We shall be very private. 
 Yet let us drink together ere we part. We are old friends, 
 you know. Hast not forgotten our ruined city ? ' 
 
 CHAPTER TV. 
 
 ALEOT entered the apartment of Schirene. 'My soul! 
 thou knowest all? ' 
 
 She sprang forward and threw her arms around his 
 neck. 
 
 ' Fear not, my life, we'll not disgrace our Queen. 'Twill 
 be quick work. Two-thirds of them have been beaten 
 before, and for the new champion, our laurels must not 
 fade, and his blood shall nourish fresh ones.' 
 
 ' Dearest, dearest Alroy, go not thyself, I pray thee. 
 May not Asriel conquer? ' 
 
 ' I hope so, in my company. For a time we part, a short 
 one. 'Tis our first parting : may it be our last ! ' 
 
 ' Oh ! no, no, no : oh ! say not we must part.' 
 
 ' The troops are under arms ; to-morrow's dawn will 
 hear my trumpet.' 
 
 ' I will not quit thee, no ! I will not quit thee. What 
 business has Schirene without Alroy ? Hast thou not 
 often told me I am thy inspiration ? In the hour of danger 
 shall I be wanting? Never! I will not quit thee ; no, I 
 will not quit thee.' 
 
 * Thou art ever present in my thoughts, my soul. In the 
 battle I shall think of her for whom alone I conquer.' 
 
 ' Nay, nay, I'll go, indeed I must, Alroy. I'll be no 
 hindrance, trust me, sweet boy, I will not. I'll have no 
 train, no, not a single maid. Credit me, I know how a 
 time soldier's wife should bear herself. I'll watch thee 
 sleeping, and I'll tend thee wounded, and when thou goest 
 forth to combat I'll gird thy sabre round thy martial side, 
 and whisper triumph with victorious kisses.'
 
 ALKOY. 201 
 
 ' My own Schirene, there's victory in thine eyes. We'll 
 beat them, girl.' 
 
 ' Abidan, doubly false Abidan ! would he were doubly 
 hanged ! Ere she died, the fatal prophetess foretold this 
 time, and gloated on his future treachery.' . 
 
 ' Think not of him.' 
 
 ' And the Karasmian ; think you he is very strong ? ' 
 
 ' Enough, love, for our glory. He is a potent warrior: I 
 trust that Abner will not rob us of our intended victory.' 
 
 ' So you triumph, I care not by whose sword. Dost go 
 indeed to-morrow ? ' 
 
 ' At break of dawn. I pray thee stay, my sweet ! ' 
 
 'Never! I will not quit thee. I am quite prepared. 
 At break of dawn ? 'Tis near on midnight now. I'll lay 
 me down upon this couch awhile, and travel in my litter. 
 Art sure Alp Arslan is himself in the field? ' 
 
 ' Quite sure, my sweet.' 
 
 ' Confusion on his crown ! We'll conquer. Goes Asriel 
 with us?' 
 
 'Ay!' 
 
 ' That's well ; at break of dawn. I'm somewhat drowsy. 
 Methinks I'll sleep awhile.' 
 
 ' Do, my best heart ; I'll to my cabinet, and at break of 
 dawn I'll wake thee with a kiss.' 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE Caliph repaired to his cabinet, where his secretaries 
 were occupied in writing. As he paced the chamber, he 
 dictated to them the necessary instructions. 
 
 ' Who is the officer on guard ? ' 
 
 'Benaiah, Sire.' 
 
 ' I remember him. He saved me a broken skull upon 
 the Tigris. This is for him. The Queen accompanies us. 
 She is his charge. These papers for the Vizir. Let the 
 troops be under arms by daybreak. This order of the day 
 for the Lord Asriel. Send this instantly to Hamadan. Is
 
 202 ALEOY. 
 
 the Tatar despatched to Medad? 'Tis well. You have 
 done your duty. Now to rest. Pharez ? ' 
 
 ' My lord.' 
 
 ' I shall not sleep to-night. Give me my drink. Go 
 rest, good boy. I have no wants. Good night.' 
 
 ' Good night, my gracious lord ! ' 
 
 ' Let me ponder ! 1 am alone. I am calm, and yet my 
 spirit is not quick. I am not what I was. Four-and- 
 twenty hours ago who would have dreamed of this ? All at 
 stake again ! Once more in the field, and struggling at 
 once for empire and existence ! I do lack the mighty 
 spirit of my former days. I am not what I was. I have 
 little faith. All about me seems changed, and dull, and 
 grown mechanical. Where are those flashing eyes and 
 conquering visages that clustered round me on the battle 
 eve, round me, the Lord's anointed? I see none such. 
 They are changed, as I am. Why! this Abidan was a 
 host, and now he fights against me. She spoke of the 
 prophetess; I remember that woman was the stirring 
 trumpet of our ranks, and now where is she ? The victim 
 of my justice ! And where is he, the mightier far, the 
 friend, the counsellor, the constant guide, the master of 
 my boyhood ; the firm, the fond, the faithful guardian of 
 all my bright career; whose days and nights were one 
 unbroken study to make me glorious ? Alas ! I feel more 
 like a doomed and desperate renegade than a young hero 
 on the eve of battle, flushed with the memory of unbroken 
 triumphs ! 
 
 ' Hah ! what awful form art thou that risest from the 
 dusky earth before me? Thou shouldst be one I dare not 
 name, yet will : the likeness of Jabaster. Away ! why 
 frownest thou upon me ? I did not slay thee. Do I live, 
 or dream, or what ? I see him, ay ! I see thee. I fear 
 thee not, I fear nothing. I am Alroy. 
 
 ' Speak, oh speak ! I do conjure thee, mighty spectre, 
 speak. By all the memory of the past, although 'tis mad- 
 ness, I do conjure thee, let me hear again the accents of 
 my boyhood.'
 
 ALKOY. 203 
 
 ' ALROT, ALROY, ALROT ! ' 
 ' I listen, as to the last trump.' 
 
 'MEET ME ON THE PLAIN OF NEHAUEND.' 
 
 ' 'Tis gone ! As it spoke it vanished. It was Jabaster ! 
 God of my fathers, it was Jabaster ! Life is growing too 
 wild. My courage is broken ! I could lie down and die. 
 It was Jabaster ! The voice sounds in my ear like distant 
 thunder : " Meet me on the plain of Nehauend." I'll not 
 fail thee, noble ghost, although I meet my doom. Jabaster ! 
 Have I seen Jabaster ! Indeed ! indeed ! Methinks I'm 
 mad. Hah ! What's that ? ' 
 
 An awful clap of thunder broke over the palace, followed 
 by a strange clashing sound that seemed to come from one 
 of the chambers. The walls of the Serail rocked. 
 
 ' An earthquake ! ' exclaimed Alroy. ' Would that the 
 earth would open and swallow all ! Hah ! Pharez, has it 
 roused thee, too ? Pharez, we live in strange times.' 
 
 ' Your Highness is very pale.' 
 
 ' And so art thou, lad ! Wouldst have me merry ? Pale ! 
 we may well be pale, didst thou know all. Hah ! that 
 awful sound again ! I cannot bear it, Pharez, I cannot 
 bear it. I have borne many things, but this I cannot.' 
 
 ' My lord, 'tis in the Armoury.' 
 
 ' Run, see. No, I'll not be alone. Where's Benaiah ? 
 Let him go. Stay with me, Pharez, stay with me. I pray 
 thee stay, my child.' 
 
 Pharez led the Caliph to a couch, on which Alroy lay 
 pale and trembling, In a few minutes he inquired whether 
 Benaiah had returned. 
 
 ' Even now he comes, Sire.' 
 
 ' Well, how is it? ' 
 
 ' Sire ! a most awful incident. As the thunder broke 
 over the palace, the sacred standard fell from its resting- 
 place, and has shivered into a thousand pieces. Strange 
 to say, the sceptre of Solomon can neither be found nor 
 traced.'
 
 204 ALKOY. 
 
 ' Say nothing of the past as ye love me, lads. Let none 
 enter the Armoury. Leave me, Benaiah, leave me, Pharez.' 
 
 They retired. Alroy watched their departure with a 
 glance of inexpressible anguish. The moment that they 
 had disappeared, he flew to the couch, and throwing himself 
 upon his knees, and, covering his face with his hands, burst 
 into passionate tears, and exclaimed, ' ! my God, I have 
 deserted thee, and now thou hast deserted me ! ' 
 
 CHAPTER VL 
 
 SLEEP crept over the senses of the exhausted and 
 desperate Caliph. He threw himself upon the divan, and 
 was soon buried in profound repose. He might have slept 
 an hour ; he awoke suddenly. From the cabinet in which 
 he slept, you entered a vast hall, through a lofty and 
 spacious arch, generally covered with drapery, which was 
 now withdrawn. To the astonishment of Alroy, this pre- 
 sence-chamber appeared at this moment to blaze with light. 
 He rose from his couch, he advanced ; he perceived, with 
 feelings of curiosity and fear, that the hall was filled with 
 beings, terrible indeed to behold, but to his sight more 
 terrible than strange. In the colossal and mysterious forms 
 that lined the walls of the mighty chamber, and each of 
 which held in its extended arm a streaming torch, he 
 recognised the awful Afrites. At the end of the hall, upon 
 a sumptuous throne, surrounded by priests and courtiers, 
 there was seated a monarch, on whom Alroy had before 
 gazed, Solomon the Great ! Alroy beheld him in state and 
 semblance the same Solomon, whose sceptre the Prince of 
 the Captivity had seized in the royal tombs of Judah. 
 
 The strange assembly seemed perfectly unconscious of 
 the presence of the child of Earth, who, with a desperate 
 courage, leant against a column of the arch, and watched, 
 with wonder, their mute and motionless society. Nothing 
 was said, nothing done. No one moved, no one, even by
 
 ALfiOY. 205 
 
 gesture, seemed sensible of the presence of any other 
 apparition save himself. 
 
 Suddenly there advanced from the bottom of the hall, 
 near unto Alroy, a procession. Pages and dancing girls, 
 with eyes of fire and voluptuous gestures, warriors with 
 mighty arms, and venerable forms with ample robes and 
 flowing beards. And, as they passed, even with all the 
 activity of their gestures, they made no sound ; neither did 
 the musicians, whereof there was a great band playing 
 upon harps and psalteries, and timbrels and cornets, break, 
 in the slightest degree, the almighty silence. 
 
 This great crowd poured on in beautiful order, the 
 procession never terminating, yet passing thrice round the 
 hall, bowing to him that was upon the throne, and ranging 
 themselves in ranks before the Afrites. 
 
 And there came in twelve forms, bearing a great seal: 
 the stone green, and the engraven characters of living 
 flame, and the characters were those on the talisman of 
 Jabaster, which Alroy still wore next to his heart. And 
 the twelve forms placed the great seal before Solomon, and 
 humbled themselves, and the King bowed. At the same 
 moment Alroy was sensible of a pang next to his heart. 
 He instantly put his hand to the suffering spot, and lo ! 
 the talisman crumbled into dust. 
 
 The procession ceased ; a single form advanced. Recent 
 experience alone prevented Alroy from sinking before the 
 spectre of Jabaster. Such was the single form. It ad- 
 vanced, bearing the sceptre. It advanced, it knelt before 
 the throne, it offered the sceptre to the crowned and solemn 
 vision. And the form of Solomon extended its arm, and 
 took the sceptre, and instantly the mighty assembly 
 vanished ! 
 
 Alroy advanced immediately into the chamber, but all 
 was dark and silent. A ti'umpet sounded. He recognised 
 the note of his own soldiery. He groped his way to a 
 curtain, and, pulling it aside, beheld the first streak of 
 dawn.
 
 206 ALROY. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ONCE more upon his charger, once more surrounded by 
 his legions, once more his senses dazzled and inflamed by 
 the waving banners and the inspiring trumpets, once more 
 conscious of the power still at his command, and the 
 mighty stake for which he was about to play, Alroy in a 
 great degree recovered his usual spirit and self-possession. 
 His energy returned with his excited pulse, and the vast- 
 ness of the impending danger seemed only to stimulate the 
 fertility of his genius. 
 
 He pushed on by forced marches towards Media, at the 
 head of fifty thousand men. At the end of the second 
 day's march, fresh couriers arrived from Abner, informing 
 him that, unable to resist the valiant and almost innumer- 
 able host of the King of Karasme, he had entirely evacuated 
 Persia, and had concentrated his forces in Louristan. 
 Alroy, in consequence of this information, despatched 
 orders to Scherirah, to join him with his division instantly, 
 and leave the capital to its fate. 
 
 They passed again the mountains of Kerrund, and joined 
 Abner and the army of Media, thirty thousand strong, on 
 the river Abzah. Here Alroy rested one night, to refresh 
 his men, and on the ensuing morn pushed on to the Persian 
 frontier, unexpectedly attacked the advanced posts of Alp 
 Arslan, and beat them back with great loss into the pro- 
 vince. But the force of the King of Karasme was so con- 
 siderable, that the Caliph did not venture on a general 
 engagement, and therefore he fell back, and formed in 
 battle array upon the neighbouring plain of ETehauend, the 
 theatre of one of his earliest and most brilliant victories, 
 where he awaited the hourly-expected arrival of Scherirah. 
 
 The King of Karasme, who was desirous of bringing 
 aflairs to an issue, and felt confident in his superior force, 
 instantly advanced. In two or three days at farthest, it 
 was evident that a battle must be fought that would decide 
 the fate of the East.
 
 ALEOY. 207 
 
 On the morn ensning their arrival at Nehauend, while 
 the Caliph was out hunting, attended only by a few officers, 
 he was suddenly attacked by an ambushed band of Karas- 
 mians. Alroy and his companions defended themselves 
 with such desperation that they at length succeeded in 
 beating off their assailants, although triple their number. 
 The leader of the Karasmians, as he retreated, hurled a 
 dart at the Caliph, which must have been fatal, had not a 
 young officer of the guard interposed his own breast, and 
 received the deadly wound. The party, in confusion, 
 returned with all speed to the camp, Alroy himself bearing 
 the expiring victim of desperate loyalty and military 
 enthusiasm. 
 
 The bleeding officer was borne to the royal pavilion, and 
 placed upon the imperial couch. The most skilful leech 
 was summoned ; he examined the wound, but shook his 
 head. The dying warrior was himself sensible of his 
 desperate condition. His agony could only be alleviated 
 by withdrawing the javelin, which would occasion his 
 immediate decease. He desired to be left alone with his 
 Sovereign. 
 
 ' Sire ! ' said the officer, ' I must die ; and I die without 
 a pang. To die in your service, I have ever considered the 
 most glorious end. Destiny has awarded it to me ; and if 
 I have not met my fate upon the field of battle, it is some 
 consolation that my death has preserved the most valuable 
 of lives. Sire ! I have a sister.' 
 
 ' Waste not thy strength, dear friend, in naming her. 
 Rest assured I shall ever deem thy relatives my own.' 
 
 ' I doubt it not. Would I had a thousand lives for such 
 a master ! I have a burden on my conscience, Sire, nor 
 can I die in peace unless I speak of it.' 
 
 ' Speak, speak freely. If thou hast injured any one, and 
 the power or wealth of Alroy can redeem thy oppressed 
 spirit, he will not spare, he will not spare, be assured of 
 that.' 
 
 'Noble, noble master, I must be brief; for, although, 
 while this javelin rests within my body, I yet may live, the
 
 208 ALBOY. 
 
 agony is great. Sire, the deed of which I speak doth 
 concern thee.' 
 
 'Ay!' 
 
 * I was on guard the day Jabaster died.' 
 
 ' Powers of heaven ! I am all ear. Speak on, speak 
 on!' 
 
 ' He died self-strangled, so they say ? ' 
 
 ' So they ever told me.' 
 
 ' Thou art innocent, thou art innocent ! I thank my 
 God, my King is innocent ! ' 
 
 ' Best assured of that, as there is hope in Israel. Tell 
 me all.' 
 
 ' The Queen came with the signet ring. To such au- 
 thority I yielded way. She entered, and after her, the 
 Lord Honain. I heard high words ! I heard Jabaster's 
 voice. He struggled, yes ! he struggled ; but his mighty 
 form, wounded and fettered, could not long resist. Foul 
 play, foul play, Sire ! What could I do against such 
 adversaries ? They left the chamber with a stealthy step. 
 Her eyes met mine. I never could forget that fell and 
 glittering visage.' 
 
 ' Thou ne'er hast spoken of this awful end? ' 
 
 ' To none but thee. And why I speak it now I cannot 
 tell, save that it seems some inspiration urges me ; and 
 methinks they who did this may do even feller works, if 
 such there be.' 
 
 ' Thou hast robbed me of all peace and hope of peace ; 
 and yet I thank thee. Now I know the worth of life. 
 I have never loved to think of that sad day; and yet, 
 though I have sometimes dreamed of villainous work, the 
 worst were innocence to thy dread tale.' 
 
 ' 'Tis told ; and now I pray thee secure thy secret, by- 
 drawing from my agonised frame this javelin.' 
 
 ' Trusty heart, 'tis a sad office.' 
 
 ' I die with joy if thou performest it.' 
 
 ' 'Tis done.' 
 
 ' God save Alroy.'
 
 ALROY. 209 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 WHILE Alroy, plunged in thought, stood over the body 
 of the officer, there arose a flourish of triumphant music,' 
 and a eunuch, entering the pavilion, announced the arrival 
 of Schirene from Kerrund. Almost immediately after- 
 wards, the Princess, descending from her litter, entered 
 the tent; Alroy tore off his robe, and threw it over the 
 corpse. 
 
 ' My own,' exclaimed the Princess, as she ran up to the 
 Caliph. 'I have heard all. Be not alarmed for me. I 
 dare look upon a corpse. You know I am a soldier's bride. 
 I am used to blood.' 
 
 ' Alas ! ' 
 
 ' Why so pale ? Thou dost not kiss me ! Has this 
 unhinged thee so? 'Tis a sad deed ; and yet to-morrow's 
 dawn may light up thousands to as grim a fate. Why? 
 thou tremblest ! Alas ! kind soul ! The single death of 
 this fond, faithful heart, hath quite upset my love. Yet 
 art thou used to battle. Why ! this is foolishness. Art 
 not glad to see me ? What, not one smile ! And I have 
 come to fight for thee ! I will be kissed ! ' 
 
 She flung herself upon his neck. Alroy faintly returned 
 her embrace, and bore her to a couch. He clapped his 
 hands, and two soldiers entered and bore away the corpse. 
 
 ' The pavilion, Schirene, is now fitter for thy presence. 
 Rest thyself; I shall soon return.' Thus speaking, he 
 quitted her. 
 
 He quitted her ; but her humbled look of sorrowful 
 mortification pierced to his heart. He thought of all her 
 love and all her loveliness, he called to mind all the 
 marvellous story of their united fortunes. He felt that for 
 her and her alone he cared to live, that without her quick 
 sympathy, even success seemed unendurable. His judg- 
 ment fluctuated in an eddy of passion and reason. Passion 
 conquered. He dismissed from his intelligence all cogni- 
 zance of good and evil ; he determined, under all circum-
 
 210 ALKOY. 
 
 stances, to cling ever to her ; lie tore from his mind all 
 memory of the late disclosure. He returned to the pavilion 
 with a countenance beaming with affection ; he found her 
 weeping, he folded her in his arms, he kissed her with a 
 thousand kisses, and whispered between each kiss his 
 ardent love. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 'TWAS midnight. Schirene reposed in the arms of Alroy. 
 The Caliph, who was restless and anxious for the arrival of 
 Scherirah, was scarcely slumbering, when the sound of a 
 voice thoroughly aroused him. He looked around ; he 
 beheld the spectre of Jabaster. His hair stood on end, his 
 limbs seemed to loosen, a cold dew crept over his frame, as 
 he gazed upon the awful form within a yard of his couch. 
 Unconsciously he disembarrassed his arms of their fair 
 burden, and, rising on the couch, leant forward. 
 
 ' ALROY, ALROY, ALROY ! ' 
 * I am here.' 
 
 * TO-MORROW ISRAEL is AVENGED ! ' 
 
 ' Who is that ? ' exclaimed the Princess, wakening. 
 
 In a frenzy of fear, Alroy, quite forgetting the spectre, 
 turned and pressed his hand over her eyes. When he 
 again looked round, the apparition was invisible 
 
 ' What wouldst thou, Alroy ? ' 
 
 ' Nothing, sweet ! A soldier's wife must bear strange 
 sights, yet I would save you some. One of my men, 
 forgetful you were here, burst into my tent in such a guise 
 as scarce would suit a female eye. I must away, my child. 
 I'll call thy slaves. One kiss ! Farewell ! but for a time.' 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 ' " TO-MORROW Israel will be avenged." What ! in Ka- 
 rasmian blood ? I have no faith. No matter. All is now
 
 ALROY. 211 
 
 beyond my influence. A rushing destiny carries me on- 
 ward. I cannot stem the course, nor guide the vessel. 
 How now ! Who is the officer on guard? ' 
 
 ' Benomi, Sire, thy servant.' 
 
 ' Send to the Viceroy. Bid him meet me here. Who 
 is this ? ' 
 
 ' A courier from the Lord Scherirah, Sire, but just 
 arrived. He passed last night the Kerrund mountains, 
 Sire, and will be with you by the break of day.' 
 
 ' Good news. Go fetch Abner. Haste ! He'll find me 
 here anon. I'll visit the camp awhile. Well, my brave 
 fellows, you.have hither come to conquer again with Alroy. 
 You have fought before, I warrant, on the plain of Nehau- 
 end. 'Tis a rich soil, and shall be richer with Karasmian 
 gore.' 
 
 ' God save your Majesty ! Our lives are thine.' 
 
 ' Please you, my little ruler,' said a single soldier, ad- 
 dressing Alroy ; ' pardon my bluntness, but I knew you 
 before you were a Caliph.' 
 
 ' Stout heart, I like thy freedom. Pr'ythee say on.' 
 
 ' I was a-saying, I hope you will lead us in the charge 
 to-morrow. Some say you will not.' 
 
 ' They say falsely.' 
 
 ' I thought so. I'll ever answer for my little ruler, but 
 then the Queen ? ' 
 
 ' Is a true soldier's wife, and lives in the camp.' 
 
 ' That's brave ! There, I told you so, comrades ; you 
 would not believe me, but I knew our little ruler before 
 you did. I lived near the gate at Hamadan, please your 
 Highness : old Shelomi's son.' 
 
 ' Give me thy hand ; a real friend. What is't ye eat 
 here, boys ? Let me taste your mess. I'faith I would my 
 cook could dress me such a pilau ! 'Tis admirable ! ' 
 
 The soldiers gathered round their chieftain with eyes 
 beaming with adoration. 'Twas a fine picture, the hero in 
 the centre, the various groups around, some conversing 
 with him, some cooking, some making coffee, all offering 
 him by word or deed some testimonial of their devotion, 
 
 r 2
 
 212 AUIOY. 
 
 and blending with that devotion the most perfect frank- 
 ness. 
 
 ' We shall beat them, lads ! ' 
 
 ' There is on fear with you, you always beat.' 
 
 ' I do my best, and so do you. A good general without 
 good troops is little worth.' 
 
 ' I'faith that's true. One must have good troops. What 
 think you of Alp Arslan? ' 
 
 ' I think he may give us as much trouble as all our 
 other enemies together, and that's not much.' 
 
 ' Brave, brave ! God save Alroy ! ' 
 
 Benomi approached, and announced that the Viceroy 
 was in attendance. 
 
 ' I must quit you, my children,' said Alroy. 'We'll sup 
 once more together when we have conquered.' 
 
 ' God save you, Sire ; and we will confound your ene- 
 mies.' 
 
 'Good night, my lads. Ere the dawn break we may 
 have hot work.' 
 
 * We are ready, we are ready. God save Alroy.' 
 
 ' They are in good cue, and yet 'twas a different spirit 
 that inspired our early days. That I strongly feel. These 
 are men true to a leader who has never failed them, and 
 confident in a cause that leads to plunder. They are but 
 splendid mercenaries. No more. Oh ! where are now the 
 fighting men of Judah! Where are the men who, when 
 they drew their scimetars, joined in a conquering psalm of 
 holy triumph ! Last eve of battle you would have thought 
 the field a mighty synagogue. Priests and altars, flaming 
 sacrifices, and smoking censers, groups of fiery zealots 
 hanging with frenzy on prophetic lips, and sealing with 
 their blood and holiest vows a solemn covenant to conquer 
 Canaan. All is changed, as I am. How now, Abner ? 
 You are well muffled ! ' 
 
 ' Is it true Scherirah is at hand? ' 
 
 ' I doubt not all is right. Would that the dawn would 
 break ! ' 
 
 ' The enemy is advancing. Some of their columcs are
 
 ALEOY. 213 
 
 in sight. My scouts have dodged them. They intend 
 doubtless to form upon the plain.' 
 
 ' They are in sight, eh ! Then we will attack them at 
 once ere they are formed. Rare, rare ! We'll beat them 
 yet. Courage, dear brother. Scherirah will be here at 
 dawn in good time, very good time : very, very good time.' 
 
 ' I like the thought.' 
 
 ' The men are in good heart. At break of dawn, charge 
 with thirty thousand cavalry upon their forming ranks. 
 I'll take the right, Asriel the left. It shall be a family 
 affair, dear Abner. How is Miriam ? ' 
 
 ' I heard this morn, quite well. She sends you her lore 
 and prayers. The Queen is here ? ' 
 
 ' She came this eve. Quite well.' 
 
 ' She must excuse all courtesy.' 
 
 ' Say nothing. She is a soldier's wife. She loves thee 
 well, dear Abner.' 
 
 ' I know that. I hope my sword may guard her children's 
 throne.' 
 
 ' "Well, give thy orders. Instant battle, eh ? 
 
 ' Indeed I think so.' 
 
 ' I'll send couriers to hurry Scherirah. All looks well. 
 Reserve the guard.' 
 
 ' Ay, ay ! Farewell, dear Sire. When we meet again, 
 I trust your enemies may be your slaves ! ' 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 AT the first streak of dawn the Hebrew cavalry, with 
 the exception of the guard, charged the advancing columns 
 of the Karasmians with irresistible force, and cut them in 
 pieces. Alp Arslan rallied his troops, and at length 
 succeeded in forming his main body in good order. Alroy 
 and Asriel led on their divisions, and the battle now became 
 general. It raged for several hours, and was on both sides 
 well maintained. The slaughter of the Karasmians was 
 great, but their stern character and superior numbers
 
 214 ALEOY. 
 
 counterbalanced for a time all the impetuosity of the 
 Hebrews and all the energy of their leaders. This day 
 Alroy threw into the shade all his former exploits. Twelve 
 times he charged at the head of the Sacred Guard, and more 
 than once penetrated to the very pavilion of Alp Arslan. 
 
 In vain he endeavoured singly, and hand to hand, to 
 meet that famous chieftain. Both monarchs fought in the 
 ranks, and yet Fate decided that their scimetars should 
 never cross. Four hours before noon, it was evident to 
 Alroy, that, unless Scherirah arrived, he could not prevail 
 against the vast superiority of numbers. He was obliged 
 early to call his reserve into the field, and although the 
 number of the slain on the side of Arslan exceeded any in 
 the former victories of the Hebrews, still the Karasmians 
 maintained an immense front, which was constantly supplied 
 by fresh troops. Confident in his numbers, and aware of 
 the weakness of his antagonists, Arslan contented himself 
 with acting on the defensive, and wearying his assailants 
 by resisting their terrible and repeated charge. 
 
 For a moment, Alroy at the head of the Sacred Guard 
 had withdrawn from the combat. Abner and Asriel still 
 maintained the fight, and the Caliph was at the same time 
 preparing for new efforts, and watching with anxiety for 
 the arrival of Scherirah. In the fifth hour, from an emi- 
 nence he marked with exultation the advancing banners of 
 bis expected succours. Confident now that the day was 
 won, he announced the exhilarating intelligence to his 
 soldiers ; and, while they were excited by the animating 
 tidings, led them once more to the charge. It was irre- 
 eistible ; Scherirah seemed to have arrived only for the 
 pursuit, only in time to complete the victory. What then 
 was the horror, the consternation of Alroy, when Benaiah, 
 dashing up to him, informed him that the long-expected 
 succours consisted of the united forces of Scherirah and 
 Abidan, and had attacked him in the rear. Human genius 
 could afford no resource. The exhausted Hebrews, whose 
 energies had been tasked to the utmost, were surrounded. 
 The Karasmians made a general and simultaneous advance.
 
 ALKOY. 215 
 
 In a few minutes the Hebrew army was thrown into con- 
 fusion. The stoutest warriors threw away their swords in 
 despair. Every one thought only of self-preservation. 
 Even Abner fled towards Hamadan. Asriel was slain. 
 Alroy, finding it was all over, rushed to his pavilion at the 
 head of about three hundred of the guards, seized the fainting 
 Schirene, threw her before him on his saddle, and cutting 
 his way through all obstacles, dashed into the desert. 
 
 For eight-and-forty hours they never stopped. Their 
 band was soon reduced one-third. On the morning of the 
 third day they dismounted and refreshed themselves at a 
 well. Half only regained their saddles. Schirene never 
 spoke. On they rushed again, each hour losing some 
 exhausted co-mate. At length, on the fifth day, about 
 eighty strong, they arrived at a grove of palm-trees. Here 
 they dismounted. And Alroy took Schirene in his arms, 
 and the shade seemed to revive her. She opened her eyes, 
 and pressed his hand and smiled. He gathered her some 
 dates, and she drank some water. 
 
 ' Our toils will soon be over, sweetest,' he whispered to 
 her ; ' I have lost everything but thee.' 
 
 Again they mounted, and, proceeding at a less rapid 
 pace, they arrived towards evening at the ruined city, 
 whither Alroy all this time had been directing his course. 
 Dashing down the great street, they at length entered the 
 old amphitheatre. They dismounted. Alroy made a couch 
 with their united cloaks for Schirene. Some collected fuel, 
 great store of which was found, and kindled large fires. 
 Others, while it was yet light, chased the gazelles, and 
 were sufficiently fortunate to provide their banquet, or 
 fetched water from the well known to their leader. In an 
 hour's time, clustering round their fires in groups, and 
 sharing their rude fare, you might have deemed them, 
 instead of the discomfited and luxurious guards of a mighty 
 monarch, the accustomed tenants of this wild abode. 
 
 ' Come, my lads,' said Alroy, as he rubbed his hands over 
 the ascending flame, 'at any rate this is better than the 
 desert ! '
 
 216 ALROY. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 AFTER all his exertions, Alroy fell into profound and 
 dreamless sleep. When lie awoke, the sun had been long 
 up. Schirene was still slumbering. He embraced her, and 
 she opened her eyes and smiled. 
 
 ' You are now a bandit's bride,' he said. 'How like you 
 our new life? ' 
 
 'Well! withthee.' 
 
 ' Rest here, my sweetest : I must rouse our men, and see 
 how fortune speeds.' So saying, and tripping lightly over 
 many a sleeping form, he touched Benaiah. 
 
 ' So ! my brave captain of the guard, still napping ! 
 Come ! stir, stir.' 
 
 Benaiah jumped up with a cheerful face. ' I am ever 
 ready, Sire.' 
 
 ' I know it ; but remember I am no more a king, only 
 a co-mate. Away with me, and let us form some order.' 
 
 The companions quitted the amphitheatre and reconnoi- 
 tred the adjoining buildings. They found many stores, the 
 remains of old days, mats, tents, and fuel, drinking-bowls, 
 and other homely furniture. They fixed upon a building 
 for their stable, and others for the accommodation of their 
 band. They summoned their companions to the open place, 
 the scene of Hassan Subah's fate, where Alroy addressed 
 them and explained to them his plans. They were divided 
 into companies ; each man had his allotted duty. Some 
 were placed on guard at different parts ; some were sent 
 out to the chase, or to collect dates from the Oasis ; others 
 led the horses to the contiguous pasture, or remained to 
 attend to their domestic arrangements. The amphitheatre 
 was cleared out. A rude but convenient pavilion was 
 formed for Schirene. They covered its ground with mats, 
 and each emulated the other in his endeavours to study her 
 accommodation. Her kind words and inspiring smiles 
 animated at the same time their zeal and their invention. 
 
 They soon became accustomed to their rough but ad-
 
 ALROY. 217 
 
 venturous life. Its novelty pleased them, and the perpetual 
 excitement of urgent necessity left them no time to mourn 
 over their terrible vicissitudes. While Alroy lived, hope 
 indeed never deserted their sanguine bosoms. And such 
 was the influence of his genius, that the most desponding 
 felt that to be discomfited with him was preferable to conquest 
 with another. They were a faithful and devoted band, and 
 merry faces were not wanting when at night they assembled 
 in the amphitheatre for their common meal. 
 
 No sooner had Alroy completed his arrangements than 
 he sent forth spies in all directions to procure intelligence, 
 and especially to communicate, if possible, with Ithamar 
 and Medad, provided that they still survived and maintained 
 themselves in any force. 
 
 A fortnight passed away without the approach of any 
 stranger ; at the end of which, there arrived four personages 
 at their haunt, not very welcome to their chief, who, how- 
 ever, concealed his chagrin at their appearance. These 
 were Kisloch the Kourd, and Calidas the Indian, and their 
 inseparable companions, the Guebre and the Negro. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 ' NOBLE Captain,' said Kisloch, ' we trust that you will 
 permit us to enlist in the band. This is not the first time 
 we have served under your orders in this spot. Old co- 
 mates i'faith, who have seen the best and the worst. We 
 suspected where you might be found, although, thanks to 
 the ever felicitous invention of man, it is generally received 
 that you died in battle. I hope your Majesty is well,' 
 added Kisloch, bowing to Schirene. 
 
 ' You are welcome, friends,' replied Alroy ; ' I know 
 your worth. You have seen, as you say, the best and the 
 worst, and will, I trust, see better. Died in battle, eh ! 
 that's good.' 
 
 ' 'Tis so received,' said Calidas. 
 
 ' And what news of our friends ? '
 
 218 ALROY. 
 
 * Not over good, but strange.' 
 'How so?' 
 
 * Hamadan is taken.' 
 
 ' I am prepared ; tell me all.' 
 
 4 Old Bostenay and the Lady Miriam are borne prisoners 
 to Bagdad.' 
 
 ' Prisoners ? ' 
 
 ' But so : all will be well with, them, I trow. The Lord 
 Honain is in high favour with the conqueror, and will 
 doubtless protect them.' 
 
 ' Honain in favour ? ' 
 
 ' Even so. He made terms for the city, and right good 
 ones.' 
 
 ' Hah ! he was ever dexterous. Well ! if be save my 
 sister, I care not for his favour.' 
 
 ' There is no doubt. All may yet be well, Sir.' 
 
 ' Let us act, not hope. Where's Abner? ' 
 
 ' Dead.' 
 
 'How?' 
 
 ' In battle.' 
 
 ' Art sure ? ' 
 
 ' I saw him fall, and fought beside him.' 
 
 ' A soldier's death is all our fortune now. I am glad he 
 was not captured. Where's Medad, Ithamar ? ' 
 
 ' Fled into Egypt.' 
 
 ' We have no force whatever, then? ' 
 
 ' None but your guards here.' 
 
 ' They are strong enough to plunder a caravan v Honain, 
 you say, in favour ? ' 
 
 ' Very high. He'll make good terms for us.' 
 
 ' This is strange news.' 
 
 ' Very, but true.' 
 
 ' Well ! you are welcome ! Share our fare ; 'tis rough, 
 and somewhat scanty ; but we have feasted, and may feast 
 again. Fled into Egypt, eh ? ' 
 
 'Ay! Sir.' 
 
 ' Schirene, shouldst like to see the Nile ? ' 
 
 ' I have heard of crocodiles.'
 
 ALROY. 219 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 IF the presence of Kisloch and his companions were not 
 very pleasing to Alroy, with the rest of the band they soon 
 became great favourites. Their local knowledge, and their 
 experience of desert life, made them valuable allies, and 
 their boisterous jocularity and unceasing merriment were 
 not unwelcome in the present monotonous existence of the 
 fugitives. As for Alroy himself, he meditated an escape to 
 Egypt. He determined to seize the first opportunity of 
 procuring some camels, and then, dispersing his band, with 
 the exception of Benaiah and a few faithful retainers, he 
 trusted that, disguised as merchants, they might succeed in 
 crossing Syria, and entering Africa by Palestine. With 
 these plans and prospects, he became each day more cheer- 
 ful and more sanguine as to the future. He had in his 
 possession some valuable jewels, which he calculated upon 
 disposing of at Cairo for a sum sufficient for all his pur- 
 poses ; and having exhausted all the passions of life while 
 yet a youth, he looked forward to the tranquil termination 
 of his existence in some poetic solitude with his beautiful 
 companion. 
 
 One evening, as they returned from the Oasis, Alroy 
 guiding the camel that bore Schirene, and ever and anon 
 looking up in her inspiring face, her sanguine spirit would 
 have indulged in a delightful future. 
 
 'Thus shall we pass the desert, sweet,' said Schirene. 
 'Can this be toil?' 
 
 ' There is no toil with love,' replied Alroy. 
 
 ' And we were made for love, and not for empire,' re- 
 joined Schirene. 
 
 ' The past is a dream,' said Alroy. ' So sages teach us ; 
 but, until we act, their wisdom is but wind. I feel it now. 
 Have we ever lived in aught but deserts, and fed on aught 
 but dates? Methinks 'tis very natural. But that I am 
 tempted by the security of distant lands, I could remain 
 here a free and happy outlaw. Time, custom, and necessity
 
 220 ALKOY. 
 
 form our natures. When I first met Scherirah in these 
 ruins, I shrank with horror from degraded man ; and now 
 I sigh to be his heir. We must not think ! ' 
 
 'No love, we'll only hope,' replied Schirene; and they 
 passed through the gates. 
 
 The night was beautiful, the air was still warm and 
 sweet. Schirene gazed upon the luminous heavens. ' We 
 thought not of these skies when we were at Bagdad,' she 
 exclaimed ; ' and yet, my life, what was the brightness of 
 our palaces compared to these ? All is left to us that man 
 should covet, freedom, beauty, and youth. I do believe, 
 ere long, Alroy, we shall look back upon the wondrous past 
 as on another and a lower world. Would that this were 
 Egypt ! "Tis my only wish.' 
 
 'And it shall soon be gratified. All will soon be 
 arranged. A few brief days, and then Schirene will mount 
 her camel for a longer ride than just to gather dates. 
 You'll make a sorry traveller, I fear ! ' 
 
 ' Not I ; I'll tire you all.' 
 
 They reached the circus, and seated themselves round 
 the blazing fire. Seldom had Alroy, since his fall, appeared 
 more cheerful. Schirene sang an Arab air to the band, 
 who joined in joyous chorus. It was late ere they sought 
 repose ; and they retired to their rest, sanguine and con- 
 tented. 
 
 A few hours afterwards, at the break of dawn, Alroy was 
 roused from his slumbers by a rude pressure on his breast. 
 He started ; a ferocious soldier was kneeling over him ; he 
 would have spurned him ; he found his hand manacled. 
 He would have risen ; his feet were bound. He looked 
 round for Schirene, and called her name ; he was answered 
 only by a shriek. The amphitheatre was filled with Karas- 
 mian troops. His own men were surprised and over- 
 powered. Kisloch and the Guebre had been on guard. 
 He was raised from the ground, and flung upon a camel, 
 which vras instantly trotted out of the circus. On every 
 side he beheld a wild scene of disorder and dismay. He 
 was speechless from passion and despair. The camel was
 
 ALKOY. 221 
 
 dragged into the desert. A body of cavalry instantly sur- 
 rounded it, and they set off at a rapid pace. The whole 
 seemed the work of an instant. 
 
 How many days had passed Alroy knew not. He had 
 taken no account of time. Night and day were to him the 
 same. He was in a stupor. But the sweetness of the air 
 and the greenness of the earth at length partially roused 
 his attention. He was just conscious that they had quitted 
 the desert. Before him was a noble river ; he beheld the 
 Euphrates from the very spot he had first viewed it in his 
 pilgrimage. The strong association of ideas called back his 
 memory. A tear stole down his cheek ; the bitter drop 
 stole to his parched lips ; he asked the nearest horseman 
 for water. The guard gave him a wetted sponge, with 
 which he contrived with difficulty to wipe his lips, and 
 then he let it fall to the ground. The Karasmian struck 
 him. 
 
 They arrived at the river. The prisoner was taken from 
 the camel and placed in a covered boat. After some 
 hours they stopped and disembarked at a small village. 
 Alroy was placed upon an ass with his back to its head. 
 His clothes were soiled and tattered. The children pelted 
 him with mud. An old woman, with a fanatic curse, 
 placed a crown of paper on his brow. With difficulty his 
 brutal guards prevented their victim from being torn to 
 pieces. And in such fashion, towards noon of the four- 
 teenth day, David Alroy again entered Bagdad. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE intelligence of the capture of Alroy spread through 
 the agitated city. The Moolahs bustled about as if they 
 had received a fresh demonstration of the authenticity of 
 the prophetic mission. All the Dervishes began begging. 
 The men discussed affairs in the coffee-houses, and the 
 women chatted at the fountains. 79 
 
 4 They may say what they like, but I wish him well,'
 
 222 ALEOY. 
 
 said a fair Arab, as she arranged her veil. ' He may be an 
 impostor, but he was a very handsome one.' 
 
 ' All the women are for him, that's the truth,' responded 
 a companion ; ' but then we can do him no good.' 
 
 'We can tear their eyes out,' said a third. 
 
 ' And what do you think of Alp Arslan, truly ? ' inquired 
 a fourth. 
 
 ' I wish he were a pitcher, and then I could break his 
 neck,' said a fifth. 
 
 ' Only think of the Princess ! ' said a sixth. 
 
 ' Well ! she has had a glorious time of it,' said a seventh. 
 
 ' Nothing was too good for her,' said an eighth. 
 
 4 1 like true love,' said a ninth. 
 
 ' Well ! I hope he will be too much for them all yet,' 
 said a tenth. 
 
 ' I should not wonder,' said an eleventh. 
 
 'He can't,' said a twelfth, ' he has lost his sceptre.' 
 
 'You don't say so? ' said a thirteenth. 
 
 ' It is too true,' said a fourteenth. 
 
 ' Do you think he was a wizard? ' said a fifteenth. ' I 
 vow if there be not a fellow looking at us behind those 
 trees:' 
 
 ' Impudent scoundrel ! ' said a sixteenth. ' I wish it 
 were Alroy. Let us all scream, and put down our veils.' 
 
 And the group ran away. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Two stout soldiers were playing chess 80 in a coffee- 
 house. 
 
 * May I slay my mother,' said one, ' but I cannot make a 
 move. I fought under him at Nehauend; and though I 
 took the amnesty, I have half a mind now to seize my 
 sword and stab the first Turk that enters.' 
 
 ' 'Twere but sheer justice,' said his companion. ' By my
 
 ALROY. 223 
 
 father's blessing, lie was the man for a charge. They may 
 say what they like, but compared with him, Alp Arslan is 
 a white-livered Giaour.' 
 
 ' Here is confusion to him and to thy last move. There's 
 the dirhem, I can play no more. May I slay my mother, 
 though, but I did not think he would let himself be taken.' 
 
 ' By the blessing of my father, nor I ; but then he was 
 asleep.' 
 
 ' That makes a difference. He was betrayed.' 
 
 ' All brave men are. They say Kisloch and his set pocket 
 their fifty thousand by the job.' 
 
 ' May each dirhem prove a plague-spot ! ' 
 
 ' Amen ! Dost remember Abner ? ' 
 
 ' May I slay my mother if I ever forget him. He spoke 
 to his men like so many lambs. What has become of the Lady 
 Miriam ?' 
 
 ' She is here.' 
 
 That wiU cut Alroy.' 
 
 ' He was ever fond of her. Dost remember she gained 
 Adoram's life ? ' 
 
 ' Oh ! she could do anything, next to the Queen.' 
 
 'Before her, I say, before her. He has refused the 
 Queen, he never refused the Lady Miriam.' 
 
 ' Because she asked less.' 
 
 ' Dost know it seemed to me that things never went on so 
 well after Jabaster's death ? ' 
 
 ' So say I. There was a something, eh ? ' 
 
 ' A sort of a peculiar, as it were, kind of something, eh ? ' 
 
 ' You have well described it. Every man felt the same. 
 I have often mentioned it to my comrades. Say what you 
 like, said I, but slay my mother, if ever since the old 
 man strangled himself, things did not seem, as it were, in 
 their natural propinquity. 'Twas the phrase I used.' 
 
 ' A choice one. Unless there is a natural propinquity, 
 the best-arranged matters will fall out. However, the ass 
 sees farther than his rider, and so it was with Alroy, the 
 best commander I ever served under, all the same.' 
 
 ' Let us go forth and see how affairs run.'
 
 224 ALROY. 
 
 ' Ay, do. If we hear any one abuse Alroy, we'll cleave 
 his skull.' 
 
 ' That will we. There are a good many of our stout fel- 
 lows about ; we might do something yet.' 
 
 ' Who knows ? ' 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 A SPBTERRUfEAN DUXGEON of the citadel of Bagdad held in 
 its gloomy limits the late lord of Asia. The captive did not 
 sigh, or weep, or wail. He did not speak. He did not even 
 think. For several days he remained in a state of stupor. 
 On the morning of the fourth day, he almost unconsciously 
 partook of the wretched provision which his gaolers 
 brought him. Their torches, round which the bats whirled 
 and flapped their wings, and twinkled their small eyes, 
 threw a ghastly glare over the nearer walls of the dun- 
 geon, the extremity of which defied the vision of the pri- 
 soner ; and, when the gaolers retired, Alroy was in complete 
 darkness. 
 
 The image of the past came back to him. He tried in 
 vain to penetrate the surrounding gloom. His hands were 
 manacled, his legs also were loaded with chains. The 
 notion that his life might perhaps have been cruelly spared 
 in order that he might linger on in this horrible state of 
 conscious annihilation filled him with frenzy. He would 
 have dashed his fetters against his brow, but the chain re- 
 strained him. He flung himself upon the damp and rugged 
 ground. His fall disturbed a thousand obscene things. He 
 heard the quick glide of a serpent, the creeping retreat of 
 the clustering scorpions, and the swift escape of the dashing 
 rats. His mighty calamities seemed slight when compared 
 with these petty miseries. His great soul could not support 
 him under these noisome and degrading incidents. He 
 sprang, in disgust, upon his feet, and stood fearful of mov- 
 ing, lest every step should introduce him to some new 
 abomination. At length, exhausted nature was unable any
 
 ALROY. 225 
 
 longer to sustain him. He groped his way to the rude 
 seat, cut in the rocky wall, which was his only accommoda- 
 tion. He put forth Ms hand. It touched the slimy far of 
 some wild animal, that instantly sprang away, its fiery eyes 
 sparkling in the dark. Alroy recoiled with a sensation of 
 woe-begone dismay. His shaken nerves could not sustain 
 him under this base danger, and these foul and novel 
 trials. He could not refrain from an exclamation of 
 despair ; and, when he remembered that he was now far 
 beyond the reach of all human solace and sympathy, even 
 all human aid, for a moment his mind seemed to desert 
 him ; and he wrung his hands in forlorn and almost idiotic 
 woe. 
 
 An awful thing it is, the failure of the energies of a 
 master-mind. He who places implicit confidence in his 
 genius will find himself some day utterly defeated and de- 
 serted. 'Tis bitter ! Every paltry hind seems but to breathe 
 to mock you. Slow, indeed, is such, a mind to credit that 
 the never-failing resource can at least be wanting. But so 
 it is. Like a dried-up fountain, the perennial flow and 
 bright fertility have ceased, and ceased for ever. Then comes 
 the madness of retrospection. 
 
 Draw a curtain ! draw a curtain ! and fling it over this 
 agonising anatomy. 
 
 The days of childhood, his sweet sister's voice and smiling 
 love, their innocent pastimes, and the kind solicitude of 
 faithful servants, all the soft detail of mild domestic life : 
 these were the sights and memories that flitted in wild play 
 before the burning vision of Alroy, and rose upon his tor- 
 tured mind. Empire and glory, his sacred nation, his im- 
 perial bride ; these, these were nothing. Their worth had 
 vanished with, the creative soul that called them into action. 
 The pure sympathies of nature alone remained, and all hia 
 thought and grief, all Ms intelligence, all his emotion, were 
 centred in his sister. 
 
 It was the seventh morning. A guard entered at an un- 
 accustomed hour, and, sticking a torch into a niche in the 
 wall, announced that a person was without who had permia- 
 
 Q
 
 226 ALROY. 
 
 sion to speak to the prisoner. They were the first human 
 accents that had met the ear of Alroy during his captivity, 
 which seemed to him an age, a long dark period, that can- 
 celled all things. He shuddered at the harsh tones. He 
 tried to answer, but his unaccustomed lips refused their 
 office. He raised his heavy arms, and endeavoured to sig- 
 nify his consciousness of what had been uttered. Yet, 
 indeed, he had not listened to the message without emotion. 
 He looked forward to the grate with strange curiosity ; 
 and, as he looked, he trembled. The visitor entered, muf- 
 fled in a dark caftan. The guard disappeared ; and the 
 caftan falling to the ground, revealed Honain. 
 
 'My beloved Alroy,' said the brother of Jabaster ; and 
 he advanced, and pressed him to his bosom. Had it been 
 Miriam, Alroy might have at once expired ; but the presence 
 of this worldly man called back his worldliness. The re- 
 vulsion of his feelings was wonderful. Pride, perhaps 
 even hope, came to his aid ; all the associations seemed to 
 counsel exertion ; for a moment he seemed the same Alroy. 
 
 ' I rejoice to find at least thee safe, Honain.' 
 
 ' I also, if my security may lead to thine.' 
 
 * Still whispering hope ! ' 
 
 ' Despair is the conclusion of fools.' 
 
 ' O Honain ! 'tis a great trial. I can play my part, and 
 yet methinks 'twere better we had not again met. How is 
 Schirene ? ' 
 
 ' Thinking of thee.' 
 
 * 'Tis something that she can think. My mind has gone. 
 Where's Miriam ? ' 
 
 ' Free.' 
 
 ' That's something. Thou hast done that. Good, good 
 Honain, be kind to that sweet child, if only for my sake. 
 Thou art all she has left.' 
 
 ' She hath thee.' 
 
 ' Her desolation.' 
 
 ' Live and be her refuge.' 
 
 'How's that? These walls! Escape? No, no; it is 
 impossible.'
 
 ALEOY. 227 
 
 ' I do not deem it so.' 
 
 ' Indeed ! I'll do anything. Speak ! Can we bribe ? can 
 we cleave their skulls ? can we ' 
 
 ' Calm thyself, my friend. There is no need of bribes, no 
 need of bloodshed. We mnst make terms.' 
 
 ' Terms ! We might have made them on the plains of 
 Nehauend. Terms ! Terms with a captive victim ? ' 
 
 'Why victim?' 
 
 * Is Arslan then so generons ? ' 
 
 ' He is a beast, more savage than the boar that grinds its 
 tusks within his country's forests.' 
 
 ' Why speakest thou then of hope ? ' 
 
 ' I spoke of certainty. I did not mention hope.' 
 
 ' Dear Honain, my brain is weak ; but I can bear strange 
 things, or else I should not be here. I feel thy thoughtful 
 friendship ; but indeed there need no winding words to tell 
 my fate. Pr'ythee speak out.' 
 
 ' In a word, thy life is safe.' 
 
 'What! spared?' 
 
 ' If it please thee.' 
 
 ' Please me ? Life is sweet. I feel its sweetness. I want 
 but little. Freedom and solitude are all I ask. My life 
 spared ! I'll not believe it. Thou hast done this deed, 
 thou mighty man, that masterest all souls. Thou hast not 
 forgotten me ; thou hast not forgotten the days gone by, 
 thou hast not forgotten thine own Alroy! Who calls 
 thee worldly is a slanderer. Honain ! thou art too 
 faithful!' 
 
 ' I have no thought but for thy service, Prince.' 
 
 ' Call me not Prince, call me thine own Alroy. My life 
 spared ! 'Tis wonderful ! When may I go ? Let no one 
 see me. Manage that, Honain. Thou canst manage all 
 things. I am for Egypt. Thou hast been to Egypt, hast 
 thou not, Honain ? ' 
 
 ' A very wondrous land, 'twill please thee much.' 
 
 ' When may I go? Tell me when I may go. When may 
 I quit this dark and noisome cell ? 'Tis worse than all their 
 tortures, dear Honain. Air and light, and I really think 
 
 Q2
 
 228 ALEOY. 
 
 my spirit never would break, but this horrible dungeon 
 
 I scarce can look upon thy face, sweet friend. 'Tis serious.' 
 
 ' Wouldst thou have me gay ? ' 
 
 ' Yes ! if we are free.' 
 
 ' Alroy ! thou art a great spirit, the greatest that I e'er 
 knew, have ever read of. I never knew thy like, and never 
 shall.' 
 
 ' Tush, tush, sweet friend, I am a broken reed, but still I 
 am free. This is no time for courtly phrases. Let's go, 
 and go at once.' 
 
 'A moment, dear Alroy. I am no flatterer. What I 
 said came from my heart, and doth concern us much and 
 instantly. I was saying thou hast no common mind, Alroy ; 
 indeed thou hast a mind unlike all others. Listen, my 
 Prince. Thou hast read mankind deeply and truly. Few 
 have seen more than thyself, and none have so rare a spring 
 of that intuitive knowledge of thy race, which is a gem to 
 which experience is but a jeweller, and without which no 
 action can befriend us.' 
 
 'Well, well!' 
 
 ' A moment's calmness. Thou hast entered Bagdad in 
 triumph, and thou hast entered the same city with every 
 contumely which the base spirit of our race could cast upon 
 its victim. 'Twas a great lesson.' 
 
 'I feel it so.' 
 
 ' And teaches us how vile and valueless is the opinion of 
 our fellow-men.' 
 
 'Alas! 'tis true.' 
 
 ' I am glad to see thee in this wholesome temper. 'Tis 
 full of wisdom.' 
 
 * The miserable are often wise.' 
 
 ' But to believe is nothing unless we act. Speculation 
 ohould only sharpen practice. The time hath come to prove 
 thy lusty faith in this philosophy. I told thee we could 
 make terms. I have made them. To-morrow it was doomed 
 Alroy should die and what a death ! A death of infinite 
 torture ! Hast ever seen a man impaled ? ' 8l 
 
 1 Hah ! '
 
 ALEOY. 229 
 
 ' To view it is alone a doom.' 
 
 ' God of Heaven ! ' 
 
 ' It is so horrible, that 'tis ever marked, that when this 
 direful ceremony occurs, the average deaths in cities greatly 
 increase. "Tis from the turning of the blood in the specta- 
 tors, who yet from some ungovernable madness cannot 
 refrain from hurrying to the scene. I speak with some 
 authority. I speak as a physician.' 
 
 ' Speak no more, I cannot endure it.' 
 
 ' To-morrow this doom awaited thee. As for Schirene ' 
 
 ' Not for her, oh ! surely not for her ? ' 
 
 ' No, they were merciful. She is a Caliph's daughter. 
 'Tis not forgotten. The axe would close her life. Her 
 fair neck would give slight trouble to the headsman's art. 
 But for thy sister, but for Miriam, she is a witch, a Jewish 
 witch ! They would have burnt her alive ! ' 
 
 ' I'll not believe it, no, no, I'll not believe it : damnable, 
 
 bloody demons ! When I had power I spared all, all but 
 
 ah, me ! ah, me ! why did I live ? ' 
 
 ' Thou dost forget thyself; I speak of that which was to 
 have been, not of that which is to be. I have stepped in 
 and communed with the conqueror. I have made terms.' 
 
 ' What are they, what can they be ? ' 
 
 ' Easy. To a philosopher like Alroy an idle ceremony.' 
 
 / Be brief, be brief.' 
 
 ' Thou seest thy career is a great scandal to the Moslemin. 
 I mark their weakness, ai:d I have worked upon it. Thy 
 mere defeat or death will not blot out the stain upon their 
 standard and their faith. The public mind is wild with 
 fantasies since Alroy rose. Men's opinions flit to and fro 
 with that fearful change that bodes no stable settlement of 
 states. None know what to cling to, or where to place 
 their trust. Creeds are doubted, authority disputed. They 
 would gladly account for thy success by other than human 
 means, yet must deny thy mission. There also is the fame 
 of a fair and mighty Princess, a daughter of their Caliphs, 
 which they would gladly clear. I mark all this, observe 
 and work upon it. So, could we devise some means by
 
 230 ALROY. 
 
 which, thy lingering followers could be for ever silenced, 
 this great scandal fairly . erased, and the public frame 
 brought to a sounder and more tranquil pulse, why, they 
 would concede much, much, very much.' 
 
 * Thy meaning, not thy means, are evident.' 
 
 * They are in thy power.' 
 
 'In mine? 'Tis a deep riddle. Pr'ythee solve it.' 
 
 ' Thou wilt be summoned at to-morrow's noon before this 
 Arslan. There, in the presence of the assembled people 
 who are now with him as much as they were with thee, 
 thou wilt be accused of magic, and of intercourse with the 
 infernal powers. Plead guilty.' 
 
 'Well ! is there more? ' 
 
 ' Some trifle. They will then examine thee about the 
 Princess. It is not difficult to confess that Alroy won the 
 Caliph's daughter by an irresistible spell, and now 'tis 
 broken.' 
 
 'So, so. Is that all?' 
 
 'The chief. Thou canst then address some phrases to 
 the Hebrew prisoners, denying thy Divine mission, and so 
 forth, to settle the public mind, observe, upon this point for 
 ever.' 
 
 'Ay, ay, and then ?' 
 
 ' No more, except for form. (Upon the completion of the 
 conditions, mind, you will be conveyed to what land you 
 please, with such amount of treasure as you choose.) There 
 is no more, except, I say, for form, I would, if I were you 
 ('twill be expected), I would just publicly affect to renounce 
 our faith, and bow before their Prophet.' 
 
 'Hah! Art thou there? Is this thy freedom? Get 
 thee behind me, tempter ! Never, never, never ! Not a 
 jot, not a jot: I'll not yield a jot. Were my doom one 
 everlasting torture, I'd spurn thy terms ! Is this thy high 
 contempt of our poor kind, to outrage my God! to prove 
 myself the vilest of the vile, and baser than the basest ? 
 Rare philosophy ! Honain ! would we had never met ! ' 
 
 'Or never parted. True. Had my word been taken, 
 Alroy would ne'er have been betrayed '
 
 ALROY. 231 
 
 ' No more ; I pray thee, sir, no more. Leave me.' 
 
 ' Were this a palace, I would. Harsh words are softened 
 by a friendly ear, when spoken in affliction.' 
 
 ' Say what they will, I am the Lord's anointed. As such 
 I should have lived, as such at least I'll die.' 
 
 ' And Miriam ? ' 
 
 ' The Lord will not desert her : she ne'er deserted Him.' 
 
 ' Schirene?' 
 
 ' Schirene ! why ! for her sake alone I will die a hero. 
 Shall it be said she loved a craven slave, a base impostor, a 
 vile renegade, a villanous dealer in drugs and charms? 
 Oh ! no, no, no ! if only for her sake, her sweet, sweet sake, 
 my end shall be like my great life. As the sun I rose, like 
 him I set. Still the world is warm with my bright fame, 
 and my last hour shall not disgrace my noon, stormy indeed, 
 but glorious ! ' 
 
 Honain took the torch from the niche, and advanced to 
 the grate. It was not fastened : he drew it gently open, 
 and led forward a veiled and female figure. The veiled and 
 female figure threw herself at the feet of Alroy, who seemed 
 lost to what was passing. A soft lip pressed his hand. He 
 started, his chains clanked. 
 
 ' Alroy ! ' softly murmured the kneeling female. 
 
 'What voice is that?' wildly exclaimed the Prince of the 
 Captivity. ' It falls upon my ear like long-forgotten music. 
 I'll not believe it. No ! I'll not believe it. Art thou 
 Schirene ?' 
 
 ' I am that wretched thing they called thy bride.' 
 
 ' Oh ! this indeed is torture ! What impalement can 
 equal this sharp moment? Look not on me, let not our eyes 
 meet ! They have met before, like to the confluence of two 
 shining rivers blending in one great stream of rushing h'ght. 
 Bear off that torch, sir. Let impenetrable darkness cover 
 our darker fortunes.' 
 
 'Alroy.' 
 
 ' She speaks again. Is she mad, as I am, that thus she 
 plays with agony?' 
 
 * Sire, 'said Honain advancing, and laying his hand gently
 
 232 ALROY. 
 
 on the arm of the captive, ' I pray thee moderate this passion. 
 Thou hast some faithful friends here, who would fain com- 
 mune in calmness for thy lasting welfare.' 
 
 ' Welfare ! He mocks me.' 
 
 ' I beseech thee, Sire, be calm. If, indeed, I speak unto 
 that great Alroy whom all men fear and still may fear, I 
 pray remember, 'tis not in palaces or in the battle-field 
 alone that the heroic soul can conquer and command. 
 Scenes like these are the great proof of a superior soul. 
 While we live, our body is a temple where our genius 
 pours forth its godlike inspiration, and while the altar is 
 not overthrown, the deity may still work marvels. Then 
 rouse thyself, great Sire ; bethink thee that, a Caliph or a 
 captive, there is no man within this breathing world like to 
 Alroy. Shall such a being fall without a struggle, like 
 some poor felon, who has nought to trust to but the dull 
 shuffling accident of Chance ? I, too, am a prophet, and I 
 feel thou still wilt conquer.' 
 
 ' Give me my sceptre then, give me the sceptre ! I speak 
 to the wrong brother ! It was not thou, it was not thou 
 that gavest it me.' 
 
 ' Gain it once more. The Lord deserted David for a time ; 
 still he pardoned him, and still he died a king.' 
 
 * A woman worked his fall.' 
 
 ' But thee a woman raises. This great Princess, has she 
 not suffered too ? Yet her spirit is still unbroken. List to 
 her counsel : it is deep and fond.' 
 
 ' So was our love.' 
 
 ' And is, my Alroy ! ' exclaimed the Princess. ' Be calm, 
 I pray thee ! For my sake be calm ; I am calm for thine. 
 Thou hast listened to all Honain has told thee, that wise 
 man, my Alroy, who never erred. 'Tis but a word he 
 counsels, an empty word, a most unmeaning form. But 
 speak it, and thou art free, and Alroy and Schirene may 
 blend again their glorious careers and lives of sweet fruition. 
 Dost thou not remember when, walking in the garden of 
 our joy, and palled with empire, how often hast thou sighed 
 for some sweet isle unknown to man, where thou mightst
 
 ALROY. 233 
 
 pass thy days with no companion but my faithful self, and 
 no adventures but our constant loves ? ! my beloved, 
 that life may still be thine ! And dost thou falter ? Dost 
 call thyself forlorn with such fidelity, and deem thyself a 
 wretch, when Paradise with all its beauteous gates but 
 wooes thy entrance ? Oh ! no, no, no, no ! thou hast forgot 
 Schirene: I fear me much, thy over- fond Schirene, who 
 doats upon thy image in thy chains more than she did when 
 those sweet hands of thine were bound with gems and 
 played with her bright locks ! ' 
 
 ' She speaks of another world. I do remember some- 
 thing. Who has sent this music to a dungeon ? My spirit 
 softens with her melting words. My eyes are moist. I 
 weep ! ' Tis pleasant. Sorrow is joy compared with my 
 despair. I never thought to shed a tear again. My brain 
 is cooler.' 
 
 ' Weep, weep, I pray thee weep ; but let me kiss away thy 
 tears, my soul ! Didst think thy Schirene had deserted thee ? 
 Ah ! that was it that made my bird so sad. It shall be free, 
 and fly in a sweet sky, and feed on flowers with its faithful 
 mate. Ah me ! I am once more happy with my boy. 
 There was no misery but thy absence, sweet ! Methinks 
 this dungeon is our bright kiosk ! Is that the sunbeam, or 
 thy smile, my love, that makes the walls so joyful ? ' 
 
 ' Did I smile ? I'll not believe it.' 
 
 ' Indeed you did. Ah ! see he smiles again. Why this is 
 freedom ! There is no such thing as sorrow. 'Tis a lie to 
 frighten fools ! ' 
 
 ' Why, Honain, what's this ? 'T would seem I am really 
 joyful. There's inspiration in her veiy breath. I am an- 
 other being. Nay ! waste not kisses on those ugly fetters.' 
 
 'Methinks they are gold.' 
 
 They were silent. Schirene drew Alroy to his rough seat, 
 and gently placing herself on his knees, threw her arms 
 round his neck, and buried her face in his breast. After a 
 few minutes she raised her head, and whispered in his ear, 
 in irresistible accents of sweet exultation, ' We shall be free 
 to-morrow ! '
 
 234 ALKOY. 
 
 ' To-morrow ! is the trial so near ? ' exclaimed tlie captive, 
 with an agitated voice and changing countenance. ' To- 
 morrow ! ' He threw Schirene aside somewhat hastily, and 
 sprang from his seat. ' To-morrow ! would it were over ! 
 To-morrow ! Methinks there is within that single word the 
 
 fate of ages ! Shall it be said to-morrow that Alroy 
 
 Hah ! what art thou that risest now before me ? Dread, 
 mighty spirit, thou hast come in time to save me from per- 
 dition. Take me to thy bosom, 'tis not stabbed. They did 
 not stab thee. Thou seest me here communing with thy 
 murderers. What then ? I am innocent. Ask them, dread 
 ghost, and call upon their fiendish souls to say I am pure. 
 They would make me dark as themselves, but shall not.' 
 
 ' Honain, Honain ! ' exclaimed the Princess in a terrible 
 whisper as she flew to the Physician. ' He is wild again. 
 Calm him, calm him. Mark ! how he stands with his ex- 
 tended arms, and fixed vacant eyes, muttering most awful 
 words ! My spirit fails me. It is too fearful.' 
 
 The Physician advanced and stood by the side of Alroy, 
 but in vain attempted to catch his attention. He ventured 
 to touch his arm. The Prince started, turned round, and 
 recognising him, exclaimed in a shrieking voice, ' Off, 
 fratricide ! ' 
 
 Honain recoiled, pale and quivering. Schirene sprang to 
 his arm. ' What said he, Honain ? Thou dost not speak. 
 I never saw thee pale before. Art thou, too, mad ? ' 
 
 * Would I were ! ' 
 
 ' All men are growing wild. I am sure he said something. 
 I pray thee tell me what was it ? ' 
 
 'Ask him.' 
 
 ' I dare not. Tell me, tell me, Honain ! ' 
 
 ' That I dare not.' 
 
 ' Was it a word ? ' 
 
 ' Ay ! a word to wake the dead. Let us begone.' 
 
 ' Without our end ? Coward ! I'll speak to him. My 
 own Alroy,' sweetly whispered the Princess, as she advanced 
 before him. 
 
 'What, has the fox left the tigress ! Is't so, eh ? Are
 
 ALROY. 235 
 
 there no judgments ? Are the innocent only haunted ? I 
 am innocent ! I did not strangle thee ! He said rightly, 
 " Beware, beware ! they who did this may do even feller 
 deeds." And here they are quick at their damned work. 
 Thy body suffered, great Jabaster, but me they would 
 strangle body and soul ! ' 
 
 The Princess shrieked, and fell into the arms of the ad- 
 vancing Honain, who bore her out of the dungeon. 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 AFTER the fall of Hamadan, Bostenay and Miriam had 
 been carried prisoners to Bagdad. Through the inter- 
 ference of Honain, their imprisonment had been exempted 
 from the usual hardships, but they were still confined to 
 their chambers in the citadel. Hitherto all the endeavours 
 of Miriam to visit her brother had been fruitless. Honain 
 was the only person to whom she could apply for assistance, 
 and he, in answer to her importunities, only regretted his 
 want of power to aid her. In vain had she attempted, by 
 the offer of some remaining jewels, to secure the co-opera- 
 tion of her guards, with whom her loveliness and the soft- 
 ness of her manners had already ingratiated her. She had 
 not succeeded even in communicating with Alroy. But 
 after the unsuccessful mission of Honain to the dungeon, 
 the late Vizier visited the sister of the captive, and, breaking 
 to her with delicate skill the intelligence of the impending 
 catastrophe, he announced that he had at length succeeded 
 in obtaining for her the desired permission to visit her 
 brother ; and, while she shuddered at the proximity of an 
 event for which she had long attempted to prepare herself, 
 Honain, with some modifications, whispered the means by 
 which he flattered himself that it might yet be averted. 
 Miriam listened to him in silence, nor could he, with all his 
 consummate art, succeed in extracting from her the slightest 
 indication of her own opinion as to their expediency. They 
 parted, Honain as sanguine as the wicked ever are.
 
 236 ALROY. 
 
 As Miriam dreaded, both for herself and for Alroy, the 
 shock of an unexpected meeting, she availed herself of the 
 influence of Honain to send Caleb to her brother, to prepare 
 him for her presence, and to consult him as to the desirable 
 moment. Caleb found his late master lying exhausted on 
 the floor, of his dungeon. At first he would not speak or 
 even raise his head, nor did he for a long time apparently 
 recognise the faithful retainer of his uncle. But at length 
 he grew milder, and when he fully comprehended who the 
 messenger was, and the object of the mission, he at first 
 seemed altogether disinclined to see his sister, but in the end 
 postponed their meeting for the present, and, pleading great 
 exhaustion, fixed for that sad interview the first hour of 
 dawn. 
 
 The venerable Bostenay had scarcely ever spoken since 
 the fall of his nephew ; indeed it was but too evident that 
 his faculties, even if they had not entirely deserted him, 
 were at least greatly impaired. He never quitted his couch; 
 he took no notice of what occurred. He evinced no 
 curiosity, scarcely any feeling. If indeed he occasionally 
 did mutter an observation, it was generally of an irritable 
 character, nor truly did he appear satisfied if anyone ap- 
 proached him, save Miriam, from whom alone he would ac- 
 cept the scanty viands which he ever appeared disinclined to 
 touch. But his devoted niece, amid all her harrowing 
 affliction, could ever spare to the protector of her youth a 
 placid countenance, a watchful eye, a gentle voice, and a 
 ready hand. Her religion and her virtue, the strength of 
 her faith, and the inspiration of her innocence, supported 
 this pure and hapless lady amid all her undeserved and un- 
 paralleled sorrows. 
 
 It was long past midnight ; the young widow of Abner 
 reposed upon a couch in a soft slumber. The amiable 
 Beruna and the beautiful Bathsheba, the blinds withdrawn, 
 watched the progress of the night. 
 
 ' Shall I wake her ?' said the beautiful Bathsheba. ' Me- 
 thinks the stars are paler ! She bade me rouse her long 
 before the dawn.'
 
 ALROY. 237 
 
 ' Her sleep is too benign ! Let us not wake her,' replied 
 the amiable Beruna. ' We rouse her only to sorrow.' 
 
 ' May her dreams at least be happy ; ' rejoined the beau- 
 tiful Bathsheba. ' She sleeps tranquilly, as a flower.' 
 
 ' The veil has fallen from her head,' said the amiable 
 Beruna. ' I will replace it lightly on her brow. Is that 
 well, my Bathsheba?' 
 
 ' It is well, sweet Beruna. Her face shrouded by the 
 shawl is like a pearl in its shell. See ! she moves ! ' 
 
 ' Bathsheba ! ' 
 
 ' I am here, sweet lady.' 
 
 ' Is it near dawn ?' 
 
 ' Not yet, sweet lady ; it is yet night. It is long past the 
 noon of night, sweet lady ; methinks I scent the rising 
 breath of morn ; but still 'tis night, and the young moon 
 shines like a sickle in the heavenly field, amid the starry 
 harvest.' 
 
 ' Beruna, gentle girl, give me thy arm. I'll rise.' 
 
 The maidens advanced, and gently raising their mistress, 
 supported her to the window. 
 
 ' Since our calamities,' said Miriam, ' I have never enjoyed 
 such tranquil slumber. My dreams were slight, but sooth- 
 ing. I saw him, but he smiled. Have I slept long, sweet 
 girls ? Te are very watchful.' 
 
 ' Dear lady, let me bring thy shawl. The air is fresh ' 
 
 ' But sweet ; I thank thee, no. My brow is not so cool 
 as to need a covering. 'Tis a fair night !' 
 
 Miriam gazed upon the wide prospect of the moonlit 
 capital. The elevated position of the citadel afforded an 
 extensive view of the mighty groups of buildings, each in 
 itself a city, broken only by some vast and hooded cupola, 
 the tall, slender, white minarets of the mosques, or the 
 black and spiral form of some lonely cypress, and through 
 which the rushing Tigris, flooded with light, sent forth its 
 broad and brilliant torrent. All was silent ; not a single 
 boat floated on the fleet river, not a solitary voice broke the 
 stillness of slumbering millions. She gazed, and, as she 
 gazed, she could not refrain from contrasting the present
 
 238 ALROY. 
 
 scene, which seemed the sepulchre of all the passions of our 
 race, with the unrivalled excitement of that stirring spec- 
 tacle which Bagdad exhibited on the celebration of the 
 marriage of Alroy. How different then, too, was her posi- 
 tion from her present, and how happy ! The only sister of 
 a devoted brother, the lord and conqueror of Asia, the bride 
 of his most victorious captain, one worthy of all her virtues, 
 and whose youthful valour had encircled her brow with a 
 diadem. For Miriam, exalted station had brought neither 
 cares nor crimes. It had, as it were, only rendered her 
 charity universal, and her benevolence omnipotent. She 
 could not accuse herself, this blessed woman : she could not 
 accuse herself, even in this searching hour of self-know- 
 ledge : she could not accuse herself, with all her meekness, 
 and modesty, and humility, of having for a moment for- 
 gotten her dependence on her God, or her duty to her 
 neighbour. 
 
 But when her thoughts recurred to that being from whom 
 they were indeed scarcely ever absent ; and when she re- 
 membered him, and all his life, and all the thousand inci- 
 dents of his youth, mysteries to the world, and known only 
 io her, but which were indeed the prescience of his fame, 
 and thought of all his surpassing qualities and all his sweet 
 affection, his unrivalled glory and his impending fate, the 
 tears, in silent agony, forced their way down her pale and 
 pensive cheek. She bowed her head upon Bathsheba's 
 shoulder, and sweet Beruna pressed her quivering hand. 
 
 The moon set, the stars grew white and ghastly, and 
 vanished one by one. Over the distant plain of the Tigris, 
 the scene of the marriage pomp, the dark purple horizon 
 shivered into a rich streak of white and orange. The 
 solemn strain of the Muezzin sounded from the minarets. 
 Some one knocked at the door. It was Caleb. 
 
 * I am ready,' said Miriam; and for a moment she covered 
 her face with her right hand. ' Think of me, sweet maidens; " 
 pray for me ! '
 
 ALBOY. 239 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 LEANING on Caleb, and lighted by a gaoler, bearing torches, 
 Miriam descended the damp and broken stairs that led to 
 the dungeon. She faltered as she arrived at the grate. She 
 stopped, and leant against the cold and gloomy wall. The 
 gaoler and Caleb preceded her. She heard the voice of 
 Alroy. It was firm and sweet. Its accents reassured her. 
 Caleb came forth with a torch, and held it to her feet ; and, 
 as he bent down, he said, ' My lord bade me beg you to be 
 of good heart, for he is.' 
 
 The gaoler, having stuck his torch in the niche, with- 
 drew. Miriam desired Caleb to stay without. Then, sum- 
 moning up all her energies, she entered the dreadful abode. 
 Alroy was standing to receive her. The light fell full upon 
 his countenance. It smiled. Miriam could no longer re- 
 strain herself. She ran forward, and pressed him to her 
 heart. 
 
 '0, my best, my long beloved,' whispered Alroy ; ' such 
 a meeting indeed leads captivity captive ! ' 
 
 But the sister could not speak. She leant her head upon 
 his shoulder, and closed her eyes, that she might not weep. 
 
 ' Courage, dear heart ; courage, courage ! ' whispered the 
 captive. ' Indeed I am happy ! ' 
 
 ' My brother, my brother ! ' 
 
 ' Had we met yesterday, you would have found me per- 
 haps a little vexed. But to-day I am myself again. Sinco 
 I crossed the Tigris, I know not that I have felt such self- 
 content. I have had sweet dreams, dear Miriam, full of 
 solace. And, more than dreams, the Lord has pardoned me, 
 I truly think.' 
 
 ' 0, my brother ! your words are full of comfort ; for, in- 
 deed, I too have dreamed, and dreamed of consolation. My 
 ' spirit, since our fall, has never been more tranquil.' 
 
 ' Indeed I am happy.' 
 
 ' Say so again, my David ; let me hear again these words 
 of solace ! '
 
 240 ALBOY. 
 
 'Indeed, 'tis very true, my faithful friend. It is not 
 spoken in kind mockery to make you joyous. For know, 
 last eve, whether the Lord repented of his wrath, or whether 
 some dreadful trials, of which I will not speak, and wish not 
 to remember, had made atonement for my manifold sins. 
 but so it was, that, about the time my angel Miriam sent 
 her soothing message, a feeling of repose came over me, 
 such as I long have coveted. Anon, I fell into a slumber, 
 deep and sweet, and, instead of those wild and whirling 
 images that of late have darted from my brain when it 
 should rest, glimpses of empire and conspiracy, snatches of 
 fierce wars and mocking loves, I stood beside our native 
 fountain's brink, and gathered flowers with my earliest 
 friend. As I placed the fragrant captives in your flowing 
 locks, there came Jabaster, that great, injured man, no 
 longer stern and awful, but with benignant looks, and full 
 of love. And he said, " David, the Lord hath marked thy 
 faithfulness, in spite of the darkness of thy dungeon." So 
 he vanished. He spoke, my sister, of some strange tempta- 
 tions by heavenly aid withstood. No more of that. I awoke. 
 And lo ! I heard my name still called. Full of my morning 
 dream, I thought it was you, and I answered, " Dear sister, 
 art thou here ? " But no one answered ; and then, reflect- 
 ing, my memory recognised those thrilling tones that sum- 
 moned Alroy in Jabaster's cave.' 
 
 ' The Daughter of the Voice ?' 
 
 ' Even that sacred messenger. I am full of faith. The 
 Lord hath pardoned me. Be sure of that.' 
 
 ' I cannot doubt it, David. You have done great things 
 for Israel ; no one in these latter days has risen like you. 
 If you have fallen, you were young, and strangely tempted.' 
 
 ' Yet Israel, Israel ! Did I not feel a worthier leader will 
 yet arise, my heart would crack. I have betrayed my 
 country ! ' 
 
 ' Oh no, no, no ! You have shown what we can do and 
 shall do. Your memory alone is inspiration. A great 
 career, although baulked of its end, is still a landmark of 
 human energy. Failure, when sublime, is not without its
 
 ALROY. 241 
 
 purpose. Great deeds are great legacies, and work with 
 wondrous usury. By what Man has done, we learn what 
 Man can do ; and gauge the power and prospects of our 
 race.' 
 
 ' Alas ! there is no one to guard my name. 'Twill be 
 reviled ; or worse, 'twill be forgotten.' 
 
 ' Never ! the memory of great actions never dies. The 
 sun of glory, though awhile obscured, will shine at last. 
 And so, sweet brother, perchance some poet, in some dis- 
 tant age, within whose veins our sacred blood may flow, his 
 fancy fired with the national theme, may strike his harp to 
 Alroy's wild career, and consecrate a name too long for- 
 gotten ?' 
 
 ' May love make thee a prophetess ! ' exclaimed Alroy, as 
 he bent down his head and embraced her. ' Do not tarry,' 
 he whispered. ' 'Tis better that we should part in this firm 
 mood.' 
 
 She sprang from him, she clasped her hands. ' We will 
 not part,' she exclaimed with energy ; ' I will die with 
 thee.' 
 
 ' Blessed girl, be calm ! Do not unman me.' 
 
 ' I am calm. See ! I do not weep. Not a tear, not a 
 tear. They are all in my heart.' 
 
 ' Go, go, my Miriam, angel of light. Tarry no longer ; 
 I pray thee go. I would not think of the past. Let all my 
 mind be centred in the present. Thy presence calls back 
 our bygone days, and softens me too much. My duty to 
 my uncle. Go, dear one, go ! ' 
 
 ' And leave thee, leave thee to Oh ! my David, thou 
 
 hast seen, thou hast heard Honain?' 
 
 ' No more ; let not that accursed name profane those holy 
 lips. Raise not the demon in me.' 
 
 ' I am silent. Yet 'tis madness ! ! my brother, thou 
 hast a fearful trial.' 
 
 ' The God of Israel is my refuge. He saved our fathers 
 in the fiery furnace. He will save me.' 
 
 ' I am full of faith. I pray thee let me stay.' 
 
 ' I would be silent ; I would be alone. I cannot sneak.
 
 242 ALKOY. 
 
 Miriam. I ask one favour, the last and dearest, from, her 
 who has never had a thought but for my wishes ; blessed 
 being, leave me.' 
 
 ' I go. Alroy, farewell ! Let me kiss you. Again, 
 once more ! Let me kneel and bless you. Brother, be- 
 loved brother, great and glorious brother, I am worthy of 
 you : I will not weep. I am prouder in this dread moment 
 of your love than all your foes can be of their hard 
 triumph ! ' 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 BERUNA and Bathsheba received their mistress when she 
 returned to her chamber. They marked her desolate air. 
 She was silent, pale, and cold. They bore her to her couch, 
 whereon she sat with a most listless and unmeaning look ; 
 her quivering lips parted, her eyes fixed upon the ground 
 in vacant abstraction, and her arms languidly folded before 
 her. Beruna stole behind her, and supported her back with 
 pillows, and Bathsheba, unnoticed, wiped the slight foam 
 from her mouth. Thus Miriam remained for several hours, 
 her faithful maidens in vain watching for any indication of 
 her self-consciousness. 
 
 Suddenly a trumpet sounded. 
 
 ' What is that ? ' exclaimed Miriam, in a shrill voice, and 
 looking up with a distracted glance. 
 
 Neither of them answered, since they were aware that it 
 betokened the going forth of Alroy to his trial. 
 
 Miriam remained in the same posture, and with the same 
 expression of wild inquiry. Another trumpet sounded, and 
 after that a shout of the people. Then she raised up her 
 arms to heaven, and bowed her head, and died.
 
 ALKOY. 243 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 * HAS the second trumpet sounded ? ' 
 
 ' To be sure : run, run for a good place. Where is Ab- 
 dallah?' 
 
 ' Selling sherbet in the square. Wo shall find him. Has 
 Alroy come forth ? ' 
 
 ' Yes ! he goes the other way. We shall be too late. 
 Only think of Abdallah selling sherbet ! ' 
 
 * Father, let me go ? ' 
 
 'You will be in the way ; you are too young : you will 
 see nothing. Little boys should stay at home.' 
 
 ' No, they should not. I will go. You can put me on 
 your shoulders.' 
 
 ' Where is Ibrahim ? Where is Ali? We must all keep 
 together. We shall have to fight for it. I wish Abdallah 
 were here. Only think of his selling sherbet ! ' 
 
 ' Keep straight forward. That is right. It is no use 
 going that way. The Bazaar is shut. There is Fakreddin, 
 there is Osman Efiendi. He has got a new page.' 
 
 ' So he has, I declare ; and a very pretty boy too.' 
 
 'Father, will they impale Alroy alive ? ' 
 
 ' L am sure I do not know. Never ask questions, my 
 dear. Little boys never should.' 
 
 ' Yes, they should. I hope they will impale him alive. J 
 shall be so disappointed if they do not.' 
 
 4 Keep to the left. Dash through the Butchers' Bazaar : 
 that is open. All right, all right. Did you push me, sir?' 
 
 ' Suppose I did push you, sir, what then, sir ? ' 
 
 ' Come along, don't quarrel. That is a Karasmian. They 
 think they are to do what they like. We are five to one to 
 be sure, but still there is nothing like peace and quiet. I 
 wish Abdallah were here with his stout shoulders. Only 
 think of his selling sherbet ! ' 
 
 B 2
 
 244 ALROY. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 THE Square of the Grand Mosque, the same spot where 
 Jabaster met Abidan by appointment, was the destined 
 scene of the pretended trial of Alroy. Thither by break of 
 day the sight-loving thousands of the capital had repaired. 
 In the centre of the square, a large circle was described by 
 a crimson cord, and guarded by Karasmian soldiers. Around 
 this the swelling multitude pressed like the gathering waves 
 of ocean, but, whenever the tide set in with too great an 
 impulse, the savage Karasmians appeased the ungovernable 
 element by raising their battle-axes, and brutally breaking 
 the crowns and belabouring the shoulders of their nearest 
 victims. As the morning advanced, the terraces of the 
 surrounding houses, covered with awnings, were crowded 
 with spectators. All Bagdad was astir. Since the marriage 
 of Alroy, there had never been such a merry morn as the 
 day of his impalement. 
 
 At one end of the circle was erected a magnificent throne. 
 Half way between the throne and the other end of the circle, 
 but further back, stood a company of Negro eunuchs, hideous 
 to behold, who, clothed in white, and armed with various 
 instruments of torture, surrounded the enormous stakes, 
 tall, thin, and sharp, that were prepared for the final cere- 
 mony. 
 
 The flourish of trumpets, the clash of cymbals, and the 
 wild beat of the tambour, announced the arrival of Alp 
 Arslan from the Serail. An avenue to the circle had been 
 preserved through the multitude. The royal procession 
 might be traced as it wound through the populace, by the 
 sparkling and undulating line of plumes of honour, and the 
 dazzling forms of the waving streamers, on which were 
 inscribed the names of Allah and the Prophet. Suddenly, 
 amid the bursts of music, and- the shouts of the spectators, 
 many of whom on the terraces humbled themselves on their 
 , Alp Arslan mounted the throne, around which ranged
 
 ALEOY. 245 
 
 themselves liis chief captains, and a deputation of the Mool- 
 lahs, and Imams, and Cadis, and other principal personages 
 of the city. 
 
 The King of Karasme was tall in stature, and somewhat 
 meagre in form. He was fair, or rather sandy-coloured, 
 with a red beard, and blue eyes, and a flat nose. The mo- 
 ment he was seated, a trumpet was heard in the distance 
 from an opposite quarter, and it was soon understood 
 throughout the assembly that the great captive was about 
 to appear. 
 
 A band of Karasmian guards first entered the circle, and 
 ranged themselves round the cord, with their backs to the 
 spectators. After them came fifty of the principal Hebrew 
 prisoners, with their hands bound behind them, but evi- 
 dently more for form than security. To these succeeded a 
 small covered waggon drawn by mules, and surrounded by 
 guards, from which was led forth, his legs relieved from 
 their manacles, but his hands still in heavy chains, David 
 Alroy ! 
 
 A universal buzz of blended sympathy, and wonder, and 
 fear, and triumph arose, throughout the whole assembly. 
 Each man involuntarily stirred. The vast populace moved 
 to and fro in agitation. His garments soiled and tattered, 
 his head bare, and his long locks drawn off his forehead, 
 pale and thin, but still unsubdued, the late conqueror and 
 Caliph of Bagdad threw around a calm and imperial glance 
 upon those who were but recently his slaves. 
 
 The trumpets again sounded, order was called, and a crier 
 announced that his Highness Alp Arslan, the mighty Sove- 
 reign of Karasme, their Lord, Protector, and King, and 
 avenger of Allah and the Prophet, against all rebellious 
 and evil-minded Jews and Giaours, was about to speak. 
 There was a deep and universal silence, and then sounded 
 a voice high as the eagle's in a storm. 
 
 ' David Alroy ! ' said his conqueror, ' you are brought 
 hither this day neither for trial nor for judgment. 
 Captured in arms against your rightful sovereign, you are 
 of course prepared, like other rebels, for your doom.
 
 246 ALEOY. 
 
 Such a crime alone deserves the most avenging punish- 
 ments. What then do you merit, who are loaded with a 
 thousand infamies, who have blasphemed Allah and the 
 Prophet, and, by the practice of magic arts and the aid of 
 the infernal powers, have broken the peace of kingdoms, 
 occasioned infinite bloodshed, outraged all law, religion, 
 and decency, misled the minds of your deluded votaries, 
 and especially by a direct compact with Eblis, by horrible 
 spells and infamous incantations, captivated the senses of 
 an illustrious Princess, heretofore famous for the practice of 
 every virtue, and a descendant of the Prophet himself. 
 
 4 Behold these stakes of palm- wood, sharper than a lance! 
 The most terrible retribution that human ingenuity has 
 devised for the guilty awaits you. But your crimes baffle 
 all human vengeance. Look forward for your satisfactory 
 reward to those infernal powers by whose dark co-opera- 
 tion you have occasioned such disasters. Your punish- 
 ment is public, that all men may know that the guilty 
 never escape, and that, if your heart be visited by the 
 slightest degree of compunction for your numerous victims, 
 you may this day, by the frank confession of the irresistible 
 means by which you seduced them, exonerate your victims 
 from the painful and ignominious end with which, through 
 your influence, they are now threatened. Mark, as- 
 sembled people, the infinite mercy of the Vicegerent of 
 Allah ! He allows the wretched man to confess his infamy, 
 and to save, by his confession, his unfortunate victims. I 
 have said it. Glory to Allah ! ' 
 
 And the people shouted, ' He has said it, he has said it ! 
 Glory to Allah ! He is great, he is great ! and Mahomet 
 is his prophet ! ' 
 
 ' Am I to speak ? ' inquired Alroy, when the tumult had 
 subsided. The melody of his voice commanded universal 
 attention. 
 
 Alp Arslan nodded his head in approbation. 
 
 ' King of Karasme ! I stand here accused of many 
 crimes. Now hear my answers. 'Tis said I am a rebel. 
 My answer is, I am a Prince as thou art, of a sacred race,
 
 ALEOY. 247 
 
 and far more ancient. I owe fealty to no one but to my 
 God, and if I have broken that I am yet to learn that Alp 
 Arslan is the avenger of His power. As for thy God and 
 Prophet, I know not them, though they acknowledge 
 mine. 'Tis well understood in every polity, my people 
 stand apart from other nations, and ever will, in spite of 
 suffering. So much for blasphemy ; I am true to a deep 
 faith of ancient days, which even the sacred writings of 
 thy race still reverence. For the arts magical I practised, 
 arid the communion with infernal powers 'tis said I held, 
 know, King, I raised the standard of my faith by the 
 direct commandment of my God, the great Creator of the 
 universe. What need of magic, then ? What need of 
 paltering with petty fiends, when backed by His omnipo- 
 tence ? My magic was His inspiration. Need I prove 
 why, with such aid, my people crowded round me ? The 
 time will come when from out our ancient seed, a worthier 
 chief will rise, not to be quelled even by thee, Sire. 
 
 ' For that unhappy Princess of whom something was 
 said (with no great mercy, as it seemed to me), that lady is 
 my wife, my willing wife ; the daughter of a Caliph, still 
 my wife, although your stakes may make her soon a 
 widow. I stand not here to account for female fancies. 
 Believe me, Sire, she gave her beauty to my raptured arms 
 with no persuasions but such as became a soldier and a 
 king. It may seem strange to thee upon thy throne, that 
 the flower of Asia should be plucked by one so vile as I am. 
 Remember, the accidents of Fortune are most strange. I v 
 was not always what I am. We have met before. There 
 was a day, and that too not long since, when, but for the 
 treachery of some knaves I mark here, Fortune seemed 
 half inclined to reverse our fates. Had I conquered, I 
 trust I should have shown more mercy.' 
 
 The King of Karasme was the most passionate of men. 
 He had made a speech according to the advice and instruc- 
 tions of his councillors, who had assured him that the tone 
 he adopted would induce Alroy to confess all that he 
 required, and especially to vindicate the reputation of the
 
 248 ALROY. 
 
 Princess Schirene, who had already contrived to persnacle 
 Alp Arslan that she was the most injured of her sex. The 
 King of Karasme stamped thrice on the platform of his 
 throne, and exclaimed with great fire, ' By my beard, ye 
 have deceived me ! The dog has confessed nothing ! ' 
 
 All the councillors and chief captains, and the Moollahs, 
 and the Imams, and the Cadis, and the principal personages 
 of the city were in consternation. They immediately con- 
 sulted together, and, after much disputation, agreed that, 
 before they proceeded to extremities, it was expedient to 
 prove what the prisoner would not confess. A venerable 
 Scheik, clothed in flowing robes of green, with a long 
 white beard, and a turban like the tower of Babel, thea 
 rose. His sacred reputation procured silence while he 
 himself delivered a long prayer, supplicating Allah and the 
 Prophet to confound all blaspheming Jews and Giaours, 
 and to pour forth words of truth from the mouths of 
 religious men. And then the venerable Scheik summoned 
 all witnesses against David Alroy. Immediately advanctd 
 Kisloch the Kourd, who, being placed in an eminent posi- 
 tion, the Cadi of Bagdad drew forth a scroll from his velvet 
 bag, and read to him a deposition, wherein the worthy 
 Kisloch stated that he first became acquainted with the 
 prisoner, David Alroy, in some ruins in the desert, the 
 haunt of banditti, of whom Alroy was the chief; that he, 
 Kisloch, was a reputable merchant, and that his caravan 
 had been plundered by these robbers, and he himself cap- 
 tured ; that, on the second night of his imprisonment, 
 Alroy appeared to him in the likeness of a lion, and on the 
 third, of a bull with fiery eyes ; that he was in the habit of 
 constantly transforming himself; that he frequently raised 
 spirits ; that, at length, on one terrible night, Eblis himself 
 came in great procession, and presented Alroy with the 
 sceptre of Solomon Ben Daoud; and that the next day 
 Alroy raised his standard, and soon after massacred Hassan 
 Subah and his Seljuks, by the visible aid of many terrible 
 demons. 
 
 Calidas the Indian, the Guebre, and the Negro, and a
 
 ALROY. 249 
 
 few congenial spirits, were not eclipsed in the satisfactory 
 character of their evidence by the luminous testimony of 
 Kisloch the Kourd. The irresistible career of the Hebrew 
 conqueror was undeniably accounted for, and the honour of 
 Moslem arms, and the purity of Moslem faith, were esta- 
 blished in their pristine glory and all their unsullied repu- 
 tation. David Alroy was proved to be a child of Eblis, a 
 sorcerer, and a dealer in charms and magical poisons. The 
 people listened with horror and with indignation. They 
 would have burst through the guards and torn him in 
 pieces, had not they been afraid of the Karasmian battle- 
 axes. So they consoled themselves with the prospect of 
 his approaching tortures. 
 
 The Cadi of Bagdad bowed himself before the King of 
 Karasme, and whispered at a respectful distance in the 
 royal ear. The trumpets sounded, the criers enjoined 
 silence, and the royal lips again moved. 
 
 ' Hear, O ye people, and be wise. The chief Cadi is 
 about to read the deposition of the royal Princess Schirene, 
 chief victim of the sorcerer.' 
 
 And the deposition was read, which stated that David 
 Alroy possessed, and wore next to his heart, a talisman, 
 given him by Eblis, the virtue of which was so great that, 
 if once it were pressed to the heart of any woman, she was 
 no longer mistress of her will. Such had been the un- 
 happy fate of the daughter of the Commander of the 
 Faithful. 
 
 ' Is it so written ? ' inquired the captive. 
 
 * It is so written,' replied the Cadi, ' and bears the im- 
 perial signature of the Princess.' 
 
 ' It is a forgery.' 
 
 The King of Karasme started from his throne, and in 
 his rage nearly descended its steps. His face was like 
 scarlet, his beard was like a flame. A favourite minister 
 ventured gently to restrain the royal robe. 
 
 'Kill the dog on the spot,' muttered the King of 
 Karasme. 
 
 ' The Princess is herself here,' said the Cadi, ' to bear
 
 250 ALROY. 
 
 witness to the spells of which she was a victim, but from 
 which, by the power of Allah and the Prophet, she is now 
 released.' 
 
 Alroy started ! 
 
 ' Advance, royal Princess,' said the Cadi, ' and, if the 
 deposition thou hast heard be indeed true, condescend to 
 hold up the imperial hand that adorned it with thy 
 signature.' 
 
 A band of eunuchs near the throne gave way ; a female 
 figure veiled to her feet appeared. She held up her hand 
 amid the breathless agitation of the whole assembly ; the 
 ranks of the eunuchs again closed ; a shriek was heard, 
 and the veiled figure disappeared. 
 
 'I am ready for thy tortures, King,' said Alroy, in a 
 tone of deep depression. His firmness appeared to have 
 deserted him. His eyes were cast upon the ground. 
 Apparently he was buried in profound thought, or had 
 delivered himself up to despair. 
 
 ' Prepare the stakes,' said Alp Arslan. 
 
 An involuntary, but universal, shudder might be dis- 
 tinguished through the whole assembly. 
 
 A slave advanced and offered Alroy a scroll. He recog- 
 nised the Nubian who belonged to Honain. His former 
 minister informed him that he was at hand, that the terms 
 he offered in the dungeon might even yet be granted ; that 
 if Alroy would, as he doubted not, as he entreated him, 
 accept them, he was to place the scroll in his bosom, but 
 that if he were still inexorable, still madly determined on 
 a horrible and ignominious end, he was to tear the scroll 
 and throw it in to the arena. Instantly Alroy took the 
 scroll, and with great energy tore it into a thousand 
 pieces. A puff of wind carried the fragments far and 
 wide. The mob fought for these last memorials of David 
 Alroy , and this little incident occasioned a great con- 
 fusion. 
 
 In the meantime the negroes prepared the instruments 
 of torture and of death. 
 
 ' The obstinacy of this Jewish dog makes me mad,' said
 
 ALKOY. 251 
 
 the King of Karasme to his courtiers. ' I will hold some 
 parley with him before he dies.' The favourite minister 
 entreated his sovereign to be content ; bat the royal beard 
 grew so red, and the royal eyes flashed forth such terrible 
 sparks of fire, that even the favourite minister at length 
 gave way. 
 
 The trumpet sounded, the criers called silence, and the 
 voice of Alp Arslan was again heard. 
 
 ' Thou dog, dost see what is preparing for thee ? Dost 
 know what awaits thee in the halls of thy master Eblis ? 
 Can a Jew be influenced even by false pride ? Is not life 
 sweet ? Is it not better to be my slipper-bearer than to 
 be impaled ? ' 
 
 ' Magnanimous Alp Arslan,' replied Alroy in a tone of 
 undisguised contempt ; ' thinkest thou that any torture can 
 be equal to the recollection that I have been conquered by 
 thee?' 
 
 ' By my beard, he mocks me ! ' exclaimed the Karasmian 
 monarch, ' he defies me ! Touch not my robe. I will 
 parley with him. Ye see no farther than a hood.ed hawk, 
 ye sons of a blind mother. This is a sorcerer ; he hath yet 
 some master spell ; he will yet save himself. He will fly 
 into the air, or sink into the earth. He laughs at our 
 tortures.' The King of Karasme precipitately descended 
 the steps of his throne, followed by his favourite minister, 
 and his councillors, and chief captains, and the Cadis, and 
 the Moollahs, and the Imams, and the principal personages 
 of the city. 
 
 'Sorcerer!' exclaimed Alp Arslan, 'insolent sorcerer! 
 base son of a base mother ! dog of dogs ! dost thou defy 
 us ? Does thy master Eblis whisper hope ? Dost thou 
 laugh at our punishments ? "Wilt thou fly into the air ? 
 wilt thou sink into the earth ? eh, eh ? Is it so, is it so ? ' 
 The breathless monarch ceased, from the exhaustion of 
 passion. He tore his beard out by the roots, he stamped 
 with uncontrollable rage. 
 
 ' Thou art wiser than thy councillors, royal Arslan; I do 
 defy thee. My master, although not Eblis, has not deserted
 
 252 ALROY. 
 
 me. I laugh at thy punishments. Thy tortures I despise. 
 I shall both sink into the earth and mount into the air. Art 
 thou answered ? ' 
 
 ' By my beard,' exclaimed the enraged Arslan, ' I am an- 
 swered. Let Eblis save thee if he can ; ' and the King of 
 Karasme, the most famous master of the sabre in Asia, 
 drew his blade like lightning from its sheath, and took off 
 the head of Alroy at a stroke. It fell, and, as it fell, a smile 
 of triumphant derision seemed to play upon the dying 
 features of the hero, and to ask of his enemies, ' Where 
 now are all your tortures ? ' 82
 
 NOTES TO ALROY. 
 
 NOTE 1, page 3. We shall yet see an ass mount a ladder. 
 Hebrew proverb. 
 
 NOTE 2, page 10. Our walls are hung with flowers you love. 
 It is the custom of the Hebrews in many of their festivals, especially 
 in the feast of the Tabernacle, to hang the walls of their chambers with 
 garlands of flowers. 
 
 NOTE 3, page 11. The traditionary tomb of Esther and Mordecai. 
 
 1 1 accompanied the priest through the town over much, ruin and rub- 
 bish to an enclosed piece of ground, rather more elevated than any in 
 its immediate vicinity. In the centre was the Jewish tomb a square 
 building of brick, of a mosque-like form, with a rather elongated dome 
 at the top. The door is in the ancient sepulchral fashion of the 
 country, very small, consisting of a single stone of great thickness, 
 and turning on its own pivots from one side. Its key is always in 
 possession of the eldest of the Jews resident at Hamadan. Within the 
 tomb are two sarcophagi, made of a very dark wood, carved with great 
 intricacy of pattern and richness of twisted ornament, with a line of in- 
 scription in Hebrew,' &c. Sir B. K. Porter's Travels in Persia, vol. ii. 
 p. 107. 
 
 NOTE 4, page 13. A marble fountain, the richly-carved cupola supported 
 by twisted columns. 
 
 The vast magnificence and elaborate fancy of the tombs and fountains 
 is a remarkable feature of Oriental architecture. The Eastern nations 
 devote to these structures the richest and the most durable materials. 
 While the palaces of Asiatic monarchs are in general built only of wood, 
 painted in fresco, the rarest marbles are dedicated to the sepulchre and 
 the spring; which are often richly gilt, and adorned even with precious 
 stones. 
 
 NOTE 5, page 14. The chorus of our maidens. 
 
 It is still the custom for the women in the East to repair at sunset in 
 company to the fountain for their supply of water. In Egypt, you 
 may observe at twilight the women descending the banks of the Nile 
 v- -procession from every town and village. Their graceful drT>f-
 
 254 NOTES TO ALEOY. 
 
 their long veils not concealing their flashing eyes, and the classical 
 forms of their vases, render this a most picturesque and agreeable 
 spectacle. 
 
 NOTE 6, page 20. 
 
 I describe the salty deserts of Persia, a locality which my tale re- 
 quired ; but I have ventured to introduce here, and in the subsequent 
 pages, the principal characteristics of the great Arabian deserts : the 
 mirage, the simrvoni, the gazelle, the oasis. 
 
 NOTE 7, page 23. Jackals and marten-cat. 
 
 At nightfall, especially in Asia Minor, the lonely horseman will 
 often meet the jackals on their evening prowl. Their moaning is 
 often heard during the night. I remember, when becalmed off Troy, 
 the most singular screams were heard at intervals throughout the night, 
 from a forest on the opposite shore, which a Greek sailor assured me 
 proceeded from a marten-cat, which had probably found the carcass of 
 some horse. 
 
 NOTE 8, page 25. 
 
 Elburz, or Elborus, the highest range of the Caucasus. 
 
 NOTE 9, page 26. A circular and brazen table, sculptured with strange 
 characters and mysterious Jigures ; near it was a couch, on which lay 
 several volumes. 
 A cabalistic table, perhaps a zodiac. The books were doubtless 
 
 Sepher Happeliah, the Book of "W onders ; Sepher HaJckaneh, the Book 
 
 of the Pen ; and Sepher Habbahir, the Book of Light. This last unfolds 
 
 the most sublime mysteries. 
 
 NOTE 10, page 27. Answered the Cabalist. 
 
 ' Simeon ben Jochai, who flourished in the second century, and was a 
 disciple of Akibha, is called by the Jews the Prince of the Cabalists. 
 After the suppression of the sedition in which his master had been so 
 unsuccessful, he concealed himself in a cave, where, according to the 
 Jewish historians, he received revelations, which he afterwards delivered 
 to his disciples, and wh'.ch they carefully preserved in the book called 
 Sohar. His master, Akibha, who lived soon after the destruction of 
 Jerusalem, was the author of the famous book Jezirah, quoted by the 
 Jews as of Divine authority. When Akibha was far advanced in life, 
 appeared the famous impostor Barchochebas, who, under the character 
 of the Messiah, promised to deliver his countrymen from the power of 
 the Emperor Adrian. Akibha espoused his cause, and afforded him the 
 protection and support of his name, and an army of two hundred thou- 
 sand men repaired to his standard. The Romans at first slighted the 
 insurrection ; but when they found the insurgents spread slaughter and 
 rapine wherever they came, they sent out a military force against them. 
 At first, the issue of the contest was doubtful. The Messiah 'himself 
 was not taken until the end of four years.' Enfield, Philosophy of the 
 Jews, vol. ii. 
 
 ' Two methods of instruction were in use among the Jews ; the, ona
 
 NOTES TO ALROY. 255 
 
 public, or exoteric ; the other secret, or esoteric. The exoteric doctrine 
 was that which was openly taught the people from the law of Moses 
 and the traditions of the fathers. The esoteric was that which treated 
 of the mysteries of the Divine nature, and other sublime subjects, and 
 was known by the name of the Cabala. The latter was, after the man- 
 ner of the Pythagorean and Egyptian mysteries, taught only to certain 
 persons, who were bound, under the most solemn anathema, not to 
 divulge it. Concerning the miraculous origin and preservation of the 
 Cabala, the Jews relate many marvellous tales. They derive these 
 mysteries from Adam, and assert that, while the first man was in 
 Paradise, the angel Easiel brought him a book from heaven, which con- 
 tained the doctrines of heavenly wisdom, and that, when Adam received 
 this book, angels came down to him to learn its contents, but that he 
 refused to admit them to the knowledge of sacred things entrusted to 
 him alone ; that, after the Fall, this book was taken back into heaven ; 
 that, after many prayers and tears, God restored it to Adam, from whom 
 it passed to Seth. In the degenerate age before the flood this book was 
 lost, and the mysteries it contained almost forgotten ; but they were 
 re&tored by special revelation to Abraham, who committed them to 
 writing in the book Jezirah.' Vide Enjicld, vol. ii. p. 219. 
 
 ' The Hebrew word Cabala' says Dom Calmet, ' signifies tradition, 
 and the Rabbins, who are named Cabalists, apply themselves principally 
 to the combination of certain words, numbers, and letters, by the means 
 of which they boasted they could reveal the future, and penetrate the 
 sense of the most difficult passages of Scripture. This science does not 
 appear to have any fixed principles, but depends upon certain ancient 
 traditions, whence its name Cabala. The Cabalists have a great num- 
 ber of names which they style sacred, by means of which they raise 
 spirits, and affect to obtain supernatural intelligence.' See Calmet, art. 
 Caba>a. 
 
 ' We spake before,' says Lightfoot, ' of the commonness of Magick 
 among them, one singular means whereby they kept their own in delu- 
 sion, and whereby they affronted ours. The general expectation of the 
 nation of Messias coming when he did, had this double and contrary 
 effect, that it forwarded those that belonged to God to believe and re- 
 ceive the Gospel ; and those that did not, it gave encouragement to some 
 to take upon them they were Christ or some great prophet, and to others 
 it gave some persuasion to be deluded by them. These deceivers dealt 
 most of them with Magick, and that cheat ended not when Jerusalem 
 ended, though one would have thought that had been a fair term of not 
 further expecting Messias; but, since the people were willing to be de- 
 ceived by such expectation, there rose up deluders still that were willing 
 to deceive them.' Lightfoot, vol. ii. p. 371. 
 
 For many curious details of the Cabalistic Magic, Vide Basnage, vol. v. 
 p. 384, &c. 
 
 NOTE 11, page 28. Bead the stars no longer. 
 
 ' The modern Jews,' says Basnage, ' have a great idea of the influence 
 of the stars.' Vol. iv. p. 454. But astrology was most prevalent among 
 the Babylonian Rabbins, of whom Jabaster was one. Living in the 
 ancient land of the Chaldeans, these sacred sages imbibed a taste for
 
 256 NOTES TO ALKOY. 
 
 the mystic lore of their predecessors. The stars moved, and formed 
 letters and lines, when consulted by any of the highly-initiated of the 
 Cabalists. This they styled the Celestial Alphabet. 
 
 NOTE 12, page 32. The Daughter of the Voice. 
 
 'Both the Talmudick and the latter Eabbins,' says Lightfoot, ' make 
 frequent mention of Bath Kol, or Filia Vocis, or an echoing voice which 
 served under the second temple for their utmost refuge of revelation. 
 For when Urim and Thummim, the oracle, was ceased, and prophecy 
 was decayed and gone, they had, as they say, certain strange and ex- 
 traordinary voices upon certain extraordinary occasions, which were 
 their warnings and advertisements in some special matters. Infinite 
 instances of this might be adduced, if they might be believed. Now here 
 it may be questioned why they called it Bath Kol, the daughter of a 
 voice, and not a voice itself ? If the strictness of the Hebrew word 
 Bath be to be stood upon, which always it is not, it may be answered, 
 that it is called the Daughter of a Voice in relation to the oracles of 
 Urim and Thummim. For whereas that was a voice given from off the 
 mercy-seat, within the vail, and this, upon the decay of that oracle, 
 came as it were in its place, it might not unfitly or improperly be 
 called a daughter, or successor of that voice.' Lightfoot, vol. i. pp. 485, 
 486. 
 
 Consult also the learned Doctor, vol. ii. pp. 128, 129 : 'It was used 
 for a testimony from heaven, but was indeed performed by magic 
 art.' 
 
 NOTE 13, page 37. The walls and turrets of an extensive city. 
 
 In Persia, and the countries of the Tigris and Euphrates, the traveller 
 sometimes arrives at deserted cities of great magnificence and antiquity. 
 Such, for instance, is the city of Anneh. I suppose Alroy to have 
 entered one of the deserted capitals of the Seleucidae. They are in 
 general the haunt of bandits. 
 
 NOTE 14, page 41. Punctured his arm. 
 From a story told by an Arab. 
 
 NOTE 15, page 44. The pilgrim could no longer sustain himself. 
 An endeavour to paint the simoom. 
 
 NOTE 16, page 45. By the holy stone. 
 
 The Caaba. The Caaba is the same to the Mahomedan as the 
 Holy Sepulchre to the Christian. It is the most unseemly, but the 
 most sacred, part of the mosque at Mecca, and is a small, square stone 
 building. 
 
 NOTE 17, page 47. I am a Hakim; 
 
 i.e. Physician, an almost sacred character in the East. As all English- 
 men travel with medicine-chests, the Turks are not to be wondered at 
 ''^ considering us physicians.
 
 NOTES TO ALROY. 257 
 
 NOTE 18, page 49. Threw their wanton j err eeds in the air, 
 
 The Persians are more famous for throwing the jerreed than any other 
 nation. A Persian gentleman, while riding quietly by your side, will 
 suddenly dash off at full gallop, then suddenly check his horse, and take 
 a long aim with his lance with admirable precision. I should doubt, 
 however, whether he could hurl a lance a greater distance or with greater 
 force and effect than a Nubian, who will fix a mark at sixty yards with 
 his javelin. 
 
 NOTE 19, page 49. Some pounded coffee. 
 
 The origin of the use of coffee is obscure ; but there is great reason to 
 believe that it had not been introduced in the time of Alroy. When we 
 consider that the life of an Oriental at the present day mainly consists 
 in drinking coffee and smoking tobacco, we cannot refrain from asking 
 ourselves, ' What did he do before either of these comparatively modern 
 inventions was discovered ? ' For a long time, I was inclined to suspect 
 that tobacco might have been in use in Asia before it was introduced 
 into Europe ; but a passage in old Sandys, in which he mentions the 
 wretched tobacco smoked in Turkey, and accounts for it by that country 
 being supplied with ' the dregs of our markets,' demonstrates that, in his 
 time, there was no native growth in Asia. Yet the choicest tobaccoes 
 are now grown on the coast of Syria, the real Levant. But did the 
 Asiatics smoke any other plant or substance before tobacco ? In Syria, 
 at the present day, they smoke a plant called timbac ; the Chinese smoke 
 opium ; the artificial preparations for the hookah are known to all Indians. 
 I believe, however, that these are all refinements, and for this reason, 
 that in the classic writers, who were as well acquainted with the Oriental 
 nations as ourselves, we find no allusion to the practice of smoking. The 
 anachronism of the pipe I have not therefore ventured to commit, and 
 that of coffee will, I trust, be pardoned. 
 
 NOTE 20, page 49. Wilder gestures of the dancing girls. 
 These dancing girls abound throughout Asia. The most famous are 
 the Almeh of Egypt, and the Nautch of India. These last are a caste, 
 the first only a profession. 
 
 NOTE 21, page 54. For thee the bastinado. 
 
 The bastinado is the common punishment of the East, and an effective 
 and dreaded one. It is administered on the soles of the feet, the instru- 
 ment a long cane or palm-branch. Public executions are very rare. 
 
 NOTE 22, page 62. A door of tortoiseshell and mother-6 '-pearl. 
 
 This elegant mode of inlay is common in Oriental palaces, and may 
 be observed also in Alhambra, at Granada. 
 
 NOTE 23, page 62. A vaulted, circular, and highly embossed roof, of 
 purple, scarlet, and gold. 
 
 In the very first style of Saracenic architecture. See the Hall of the 
 Ambassadors in Alhambra, and many other chambers in that exquisite 
 creation. 
 
 8
 
 258 NOTES TO ALEOY. 
 
 NOTE 24, p. 63. Nubian eunuchs dressed in rkh halrits of scarlet and gold. 
 
 Thus the guard of Nubian Eunuchs of the present Pacha of Egypt, 
 Mehemet Ali, or rather Caliph, a title which he wishes to assume. They 
 ride upon white horses. 
 
 NOTE 25, page 63. A quadrangular court of roses. 
 
 So in Alhambra, ' THE COUHT OF MYBTLES,' leading to the Court of 
 Columns, wherein is the famous Fountain of Lions. 
 
 NOTE 26, page 63. An Abyssinian giant. 
 
 A giant is still a common appendage to an Oriental court even at the 
 present day. See a very amusing story in the picturesque ' Persian 
 Sketches ' of that famous elchee, Sir John Malcolm. 
 
 NOTE 27, page 64. Surrounded by figures of every rare quadruped. 
 
 ' The hall of audience,' says Gibbon, from Cardonne, speaking of the 
 magnificence of the Saracens of Cordova, ' was encrusted with gold and 
 pearls, and a great basin in the centre was surrounded with the curious 
 and costly figures of birds and quadrupeds.' Decline and Fall, vol. 
 x. p. 39. 
 
 NOTE 28, page 64. A tree of gold and silver. 
 
 ' Among the other spectacles of rare and stupendous luxury was a tree 
 of gold and silver, spreading into eighteen large branches, on which, and 
 on the lesser boughs, sat a variety of birds made of the same precious 
 metals, as well as the leaves of the tree. While the machinery effected 
 spontaneous motions, the several birds warbled their natural harmony.' 
 Gibbon, vol. x. p. 38, from Abulfeda, describing the court of the Caliphs 
 of Bagdad in the decline of their power. 
 
 NOTE 29, page 65. Four hundred men led as many white bloodhounds, 
 with collars of gold and rubies. 
 
 I have somewhere read of an Indian or Persian monarch whose coursing 
 was conducted in this gorgeous style : if I remember right, it was Mah- 
 moud the Gaznevide. 
 
 NOTE 30, page 65. A steed marked on its forehead with a star. 
 The sacred steed of Solomon. 
 
 NOTE 31, page 66. Instead of water, each basin was replenished with tha 
 purest quicksilver. 
 
 'In a lofty pavilion of the gardens, one of those basins and fountains 
 BO delightful in a sultry climate, was replenished, not with water, but 
 with the purest quicksilver.' Gibbon, vol. x. from Cardonne. 
 
 NOTE 32, page 66. Playing with a rosary of pearls and emeralds. 
 
 Moslems of rank are never without the rosary, sometimes of amber 
 and rare woods, sometimes of jewels. The most esteemed is of that 
 peculiar substance called Mecca wood.
 
 NOTES TO ALKOY. 259 
 
 NOTE 33, page 66. The diamond hilt of a small poniard, 
 The insignia of a royal female. 
 
 NOTE 34, page 70. You have been at Paris. 
 
 Paris was known to the Orientals at this time as a city of considerable 
 luxury and importance. The Embassy from Haroun Alraschid to Charle- 
 magne, at an earlier date, is of course recollected. 
 
 NOTE 35, page 76. At length beheld the lost capital of his fathers. 
 
 The finest view of Jerusalem is from the Mount of Olives. It is little 
 altered since the period when David Alroy is supposed to have gazed 
 upon it, but it is enriched by the splendid Mosque of Omar, built by the 
 Moslem conquerors on the supposed site of the temple, and which, with 
 it? gardens, and arcades, and courts, and fountains, may fairly be de- 
 scribed as the most imposing of Moslem fanes. I endeavoured to enter 
 it at the hazard of my life. I was detected, and surrounded by a crowd 
 of turbaned fanatics, and escaped with difficulty ; but I saw enough to 
 feel that minute inspection would not belie the general character I formed 
 of it from the Mount of Olives. I caught a glorious glimpse of splendid 
 courts, and light airy gates of Saracenic triumph, nights of noble steps, 
 long arcades, and interior gardens, where silver fountains spouted their 
 tall streams amid the taller cypresses. 
 
 NOTE 36, page 76. Entered Jerusalem, by the gate of Sion. 
 The gate of Sion still remains, and from it you descend into the 
 valley of Siloah. 
 
 NOTE 37, page 79. King Pirgandieus. 
 
 According to a Talmudical story, however, of which I find a note, this 
 monarch was not a Hebrew but a Gentile, and a very wicked one. He 
 once invited eleven famous doctors of the holy nation to supper. They 
 were received in the most magnificent style, and were then invited, under 
 pain of death, either to eat pork, to accept a pagan mistress, or to drink 
 wine consecrated to idols. After long consultation, the doctors, in great 
 tribulation, agreed to save their heads by accepting the last alterna- 
 tive, since the two first were forbidden by the law of Moses, and the 
 last only by the Eabbins. The King assented, the doctors drank the 
 impure wine, and, as it was exceedingly good, drank freely. The wine, 
 as will sometimes happen, created a terrible appetite ; the table was 
 covered with dishes, and the doctors, heated by the grape, were not 
 sufficiently careful of what they partook. In short, the wicked King 
 Pirgandicus contrived that they should sup off pork, and being carried 
 from the table quite tipsy, each of the eleven had the mortification of 
 finding himself next morning in the arms of a pagan mistress. 
 
 In the course of the year all the eleven died sudden deaths, and this 
 visitation occurred to them, not because they had violated the law of 
 Moses, but because they believed that the precepts of the Eabbins could 
 be outraged with more impunity than the Word of God. 
 
 NOTE 38, page 79. And conquered Jnlius Casar. 
 
 This classic hero often figures in the erratic pages of the Talmud. 
 
 s 2
 
 260 .NOTES TO ALKOY. 
 
 NOTE 39, page 79. The Tombs of the Kings. 
 
 The present pilgrim to Jerusalem will have less trouble than Alroy in 
 discovering the Tombs of the Kings, though he probably would not as 
 easily obtain the sceptre of Solomon. The tombs that bear this title 
 are of the time of the Asmonean princes, and of a more ambitious cha- 
 racter than any other of the remains. An open court, about fifty feet 
 in breadth, and extremely deep, is excavated out of the rock. One side 
 is formed by a portico, the frieze of "which is sculptured in a good Syro- 
 Greek style. There is no grand portal ; you crawl into the tombs by a 
 small opening on one of the sides. There are a few small chambers 
 with niches, recesses, and sarcophagi, some sculptured in the same flow- 
 ing style as the frieze. This is the most important monument at Jeru- 
 salem ; and Dr. Clarke, who has lavished wonder and admiration on the 
 tombs of Zachariah and Absalom, has declared the Tombs of the Kings 
 to be one of the marvellous productions of antiquity. 
 
 NOTE 40. Page 80. 
 
 ' Eabbi Hillel was one of the eminentest that ever was among the 
 Jewish Doctors, both for birth, learning, rule, and children. He was of 
 the seed of David by his mother's side, being of the posterity of 
 Shephatiah, the son of Abital, David's wife. He was brought up in 
 Babel, from whence he came up to Jerusalem at forty years old, and 
 there studied the law forty years more under Shemaiah and Abtalion, 
 and after them he was President of the Sanhedrim forty years more. 
 The beginning of his Presidency is generally concluded upon to have 
 been .just one hundred years before the Temple was destroyed ; by 
 which account he began eight-and-twenty years before our Saviour was 
 born, and died when he was about twelve years old. He is renowned 
 for his fourscore scholars." Lightfoot, vol. ii. p. 2008. 
 
 The great rival of Hillel was Shammai. Their controversies, and the 
 fierceness of their partisans, are a principal feature of Rabbinical history. 
 They were the same as the Scotists and Thomists. At last the Bath 
 Kol interfered, and decided for Hillel, but in a spirit of conciliatory 
 dexterity. The Bath Kol came forth and spake thus : ' The words both 
 of the one party and the other are the words of the living God, but the 
 certain decision of the matter is according to the decrees of the school 
 of Hillel. And henceforth, whoever shall transgress the decrees of the 
 school of Hillel is punishable with death.' 
 
 NOTE 41, page 82. A number of small, square, low chambers. 
 These excavated cemeteries, which abound in Palestine and Egypt, 
 were often converted into places of worship by the Jews and early 
 Christians. Sandys thus describes the Synagogue at Jerusalem in his. 
 time. 
 
 NOTE 42, page 83. Their heads mystically covered. 
 
 The Hebrews cover their heads during their prayers with a sacred 
 shawl. 
 
 NOTE 43, page 83. Expounded the law to the congregation ofthepeopfe. 
 The custom, I believe, even to the present day, among the Hebrews, 
 a remnant of their old academies, once so famous.
 
 NOTES TO ALROY. 261 
 
 NOTE 44, page 84. The Valley of Jehoshaphat and the Tomb of Absalom. 
 In the Vale of Jehoshaphat, among many other tombs, are two of 
 considerable size, and which, although of a corrupt Grecian architecture, 
 are dignified by the titles of the tombs of Zachariah and Absalom. 
 
 NOTE 45, page 86. The scanty rill ofSiloah. 
 
 The sublime Siloah is now a muddy rill ; you descend by steps to the 
 fountain which is its source, and which is covered with an arch. Here 
 the blind man received his sight ; and, singular enough, to this very 
 day the healing reputation of its waters prevails, and summons to its 
 brink all those neighbouring Arabs who suffer from the ophthalmic 
 affections not uncommon in this part of the world. 
 
 NOTE 46, page 86. Several isolated tombs of considerable size. 
 There are no remains oi: ancient Jerusalem, or the ancient Jews. 
 Some tombs there are which may be ascribed to the Asmonean princes; 
 but all the monuments of David, Solomon, and their long posterity, have 
 utterly disappeared. 
 
 NOTE 47, page 87. Are cut strange characters and unearthly forms. 
 As at Benihassan, and many other of the sculptured catacombs of 
 Egypt. 
 
 NOTE 48, page 88. A crowd of bats rushed forward and extinguished 
 
 his torch. 
 
 In entering the Temple of Dendera, our torches were extinguished by 
 a crowd of bats. 
 
 NOTE 49, page 88. The gallery was of great extent, with a gradual 
 declination. 
 
 So In the great Egyptian tombs. 
 
 NOTE 50, page 89. The Afrite, for it was one of those dread beings. 
 
 Beings of a monstrous form, the most terrible of all the orders of the 
 Dives. 
 
 NOTE 51, page 89. An avenue of colossal lions of red granite. 
 An avenue of Sphinxes more than a mile in length connected the 
 quarters of Luxoor and Carnak in Egyptian Thebes. Its fragments re- 
 main. Many other avemies of Sphinxes and lion-headed Kings may he 
 observed in various parts of Upper Egypt. 
 
 NOTE 52, page 91. A stupendous portal, cut out of the solid rocJc, four 
 hundred feet in height, and supported by clusters of colossal Caryatides. 
 See the great rock temple of Ipsambul in Lower Nubia. The sitting 
 colossi are nearly seventy feet in height. But there is a Torso of a 
 statue of Kameses the Second at Thebes, vulgarly called the great 
 Memnon, which measures upwards of sixty feet round the shoulders.
 
 262 NOTES TO ALEOY. 
 
 NOTE 53, page 92. Fifty steps of ivory, and each step guarded, by golden 
 
 lions. 
 
 See 1st Kings, chap. x. 18-20. 
 
 NOTE 54, page 101. Crossed the desert on a fleet dromedary. 
 
 The difference between a camel and a dromedary is the difference 
 between a hack and a thorough-bred horse. There is no other. 
 
 NOTE 55, page 102. That celestial alphabet known to the true Cabalist. 
 See Note 11. 
 
 NOTE 56, page 112. The last of the Seljuks had expired. 
 The Orientals are famous for their massacres : that of the Mamlouks 
 by the present Pacha of Egypt, and of the Janissaries of the Sultan, are 
 notorious. But one of the most terrible, and effected under the most 
 difficult and dangerous circumstances, was the massacre of the Albanian 
 Beys by the Grand Vizir, in the autumn of 1830. I was in Albania at 
 the time. 
 
 NOTE 57, page 115. The minarets were illumined. 
 
 So, I remember, at Constantinople, at the commencement of 1831, at 
 the departure of the Mecca caravan, and also at the annual feast of 
 Ramadan. 
 
 NOTE 58, page 117. One asking aims with a wire run through his cheek. 
 Not uncommon. These Dervishes frequent the bazaars. 
 
 NOTE 59, page 121. One hundred thousand warriors were now assembled. 
 In countries where the whole population are armed, a vast military 
 force is soon assembled. Barchochebas was speedily at the head of two 
 hundred thousand fighting men, and held the Eomans long in check 
 under one of their most powerful emperors. 
 
 NOTE 60, page 121. Some high-capped Tatar with despatches. 
 
 I have availed myself of a familiar character in Oriental life, but the 
 use of a Tatar as a courier in the time of Alroy is, I fear, an ana- 
 chronism, 
 
 NOTE 61, page 122. Each day some warlike Atabek, at the head of his 
 
 armed train, poured, into the capital of the Caliphs. 
 I was at Yanina, the capital of Albania, when the Grand Vizir sum- 
 moned the chieftains of the country, and was struck by their magnificent 
 arrays each day pouring into the city. 
 
 NOTE 62, page 129. It is the Sabbath eve. 
 
 1 They began their Sabbath from sunset, and the same time of day 
 they ended it.' Talm. Hierosolym. in Sheveith, fol. 33, col. 1. 
 
 The eve of the Sabbath, or the day before, was called the day of the 
 preparation for the Sabbath. Luke xxiii. 64.
 
 NOTES TO ALEOY. 263 
 
 ' And from the time of the evening sacrifice and forward, they began to 
 fit themselves for the Sabbath, and to cease from their works, so as net 
 to go to the barber, not to sit in judgment, &c.; nay, thenceforward 
 they would not set things on working, which, being set a-work, would 
 complete their business of themselves, unless it would be completed 
 before the Sabbath came as wool was not put to dye, unless it could take 
 colour while it was yet day? &c. Talm. in Sab., par. 1 ; Lightfoot, vol. i. 
 p. 218. 
 
 ' Towards sunsetting, when the Sabbath was now approaching, they 
 lighted up the Sabbath lamp. Men and women were bound to have a 
 lamp lighted up in their houses on the Sabbath, though they were never 
 so poor nay, though they were forced to go a-begging for oil for this 
 purpose ; and the lighting tip of this lamp was a part of making the 
 Sabbath a delight ; and women were especially commanded to look to 
 this business.' Maimonides in Sad., par. 36. 
 
 NOTE 63, page 132. The presence of the robes of honour. 
 
 These are ever carried in procession, and their number denotes the 
 rank and quality of the chief, or of the individual to whom they are 
 offered. 
 
 NOTE 64, page 134. Pressed it to his lips, and placed it in his vest. 
 The elegant mode in which the Orientals receive presents. 
 
 NOTE 65, page 138. A cap of transparent pink porcelain, studded with 
 
 pearls. 
 
 Thus a great Turk, who afforded me hospitality, was accustomed to 
 drink his coffee. 
 
 NOTE 66, page 142. Slippers powdered with pearls. 
 The slippers in the East form a very fanciful portion of the costume. 
 It is not uncommon to see them thus adorned and beautifully em- 
 broidered. In precious embroidery and enamelling, the Turkish artists 
 are unrivalled. 
 
 NOTE 67, page 155. The policy of the son of Kareah. 
 Vide Jeremiah, chap. xlii. 
 
 NOTE 68, page 160. The inviting gesturss and the voluptuous grace of 
 the dancing girls of Egypt. 
 
 A sculptor might find fine studies in the Egyptian Almeh. 
 
 NOTE 69, page 163. Six choice steeds sumptuously caparisoned. 
 Led horses always precede a great man. I think there were usually 
 twelve before the Sultan when he went to Mosque, which he did in 
 public every Friday. 
 
 NOTE 70, page 163. Six Damascus sabres of unrivalled temper. 
 But sabres are not to be found at Damascus, any more than cheeses 
 at Stilton, or oranges at Malta. The art of watering the blade is, how- 
 ever, practised, I believe, in Persia. A fine Damascus blade will fetch 
 fifty or even one hundred guineas English.
 
 264 NOTES TO ALROY. 
 
 NOTE 71, page 164. Roses from Rocnabad. 
 A river in Persia famous for its bowery banks of roses. 
 
 NOTE 72, page 164. Screens made of the feather of a roc. 
 The screens and fans in the East, made of the plumage of rare birds, 
 with jewelled handles, are very gorgeous. 
 
 NOTE 73, page 165. A tremulous aigrette of brilliants. 
 Worn only by persons of the highest rank. The Sultan presented 
 Lord Nelson after the Battle of the Nile with an aigrette of diamonds. 
 
 NOTE 74, page 177. To send him the whole of the next course. 
 These compliments from the tables of the great are not uncommon in 
 the East. When at the head-quarters of the Grand Vizir at Yanina, 
 his Highness sent to myself and my travelling companions, a course 
 from his table, singers and dancing girls. 
 
 NOTE 75, page 178. The golden wine of Mount Lebanon. 
 
 A most delicious wine, from its colour, brilliancy, and rare flavour, 
 justly meriting this title, is made on Lebanon ; but it will not, unfortu- 
 nately, bear exportation, and even materially suffers in the voyage from 
 the coast to Alexandria. 
 
 NOTE 76, page 186. And the company of gardeners. 
 These gardeners of the Serail form a very efficient body of police. 
 
 NOTE 77, page 190. Alroy retired to the bath. 
 
 The bath is a principal scene of Oriental life. Here the Asiatics 
 pass a great portion of their day. The bath consists of a long suite of 
 chambers of various temperatures, in which the different processes of 
 the elaborate ceremony are performed. 
 
 NOTE 78, page 195. We are the watchers of the moon. 
 
 The Feast of the New Moon is one of the most important festivals of 
 the Hebrews. ' Our year,' says the learned author of the ' Rites and 
 Ceremonies,' ' is divided into twelve lunar months, some of which consist 
 of twenty-nine, others of thirty days, which difference is occasioned by 
 the various appearance of the new moon, in point of time : for if it 
 appeared on the 30th day, the 29th was the last day of the precedent 
 month ; but if it did not appear till the 31st day, the 30th was the last 
 day, and the 31st the first of the subsequent month; and that was an 
 intercalary moon, of all which take the following account. 
 
 ' Our nation heretofore, not only observing the rules of some fixed cal- 
 culation, also celebrated the feast of the New Moon, according to the 
 phasis or first appearance of the moon, which was done in compliance 
 with God's command, as our received traditions inform us. 
 
 ' Hence it came to pass that the first appearance was not to be deter- 
 mined only by rules of art, but also by the testimony of such persons as 
 deposed before the Sanhedrim, or Great Senate, that they had seen the 
 New Moon. So a committee of three were appointed from among the
 
 NOTES TO ALROY. 265 
 
 said Sanhedrim to receive the deposition of the parties aforesaid, who, 
 after having calculated what time the moon might possibly appear, dis- 
 patched some persons into high and mountainous places, to observe and 
 give their evidence accordingly, concerning the first appearance of the 
 moon. 
 
 ' As soon as the new moon was either consecrated or appointed to be 
 observed, notice was given by the Sanhedrim to the rest of the nation 
 what day had been fixed for the New Moon, or first day of the month, 
 because that was to be the rule and measure according to which they 
 were obliged to keep their feasts and fasts in every month respectively. 
 
 'This notice was given to them in time of peace, by firing of beacons, 
 set up for that purpose, which was looked upon as the readiest way of 
 communication, but, in time of war, when all places were full of enemies, 
 who made use of beacons to amuse our nation with, it was thought fit to 
 discontinue it.' 
 
 NOTE 79, page 221. The women chatted at the fountain. 
 
 Th e bath and the fountain are the favourite scenes of feminine con- 
 versation. 
 
 NOTE 80, page 222. Playing chess. 
 
 On the walls of the palace of Amenoph the Second, called Medeenet 
 Abuh, at Egyptian Thebes, the King is represented playing chess with 
 the Queen. This monarch reigned long before the Trojan war. 
 
 NOTE 81, page 228. Impaled. 
 
 A friend of mine witnessed this horrible punishment in Upper Egypt. 
 The victim was a man who had secretly muidered nine persons. He 
 held an official post, and invited travellers and pilgrims to his house, 
 whom he regularly disposed of and plundered. I regret that I have 
 mislaid his MS. account of the ceremony. 
 
 NOTE 82, page 252. 
 
 In the Germen Davidis of Gam, translated into Latin by Vorstius, 
 Lug. 1654, is an extract from a Hebrew MS. containing an account of 
 Alroy. I subjoin a passage respecting his death for the learned reader, 
 ' Scribit R. Maimonides, Kultanum interrogasse ilium, num esset Messias, 
 et dixisse, Sum, et qucesivisse ab illo regem, quodnam, signum habes? Et 
 respondisse, ut pracideret caput, et se in vitam reversurum. Tune regem 
 jussisse ut caput ejus ampntarent, et obiisse; sed hoc illi dixisse, negravibus 
 tjrmentis ipsum enecaret.' 
 
 ' Septemanmsantedecretumhoc,dequoBupralocutiBumus,habuerunt 
 Israelitae vehementes angustias propter viruin Belial, qui seipsum fecit 
 Messiam; etrex atque principes valde accensi sunt excandeacentia contra 
 Judseos, ut dicerent, eos quserere interitum regni sui Messiae petitione. 
 Maledicti hujus nomen vocatum fuit David El-David, aut Alroy, ex urbe 
 Oinadia; et erat ibi coetus magnus, circiter mille famiiias divites,refertas, 
 honestas et f elices continens. Atque Ecclesia hsec eratprincipium co3tuum 
 habitantium circa fluvium Sabbathion, atque erant plua quam centum 
 Ecclesise. Erat hie initium regiouis Mediae, atque lingua eorum erat
 
 266 NOTES TO ALROY. 
 
 idiomaThargum: indeautem usque ad regionem Golan est iter 50 dierum, 
 et sunt sub imperio Regis Persiae, cui dant quotanuis tributum a 15 
 annis et ultra aureum unum. Vir autem hie David El-David studuit 
 coram principe captivitatis Chasdai et coram excellente Scholarcha iu 
 urbe Bagdad, qui eximius erat sapiens in Thalmude et omnibus scientiis 
 exoticis, atque in omnibus libris divinatorum, magorum et Chaldseorum. 
 Hie vero David El-David ex audacia et arrogantia cordis sui elevavit 
 manum contra regem, et collegit Judaeos habitantes in monte Chophtan, 
 et seduxit eos, ut exirent in praelium cum omnibus gentibus. Ostendit 
 iis signa ; sed ignorabant quanam virtute : erant enim homines, qui 
 asserebant istud per modum magiae et prsestigiationis fieri ; alii dicebant, 
 potentiam ejus magnam esse propter manum Dei. Qui consortium ejus 
 veniebant, vocabant cum Messiam, eumque laudabant et extollebant. 
 ****** 
 
 " In regno Persiae alio quodam tempore surrexit vir quidam Judaeus, 
 et seipsum fecit Messiam, atque valde prospere egit ; et numerosus ex 
 Israele ad ilium confluxit populus. Cum viro audiret rex omnem ejus 
 potentiam, atque propositum ejus esse descendere in prselium cum ipso, 
 misit ad Judseos congregates in regione sua, iisque dixit : Nisi egerint 
 cum hocce viro, ut e medio tollatur, certo sciant, se eos omnes gladio 
 interempturum, et uno die infantes ac foeminas deleturum. Tune con- 
 gregatus esttotus populus Israelis simul, atque contendit advirum ilium, 
 ceciditque coram illo in terrain: vehementer supplicatus est, clamavit 
 atque ploravit, ut reverteretur a via sua : et cur seipsum et omnes afflictos 
 conjiceret in periculum : jam enim regem jurasse se immissurum eis gla- 
 dium. et quomodo posset intueri afflictionem omnium ccetuum Persise. 
 Respondit : Vem servatum vos, et non vultis. Quern metuistis ? Quisnam 
 coram me consistent Et quid aget rex Persia, ut non rcformidet me, 
 et gladium meum 1 Interrogarunt eum, quodnam signum haberet quod 
 esset Messias : Respondit, QTTIA FELICITER EEM GERERET, NEQUE MESSIAH 
 OPUS HABEEE ALIO siGNO. Responderunt multos similiter egisse, neque 
 prospera nsos fuisse fortuna; tune rejecit eos a facie sua cum superba 
 iudignationo.'
 
 IXION IN HEAVEN.
 
 ADYEETISEMENT. 
 
 'Ixion, King of Thessaly, famous for its horses, married Dia, 
 daughter of Deioneus, who, in consequence of his son-in-law's non- 
 fulfilment of his engagements, stole away some of the monarch's 
 steeds. Ixion concealed his resentment under the mask of friend- 
 ship. He invited his father-in-law to a feast at Larissa, the 
 capital of his kingdom ; and when Deioneus arrived according to 
 his appointment, he threw him into a pit which he had previously 
 filled with burning coals. This treachery so irritated the neigh- 
 bouring princes, that all of them refused to perform the usual 
 ceremony, by which a man was then purified of murder, and Ixion 
 was shunned and despised by all mankind. Jupiter had compassion 
 upon him, carried him to heaven, and introduced him to the Father 
 of the Gods. Such a favour, which ought to have awakened 
 gratitude in Ixion, only served to inflame his bad passions ; he 
 became enamoured of Juno, and attempted to seduce her. Juno 
 was willing to gratify the passion of Ixion, though, according to 
 others,' &c. Classical Dictionary, art. ' Ixion.'
 
 IXION IN HEAVEN. 
 
 PAET I. 
 
 THE THUNDER groaned, the wind howled, the rain fell in 
 hissing torrents, impenetrable darkness covered the earth. 
 
 A bine and forky flash darted a momentary light over the 
 landscape. A Doric temple rose in the centre of a small 
 and verdant plain, surrounded on all sides by green and 
 hanging woods. 
 
 'Jove is my only friend,' exclaimed a wanderer, as he 
 muffled himself up in his mantle ; ' and were it not for the 
 porch of his temple, this night, methinks, would complete 
 the work of my loving wife and my dutiful subjects.' 
 
 The thunder died away, the wind sank into silence, the 
 rain ceased, and the parting clouds exhibited the glittering 
 crescent of the young moon. A sonorous and majestic voice 
 sounded from the skies : 
 
 * Who art thou that hast no other friend than Jove 9 ' 
 ' One whom all mankind nnite in calling a wretch.' 
 
 ' Art thou a philosopher ? ' 
 
 'If philosophy be endurance. But for the rest, I was 
 sometime a king, and am now a scatterling.' 
 ' How do they call thee ? ' 
 
 * Ixion of Thessaly.' 
 
 ' Ixion of Thessaly ! I thought he was a happy man. I 
 heard that he was just married.' 
 
 ' Father of Gods and men ! for I deem thee such, Thessaly
 
 270 IXION IN HEAVEN. 
 
 is not Olympus. Conjugal felicity is only the portion of the 
 Immortals ! ' 
 
 ' Hem ! What ! was Dia jealous, which is common ; or 
 false, which is commoner ; or both, which is commonest ? ' 
 
 ' It may be neither. We quarrelled about nothing. Where 
 there is little sympathy, or too much, the splitting of a 
 straw is plot enough for a domestic tragedy. I tvas care- 
 less, her friends stigmatised me as callous ; she cold, her 
 friends styled her magnanimous. Public opinion was all 
 on her side, merely because I did not choose that the world 
 should interfere between mo and my wife. Dia took the 
 world's advice upon every point, and the world decided that 
 she always acted rightly. However, life is life, either in a 
 palace or a cave. I am glad you ordered it to leave off 
 thundering.' 
 
 ' A. cool dog this. And Dia left theo Y ' 
 
 No ; I left her.' 
 
 'What, craven?' 
 
 ' Not exactly. The truth is 'tis a long story. I was 
 
 over head and ears in debt.' 
 
 ' Ah ! that accounts for everything. Nothing so harassing 
 as a want of money ! But what lucky fellows you Mortals 
 are with your post-obits ! We Immortals are deprived of 
 this resource. I was obliged to get up a rebellion against 
 my father, because he kept me so short, and could not die.' 
 
 ' You could have married for money. I did.' 
 
 ' I had no opportunity, there was so little female society 
 in those days. When I came out, there were no heiresses 
 except the Parcae, confirmed old maids ; and no very rich 
 dowager, except my grandmother, old Terra.' 
 
 ' Just the thing ; the older the better. However, I married 
 Dia, the daughter of Deioneus, with a prodigious portion ; 
 but after the ceremony the old gentleman would not fulfil 
 his part of the contract without my giving up my stud. Can 
 you conceive anything more unreasonable ? I smothered 
 my resentment at the time ; for the truth is, my tradesmen 
 all renewed my credit on the strength of the match, and so 
 we went on very well for a year ; but at last they began to
 
 IXION IN HEAVEN. 271 
 
 smell a rat, and grew importunate. I entreated Dia to in- 
 terfere ; but she -was a paragon of daughters, and always 
 took the side of her father. If she had only been dutiful 
 to her husband, she would have been a perfect woman. 
 At last I invited Deioneus to the Larissa races, with the 
 intention of conciliating him. The unprincipled old man 
 bought the horse that I had backed, and by which I intended 
 to have redeemed my fortunes, and withdrew it. My book 
 was ruined. I dissembled my rage. I dug a pit in onr 
 garden, and filled it with burning coals. As my father-in- 
 law and myself were taking a stroll after dinner, the worthy 
 Deioneus fell in, merely by accident. Dia proclaimed me 
 the murderer of her father, and, as a satisfaction to her 
 wounded feelings, earnestly requested her subjects to de- 
 capitate her husband. She certainly was the best of 
 daughters. There was no withstanding public opinion, an 
 infuriated rabble, and a magnanimous wife at the same time. 
 They surrounded my palace : I out my way through the 
 greasy-capped multitude, sword in hand, and gained a 
 neighbouring Court, where I solicited my brother princes 
 to purify me from the supposed murder. If I had only 
 murdered a subject, they would have supported me against 
 the people ; but Deioneus being a crowned head, like them- 
 selves, they declared they would not countenance so im- 
 moral a being as his son-in-law. And so, at length, after 
 much wandering, and shunned by all my species, I am here, 
 Jove, in much higher society than I ever expected to 
 mingle.' 
 
 'Well, thou art a frank dog, and in a sufficiently severe 
 scrape. The Gods must have pity on those for whom men 
 have none. It is evident that Earth is too hot for thee at 
 present, so I think thou hadst better come and stay a few 
 weeks with us in Heaven.' 
 
 ' Take my thanks for hecatombs, great Jove. Thou art, 
 indeed, a God ! ' 
 
 * I hardly know whether our life will suit you. We dine 
 at sunset ; for Apollo is so much engaged that he cannot 
 join us sooner, and no dinner goes off well without him. In
 
 272 IXION IN HEAVEN. 
 
 the morning you are your own master, and must find amuse- 
 ment where you can. Diana will show you some tolerable 
 sport. Do you shoot ? ' 
 
 ' No arrow surer. Fear not for me, ./Egiochus : I am 
 always at home. But how am I to get to you ? ' 
 
 ' I will send Mercury ; he is the best travelling companion 
 in the world. What ho ! my Eagle ! ' 
 
 The clouds joined, and darkness again fell over the earth. 
 
 ii. 
 
 ' So ! tread softly. Don't be nervous. Are you sick ? ' 
 ' A little nausea ; 'tis nothing.' 
 
 ' The novelty of the motion. The best thing is a beef- 
 steak. We will stop at Taurus and take one.' 
 
 * You have been a great traveller, Mercury ? ' 
 ' I have seen the world.' 
 
 ' Ah ! a wondrous spectacle. I long to travel.' 
 
 ' The same thing over and over again. Little novelty and 
 
 much change. I am wearied with exertion, and if I could 
 
 get a pension would retire.' 
 
 ' And yet travel brings wisdom.' 
 
 * It cures us of care. Seeing much we feel little, and learn 
 how very petty are all those great affairs which cost us such 
 anxiety.' 
 
 ' I feel that already myself. Floating in this blue asther, 
 what the devil is my wife to me, and her dirty earth ! My 
 persecuting enemies seem so many pismires ; and as for my 
 debts, which have occasioned me so many brooding mo- 
 ments, honour and infamy, credit and beggary, seem to me 
 alike ridiculous.' 
 
 ' Your mind is opening, Ixion. You will soon be a man 
 of the world. To the left, and keep clear of that star.' 
 
 ' Who lives there ? ' 
 
 ' The Fates know, not I. Some low people who are 
 trying to shine into notice. 'Tis a parvenu planet, and 
 only sprung into space within this century. We do not 
 visit them.' 
 
 * Poor devils ! I feel hungry.'
 
 IXION IN HEAVEN. 273 
 
 ' All right. We shall get into Heaven by the first dinner 
 bolt. You cannot arrive at a strange house at a better 
 moment. We shall just have time to dress. I would not 
 spoil my appetite by luncheon. Jupiter keeps a capital 
 cook.' 
 
 ' I have heard of Nectar and Ambrosia.' 
 
 ' Poh ! nobody touches them. They are regular old- 
 fashioned celestial food, and merely put upon the side-table. 
 Nothing goes down in Heaven now but infernal cookery. 
 We took our cJief from Proserpine.' 
 
 ' Were you ever in Hell ? ' 
 
 * Several times. 'Tis the fashion now among the Olym- 
 pians to pass the winter there.' 
 
 ' Is this the season in Heaven ? ' 
 
 ' Yes ; you are lucky. Olympus is quite full.' 
 
 ' It was kind of Jupiter to invite me.' 
 
 ' Ay ! he has his good points. And, no doubt, he has 
 taken a liking to you, which is all very well. Bat be upon 
 your guard. He has no heart, and is as capricious as he is 
 tyrannical.' 
 
 ' Gods cannot be more unkind to me than men have 
 been.' 
 
 * All those who have suffered think they have seen the 
 worst. A great mistake. However, you are now in the 
 high road to preferment, so we will not be dull. There 
 are some good fellows enough amongst us. You will like 
 old Neptune.' 
 
 ' Is he there now ? ' 
 
 ' Yes, he generally passes his summer with us. There is 
 little stirring in the ocean at that season.' 
 ' I am anxious to see Mars.' 
 
 * Oh ! a brute, more a bully than a hero. Not at all in 
 the best set. These mustachioed gentry are by no means 
 the rage at present in Olympus. The women are all literary 
 now, and Minerva has quite eclipsed Venus. Apollo is our 
 hero. You must read his last work.' 
 
 ' I hate reading.' 
 
 * So do I. I have no time, and seldom do anything in 
 
 T
 
 274 IXION IN HEAVEN. 
 
 that way but glance at a newspaper. Study and action 
 will not combine.' 
 
 * I suppose I shall find the Goddesses very proud ? ' 
 
 * You will find them as you find women below, of dif- 
 ferent dispositions with the same object. Venus is a flirt ; 
 Minerva a prude, who fancies she has a correct taste and a 
 strong mind ; and Juno a politician. As for the rest, faint 
 heart never won fair lady, take a friendly hint, and do not 
 be alarmed.' 
 
 'I fear nothing. My mind mounts with my fortunes. 
 We are above the clouds. They form beneath us a vast 
 and snowy region, dim and irregular, as I have sometimes 
 seen them clustering upon the horizon's ridge at sunset, like 
 a raging sea stilled by some sudden supernatural frost and 
 frozen into form ! How bright the air above us, and how 
 delicate its fragrant breath ! I scarcely breathe, and yet 
 my pulses beat like my first youth. I hardly feel my being. 
 A splendour falls upon your presence. You seem, indeed, 
 a God ! Am I so glorious ? This, this is Heaven ! ' 
 
 m. 
 
 The travellers landed on a vast flight of sparkling steps of 
 lapis-lazuli. Ascending, they entered beautiful gardens ; 
 winding walks that yielded to the feet, and accelerated your 
 passage by their rebounding pressure ; fragrant shrubs 
 covered with dazzling flowers, the fleeting tints of which 
 changed every moment ; groups of tall trees, with strange 
 birds of brilliant and variegated plumage, singing and 
 reposing in their sheeny foliage, and fountains of perfumes. 
 
 Before them rose an illimitable and golden palace, with 
 high spreading domes of pearl, and long windows of crystal. 
 Around the huge portal of ruby was ranged a company of 
 winged genii, who smiled on Mercury as he passed them 
 with his charge. 
 
 ' The father of Gods and men is dressing,' said the son of 
 Maia. ' I shall attend his toilet and inform him of your 
 arrival. These are your rooms. Dinner will be ready in 
 half an hour. I will call for you as I go down. You can
 
 IXION IN HEAVEN. 275 
 
 be formally presented in the evening. At that time, 
 inspired by liqueurs and his matchless band of wind instru- 
 ments, you will agree with the world that .^Egiochus is the 
 most finished God in existence.' 
 
 rv. 
 
 ' Now, Ixion, are you ready ? ' 
 
 ' Even so. What says Jove ? ' 
 
 ' He smiled, but said nothing. He was trying on a new 
 robe. By this time he is seated. Hark! the thunder. 
 Come on ! ' 
 
 They entered a cnpolaed hall. Seats of ivory and gold 
 were ranged round a circular table of cedar, inlaid with the 
 campaigns against the Titans, in silver exquisitely worked, 
 a nuptial present of Vulcan. The service of gold plate 
 threw all the ideas of the King of Thessaly as to royal 
 magnificence into the darkest shade. The enormous plateau 
 represented the constellations. Ixiou viewed the father of 
 Gods and men with great interest, who, however, did not 
 notice him. He acknowledged the majesty of that counte- 
 nance whose nod shook Olympus. Majestically robust 
 and luxuriantly lusty, his tapering waist was evidently 
 immortal, for it defied Time, and his splendid auburn curls, 
 parted on his forehead with celestial precision, descended 
 over cheeks glowing with the purple radiancy of perpetual 
 manhood. 
 
 The haughty Juno was seated on his left hand and Ceres 
 ou his right. For the rest of the company there was Nep- 
 tune, Latona, Minerva, and Apollo, and when Mercury and 
 Ixion had taken their places, one seat was still vacant. 
 
 ' Where is Diana ? ' inquired Jupiter, with a frown. 
 
 ' My sister is hunting,' said Apollo. 
 
 ' She is always too late for dinner,' said Jupiter. ' No 
 habit is less Goddess-like.' 
 
 ' Godlike pursuits cannot be expected to induce Goddess- 
 like manners,' said Juno, with a sneer. 
 
 ' I have no doubt Diana will be here directly,' said 
 Latona, mildly. 
 
 T 2
 
 276 IXION IN HEAVEN. 
 
 Jupiter seemed pacified, and at that instant the absent 
 guest returned. 
 
 ' Good sport, Di ? ' inquired Neptune. 
 
 ' Very fair, uncle. Mamma,' continued the sister of 
 Apollo, addressing herself to Juno, whom she ever thus 
 styled when she wished to conciliate her, ' I have brought 
 you a new peacock.' 
 
 Juno was fond of pets, and was conciliated by the pre- 
 sent. 
 
 ' Bacchus made a great noise about this wine, Mercury,' 
 said Jupiter, ' but I think with little cause. What think 
 you?' 
 
 ' It pleases me, but I am fatigued, and then all wine is 
 agreeable." 
 
 ' You have had a long journey,' replied the Thunderer. 
 ' Ixion, I am glad to see you in Heaven.' 
 
 'Your Majesty arrived to-day?' inquired Minerva, to 
 whom the King of Thessaly sat next. 
 
 ' Within this hour.' 
 
 ' You must leave off talking of Time now,' said Minerva, 
 with a severe smile. ' Pray is there anything new in 
 Greece ? ' 
 
 1 1 have not been at all in society lately.' 
 
 ' No new edition of Homer ? I admire him exceedingly.' 
 
 * All about Greece interests me,' said Apollo, who, 
 although handsome, was a somewhat melancholy lack-a- 
 daisical looking personage, with his shirt collar thrown 
 open, and his long curls theatrically arranged. ' All about 
 Greece interests me. I always consider Greece my peculiar 
 property. My best poems were written at Delphi. I tra- 
 velled in Greece when I was young. I envy mankind.' 
 
 * Indeed ! ' said Ixion. 
 
 ' Yes : they at least can look forward to a termination of 
 the ennui of existence, but for us Celestials there is no 
 prospect. Say what they like, Immortality is a bore.' 
 
 * You eat nothing, Apollo,' said Ceres. 
 ' Nor drink,' said Neptune. 
 
 ' To eat, to drink, what is it but to live ; and what is lifo
 
 IXION IN HEAVEN. 277 
 
 but death, if death be that which all men deem it, a thing 
 insufferable, and to be shunned. I refresh myself now only 
 with soda-water and biscuits. Ganymede, bring some.' 
 
 Now, although the cuisine of Olympus was considered 
 perfect, the forlorn poet had unfortunately fixed upon the 
 only two articles which were not comprised in its cellar or 
 larder. In Heaven, there was neither soda-water nor 
 biscuits. A great confusion consequently ensued; but at 
 length the bard, whose love of fame was only equalled by 
 his horror of getting fat, consoled himself with a swan 
 stuffed with truffles, and a bottle of strong Tenedos wine. 
 
 ' What do you think of Homer ? ' inquired Minerva of 
 Apollo. ' Is he not delightful ? ' 
 
 ' If you think so.' 
 
 ' Nay, I am desirous of your opinion.' 
 
 ' Then you should not have given me yours, for your taste 
 is too fine for me to dare to differ with it.' 
 
 ' I have suspected, for some time, that you are rather a 
 heretic.' 
 
 'Why, the truth is,' replied Apollo, playing with his 
 rings, ' I do not think much of Homer. Homer was not 
 esteemed in his own age, and our contemporaries are gene- 
 rally our best judges. The fact is, there are very few 
 people who are qualified to decide upon matters of taste. 
 A certain set, for certain reasons, resolve to cry up a cer- 
 tain writer, and the great mass soon join in. All is cant. 
 And the present admiration of Homer is not less so. They 
 say I have borrowed a great deal from him. The truth is, 
 I never read Homer since I was a child, and I thought of 
 him then what I think of him now, a writer of some wild 
 irregular power, totally deficient in taste. Depend upon it, 
 our contemporaries are our best judges, and his contempo- 
 raries decided that Homer was nothing. A great poet can- 
 not be kept down. Look at my case. Marsyas said of my 
 first volume that it was pretty good poetry for a God, and 
 in answer I wrote a satire, and flayed Marsyas alive. But 
 what is poetry, and what is criticism, and what is life ? 
 Air. And what is Air ? Do you know ? I don't. All is
 
 278 IXION IN HEAVEN. 
 
 mystery, and all is gloom, and ever and anon from out the 
 clouds a star breaks forth, and glitters, and that star is 
 Poetry.' 
 
 ' Splendid ! ' exclaimed Minerva. 
 
 ' I do not exactly understand you,' said Neptune. 
 
 'Have you heard from Proserpine, lately?' inquired 
 Jupiter of Ceres. 
 
 ' Yesterday,' said the domestic mother. ' They talk of 
 soon joining us. But Pluto is at present so busy, owing to 
 the amazing quantity of wars going on now, that I am 
 almost afraid he will scarcely be able to accompany her.' 
 
 Juno exchanged a telegraphic nod with Ceres. The 
 Goddesses rose, and retired. 
 
 ' Come, old boy,' said Jupiter to Ixion, instantly throwing 
 off all his chivalric majesty, ' I drink your welcome in a 
 magnum of Maraschino. Damn your poetry, Apollo, and 
 Mercury give us one of your good stories.' 
 
 v. 
 
 ' Well ! what do you think of him ? ' asked Juno. 
 ' He appears to have a fine mind,' said Minerva. 
 ' Poh ! he has very fine eyes,' said Juno. 
 ' He seems a very nice, quiet young gentleman,' said 
 Ceres. 
 
 ' I have no doubt he is very amiable,' said Latona. 
 ' He must have felt very strange,' said Diana. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Hercules arrived with lus bride Hebe; soon after the 
 Graces dropped in, the most delightful personages in the 
 world for a soiree, so useful and ready for anything. After- 
 wards came a few of the Muses, Thalia, Melpomene, and 
 Terpsichore, famous for a charade or a proverb. Jupiter 
 liked to be amused in the evening. Bacchus also came, 
 but finding that the Gods had not yet left their wine, re- 
 tired to pay them a previous visit.
 
 IXION IN HEAVEN. 279 
 
 VII. 
 
 Ganymede announced coffee in the saloon of Juno. 
 Jupiter was in superb good humour. He was amused by 
 his mortal guest. He had condescended to tell one of his 
 best stories in his best style, about Leda, not too scandalous, 
 but gay. 
 
 ' Those were bright days,' said Neptune. 
 
 ' We can remember,' said the Thunderer, with a twink- 
 ling eye. 'These youths have fallen upon duller times. 
 There are no fine women now. Ixion, I drink to the health 
 of your wife.' 
 
 ' With all my heart, and may we never be nearer than 
 we are at present.' 
 
 ' Good ! i'faith ; Apollo, your arm. Now for the ladies. 
 La, la, la, la ! la, la, la, la ! ' 
 
 VIII. 
 
 The Thunderer entered the saloon of Juno with that bow 
 which no God could rival ; all rose, and the King of 
 Heaven seated himself between Ceres and Latona. The 
 melancholy Apollo stood apart, and was soon carried off by 
 Minerva to an assembly at the house of Mnemosyne. Mer- 
 cury chatted with the Graces, and Bacchus with Diana. 
 The three Muses favoured the company with singing, and 
 the Queen of Heaven approached Ixion. 
 
 ' Does your Majesty dance ?' she haughtily inquired. 
 
 ' On earth ; I have few accomplishments even there, and 
 none in Heaven.' 
 
 ' You have led a strange life ! I have heard of your ad- 
 ventures.' 
 
 * A king who has lost his crown may generally gain at 
 least experience.' 
 
 ' Your courage is firm.' 
 
 ' I have felt too much to care for much. Yesterday I 
 was a vagabond exposed to every pitiless storm, and now 
 I am the guest of Jove. While there is life there is hope, 
 and he who laughs at Destiny will gain Fortune. I would 
 go through the past again to enjoy the present, and feel
 
 280 IXION IN HEAVEN. 
 
 lhat, after all, I am my wife's debtor, since, through her 
 conduct, I can gaze upon you.' 
 
 ' No great spectacle. If that be all, I wish you better 
 fortune.' 
 
 ' I desire no greater.' 
 
 ' You are moderate.' 
 
 ' I am perhaps more unreasonable than you imagine.' 
 
 ' Indeed ! ' 
 
 Their eyes met ; the dark orbs of the Thessalian did noc 
 quail before the flashing vision of the Goddess. Juno grew 
 pale. Juno turned away.
 
 IXION IN HEAVEN. 281 
 
 FAKT 
 
 Others say it was only a cloud.' 
 
 MERCURY ana Ganymede were each lolling on an opposite 
 couch in the antechamber of Olympus. 
 
 ' It is wonderful,' said the son of Maia, yawning. 
 
 'It is incredible,' rejoined the cup-bearer of Jove, 
 stretching his legs. 
 
 A miserable mortal ! ' exclaimed the God, elevating his 
 eyebrows. 
 
 ' A vile Thessalian ! ' said the beautiful Phrygian, shrug- 
 ging his shoulders. 
 
 ' Not three days back an outcast among his own wretched 
 species ! ' 
 
 ' And now commanding everybody in Heaven.' 
 
 ' He shall not command me, though,' said Mercury. 
 
 ' Will he not ? ' replied Ganymede. ' Why, what do you 
 think ? only last night ; hark ! here he comes.' 
 
 The companions jumped up from their couches ; a light 
 laugh was heard. The cedar portal was flung open, and 
 Ixion lounged in, habited in a loose morning robe, and 
 kicking before him one of his slippers. 
 
 ' Ah ! ' exclaimed the King of Thessaly, ' the very fellows 
 I wanted to see ! Ganymede, bring me some nectar ; and, 
 Mercury, run and tell Jove that I shall not dine at home 
 to-day.' 
 
 The messenger and the page exchanged looks of indig- 
 nant consternation. 
 
 ' Well ! what are you waiting for ? ' continued Ixion, 
 looking round from the mirror in which he was arranging 
 his locks. The messenger and the page disappeared.
 
 282 IXION IN HEAVEN. 
 
 So ! tins is Heaven,' exclaimed the husband of Dia, 
 flinging himself upon one of the couches ; ' and a very 
 pleasant place too. These worthy Immortals required their 
 minds to be opened, and I trust I have effectually per- 
 formed the necessary operation. They wanted to keep me 
 down with their dull old-fashioned celestial airs, but I 
 fancy I have given them change for their talent. To make 
 your way in Heaven you must command. These exclusives 
 sink under the audacious invention of an aspiring mind. 
 Jove himself is really a fine old fellow, with some notions 
 too. I am a prime favourite, and no one is greater autho- 
 rity with JEgiochus on all subjects, from the character of 
 the fair sex or the pedigree of a courser, down to the cut of 
 a robe or the flavour of a dish. Thanks, Ganymede,' con- 
 tinued the Thessalian, as he took the goblet from his 
 returning attendant. 
 
 ' I drink to your bonnes fortunes. Splendid ! This nectar 
 makes me feel quite immortal. By-the-bye, I hear sweet 
 sounds. Who is in the Hall of Music ? ' 
 
 ' The Goddesses, royal sir, practise a new air of Euterpe, 
 the words by Apollo. 'Tis pretty, and will doubtless be 
 very popular, for it is all about moonlight and the misery 
 of existence.' 
 
 ' I warrant it.' 
 
 'You have a taste for poetry yourself?' inquired 
 Ganymede. 
 
 * Not the least,' replied Ixion. 
 
 * Apollo,' continued the heavenly page, ' is a great 
 genius, though Marsyas said that he never would be a poet 
 because he was a god, and had no heart. But do you 
 think, sir, that a poet does indeed need a heart ? ' 
 
 ' I really cannot say. I know my wife always said I had 
 
 a bad heart and worse head ; but what she meant, upon my 
 
 honour I never could understand.' 
 
 ' Minerva will ask you to write in her album.' 
 
 'Will she indeed! I am sorry to hear it, for I can 
 
 scarcely scrawl my signature. I should think that Jove 
 
 himself cared little for all this nonsense.'
 
 IX10N IN HEAVEN. 283 
 
 ' Jove loves an epigram. He does not esteem Apollo's 
 works at all. Jove is of the classical school, and admires 
 satire, provided there be no allusions to gods and kings.' 
 
 ' Of course ; I quite agree with him. I remember \ve 
 had a confounded poet at Larissa who proved my family 
 lived before the deluge, and asked me for a pension. I 
 refused him, and then he wrote an epigram asserting that I 
 sprang from the veritable stones thrown by Deucalion and 
 Pyrrha at the re-peopling of the earth, and retained all the 
 properties of my ancestors.' 
 
 ' Ha, ha ! Hark ! there's a thunderbolt ! I must run to 
 Jove.' 
 
 'And I will look in on the musicians. This way, I think ?' 
 
 ' Up the ruby staircase, turn to your right, down the 
 amethyst gallery. Farewell ! ' 
 
 ' Good bye ; a lively lad that ! ' 
 
 II. 
 
 The King of Thessaly entered the Hall of Music with its 
 golden walls and crystal dome. The Queen of Heaven was 
 reclining in an easy chair, cutting out peacocks in small 
 sheets of note paper. Minerva was making a pencil obser- 
 vation on a manuscript copy of the song : Apollo listened 
 with deference to her laudatory criticisms. Another divine 
 dame, standing by the side of Euterpe, who was seated by 
 the harp, looked up as Ixion entered. The wild liquid 
 glance of her soft but radiant countenance denoted the 
 famed Goddess of Beauty. 
 
 Juno just acknowledged the entrance of Ixion by a slight 
 and haughty inclination, of the head, and then resumed her 
 employment. Minerva asked him his opinion of her amend- 
 ment, of which he greatly approved. Apollo greeted him 
 with a melancholy smile, and congratulated him on being 
 mortal. Venus complimented him on his visit to Olympus, 
 and expressed the pleasure that she experienced in making 
 his acquaintance. 
 
 ' Wh.it do you think of Heaven ?' inquired Venus, in n 
 soft still voice, and with a smile like summer lightning.
 
 584 IXION IN HEAVEN. 
 
 ' I never foiuad it so enchanting as at this moment,' re- 
 plied Ixion. 
 
 ' A little dn.ll ? For myself, I pass my time chiefly at 
 Cnidos : you must come and visit me there. "Tis the most 
 charming place in the world. 'Tis said, you know, that our 
 onions are like other people's roses. We will take care of 
 you, if your wife come.' 
 
 'No fear of that. She always remains at home and 
 piques herself on her domestic virtues, which means pick- 
 ling, and quarrelling with her husband.' 
 
 ' Ah ! I see you are a droll. Very good indeed. Well, 
 for my part, I like a watering-place existence. Cnidos, 
 Paphos, Cythera ; you will usually find me at one of these 
 places. I like the easy distraction of a career without any 
 visible result. At these fascinating spots your gloomy race, 
 to whom, by-the-bye, I am exceedingly partial, appear 
 emancipated from the wearing fetters of their regular, dull, 
 orderly, methodical, moral, political, toiling existence. I 
 pride myself upon being the Goddess of Watering-places. 
 You really must pay me a visit at Cnidos.' 
 
 * Such an invitation requires no repetition. And Cnidos 
 is your favourite spot ?' 
 
 * Why, it was so ; but of late it has become so inundated 
 with invalid Asiatics and valetudinarian Persians, that the 
 simultaneous influx of the handsome heroes who swarm in 
 from the islands to look after their daughters, scarcely com- 
 pensates for the annoying presence of their yellow faces and 
 shaking limbs. N"o, I think, on the whole, Paphos is my 
 favourite.' 
 
 ' I have heard of its magnificent luxury.' 
 
 ' Oh ! 'tis lovely ! Quite my idea of country life. "Not a 
 single tree ! When Cyprus is very hot, you run to Paphos 
 for a sea-breeze, and are sure to meet every one whose pre- 
 sence is in the least desirable. All the bores remain behind, 
 as if by instinct.' 
 
 ' I remember when we married, we talked of passing the 
 honeymoon at Cythera, but Dia would have her waiting- 
 maid and a bandbox stuffed between us in the chariot, so I 
 got sulky after the first stage, and returned by myself.'
 
 IXION IN HEAVEN. 285 
 
 'You were quite right. I Late bandboxes: they are 
 always in the way. You would have liked Cythera if you 
 had been in the least in love. High rocks and green knolls, 
 bowery woods, winding walks, and delicious sunsets. I 
 have not been there much of late,' continued the Goddess, 
 looking somewhat sad and serious, ' since : but I will not 
 talk sentiment to Ixion.' 
 
 ' Do you think, then, I am insensible ?' 
 
 ' Yes.' 
 
 * Perhaps you are right. We mortals grow callous.' 
 
 ' So I have heard. How very odd ! ' So saying, the 
 Goddess glided away and saluted Mars, who at that mo- 
 ment entered the hall. Ixiou was presented to the military 
 hero, who looked fierce and bowed stiffly. The King of 
 Thessaly turned upon his heel. Minerva opened her album, 
 and invited him to inscribe a stanza. 
 
 ' Goddess of Wisdom,' replied the King, 'unless you in- 
 spire me, the virgin page must remain pure as thyself. I 
 can scarcely sign a decree.' 
 
 ' Is it Ixion of Thessaly who says this ; one who has seen 
 so much, and, if I am not mistaken, has felt and thought so 
 much ? I can easily conceive why such a mind may desire 
 to veil its movements from the common herd, but pray con- 
 cede to Minerva the gratifying compliment of assuring her 
 that she is the exception for whom this rule has been esta- 
 blished.' 
 
 ' I seem to listen to the inspired music of an oracle. Give 
 me a pen.' 
 
 ' Here is one, plucked from a sacred owl/ 
 
 ' So ! I write. There ! Will it do ?' 
 
 Minerva read the inscription : 
 
 I HAVE SEEN THE WORLD, AND MORE THAN THE WORLD : 1 
 HAVE STUDIED THE HEART OP MAN, AND NOW I CONSORT 
 WITH IMMORTALS. THE FRUIT OF MY TREE OF KNOWLEDGE 
 
 IS PLUCKED, AND IT IS THIS, * SUfettltttraf S t0 tlje 
 
 tf.' 
 
 Written in the Album of Minerva, "by 
 Ijrum tit
 
 286 IXION IN HEAVEN. 
 
 ' Tis brief,' said the Goddess, with a musing air, ' but 
 full of meaning. You have a daring soul and pregnant 
 mind.' 
 
 * I have dared much : what I may produce we have yet to 
 see.' 
 
 * I must to Jove,' said Minerva, ' to council. We shall 
 meet again. Farewell, Ixioii.' 
 
 ' Farewell, Glaucopis.' 
 
 The King of Thessaly stood away from the remaining 
 guests, and leant with folded arms and pensive brow against 
 a wreathed column. Mars listened to Venus with an air of 
 deep devotion. Euterpe played an inspiring accompaniment 
 to their conversation. The Queen of Heaven seemed en- 
 grossed in the creation of her paper peacocks. 
 
 Ixion advanced and seated himself on a couch near Juno. 
 His manner was divested of that reckless bearing and care- 
 less coolness by which it was in general distinguished. He 
 was, perhaps, even a little embarrassed. His ready tongue 
 deserted him. At length he spoke. 
 
 ' Has your Majesty ever heard of the peacock of the Queen 
 of Mesopotamia ?' 
 
 ' No,' replied Juno, with stately reserve ; and then she 
 added with an air of indifferent curiosity, ' Is it in any way 
 remarkable ?' 
 
 ' Its breast is of silver, its wings of gold, its eyes of car- 
 buncle, its claws of amethyst.' 
 
 'And its tail ?' eagerly inquired Juno. 
 
 * That is a secret,' replied Ixiou. ' The tail is the most 
 wonderful part of all.' 
 
 ' Oh ! tell me, pray tell me ! ' 
 
 4 1 forget.' 
 
 ' No, no, no ; it is impossible ! ' exclaimed the animated 
 Juno. ' Provoking mortal ! ' continued the Goddess. ' Let 
 me entreat you ; tell me immediately.' 
 
 ' There is a reason which prevents me.' 
 
 ' What can it be ? How very odd ! What reason can it 
 possibly be ? Now tell me ; as a particular, a personal 
 favour, I request you, do tell me.'
 
 IXION IN HEAVEN. 287 
 
 ' What ! The tail or the reason ? The tail is wonderful, 
 "but the reason is much more so. I can only tell one. Now 
 choose.' 
 
 ' What provoking things these human beings are ! The 
 tail is wonderful, but the reason is much more so. Well 
 then, the reason ; no, the tail. Stop, now, as a particular 
 favour, pray tell me both. What can the tail be made of 
 and what can the reason be? I am literally dying of 
 curiosity.' 
 
 ' Your Majesty has cut out that peacock wrong,' remarked 
 Ixion. ' It is more like one of Minerva's owls.' 
 
 'Who cares about paper peacocks, when the Queen of 
 Mesopotamia has got such a miracle ! ' exclaimed Juno ; and 
 she tore the labours of the morning to pieces, and threw 
 away the fragments with vexation. ' Now tell me instantly ; 
 if you have the slightest regard for me, tell me instantly, 
 What was the tail made of? ' 
 
 ' And you do not wish to hear the reason ?' 
 
 ' That afterwards. Now ! I am all ears.' At this mo- 
 ment Ganymede entered, and whispered the Goddess, who 
 rose in evident vexation, and retired to the presence of 
 Jove. 
 
 in. 
 
 The King of Thessaly quitted the Hall of Music. Moody, 
 yet not uninfluenced by a degree of wild excitement, he 
 wandered forth into the gardens of Olympus. He came to 
 a beautiful green retreat surrounded by enormous cedars, so 
 vast that it seemed they must have been coeval with the 
 creation; so fresh and brilliant, you would have deemed 
 them wet with the dew of their first spring. The turf, 
 softer than down, and exhaling, as you pressed it, an ex- 
 quisite perfume, invited him to recline himself upon this 
 natural couch. He threw himself upon the aromatic herb- 
 age, and leaning on his arm, fell into a deep reverie. 
 
 Hours flew away; the sunshiny glades that opened in the 
 distance had softened into shade. 
 
 ' Ixioii, how do you do ? ' inquired a voice, wild, sweet, 
 mid thrilling as a bird. The King of Thessaly started and
 
 288 IXION IN HEAVEN. 
 
 looked up with the distracted air of a man roused from a 
 dream, or from complacent meditation over some strange, 
 sweet secret. His clieek was flushed, his dark eyes flashed 
 fire ; his brow trembled, his dishevelled hair played in the 
 fitful breeze. The Kong of Thessaly looked up, and beheld 
 a most beautiful youth. 
 
 Apparently, he had attained about the age of puberty. 
 His stature, however, was rather tall for his age, but 
 exquisitely moulded and proportioned. Very fair, his 
 somewhat round cheeks were tinted with a rich but delicate 
 glow, like the rose of twilight, and lighted by dimples that 
 twinkled like stars. His large and deep-blue eyes sparkled 
 with exultation, and an air of ill-suppressed mockery 
 quivered round his pouting lips. His light auburn hair, 
 braided off his white forehead, clustered in massy curls on 
 each side of his face, and fell in sunny torrents down his 
 neck. And from the back of the beautiful youth there flut- 
 tered forth two wings, the tremulous plumage of which 
 seemed to have been bathed in a sunset: so various, so 
 radiant, and so novel were its shifting and wondrous tints ; 
 purple, and crimson, and gold ; streaks of azure, dashes of 
 orange and glossy black ; now a single feather, whiter than 
 light, and sparkling like the frost, stars of emerald and car- 
 buncle, and then the prismatic blaze of an enormous bril- 
 liant ! A quiver hung at the side of the beautiful youth, 
 and he leant upon a bow. 
 
 * Oh ! god, for god thou must be ! ' at length exclaimed 
 Ixion. ' Do I behold the bright divinity of Love ? ' 
 
 * I am indeed Cupid,' replied the youth ; ' and am curious 
 to know what Ixion is thinking about.' 
 
 ' Thought is often bolder than speech,' 
 
 ' Oracular, though a mortal ! You need not be afraid to 
 trust me. My aid I am sure you must need. Who ever 
 was found in a reverie on the green turf, under the shade of 
 spreading trees, without requiring the assistance of Cupid ? 
 Come ! be frank, who is the heroine ? Some love-sick 
 nymph deserted on the far earth ; or worse, some treache- 
 rous mistress, whose frailty is more easily forgotten than
 
 IXION IN HEAVEN. 289 
 
 her charms ? "Tis a miserable situation, no doubt. It can- 
 not be your wife ? ' 
 
 ' Assuredly not,' replied Ixion, with energy. 
 
 ' Another man's ? ' 
 
 'No.' 
 
 ' What ! an obdurate maiden?' 
 
 Ixion shook his head. 
 
 ' It must be a widow, then,' continued Cupid. ' Who 
 ever heard before of such a piece of work about a widow ! ' 
 
 ' Have pity upon me, dread Cupid ! ' exclaimed the King 
 of Thessaly, rising suddenly from the ground, and falling 
 on his knee before the God. 'Thou art the universal 
 friend of man, and all nations alike throw their incense on 
 thy altars. Thy divine discrimination has not deceived 
 thee. I am in love ; desperately, madly, fatally enamoured. 
 The object of my passion is neither my own wife nor 
 another man's. In spite of all they have said and sworn, I 
 am a moral member of society. She is neither a maid nor a 
 widow. She is ' 
 
 ' What ? what ? ' exclaimed the impatient deity. 
 
 ' A Goddess ! ' replied the King. 
 
 ' Wheugh ! ' whistled Cupid. ' What ! has my mis- 
 chievous mother been indulging you with an innocent 
 flirtation ? ' 
 
 ' Yes ; but it produced no effect upon me.' 
 
 * You have a stout heart, then. Perhaps you have been 
 reading poetry with Minerva, and are caught in one of her 
 Platonic man-traps.' 
 
 ' She set one, but I broke away.' 
 
 ' You have a stout leg, then. But where are you, where 
 are you ? Is it Hebe ? It can hardly be Diana, she is so 
 cold. Is it a Muse, or is it one of the Graces ? ' 
 
 Ixion again shook his head. 
 
 ' Come, my dear fellow,' said Cupid, quite in a confiden- 
 tial tone, ' you have told enough to make further reserve 
 mere affectation. Ease your heart at once, and if I can 
 assist you, depend upon my exertions.' 
 
 ' Beneficent God ! ' exclaimed Ixion, ' if I ever return to 
 u
 
 290 IXION IN HEAVEN. 
 
 Larissa, the brightest temple in Greece shall hail thee for 
 its inspiring deity. I address thee with all the confiding 
 frankness of a devoted votary. Know, then, the heroine of 
 my reverie was no less a personage than the Queen of 
 Heaven herself ! ' 
 
 ' Juno ! by all that is sacred ! ' shouted Cupid. 
 
 ' I am here,' responded a voice of majestic melody. The 
 stately form of the Queen of Heaven advanced from a neigh- 
 bouring bower. Ixion stood with his eyes fixed upon the 
 ground, with a throbbing heart and burning cheeks. Juno 
 stood motionless, pale, and astounded. The God of Love 
 burst into excessive laughter. 
 
 'A pretty pair,' he exclaimed, fluttering between both, 
 and laughing in their faces. ' Truly a pretty pair. "Well ! 
 I see I am in your way. Good bye ! ' And so saying, the 
 God pulled a couple of arrows from his quiver, and with the 
 rapidity of lightning shot one in the respective breasts of 
 the Queen of Heaven and the King of Thessaly. 
 
 IV. 
 
 The amethystine twilight of Olympus died away. The 
 stars blazed with tints of every hue. Ixion and Juno re- 
 turned to the palace. She leant upon his arm ; her eyes 
 were fixed upon the ground ; they were in sight of the 
 gorgeous pile, and yet she had not spoken. Ixion, too, 
 was silent, and gazed with abstraction upon the glowing 
 sky. 
 
 Suddenly, when within a hundred yards of the portal, 
 Juno stopped, and looking up into the face of Ixion with an 
 irresistible smile, she said, ' I am sure you cannot now 
 refuse to tell me what the Queen of Mesopotamia's peacock's 
 tail was made of ! ' 
 
 ' It is impossible now,' said Ixion. ' Know, then, beautiful 
 Goddess, that the tail of the Queen of Mesopotamia's pea- 
 cock was made of some plumage she had stolen from the 
 wings of Cupid.' 
 
 ' And what was the reason that prevented you from tell- 
 ing me before ? '
 
 IXION IN HEAVEN. 291 
 
 ' Because, beautiful Jtmo, I am the most discreet of men, 
 and respect the secret of a lady, however trifling.' 
 
 ' I am glad to hear that,' replied Juno, and they re-entered 
 the palace. 
 
 v. 
 
 Mercury met Juno and Ixion in the gallery leading to the 
 grand banqueting hall. 
 
 ' I was looking for you,' said the God, shaking his head. 
 ' Jove is in a sublime rage. Dinner has been ready this 
 hour.' 
 
 The King of Thessaly and the Queen of Heaven ex- 
 changed a glance and entered the saloon. Jove looked up 
 with a brow of thunder, but did not condescend to send 
 forth a single flash of anger. Jove looked up and Jove 
 looked down. All Olympus trembled as the father of Gods 
 and men resumed his soup. The rest of the guests seemed 
 nervous and reserved, except Cupid, who said immediately 
 to Juno, ' Your Majesty has been detained ? ' 
 
 ' I fell asleep in a bower reading Apollo's last poem,' re- 
 plied Juno. ' I am lucky, however, in finding a companion 
 in my negligence. Ixion, where have you been ? ' 
 
 ' Take a glass of nectar, Juno,' said Cupid, with eyes 
 twinkling with mischief; ' and perhaps Ixion will join us.' 
 
 This was the most solemn banquet ever celebrated in 
 Olympus. Every one seemed out of humour or out of 
 spirits. Jupiter spoke only in monosyllables of suppressed 
 rage, that sounded like distant thunder. 
 
 Apollo whispered to Minerva. Mercury never opened his 
 lips, but occasionally exchanged significant glances with 
 Ganymede. Mars compensated, by his attentions to Venus, 
 for his want of conversation. Cupid employed himself in 
 asking disagreeable questions. At length the Goddesses re- 
 tired. Mercury exerted himself to amuse Jove, but the 
 Thunderer scarcely deigned to smile at his best stories. 
 Mars picked his teeth, Apollo played with his rings, Ixion 
 was buried in a profound reverie. 
 
 u 2
 
 292 IXION IN HEAVEN. 
 
 TL 
 
 It was a great relief to all when Ganymede summoned 
 them to the presence of their late companions. 
 
 ' I have written a comment npon your inscription,' said 
 Minerva to Ixion, ' and am anxious for your opinion of it.' 
 
 ' I am a wretched critic,' said the King, breaking away 
 from her. Juno smiled upon "him in the distance. 
 
 ' Ixion,' said Venus, as he passed by, ' come and talk to 
 me.' 
 
 The bold Thessalian blushed, he stammered out an un- 
 meaning excuse, he quitted the astonished but good-natured 
 Goddess, and seated himself by Juno, and as he seated him- 
 self his moody brow seemed suddenly illumined with bril- 
 liant light. 
 
 ' Is it so ? ' said Venus. 
 
 * Hem ! ' said Minerva. 
 
 ' Ha, ha ! ' said Cupid. 
 
 Jupiter played piquette with Mercury. 
 
 ' Everything goes wrong to-day,' said the King of Heaven; 
 
 * cards wretched, and kept waiting for dinner, and by 
 
 a mortal ! ' 
 
 4 Your Majesty must not be surprised,' said the good- 
 natured Mercury, with whom Ixion was no favourite. ' Your 
 Majesty must not be very much surprised at the conduct of 
 this creature. Considering what he is, and where he is, I 
 am only astonished that his head is not more turned than 
 it appears to be. A man, a thing made of mud, and in 
 Heaven ! Only think, sire ! Is it not enough to inflame 
 the brain of any child of clay? To be sure, keeping your 
 Majesty from dinner is little short of celestial high treason. 
 I hardly expected that, indeed. To order me about, to treat 
 Ganymede as his own lacquey, and, in short, to command 
 the whole household ; all this might be expected from such 
 a person in such a situation, but I confess I did think he 
 had some little respect left for your Majesty.' 
 
 'And he does order you about, eh? ' inquired Jove. ' I 
 have the spades.'
 
 IXION IN HEAVEN. 293 
 
 ' Oh ! 'tis quite ludicrous,' responded the son of Maia. 
 ' Your Majesty would not expect from me the offices that 
 this upstart daily requires.' 
 
 ' Eternal destiny! is't possible ? That is my trick. And 
 Ganymede, too ? ' 
 
 ' Oh ! quite shocking, I assure you, sire,' said the beau- 
 tiful cupbearer, leaning over the chair of Jove with all the 
 easy insolence of a privileged favourite. ' Really sire, if 
 Ixion is to go on in the way he does, either he or I must 
 quit.' 
 
 ' Is it possible ? ' exclaimed Jupiter. c But I can believe 
 anything of a man who keeps me waiting for dinner. Two 
 and three make five.' 
 
 ' It is Juno that encourages him so,' said Ganymede. 
 
 * Does she encourage him ? ' inquired Jove. 
 
 ' Everybody notices it,' protested Ganymede. 
 
 * It is indeed a little noticed,' observed Mercury. 
 
 c What business has such a fellow to speak to Juno ? ' 
 exclaimed Jove. ' A mere mortal, a mere miserable mortal ! 
 You have the point. How I have been deceived in this 
 fellow ! Who ever could have supposed that, after all my 
 generosity to him, he would ever have kept me waiting for 
 dinner ? ' 
 
 ' He was walking with Juno,' said Ganymede. ' It was 
 all a sham about their having met by accident. Cupid saw 
 them.' 
 
 * Ha ! ' said Jupiter, turning pale ; ' you don't say so ! 
 Repiqued, as I am a God. That is mine. Where is the 
 Queen ? ' 
 
 ' Talking to Ixion, sire,' said Mercury. ' Oh, I beg your 
 pardon, sire; I did not know you meant the queen of 
 diamonds.' 
 
 ' Never mind. I am repiqued, and I have been kept 
 waiting for dinner. Accursed be this day ! Is Ixion really 
 talking to Juno ? We will not endure this.'
 
 294 IXION IN HEAVEN. 
 
 vn. 
 
 ' Where is Juno ? ' demanded Jupiter. 
 
 ' I am sure I cannot say,' said Venus, with a smile. 
 
 ' I am sure I do not know,' said Minerva, with a sneer 
 
 ' Where is Ixion? ' said Cupid, laughing outright. 
 
 ' Mercury, Ganymede, find the Queen of Heaven in- 
 stantly,' thundered the father of Gods and men. 
 
 The celestial messenger and the heavenly page flew away 
 out of different doors. There was a terrible, an immortal 
 silence. Sublime rage lowered on the brow of Jove like a 
 storm upon the mountain-top. Minerva seated herself at 
 the card-table and played at Patience. Venus and Cupid 
 tittered in the background. Shortly returned the envoys, 
 Mercury looking solemn, Ganymede malignant. 
 
 ' Well? ' inquired Jove ; and all Olympus trembled at the 
 monosyllable. 
 
 Mercury shook his head. 
 
 * Her Majesty has been walking on the terrace with the 
 King of Thessaly,' replied Ganymede. 
 
 'Where is she now, sir? ' demanded Jupiter. 
 
 Mercury shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 ' Her Majesty is resting herself in the pavilion of Cupid, 
 with the King of Thessaly,' replied Ganymede. 
 
 ' Confusion ! ' exclaimed the father of Gods and men ; 
 and he rose and seized a candle from the table, scattering the 
 cards in all directions. Every one present, Minerva and 
 Venus, and Mars and Apollo, and Mercury and Ganymede, 
 and the Muses, and the Graces, and all the winged Genii 
 each seized a candle ; rifling the chandeliers, each followed 
 Jove. 
 
 ' This way,' said Mercury. 
 
 ' This way,' said Ganymede. 
 
 ' This way, this way ! ' echoed the celestial crowd. 
 
 1 Mischief ! ' cried Cupid ; ' I must save my victims.' 
 
 They were all upon the terrace. The father of Gods and 
 men, though both in a passion and a hurry, moved with 
 dignity. It was, as customary in Heaven, a clear and starry
 
 IXION IN HEAVEN. 295 
 
 night; but this eve Diana was indisposed, or otherwise 
 engaged, and there was no moonlight. They were in sight 
 of the pavilion. 
 
 ' What are you? ' inquired Cupid of one of the Genii, 
 who accidentally extinguished his candle. 
 
 ' I am a Cloud,' answered the winged Genius. 
 
 ' A Cloud ! Just the thing. Now do me a shrewd turn, 
 and Cupid, is ever your debtor. Fly, fly, pretty Cloud, 
 and encompass yon pavilion with your form. Away ! ask 
 no questions ; swift as my word.' 
 
 ' I declare there is a fog,' said Venus. 
 
 ' An evening mist in Heaven ! ' said Minerva. 
 
 ' Where is Nbx? ' said Jove. ' Everything goes wrong. 
 Who ever heard of a mist in Heaven ? ' 
 
 ' My candle is out,' said Apollo. 
 
 ' And mine, too,' said Mars. 
 
 ' And mine, and mine, and mine,' said Mercury and Gany- 
 mede, and the Muses and the Graces. 
 
 ' All the candles are out ! ' said Cupid ; ' a regular fog. 
 I cannot even see the pavilion : it must be hereabouts, 
 though,' said the God to himself. ' So, so ; I should be at 
 home in my own pavilion, and am tolerably accustomed to 
 stealing about in the dark. There is a step ; and here, 
 surely, is the lock. The door opens, but the Cloud enters 
 before me. Juno, Juno,' whispered the God of Love, ' we 
 are all here. Be contented to escape, like many other 
 innocent dames, with your reputation only under a cloud : 
 it will soon disperse ; and lo ! the heaven is clearing.' 
 
 ' It must have been the heat of our flambeaux,' said Venus ; 
 ' for see, the mist is vanished ; here is the pavilion.' 
 
 Ganymede ran forward, and dashed open the door. Ixion 
 was alone. 
 
 ' Seize him ! ' said Jove. 
 
 * Juno is not here,' said Mercury, with an air of blended 
 congratulation and disappointment. 
 
 * Never mind,' said Jove ; ' seize him ! He kept me wait- 
 ing for dinner.' 
 
 ' Is this your hospitality, ^giochus ? ' exclaimed Ixion,
 
 296 IXION IN HEAVEN. 
 
 in a tone of bullying innocence. ' I shall defend my- 
 self.' 
 
 ' Seize him, seize him ! ' exclaimed Jupiter. ' What ! do 
 you all falter? Are you afraid of a mortal ? ' 
 
 ' And a Thessalian ? ' added Ganymede. 
 
 No one advanced. 
 
 ' Send for Hercules,' said Jove. 
 
 ' I will fetch him in an instant,' said Ganymede. 
 
 ' I protest,' said the King of Thessaly, ' against this vio- 
 lation of the most sacred rights.' 
 
 ' The marriage tie ? ' said Mercury. 
 
 ' The dinner-hour ? ' said Jove. 
 
 ' It is no use talking sentiment to Ixion,' said Venus ; ' all 
 mortals are callous.' 
 
 ' Adventures are to the adventurous,' said Minerva. 
 
 ' Here is Hercules ! here is Hercules ! ' 
 
 ' Seize him ! ' said Jove ; ' seize that man.' 
 
 In vain the mortal struggled with the irresistible demi- 
 god. 
 
 ' Shall I fetch your thunderbolt, Jove ? ' inquired Gany- 
 mede. 
 
 ' Anything short of eternal punishment is unworthy of a 
 God,' answered Jupiter, with great dignity. ' Apollo, bring 
 me a wheel of your chariot.' 
 
 * What shall I do to-morrow morning? ' inquired the God 
 of Light. 
 
 * Order an eclipse,' replied Jove. ' Bind the insolent 
 wretch to the wheel ; hurl him to Hades ; its motion shall 
 be perpetual.' 
 
 ' What am 1 to bind him with ? ' inquired Hercules. 
 ' The girdle of Venus,' replied the Thunderer. 
 
 * What is all this ? ' inquired Juno, advancing, pale and 
 agitated. 
 
 * Come along ; you shall see,' answered Jupiter. ' Follow 
 me, follow me.' 
 
 They all followed the leader, all the Gods, all the Genii ; 
 in the midst, the brawny husband of Hebe bearing Ixion 
 aloft, bound to the fatal wheel. They reached the terrace ;
 
 IXION IN HEAVEN. 297 
 
 they descended the sparkling steps of lapis-laznli. Hercules 
 held his burthen on high, ready, at a nod, to plunge the 
 hapless but presumptuous mortal through space into Hades. 
 The heavenly group surrounded him, and peeped over the 
 starry abyss. It was a fine moral, and demonstrated the 
 usual infelicity that attends unequal connections. 
 
 ' Celestial despot ! ' said Ixion. 
 
 In a moment all sounds were hushed, as they listened to 
 the last words of the unrivalled victim. Juno, in despair, 
 leant upon the respective arms of Venus and Minerva. 
 
 ' Celestial despot ! ' said Ixion, ' I defy the immortal in- 
 genuity of thy cruelty. My memory must be as eternal as 
 thy torture : that will support me.'
 
 THE INFEENAL MAEEIAGE,
 
 Proserpine was the daughter of Jupiter and Ceres. Pluto, the 
 God of Hell, became enamoured of her. His addresses were 
 favoured by her father, but opposed by Ceres. Under these cir- 
 cumstances, he surprised her on the plains of Enna, and carried 
 her off in his chariot.
 
 THE INFEENAL MAEEIAGE. 
 PART I. 
 
 IT was clearly a runaway match never indeed was such a 
 sublime elopement. The four horses were coal-black, with 
 blood-red manes and tails ; and they were shod with rubies. 
 They were harnessed to a basaltic car by a single rein of 
 flame. "Waving his double-pronged trident in the air, the 
 God struck the blue breast of Cyane, and the waters 
 instantly parted. In rushed the wild chariot, the pale and in- 
 sensible Proserpine clinging to the breast of her grim lover. 
 
 Through the depths of the hitherto unfathomed lake the 
 infernal steeds held their breathless course. The car jolted 
 against its bed. ' Save me ! ' exclaimed the future Queen 
 of Hades, and she clung with renewed energy to the bosom 
 of the dark bridegroom. The earth opened ; they entered 
 the kingdom of the Gnomes. Here Pluto was popular. 
 The lurid populace gave him a loud shout. The chariot 
 whirled along through shadowy cities and by dim highways, 
 swarming with a busy race of shades. 
 
 ' Ye flowery meads of Enna ! ' exclaimed the terrified 
 Proserpine, * shall I never view you again ? What an 
 execrable climate ! ' 
 
 ' Here, however, in-door nature is charming,' responded 
 Pluto. * 'Tis a great nation of manufacturers. You are 
 better, I hope, my Proserpine. The passage of the water is 
 never very agreeable, especially to ladies.' 
 
 ' And which is our next stage ? ' inquired Proserpine.
 
 302 THE IXFEENAL MARRIAGE. 
 
 ' The centre of Earth,' replied Pluto. ' Travelling is so 
 much improved that at this rate we shall reach Hades 
 before night.' 
 
 ' Alas ! ' exclaimed Proserpine, ' is not this night ? ' 
 
 ' You are not unhappy, my Proserpine ? ' 
 
 ' Beloved of my heart, I have given up everything for 
 you ! I do not repent, but I am thinking of my mother.' 
 
 ' Time will pacify the Lady Ceres. What is done cannot 
 be undone. In the winter, when a residence among us is 
 even desirable, I should not be surprised were she to pay 
 us a visit.' 
 
 ' Her prejudices are so strong,' murmured the bride. ' ! 
 my Pluto, I hope your family will be kind to me.' 
 
 ' Who could be unkind to Proserpine ? Ours is a very 
 domestic circle. I can assure you that everything is so 
 well ordered among us that I have no recollection of a 
 domestic broil.' 
 
 1 But marriage is such a revolution in a bachelor's estab- 
 lishment,' replied Proserpine, despondingly. ' To tell the 
 truth, too, I am half frightened at the thought of the Furies. 
 I have heard that their tempers are so violent.' 
 
 ' They mean well ; their feelings are strong, but their 
 hearts are in the right place. I flatter myself you will 
 like my nieces, the Parcae. They are accomplished, and 
 favourites among the men.' 
 
 ' Indeed ! ' 
 
 ' Oh ! quite irresistible.' 
 
 ' My heart misgives me. I wish you had at least paid 
 them the compliment of apprising them of our marriage.' 
 
 ' Cheer up. For myself, I have none but pleasant antici- 
 pations. I long to be at home once more by my own fire- 
 side, and patting my faithful Cerberus.' 
 
 ' I think I shall like Cerberus ; I am fond of dogs.' 
 
 ' I am sure you will. He is the most faithful creature in 
 the world.' 
 
 ' Is he very fierce ? ' 
 
 ' Not if he takes a fancy to you ; and who can help taking 
 a fancy to Proserpine ? ' A 
 
 ' Ah ! my Pluto, you are in love.'
 
 THE INFERNAL MARRIAGE. 303 
 
 II. 
 
 ' Is this Hades ? ' inquired Proserpine. 
 
 An avenue of colossal bulls, sculptured in basalt and 
 breathing living flame, led to gates of brass, adorned with 
 friezes of rubies, representing the wars and discomfiture of 
 the Titans. A crimson cloud concealed the height of the 
 immense portal, and on either side hovered o'er the extend- 
 ing walls of the city ; a watch-tower or a battlement oc- 
 casionally flashing forth, and forcing their forms through 
 the lurid obscurity, 
 
 ' Queen of Hades ! welcome to your capital ! ' exclaimed 
 Pluto. 
 
 The monarch rose in his car and whirled a javelin at the 
 gates. There was an awful clang, and then a still more 
 terrible growl. 
 
 ' My faithful Cerberus !' exclaimed the King. 
 
 The portals flew open, and revealed the gigantic form of 
 the celebrated watch-dog of Hell. It completely filled 
 their wide expanse. Who but Pluto could have viewed 
 without horror that enormous body covered with shaggy 
 spikes, those frightful paws clothed with claws of steel, 
 that tail like a boa constrictor, those fiery eyes that blazed 
 like the blood-red lamps in a pharos, and those three forky 
 tongues, round each of which were entwined a vigorous 
 family of green rattlesnakes ! 
 
 ' Ah ! Cerby ! Cerby ! ' exclaimed Pluto ; ' my fond and 
 faithful Cerby!' 
 
 Proserpine screamed as the animal gambolled up to the 
 side of the chariot and held out its paw to its master. 
 Then, licking the royal palm with its three tongues at once, 
 it renewed its station with a wag of its tail which raised 
 such a cloud of dust that for a few minutes nothing was 
 perceptible. 
 
 ' The monster ! ' exclaimed Proserpine. 
 
 ' My love,' exclaimed Pluto, with astonishment. 
 
 ' The hideous brute ! ' 
 ' My dear ! ' exclaimed Pluto.
 
 304 THE INFERNAL MAKEIAGE. 
 
 ' He shall never touch me.' 
 
 ' Proserpine ! ' 
 
 ' Don't touch me with that hand. You never shall touch 
 me, if you allow that disgusting animal to lick your hand,' 
 
 ' I beg to inform you that there are few beings of any 
 kind for whom I have a greater esteem than that faithful 
 and affectionate beast.' 
 
 ' Oh ! if you like Cerberus better than me, I have no 
 more to say,' exclaimed the bride, bridling up with indigna- 
 tion. 
 
 * My Proserpine is perverse,' replied Pluto ; ' her memory 
 has scarcely done me justice.' 
 
 ' I am sure you said you liked Cerberus better than any- 
 thing in the world,' continued the Goddess, with a voice 
 trembling with passion. 
 
 ' I said no such thing,' replied Pluto, somewhat sternly. 
 
 'I see how it is,' replied Proserpine, with a sob; 'you are 
 tired of me.' 
 
 ' My beloved ! ' 
 
 ' I never expected this.' 
 
 ' My child ! ' 
 
 ' Was it for this I left my mother ? ' 
 
 ' Powers of Hades ! How you can say such things ! ' 
 
 ' Broke her heart ? ' 
 
 ' Proserpine ! Proserpine ! ' 
 
 ' Gave up daylight ? ' 
 
 ' For the sake of Heaven, then, calm yourself! ' 
 
 * Sacrificed everything ? ' 
 
 ' My love ! my life ! my angel ! what is all this ? ' 
 
 ' And then to be abused for the sake of a dog ! ' 
 
 'By all the shades of Hell, but this is enough to 
 provoke even immortals. What have I done, said, or 
 thought, to justify such treatment ? ' 
 
 'Oh! me!' 
 
 ' Proserpine ! ' 
 
 ' Heigho ! ' 
 
 ' Proserpine ! Proserpine ! * 
 
 ' So soon is the veil withdrawn ! '
 
 THE INFERNAL MARRIAGE. 305 
 
 ' Dearest, you must be unwell. This journey has been 
 too much for you.' 
 
 ' On our very bridal day to be so treated ! ' 
 
 ' Soul of my existence, don't make me mad. I love you, 
 I adore you ; I have no hope, no wish, no thought but you. 
 I swear it ; I swear it by my sceptre and my throne. 
 Speak, speak to your Pluto : tell him all your wish, all your 
 desire. What would you have me do ? ' 
 
 ' Shoot that horrid beast.' 
 
 'Ah.! me!' 
 
 ' What, you will not ! I thought how it would be. I am 
 Proserpine, your beloved, adored Proserpine. You havo 
 no wish, no hope, no thought but for me ! I have only to 
 speak, and what I desire will be instantly done ! And I do 
 speak, I tell you my wish, I express to you my desire, and 
 I am instantly refused ! And what have I requested ? Is 
 it sucli a mighty favour ? Is it anything unreasonable ? 
 Is there, indeed, in my entreaty anything so vastly out of 
 the way? The death of a dog, a disgusting animal, which 
 has already shaken my nerves to pieces ; and if ever (here 
 she hid her face in his breast), if ever that event should 
 occur which both must desire, my Pluto, I am sure the 
 very sight of that horrible beast will, I dare not say what it 
 will do.' 
 
 Pluto looked puzzled. 
 
 ' Indeed, my Proserpine, it is not in my power to grant 
 your request ; for Cerberus is immortal, like ourselves.' 
 
 ' Me ! miserable ! ' 
 
 ' Some arrangement, however, may be made to keep him 
 out of your sight and hearing. I can banish him.' 
 
 ' Can you, indeed ? Oh ! banish him, my Pluto ! pray 
 banish him! I never shall be happy until Cerberus is 
 banished.' 
 
 ' I will do anything you desire ; but I confess to you I 
 have some misgivings. He is an invaluable watch-dog; 
 and I fear, without his superintendence, the guardians of 
 the gate will scarcely do their duty.' 
 
 ' Oh ! yes : I am sure they will, my Pluto ! I will ask 
 x
 
 306 THE INFERNAL MAEEIAGE. 
 
 them to, I will ask them myself, I will request them, as a 
 particular and personal favour to myself, to be very careful 
 indeed. And if they do their duty, and I am sure they 
 will, they shall be styled, as a reward, " Proserpine's Own 
 Guards." ' 
 
 ' A reward, indeed ! ' said the enamoured monarch, as, 
 with a sigh, he signed the order for the banishment of Cer- 
 berus in the form of his promotion to the office of Master 
 of the royal and imperial blood-hounds. 
 
 in. 
 
 The burning waves of Phlegethon assumed a lighter hue. 
 It was morning. It was the morning after the arrival of 
 Pluto and his unexpected bride. In one of the principal 
 rooms of the palace three beautiful females, clothed in 
 cerulean robes spangled with stars, and their heads adorned 
 with golden crowns, were at work together. One held a 
 distaff, from which the second spun ; and the third wielded 
 an enormous pair of adamantine shears, with which she 
 perpetually severed the labours of her sisters. Tall were 
 they in stature and beautiful in form. Very fair ; an ex- 
 pression of haughty serenity pervaded their majestic coun- 
 tenances. Their three companions, however, though 
 apparently of the same sex, were of a different character. 
 If women can ever be ugly, certainly these three ladies 
 might put in a valid claim to that epithet. Their complexions 
 were dark and withered, and their eyes, though bright, were 
 bloodshot. Scantily clothed in black garments, not un- 
 Btained with gore, their wan and offensive forms were but 
 slightly veiled. Their hands were talons ; their feet cloven ; 
 and serpents were wreathed round their brows instead of 
 hair. Their restless and agitated carriage afforded also not 
 less striking contrast to the polished and aristocratic de- 
 meanour of their companions. They paced the chamber 
 with hurried and unequal steps, and wild and uncouth ges- 
 tures ; waving, with a reckless ferocity, burning torches 
 and whips of scorpions. It is hardly necessary to add that
 
 THE INFERNAL MARRIAGE. 307 
 
 these were the Furies, and that the conversation which I 
 am about to report was carried on with the Fates. 
 
 ' A thousand serpents ! ' shrieked Tisiphone. * I will 
 never believe it.' 
 
 ' Racks and flames ! ' squeaked Megaera. ' It is im- 
 possible.' 
 
 ' Eternal torture ! ' moaned Alecto. ' 'Tis a lie.' 
 
 ' Not Jupiter himself should convince us ! ' the Furies 
 joined in infernal chorus. 
 
 ' 'Tis nevertheless true,' calmly observed the beautiful 
 Clotho. 
 
 ' You will soon have the honour of being presented to 
 her,' added the serene Lachesis. 
 
 ' And whatever we may feel,' observed the considerate 
 Atropos, ' I think, my dear girls, you had better restrain 
 yourselves.' 
 
 4 And what sort of thing is she ? ' inquired Tisiphone, 
 with a shriek. 
 
 ' I have heard that she is lovely,' answered Clotho. ' In- 
 deed, it is impossible to account for the affair in any other 
 way.' 
 
 "Tis neither possible to account for nor to justify it,' 
 squeaked Megsera. 
 
 ' Is there, indeed, a Queen in Hell ? ' moaned Alecto. 
 
 ' We shall hold no more drawing-rooms,' said Lachesis. 
 
 * We will never attend hers,' said the Furies. 
 
 * You must,' replied the Fates. 
 
 ' I have no doubt she will give herself airs,' shrieked 
 Tisiphone. 
 
 ' We must remember where she has been brought up, and 
 be considerate,' replied Lachesis. 
 
 'I dare say you three will get on very well with her,' 
 squeaked Megasra. ' You always get on well with people.' 
 
 ' We must remember how very strange things here must 
 appear to her,' observed Atropos. 
 
 ' No one can deny that there are some very disagreeable 
 eights,' said Clotho. 
 
 ' There is something in that,' replied Tisiphone, looking 
 x2
 
 308 THE INFEENAL MARKIAGE. 
 
 in the glass, and arranging her serpents ; ' and for my part, 
 poor girl, I almost pity her, when I think she will have to 
 visit the Harpies.' 
 
 IV. 
 
 At this moment four little pages entered the room, who, 
 without exception, were the most hideous dwarfs that ever 
 attended upon a monarch. They were clothed only in 
 parti-coloured tunics, and their breasts and legs were quite 
 bare. From the countenance of the first you would have 
 supposed he was in a convulsion ; his hands were clenched 
 and his hair stood on end : this was Terror ! The protruded 
 veins of the second seemed ready to burst, and his rubicund 
 visage decidedly proved that he had blood in his head : this 
 was Rage ! The third was of an ashen colour throughout : 
 this was Paleness ! And the fourth, with a countenance 
 not without traces of beauty, was even more disgusting 
 than his companions from the quantity of horrible flies, 
 centipedes, snails, and other noisome, slimy, and indescrib- 
 able monstrosities that were crawling all about his body 
 and feeding on his decaying features. The name of this 
 fourth page was Death ! 
 
 ' The King and Queen ! ' announced the Pages. 
 
 Pluto, during the night, had prepared Proserpine for the 
 worst, and had endeavoured to persuade her that his love 
 would ever compensate for all annoyances. She was in 
 excellent spirits and in very good humour; therefore, though 
 she could with difficulty stifle a scream when she recognised 
 the Furies, she received the congratulations of the Parcse 
 with much cordiality. 
 
 * I have the pleasure, Proserpine, of presenting you to 
 my family,' said Pluto. 
 
 ' Who, I am sure, hope to make Hades agreeable to your 
 Majesty,' rejoined Clotho. The Furies uttered a suppressed 
 sound between a murmur and a growl. 
 
 ' I have ordered the chariot,' said Pluto. ' I propose to 
 take the Queen a ride, and show her some of our lions.' 
 
 ' She will, I am sure, be delighted,' said Lachesis. 
 
 ' I long to see Ixion,' said Proserpine.
 
 THE INFERNAL MARRIAGE. 309 
 
 ' The wretch ! ' shrieked Tisiphone. 
 
 ' I cannot help thinking that he has been very unfairly 
 treated,' said Proserpine. 
 
 ' What ! ' squeaked Megsera. ' The ravisher ! ' 
 
 ' Ay ! it is all very well,' replied Proserpine ; ' but, for 
 ray part, if we knew the truth of that affair ' 
 
 ' Is it possible that your Majesty can speak in such a tone 
 of levity of such an offender ? ' shrieked Tisiphone. 
 
 ' Is it possible ? ' moaned Alecto. 
 
 ' Ah ! you have heard only one side of the question ; but 
 for my part, knowing as much of Juno as I do ' 
 
 ' The Queen of Heaven ! ' observed Atropos, with an in- 
 timidating glance. 
 
 ' The Queen of Fiddlestick ! ' said Proserpine ; ' as great a 
 flirt as ever existed, with all her prudish looks.' 
 
 The Fates and the Furies exchanged glances of astonish- 
 ment and horror. 
 
 ' For my part,' continued Proserpine, ' I make it a rule to 
 support the weaker side, and nothing will ever persuade me 
 that Ixion is not a victim, and a pitiable one.' 
 
 ' Well ! men generally have the best of it in these affairs,' 
 said Lachesis, with a forced smile. 
 
 ' Juno ought to be ashamed of herself,' said Proserpine. 
 ' Had I been in her situation, they should have tied me to a 
 wheel first. At any rate, they ought to have punished him 
 in Heaven. I have no idea of those people sending every 
 mauvais sti/jet to Hell.' 
 
 ' But what shall we do ? ' inquired Pluto, who wished to 
 turn the conversation. 
 
 ' Shall we turn out a sinner and hunt him for her Ma- 
 jesty's diversion ? ' suggested Tisiphone, flanking her ser- 
 pents. 
 
 'Nothing of the kind will ever divert me,' said Proser- 
 pine ; ' for I have no hesitation in saying that I do not at 
 all approve of these eternal punishments, or, indeed, of any 
 punishment whatever.' 
 
 ' The heretic ! ' whispered Tisiphone to Megeera. Alecto 
 moaned.
 
 310 THE INFEENAL MABKIAGE. 
 
 * It might be more interesting to her Majesty,' said 
 Atropos, ' to witness some of those extraordinary instances 
 of predestined misery with which Hades abounds. Shall 
 we visit CBdipus ? ' 
 
 ' Poor fellow ! ' exclaimed Proserpine. ' For myself, I 
 willingly confess that Torture disgusts and Destiny puzzles 
 me.' 
 
 The Fates and the Furies all alike started. 
 
 ' I do not understand this riddle of Destiny,' continued 
 the young Queen. ' If you, Parcae, have predestined that 
 a man should commit a crime, it appears to me very unjust 
 that you should afterwards call upon the Furies to punish 
 him for its commission.' 
 
 ' But man is a free agent,' observed Lachesis, in as mild 
 a tone as she could command. 
 
 ' Then what becomes of Destiny ? ' replied Proserpine. 
 
 'Destiny is eternal and irresistible,' replied Clotho. 'All 
 is ordained ; but man is, nevertheless, master of his own 
 actions.' 
 
 ' I do not understand that,' said Proserpine. 
 
 ' It is not meant to be understood,' said Atropos ; ' but 
 you must nevertheless believe it.' 
 
 ' I make it a rule only to believe what I understand,' 
 replied Proserpine. 
 
 'It appears,' said Lachesis, with a blended glance of 
 contempt and vengeance, ' that your Majesty, though a 
 Goddess, is an Atheist.' 
 
 ' As for that, anybody may call me just what they please, 
 provided they do nothing else. So long as I am not tied 
 to a wheel or whipped with scorpions for speaking my 
 mind, I shall be as tolerant of the speech and acts of 
 others as I expect them to be tolerant of mine. Come, 
 Pluto, I am sure that the chariot must be ready ! ' 
 
 So saying, her Majesty took the arm of her spouse, and 
 with a haughty curtsey left the apartment. 
 
 ' Did you ever ! ' shrieked Tisiphone, as the door closed. 
 
 ' No ! never ! ' squeaked Megaera. 
 
 ' Never ! never ! ' moaned Alecto.
 
 THE INFERNAL MAKRIAGE. 311 
 
 ' She must understand what she believes, must she ? ' 
 said Lachesis, scarcely less irritated. 
 
 ' I never heard such nonsense,' said Clotho. 
 ' What next ! ' said Atropos. 
 ' Disgusted with Torture ! ' exclaimed the Furies. 
 ' Puzzled with Destiny ! ' said the Fates. 
 
 v. 
 
 It was the third morning after the Infernal Marriage ; 
 the slumbering Proserpine reposed in the arms of the 
 snoring Pluto. There was a loud knocking at the chamber- 
 door. Pluto jumped up in the middle of a dream. 
 
 ' My life, what is the matter ? ' exclaimed Proserpine. 
 
 The knocking was repeated and increased. There was 
 also a loud shout of ' treason, murder, and fire ! ' 
 
 ' What is the matter ? ' exclaimed the God, jumping out 
 of bed and seizing his trident. ' Who is there ? ' 
 
 ' Your pages, your faithful pages ! Treason ! treason ! 
 For the sake of Hell, open the door. Murder, fire, treason ! ' 
 
 ' Enter ! ' said Pluto, as the door was unlocked. 
 
 And Terror and Rage entered. 
 
 ' You frightful things, get out of the room ! ' cried 
 Proserpine. 
 
 ' A moment, my angel ! ' said Pluto, ' a single moment. 
 Be not alarmed, my best love ; I pray you be not alarmed. 
 Well, imps, why am I disturbed ? ' 
 
 ' Oh ! ' said Terror. Rage could not speak, but gnashed 
 his teeth and stamped his feet. 
 
 ' 0-o-o-h ! ' repeated Terror. 
 
 ' Speak, cursed imps ! ' cried the enraged Pluto ; and he 
 raised his arm. 
 
 ' A man ! a man ! ' cried Terror. ' Treason, treason ! a 
 man ! a man ! ' 
 
 ' What man ? ' said Pluto, in a rage. 
 
 ' A man, a li ve man, has entered Hell ! ' 
 
 ' You don't say so ? ' said Proserpine ; ' a man, a live 
 man. Let me see him immediately.' 
 
 ' Where is he ? ' said Pluto ; ' what is he doing ? '
 
 312 THE INFERNAL MARRIAGE. 
 
 ' He is here, there, and everywhere ! asking for your 
 wife, and singing like anything.' 
 
 ' Proserpine ! ' said Pluto, reproachfully ; but, to do the 
 God justice, he was more astounded than jealous. 
 
 ' I am sure I shall be delighted to see him ; it is so long 
 since I have seen a live man,' said Proserpine. ' Who 
 can he be ? A man, and a live man ! How delightful ! 
 It must be a messenger from my mother.' 
 
 f But how came he here ? ' 
 
 ' Ah ! how came he here ? ' echoed Terror. 
 
 * No time must be lost ! ' exclaimed Pluto, scrambling on 
 his robe. ' Seize him, and bring him into the council 
 chamber. My charming Proserpine, excuse me for a 
 moment.' 
 
 ' Not at all ; I will accompany you.' 
 
 ' But, my love, my sweetest, my own, this is business ; 
 these are affairs of state. The council chamber is not a 
 place for you.' 
 
 ' And why not ? ' said Proserpine. ' I have no idea of 
 ever leaving you for a moment. Why not for me as well 
 as for the Fates and the Furies ? Am I not Queen ? I 
 have no idea of such nonsense ! ' 
 
 ' My love ! ' said the deprecating husband. 
 
 'You don't go without me,' said the imperious wife, 
 seizing his robe. 
 
 ' I must,' said Pluto. 
 
 ' Then you shall never return,' said Proserpine. 
 
 ' Enchantress ! be reasonable.' 
 
 ' I never was, and I never will be,' replied the Goddess. 
 
 ' Treason ! treason ! ' screamed Terror. 
 
 ' My love, I must go ! ' 
 
 ' Pluto,' said Proserpine, ' understand me once for all, 1 
 will not be contradicted.' 
 
 Rage stamped his foot. 
 
 ' Proserpine, understand me once for all, it is impossible,' 
 said the God, frowning. 
 
 ' My Pluto ! ' said the Queen. * Is it my Pluto who 
 speaks thus sternly to me? Is it he who, but an hour
 
 THE INFERNAL MARRIAGE. 313 
 
 ago, a short hour ago, died upon my bosom in transports 
 and stifled me with kisses ! Unhappy woman ! wretched, 
 miserable Proserpine ! Oh! my mother ! my kind, my 
 affectionate mother ! Have I disobeyed you for this ! For 
 this have I deserted you ! For this have I broken your 
 beloved heart ! ' She buried her face in the crimson 
 counterpane, and bedewed its gorgeous embroidery with 
 her fast-flowing tears. 
 
 ' Treason ! ' shouted Terror. 
 
 ' Ha ! ha ! ha ! ' exclaimed the hysterical Proserpine. 
 
 ' What am I to do ? ' cried Pluto. ' Proserpine, my 
 adored, my beloved, my enchanting Proserpine, compose 
 yourself; for my sake, compose yourself. I love you! I 
 adore you ! You know it ! oh ! indeed you know it ! ' 
 
 The hysterics increased. 
 
 ' Treason ! treason ! ' shouted Terror. 
 
 ' Hold your infernal tongue,' said Pluto. ' What do I 
 care for treason when the Queen is in this state ? ' He 
 knelt by the bedside, and tried to stop her mouth with 
 kisses, and ever and anon whispered his passion. ' My 
 Proserpine, I beseech you to be calm ; I will do anything 
 you like. Come, come, then, to the council ! ' 
 
 The hysterics ceased ; the Queen clasped him in her arms 
 and rewarded him with a thousand embraces. Then, jump- 
 ing up, she bathed her swollen eyes with a beautiful cos- 
 metic that she and her maidens had distilled from the 
 flowers of Enna ; and, wrapping herself up in her shawl, 
 descended with his Majesty, who was quite as much 
 puzzled about the cause of this disturbance as when he 
 was first roused. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Crossing an immense covered bridge, the origin of the 
 Bridge of Sighs at Venice, over the royal gardens, which 
 consisted entirely of cypress, the royal pair, preceded by 
 the pages in waiting, entered the council chamber. The 
 council was already assembled. On either side of a throne 
 of sulphur, from which issued the four infernal rivers of
 
 314 THE INFERNAL MARRIAGE. 
 
 Lethe, Phlegethon, Cocytus, and Acheron, were ranged the 
 Eumenides and the Parcae. Lachesis and her sisters turned 
 up their noses when they observed Proserpine ; but the 
 Eumenides could not stifle their fury, in spite of the hints 
 of their more subdued but not less malignant companions. 
 
 ' What is all this ? ' inquired Pluto. 
 
 ' The constitution is in danger,' said the Parcse in 
 chorus. 
 
 ' Both in church and state,' added the Furies. * 'Tis a 
 case of treason and blasphemy;' and they waved their 
 torches and shook their whips with delighted anticipation 
 of their use. 
 
 * Detail the circumstances,' said Pluto, waving his hand 
 majestically to Lachesis, in whose good sense he had great 
 confidence. 
 
 ' A man, a living man, has entered your kingdom, un- 
 known and unnoticed,' said Lachesis. 
 
 ' By my sceptre, is it true ? ' said the astonished King. 
 ' Is he seized ? ' 
 
 'The extraordinary mortal baffles our efforts,' said 
 Lachesis. ' He bears with him a lyre, the charmed gift of 
 Apollo, and so seducing are his strains that in vain our 
 guards advance to arrest his course ; they immediately 
 begin dancing, and he easily eludes their efforts. The 
 general confusion is indescribable. All business is at a 
 standstill : Ixion rests upon his wheel old Sisyphus sits 
 down on his mountain, and his stone has fallen with a 
 terrible plash into Acheron. In short, unless we are 
 energetic, we are on the eve of a revolution.' 
 
 * His purpose ? ' 
 
 * He seeks yourself and her Majesty,' added Lachesis, 
 with a sneer. 
 
 ' Immediately announce that we will receive him.' 
 The unexpected guest was not slow in acknowledging 
 the royal summons. A hasty treaty was drawn up ; he 
 was to enter the palace unmolested, on condition that he 
 ceased playing his lyre. The Fates and the Furies ex- 
 changed significant glances as his approach was announced.
 
 THE INFERNAL MARRIAGE. 315 
 
 The man, the live man, who had committed the unprece- 
 dented crime of entering Hell without a licence, and the 
 previous deposit of his soul as security for the good be- 
 haviour of his body, stood before the surprised and indig- 
 nant Court of Hades. Tall and graceful in stature, and 
 crowned with laurels, Proserpine was glad to observe that 
 the man, who was evidently famous, was also good-looking. 
 
 ' Thy purpose, mortal ? ' inquired Pluto, with awful 
 majesty. 
 
 ' Mercy ! ' answered the stranger in a voice of exquisite 
 melody, and sufficiently embarrassed to render him in- 
 teresting. 
 
 ' What is mercy ? ' inquired the Fates and the Furies. 
 
 ' Speak, stranger, without fear,' said Proserpine. ' Thy 
 name ?' 
 
 * Is Orpheus ; but a few days back the too happy hus- 
 band of the enchanting Eurydice. Alas ! dread King, and 
 thou too, beautiful and benignant partner of his throne, I 
 won her by my lyre, and by my lyre I would redeem her. 
 Know, then, that in the very glow of our gratified passion 
 a serpent crept under the flowers on which we reposed, 
 and by a fatal sting summoned my adored to the shades. 
 Why did it not also summon me ? I will not say why 
 should I not have been the victim in her stead ; for I feel 
 too keenly that the doom of Eurydice would not have been 
 less forlorn, had she been the wretched being who had 
 been spared to life. O King ! they whispered on earth 
 that thou too hadst yielded thy heart to the charms of 
 love. Pluto, they whispered, is no longer stern: Pluto 
 also feels the all- subduing influence of beauty. Dread 
 monarch, by the self-same passion that rages in our breasts 
 alike, I implore thy mercy. Thou hast risen from the 
 couch of love, the arm of thy adored has pressed upon thy 
 heart, her honied lips have clung with rapture to thine 
 still echo in thy ears all the enchanting phrases of her 
 idolatry. 'Then, by the memory of these, by all the higher 
 and ineffable joys to which these lead, King of Hades, 
 spare me, oh ! spare me, Eurydice ! '
 
 316 THE INFERNAL MARRIAGE. 
 
 Proserpine threw her arms round the neck of her hus- 
 band, and, hiding her face in his breast, wept. 
 
 ' Rash mortal, you demand that which is not in the 
 power of Pluto to concede,' said Lachesis. 
 
 ' I have heard much of treason since my entrance into 
 Hades,' replied Orpheus, ' and this sounds like it.' 
 
 ' Mortal ! ' exclaimed Clotho, with contempt. 
 
 ' Nor is it in your power to return, sir,' said Tisiphone, 
 shaking her whip. 
 
 ' We have accounts to settle with you,' said Megaera. 
 
 ' Spare her, spare her,' murmured Proserpine to her 
 lover. 
 
 ' Bang of Hades ! ' said Lachesis, with much dignity, 
 ' I hold a responsible office in your realm, and I claim the 
 constitutional privilege of your attention. I protest against 
 the undue influence of the Queen. She is a power un- 
 known in our constitution, and an irresponsible agent that 
 I will not recognise. Let her go back to the drawing-room, 
 where all will bow to her.' 
 
 ' Hag ! ' exclaimed Proserpine. ' King of Hades, I, too, 
 can appeal to you. Have I accepted your crown to be in- 
 sulted by your subjects ? ' 
 
 ' A subject, may it please your Majesty, who has duties as 
 strictly denned by our infernal constitution as those of 
 your royal spouse ; duties, too, which, let me tell you, 
 Madam, I and my order are resolved to perform.' 
 
 ' Gods of Olympus ! ' cried Proserpine. ' Is this to be a 
 Queen ? ' 
 
 ' Before we proceed further in this discussion,' said 
 Lachesis, ' I must move an inquiry into the conduct of his 
 Excellency the Governor of the Gates. I move, then, that 
 Cerberus be summoned.' 
 
 Pluto started, and the blood rose to his dark cheek. ' I 
 have not yet had an opportunity of mentioning,' said his 
 Majesty, in a low tone, and with an air of considerable con- 
 fusion, 'that I have thought fit, as a reward for his past 
 services, to promote Cerberus to the office of the Master of 
 the Hounds. He therefore is no longer responsible.'
 
 THE INFERNAL MARRIAGE. 317 
 
 ' h ! ' shrieked the Furies, as they elevated their 
 hideous eyes. 
 
 ' The constitution has invested your Majesty with a power 
 in the appointment of your Officers of State which your 
 Majesty has undoubtedly a right to exercise,' said Lachesis. 
 ' What degree of discretion it anticipated in the exercise, it 
 is now unnecessary, and would be extremely disagreeable, 
 to discuss. I shall not venture to inquire by what new 
 influence your Majesty has been guided in the present 
 instance. The consequence of your Majesty's conduct is 
 obvious, in the very difficult situation in which your realm 
 is now placed. For myself and my colleagues, I have only 
 to observe that we decline, under this crisis, any further 
 responsibility ; and the distaff and the shears are at your 
 Majesty's service the moment your Majesty may find con- 
 venient successors to the present holders. As a last favour, 
 in addition to the many we are proud to remember we have 
 received from your Majesty, we entreat that we may be 
 relieved from their burthen as quickly as possible.' (Loud 
 cheers from the Eumenides.) 
 
 'We had better recall Cerberus,' said Pluto, alarmed, 
 ' and send this mortal about his business.' 
 
 'Not without Eurydice. Oh ! not without Eurydice,' said 
 the Queen. 
 
 ' Silence, Proserpine,' said Pluto. 
 
 ' May it please your Majesty,' said Lachesis, ' I am doubt- 
 ful whether we have the power of expelling anyone from 
 Hades. It is not less the law that a mortal cannot remain 
 here ; and it is too notorious for me to mention the fact 
 that none here have the power of inflicting death.' 
 
 ' Of what use are all your laws,' exclaimed Proserpine, ' if 
 they are only to perplex us ? As there are no statutes to 
 guide us, it is obvious that the King's will is supreme. 
 Let Orpheus depart, then, with his bride.' 
 
 ' The latter suggestion is clearly illegal,' said Lachesis. 
 
 ' Lachesis, and ye, her sisters,' said Proserpine, ' forget, 
 I beseech you, any warm words that may have passed
 
 318 THE INFERNAL MAKRIAGE. 
 
 between us, and, as a personal favour to one who would 
 willingly be your friend, release Eurydice. What ! you 
 shake your heads ! Nay ; of what importance can be a 
 single miserable shade, and one, too, summoned so cruelly 
 before her time, in these thickly-peopled regions ? ' 
 
 ' "Tis the principle,' said Lachesis ; ' 'tis the principle. Con- 
 cession is ever fatal, however slight. Grant this demand ; 
 others, and greater, will quickly follow. Mercy becomes a 
 precedent, and the realm is ruined.' 
 
 ' Ruined ! ' echoed the Furies. 
 
 ' And I say preserved ! ' exclaimed Proserpine with energy. 
 ' The State is in confusion, and you yourselves confess that 
 you know not how to remedy it. Unable to suggest a 
 course, follow mine. I am the advocate of Mercy ; I am the 
 advocate of Concession ; and, as you despise all higher im- 
 pulses, I meet you on your own grounds. I am their 
 advocate for the sake of policy, of expediency.' 
 
 ' Never ! ' said the Fates. 
 
 ' Never ! ' shrieked the Furies. 
 
 ' What, then, will you do with Orpheus ? ' 
 
 The Parcae shook their heads ; even the Eumenides were 
 silent. 
 
 ' Then you are unable to carry on the King's government ; 
 for Orpheus must be disposed of; all agree to that. Pluto, 
 reject these counsellors, at once insulting and incapable. 
 Give me the distaff and the fatal shears. At once form a 
 new Cabinet ; and let the release of Orpheus and Eurydice 
 be the basis of their policy.' She threw her arms round his 
 neck and whispered in his ear. 
 
 Pluto was perplexed ; his confidence in the Parcee was 
 shaken. A difficulty had occurred with which they could 
 not cope. It was true the difficulty had been occasioned 
 by a departure from their own exclusive and restrictive 
 policy. It was clear that the gates of Hell ought never to 
 have been opened to the stranger ; but opened they had been. 
 Forced to decide, he decided on the side of expediency, and 
 signed a decree for the departure of Orpheus and Eurydice. 
 The Parcee immediately resigned their posts, and the Furies
 
 THE INFERNAL MARBIAGE. 319 
 
 walked off in a huff. Thus, on the third day of the Infernal 
 Marriage, Pluto found that he had quarrelled with all his 
 family, and that his ancient administration was broken up. 
 The King was without a friend, and Hell was without a 
 Government !
 
 320 THE INFERNAL MARRIAGE. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 LET us change the scene from Hades to Olympus. 
 
 A chariot drawn by dragons hovered over that superb 
 palace whose sparkling steps of lapis-lazuli were once 
 pressed by the daring foot of Ixion. It descended ( into the 
 beautiful gardens, and Ceres, stepping out, sought the 
 presence of Jove. 
 
 ' Father of Gods and men,' said the majestic mother of 
 Proserpine, ' listen to a distracted parent ! All my hopes 
 were centred in my daughter, the daughter of whom you 
 have deprived me. Is it for this that I endured the pangs 
 of childbirth ? Is it for this that I suckled her on this 
 miserable bosom ? Is it for this that I tended her girlish 
 innocence, watched with vigilant fondness the develop- 
 ment of her youthful mind, and cultured with a thousand 
 graces and accomplishments her gifted and unrivalled 
 promise ? to lose her for ever ! ' 
 
 'Beloved Bona Dea,' replied Jove, 'calm yourself!' 
 
 ' Jupiter, you forget that I am a mother.' 
 
 ' It is the recollection of that happy circumstance that 
 alone should make you satisfied.' 
 
 ' Do you mock me ? Where is my daughter ? ' 
 
 ' In the very situation you should desire. In her destiny 
 all is fulfilled which the most affectionate mother could 
 hope. What was the object of all your care and all her 
 accomplishments? a good partie ; and she has made one.' 
 
 "To reign in Hell I' 
 
 ' " Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven." What ! 
 would you have had her a cup-bearer, like Hebe, or a mes- 
 senger, like Hermes ? Was the daughter of Jove and Ceres
 
 THE INFERNAL MARRIAGE. 321 
 
 to bo destined to a mere place in our household ! Lady ! 
 she is the object of envy to half the Goddesses. Bating our 
 own bed, which she could not share, what lot more distin- 
 guished than hers ? Recollect that Goddesses, who desire a 
 becoming match, hare a very limited circle to elect from. 
 Even Venus was obliged to put up with Vulcan. It will 
 not do to be too nice. Thank your stars that she is not an 
 old maid like Minerva.' 
 
 'But Mars? he loved her." 
 
 ' A young officer only with his half-pay, however good 
 his connections, is surely not a proper mate for our 
 daughter.' 
 
 'Apollo?' 
 
 'I have no opinion of a literary son-in-law. These 
 scribblers are at present the fashion, and are very well to 
 ask to dinner ; but I confess a more intimate connection 
 with them is not at all to my taste.' 
 
 ' I meet Apollo everywhere.' 
 
 ' The truth is, he is courted because every one is afraid 
 of him. He is the editor of a daily journal, and under the 
 pretence of throwing light upon every subject, brings a 
 great many disagreeable things into notice, which is exces- 
 sively inconvenient. Nobody likes to be paragraphed ; and 
 for my part I should only be too happy to extinguish 
 the Sun and every other newspaper were it only in my 
 power.' 
 
 ' But Pluto is so old, and so ugly, aiid, all agree, so ill- 
 tempered.' 
 
 ' He has a splendid income, a magnificent estate ; his 
 settlements are worthy of his means. This ought to 
 satisfy a mother ; and his political influence is necessary to 
 me, and this satisfies a father.' 
 
 ' But the heart ' 
 
 'As for that, she fancies she loves Mm; and whether 
 she do or not, these feelings, we know, never last. Best 
 assured, my dear Ceres, that our girl has made a brilliant 
 match, in spite of the gloomy atmosphere in which she has 
 to reside.'
 
 322 THE INFERNAL MARRIAGE. 
 
 ' It must end in misery. I know Proserpine. I confess 
 it with tears, she is a spoiled child.' 
 
 ' This may occasion Pluto many uneasy moments ; but 
 that is nothing to you or me. Between ourselves, I shall 
 not be at all surprised if she plague his life out.' 
 
 ' But how can she consort with the Fates ? How is it 
 possible for her to associate with the Furies ? She, who is 
 used to the gayest and most amiable society in the world ? 
 Indeed, indeed, 'tis an ill-assorted union ! ' 
 
 ' They are united, however ; and, take my word for it, 
 my dear madam, that you had better leave Pluto alone. 
 The interference of a mother-in-law is proverbially never 
 very felicitous.' 
 
 II. 
 
 In the meantime affairs went on swimmingly in Tartarus. 
 The obstinate Fates and the sulky Furies were unwittingly 
 the cause of universal satisfaction. Everyone enjoyed him- 
 self, and enjoyment when it is unexpected is doubly satis- 
 factory. Tantalus, Sisyphus, and Ixion, for the first time 
 during their punishment, had an opportunity for a little 
 conversation. 
 
 'Long live our reforming Queen,' said the ex-king of 
 Lydia. 'You cannot conceive, my dear companions, any- 
 thing more delightful than this long-coveted draught of 
 cold water; its flavour far surpasses the memory of my 
 choicest wines. And as for this delicious fruit, one must 
 live in a hot climate, like our present one, sufficiently to 
 appreciate its refreshing gust. I would, my dear friends, 
 you could only share my banquet.' 
 
 ' Tour Majesty is very kind,' replied Sisyphus, ' but it 
 seems to me that nothing in the world will ever induce me 
 again to move. One must have toiled for ages to compre- 
 hend the rapturous sense of repose that now pervades my 
 exhausted frame. Is it possible that that damned stone 
 can really have disappeared?' 
 
 ' You say truly,' said Ixion, ' the couches of Olympus 
 cannot compare with this resting wheel.' 
 
 'Noble Sisyphus,' rejoined Tantalus, 'we are both of u.s 
 acquainted with the cause of our companion's presence iu
 
 THE INFERNAL MARKIAOE. 323 
 
 those infernal regions, since his daring exploit has had the 
 good fortune of being celebrated by one of the fashionable 
 authors of this part of the world.' 
 
 ' I have never had time to read his work,' interrupted 
 Ixion. ' What sort of a fellow is he ? ' 
 
 ' One of the most conceited dogs thafc I ever met with,' 
 replied the King. ' He thinks he is a great genius, and 
 perhaps he has some little talent for the extravagant.' 
 
 ' Are there any critics in Hell ? ' 
 
 ' Myriads. They abound about the marshes of Cocytus, 
 where they croak furiously. They are all to a man against 
 our author.' 
 
 ' That speaks more to his credit than his own self-opinion,' 
 rejoined Ixion. 
 
 'A nous moutons!' exclaimed Tantalus; 'I was about to 
 observe that I am curious to learn for what reason our 
 friend Sisyphus was doomed to his late terrible exertions.' 
 
 ' For the simplest in the world,' replied the object of the 
 inquiry ; ' because I was not a hypocrite. No one ever led 
 a pleasanter life than myself, and no one was more popular 
 in society. I was considered, as they phrased it, the most 
 long-headed prince of my time, and was in truth a finished 
 man of the world. I had not an acquaintance whom I had 
 not taken in, and gods and men alike favoured me. In an 
 unlucky moment, however, I offended the infernal deities, 
 and it was then suddenly discovered that I was the most 
 abandoned character of my age. You know the rest.' 
 
 ' You seem,' exclaimed Tantalus, ' to be relating my 
 own history ; for I myself led a reckless career with im- 
 punity, until some of the Gods did me the honour of dining 
 with me, and were dissatisfied with the repast. I am con- 
 vinced myself that, provided a man frequent the temples, 
 and observe with strictness the sacred festivals, such is the 
 force of public opinion, that there is no crime which he 
 may not commit without hazard.' 
 
 ' Long live hypocrisy! ' exclaimed Ixion. ' It is not my 
 forte. But if I began life anew, I would be more observant 
 in my sacrifices.' 
 
 T 2
 
 324 THE INFERNAL MAEEIAGE. 
 
 ' Who could have anticipated this wonderful revolution ! ' 
 exclaimed Sisyphus, stretching himself. ' I wonder what 
 will occur next ! Perhaps we shall be all released.' 
 
 ' Tou say truly,' said Ixion. ' I am grateful to our re- 
 forming Queen ; but I have no idea of stopping here. This 
 cursed wheel indeed no longer whirls ; but I confess my 
 expectations will be much disappointed if I cannot free 
 myself from these adamantine bonds that fix me to its orb.' 
 
 ' And one cannot drink water for ever,' said Tantalus. 
 
 ' D n all half measures,' said Ixion. ' We must proceed 
 in this system of amelioration.' 
 
 ' Without doubt,' responded his companion. 
 
 ' The Queen must have a party,' continued the audacious 
 lover of Juno. ' The Fates and the Furies never can be 
 conciliated. It is evident to me that she must fall unless 
 she unbinds these chains of mine.' 
 
 ' And grants me full liberty of egress and regress,' ex- 
 claimed Sisyphus. 
 
 ' And me a bottle of the finest golden wine of Lydia,' 
 said Tantalus. 
 
 in. 
 
 The infernal honeymoon was over. A cloud appeared in 
 the hitherto serene heaven of the royal lovers. Proserpine 
 became unwell. A mysterious languor pervaded her frame ; 
 her accustomed hilarity deserted her. She gave up her 
 daily rides ; she never quitted the palace, scarcely her 
 chamber. All day long she remained lying on a sofa, and 
 whenever Pluto endeavoured to console her she went into 
 hysterics. His Majesty was quite miserable, and the Fates 
 and the Furies began to hold up their heads. The two 
 court physicians could throw no light upon the complaint, 
 which baffled all their remedies. These, indeed, were not 
 numerous, for the two physicians possessed each only one 
 idea. With one every complaint was nervous ; the other 
 traced everything to the liver. The name of the first was 
 Dr. Blue-Devil ; and of the other Dr. Blue-Pill. They were 
 most eminent men. 
 
 Her Majesty getting worse every day, Pluto, in despair,
 
 THE INFERNAL MAERIAGE. 325 
 
 determined to send for ^Bsculapius. It was a long way to 
 send for a physician ; but then he was the most fashionable 
 one in the world. He cared not how far he travelled to 
 visit a patient, because he was paid by the mile ; and it was 
 calculated that his fee for quitting earth, and attending the 
 Queen of Hell, would allow him to leave off business. 
 
 What a wise physician was JEsculapius ! Physic was his 
 abhorrence. He never was known, in the whole course of 
 his practice, ever to have prescribed a single drug. He 
 was a handsome man, with a flowing beard curiously per- 
 fumed, and a robe of the choicest purple. He twirled a 
 cane of agate, round which was twined a serpent of pre- 
 cious stones, the gift of Juno, and he rode in a chariot 
 drawn by horses of the Sun. When he visited Proserpine, 
 he neither examined her tongue nor felt her pulse, but gave 
 her an account of a fancy ball which he had attended the 
 last evening he passed on terra firma. His details were so 
 interesting that the Queen soon felt better. The next day 
 he renewed his visit, and gave her an account of a new 
 singer that had appeared at Ephesus. The effect of this 
 recital was so satisfactory, that a bulletin in the evening an- 
 nounced that the Queen was convalescent. The third day 
 ^Esculapius took his departure, having previously enjoined 
 change of scene for her Majesty, and a visit to the Elysian 
 Fields ! 
 
 IV. 
 
 ' Heh, heh ! ' shrieked Tisiphone. 
 
 ' Hah, hah ! ' squeaked Megaera. 
 
 ' Hoh, hoh ! ' moaned Alecto. 
 
 ' Now or never,' said the infernal sisters. ' There is a 
 decided reaction. The moment she embarks, unquestionably 
 we will flare up.' So they ran off to the Fates. 
 
 ' We must be prudent,' said Clotho. 
 
 ' Our time is not come,' remarked Lachesis. 
 
 ' I wish the reaction was more decided,' said Atropos ; 
 ' but it is a great thing that they are going to be parted, 
 for the King must remain.'
 
 326 THE INFERNAL MARRIAGE. 
 
 The opposition party, although aiming at the same result, 
 was therefore evidently divided as to the means by which 
 it was to be obtained. The sanguine Furies were for fight- 
 ing it out at once, and talked bravely of the strong conser- 
 vative spirit only dormant in Tartarus. Even the Radicals 
 themselves are dissatisfied : Tantalus is no longer contented 
 with, water, or Ixion with repose. But the circumspect 
 Fates felt that a false step at present could never be re- 
 gained. They talked, therefore, of watching events. Both 
 divisions, however, agreed that the royal embarkation was 
 to be the signal for renewed intrigues and renovated exer- 
 tions. 
 
 v. 
 
 When Proserpine was assured that she must be parted 
 for a time from Pluto, she was inconsolable. They passed 
 the night in sorrowful embraces. She vowed that she 
 could not live a day without him, and that she certainly 
 should die before she reached the first post. The mighty 
 heart of the King of Hades was torn to pieces with con- 
 tending emotions. In the agony of his overwhelming pas- 
 sion the security of his realm seemed of secondary import- 
 ance compared with the happiness of his wife. Fear and 
 hatred of the Parcse and the Eumenides equalled, however, 
 in the breast of Proserpine, her affection for her husband. 
 The consciousness that his absence would be a signal for a 
 revolution, and that the crown of Tartarus might be lost 
 to her expected offspring, animated her with a spirit of 
 heroism. She reconciled herself to the terrible separation, 
 on condition that Pluto wrote to her every day. 
 
 ' Adieu ! my best, my only beloved ! ' ejaculated the un- 
 happy Queen ; 'do not forget me for a moment; and let 
 nothing in the world induce you to speak to any of those 
 horrid people. I know them ; I know exactly what they 
 will be at : the moment I am gone they will commence 
 their intrigues for the restoration of the reign of doom and 
 torture. Do not listen to them, my Pluto. Sooner than 
 have recourse to them, seek assistance from their former 
 victims.'
 
 THE INFERNAL MARRIAGE. 327 
 
 ' Calm yourself, my Proserpine. Anticipate no evil. I 
 shall be firm ; do not doubt me. I will cling with tenacity 
 to that juste milieu under which we have hitherto so 
 eminently prospered. Neither the Parcse and the Eume- 
 nides, nor Ixion and his friends, shall advance a point. I 
 will keep each faction in awe by the bugbear of the other's 
 supremacy. Trust me, I am a profound politician.' 
 
 TL 
 
 It was determined that the progress of Proserpine to the 
 Elysian Fields should be celebrated with a pomp and mag- 
 nificence becoming her exalted station. The day of her 
 departure was proclaimed as a higli festival in Hell. 
 Tiresias, absent on a secret mission, had been summoned 
 back by Pluto, and appointed to attend her Majesty during 
 her journey and her visit, for Pluto had the greatest con- 
 fidence in his discretion. Besides, as her Majesty had not 
 at present the advantage of any female society, it was ne- 
 cessary that she should be amused ; and Tiresias, though, 
 old, ugly, and blind, was a wit as well as a philosopher, 
 the most distinguished diplomatist of his age, and con- 
 sidered the best company in Hades. 
 
 An immense crowd was assembled round the gates of the 
 palace on the morn of the royal departure. With what 
 anxious curiosity did they watch those huge brazen portals ! 
 Every precaution was taken for the accommodation of the 
 public. The streets were lined with troops of extraordinary 
 stature, whose nodding plumes prevented the multitude 
 from catching a glimpse of anything that passed, and who 
 cracked the sculls of the populace with their scimitars if 
 they attempted in the slightest degree to break the line. 
 Moreover, there were seats erected which any one might 
 occupy at a reasonable rate ; but the lord steward, who had 
 the disposal of the tickets, purchased them all for himself, 
 and then resold them to his fellow-subjects at an enormous 
 price. 
 
 At length the hinges of the gigantic portals gave an
 
 328 THE 1NFEENAL MAKEIAGE. 
 
 ominous creak, and, amid the huzzas of men and the shrieks 
 of women, the procession commenced. 
 
 First came the infernal band. It consisted of five hun- 
 dred performers, mounted on different animals. Never was 
 such a melodious blast. Fifty trumpeters, mounted on 
 zebras of all possible stripes and tints, and working away 
 at huge ramshorns with their cheeks like pumpkins. Then 
 there were bassoons mounted on bears, clarionets on came- 
 lopards, oboes on unicorns, and troops of musicians on 
 elephants, playing on real serpents, whose prismatic bodies 
 indulged in the most extraordinary convolutions imaginable, 
 and whose arrowy tongues glittered with superb agitation 
 at the exquisite sounds which they unintentionally de- 
 livered. Animals there were, too, now unknown and for- 
 gotten ; but I must not forget the fellow who beat the 
 kettledrums, mounted on an enormous mammoth, and the 
 din of whose reverberating blows would have deadened the 
 thunder of Olympus. 
 
 This enchanting harmony preceded the regiment of 
 Proserpine's own guards, glowing in adamantine armour 
 and mounted on coal-black steeds. Their helmets were 
 quite awful, and surmounted by plumes plucked from the 
 wings of the Harpies, which were alone enough to terrify 
 an earthly host. It was droll to observe this troop of 
 gigantic heroes commanded by infants, who, however, were 
 arrayed in a similar costume, though, of course, on a smaller 
 scale. But such was the admirable discipline of the infernal 
 forces, that, though lions to their enemies, they were lambs 
 to their friends ; and on the present occasion their colonel 
 was carried in a cradle. 
 
 After these came twelve most worshipful baboons, in 
 most venerable wigs. They were clothed with scarlet robes 
 lined with ermine, and ornamented with gold chains, and 
 mounted on the most obstinate and inflexible mules in 
 Tartarus. These were the judges. Each was provided with 
 a pannier of choice cobnuts, which he cracked with great 
 gravity, throwing the shells to the multitude, an infernal 
 ceremony, there held emblematic of their profession.
 
 THE INFERNAL MARRIAGE. 329 
 
 The Lord Chancellor came next in a grand car. Although 
 his wig was even longer than those of his fellow func- 
 tionaries, his manners and the rest of his costume afforded 
 a strange contrast to them. Apparently never was such a 
 droll, lively fellow. His dress was something between that 
 of Harlequin and Scaramouch. He amused himself by 
 keeping in the air four brazen balls at the same time, 
 swallowing daggers, spitting fire, turning sugar into salt, 
 and eating yards of pink ribbon, which, after being well 
 digested, re-appeared through his nose. It is unnecessary 
 to add, after this, that he was the most popular Lord 
 Chancellor that had ever held the seals, and was received 
 with loud and enthusiastic cheers, which apparently repaid 
 him for all his exertions. Notwithstanding his numerous 
 and curious occupations, I should not omit to add that his 
 Lordship, nevertheless, found time to lead by the nose a 
 most meek and milk-white jackass that immediately fol- 
 lowed him, and which, in spite of the remarkable length 
 of its ears, seemed the object of great veneration. There 
 was evidently some mystery about this animal difficult to 
 penetrate. Among other characteristics, it was said, at 
 different seasons, to be distinguished by different titles ; 
 for sometimes it was styled ' The Public,' at others 
 ' Opinion,' and occasionally was saluted as the ' King's 
 Conscience.' 
 
 Now came a numerous company of Priests, in flowing 
 and funereal robes, bearing banners, inscribed with the 
 various titles of their Queen ; on some was inscribed 
 Hecate, on others Juno Inferna, on others Theogamia, 
 Libera on some, on others Cotytto. Those that bore ban- 
 ners were crowned with wreaths of narcissus, and monnted 
 on bulls blacker than night, and of a severe and melancholy 
 aspect. Others walked by their side, bearing branches of 
 cypress. 
 
 And here I must stop to notice a droll characteristic of 
 the priestly economy of Hades. To be a good pedestrian 
 was considered an essential virtue of an infernal clergy- 
 man ; but to be mounted on a black brill was the highest dis-
 
 330 THE INFERNAL MARRIAGE. 
 
 tinction of the craft. It followed, therefore, that, originally, 
 promotion to such a seat was the natural reward of any 
 priest who had distinguished himself in the humbler careei 
 of a good walker ; but in process of time, as even infernal 
 as well as human institutions are alike liable to corruption, 
 the black bulls became too often occupied by the halt and 
 the crippled, the feeble and the paralytic, who used their 
 influence at Court to become thus exempted from the per- 
 formance of the severer duties of which they were inca- 
 pable. This violation of the priestly constitution excited at 
 first great murmurs among the abler but less influential 
 brethren. But the murmurs of the weak prove only the 
 tyranny of the strong ; and so completely in the course of 
 time do institutions depart from their original character, 
 that the imbecile riders of the black bulls now avowedly 
 defended their positipn on the very grounds which originally 
 should have unseated them, and openly maintained that it 
 was very evident that the stout were intended to walk, and 
 the feeble to be carried. 
 
 The priests were followed by fifty dark chariots, drawn 
 by blue satyrs. Herein was the wardrobe of the Queen, 
 and her Majesty's cooks. 
 
 Tiresias came next, in a basalt chariot, yoked to royal 
 steeds. He was attended by Manto, who shared his confi- 
 dence, and who, some said, was his daughter, and others 
 his niece. Venerable seer ! Who could behold that flow- 
 ing beard, and the thin grey hairs of that lofty and 
 wrinkled brow, without being filled with sensations of awe 
 and affection ? A smile of bland benignity played upon 
 his passionless and reverend countenance. Fortunate the 
 monarch who is blessed with such a counsellor ! Who 
 could have supposed that all this time Tiresias was concoct- 
 ing an epigram on Pluto ! 
 
 The Queen ! The Queen ! 
 
 Upon a superb throne, placed upon an immense car, and 
 drawn by twelve coal-black steeds, four abreast, reposed 
 the royal daughter of Ceres. Her rich dark hair was 
 braided off her high pale forehead, and fell in voluptuous
 
 THE INFERNAL MARRIAGE. 331 
 
 clusters over her back. A tiara sculptured out of a single 
 brilliant, and which darted a flash like lightning on the 
 Burrounding multitude, was placed somewhat negligently on 
 the right side of her head ; but no jewels broke the en- 
 trancing swell of her swan-like neck, or were dimmed by 
 the lustre of her ravishing arms. How fair was the Queen 
 of Hell ! How thrilling the solemn lustre of her violet 
 eye ! A robe, purple as the last hour of twilight, encom- 
 passed her transcendent form, studded with golden stars ! 
 
 VII. 
 
 Through the dim hot streets of Tartarus moved the royal 
 procession, until it reached the first winding of the river 
 Styx. Here an immense assemblage of yachts and barges, 
 dressed out with the infernal colours, denoted the appointed 
 spot of the royal embarkation. Tiresias dismounting from 
 his chariot, and leaning on Manto, now approached her 
 Majesty, and requesting her royal commands, recommended 
 her to lose no time in getting on board. 
 
 'When your Majesty is once on the Styx,' observed the 
 wily seer, ' it may be somewhat difficult to recall you to 
 Hades ; but I know very little of Clotho, may it please 
 your Majesty, if she have not already commenced her in- 
 trigues in Tartarus.' 
 
 ' You alarm me !' said Proserpine. 
 
 ' It was not my intention. Caution is not fear.' 
 
 ' But do you think that Pluto ' 
 
 ' May it please your Majesty, I make it a rule never to 
 think. I know too much.' 
 
 ' Let us embark immediately !' 
 
 ' Certainly ; I would recommend your Majesty to get off 
 at once. Myself and Manto will accompany you, and the 
 cooks. If an order arrive to stay our departure, we can 
 then send back the priests.' 
 
 ' You counsel well, Tiresias. I wish you had not been 
 absent on my arrival. Affairs might have gone better.' 
 
 ' Not at all. Had I been in Hell, your enemies would
 
 332 THE INFERNAL MARRIAGE. 
 
 have been more wary. . Tour Majesty's excellent spirit 
 carried you through triumphantly ; but it will not do so 
 twice. Tou turned them out, and I must keep them out.' 
 
 ' So be it, my dear friend.' Thus saying, the Queen de- 
 scended her throne, and leaving the rest of her retinue to 
 follow with all possible despatch, embarked on board the 
 infernal yacht, with Tiresias, Manto, the chief cook, and 
 some chosen attendants, and bid adieu for the first time, not 
 without agitation, to the gloomy banks of Tartarus. 
 
 vm. 
 
 The breeze was favourable, and, animated by the exhor- 
 tations of Tiresias, the crew exerted themselves to the 
 utmost. The barque swiftly scudded over the dark waters. 
 The river was of great breadth, and in this dim region the 
 crew were soon out of sight of land. 
 
 'You have been in Elysium?' inquired Proserpine of 
 Tiresias. 
 
 ' I have been everywhere,' replied the seer, ' and though 
 I am blind have managed to see a great deal more than my 
 fellows.' 
 
 ' I have often heard of you,' said the Queen, ' and I confess 
 that yours is a career which has much interested me. What 
 vicissitudes in affairs have you not witnessed ! And yet 
 you have somehow or other contrived to make your way 
 through all the storms in which others have sunk, and are 
 now, as you always have been, in an exalted position. What 
 can be your magic ? I would that you would initiate me. 
 I know that you are a prophet, and that even the Gods con- 
 sult you.' 
 
 ' Your Majesty is complimentary. I certainly have had 
 a great deal of experience. My life has no doubt been a 
 long one, but I have made it longer by never losing a mo- 
 ment. I was born, too, at a great crisis in affairs. Every- 
 thing that took place before the Trojan war passes for 
 nothing in the annals of wisdom. That was a great revolu- 
 tion in all affairs human and divine, and from that event we 
 must now date all our knowledge. Before the Trojan war we
 
 THE INFERNAL MARRIAGE. 333 
 
 used to talk of the rebellion of the Titans, but that business 
 now is an old almanac. As for my powers of prophecy, 
 believe me, that those who understand the past are very well 
 qualified to predict the future. For my success in life, it 
 may be principally ascribed to the observance of a simple 
 rule I never trust anyone, either God or man. I make an 
 exception in favour of the Goddesses, and especially of your 
 Majesty,' added Tiresias, who piqued himself on his gal- 
 lantry. 
 
 "While they were thus conversing, the Queen directed the 
 attention of Manto to a mountainous elevation which now 
 began to rise in the distance, and which, from the rapidity 
 of the tide and the freshness of the breeze, they approached 
 at a swift rate. 
 
 ' Behold the Stygian mountains, 'replied Manto. ' Through 
 their centre runs the passage of Night which leads to the 
 regions of Twilight.' 
 
 ' We have, then, far to travel ?' 
 
 ' Assuredly it is no easy task to escape from the gloom of 
 Tartarus to the sunbeams of Elysium,' remarked Tiresias ;' 
 ' but the pleasant is generally difficult ; let us be grateful 
 that in our instance it is not, as usual, forbidden.' 
 
 ' You say truly ; I am sorry to confess how very often it 
 appears to me that sin is enjoyment. But see ! how awful 
 are these perpendicular heights, piercing the descending 
 vapours, with their peaks clothed with dark pines ! We 
 seem land-locked.' 
 
 But the experienced master of the infernal yacht knew 
 well how to steer his charge through the intricate windings 
 of the river, which here, though deep and navigable, be- 
 came as wild and narrow as a mountain stream ; and, as 
 the tide no longer served them, and the wind, from their 
 involved course, was as often against them as in their fa- 
 vour, the crew were obliged to have recourse to their oars, and 
 rowed along until they arrived at the mouth of an enormous 
 cavern, from which the rapid stream apparently issued. 
 
 ' I am frightened out of my wits,' exclaimed Proserpine. 
 1 Surely this cannot be our course ?'
 
 334 THE INFERNAL MARRIAGE. 
 
 ' I hold, from your Majesty's exclamation,' said Tiresias, 
 ' that we have arrived at the passage of Night. When we 
 have proceeded some hundred yards, we shall reach the 
 adamantine portals. I pray your Majesty be not alarmed. 
 I alone have the signet which can force these mystic gates 
 to open. I must be stirring myself. What, ho ! Manto.' 
 
 ' Here am I, father. Hast thou the seal ?' 
 
 ' In my breast. I would not trust it to my secretaries. 
 They have my portfolios full of secret despatches, written 
 on purpose to deceive them ; for I know that they are spies 
 in the pay of Minerva ; but your Majesty perceives, with a 
 little prudence, that even a traitor may be turned to ac- 
 count.' 
 
 Thus saying, Tiresias, leaning on Manto, hobbled to the 
 poop of the vessel, and exclaiming aloud, ' Behold the 
 mighty seal of Dis, whereon is inscribed the word the 
 Titans fear,' the gates immediately flew open, revealing the 
 gigantic form of the Titan. Porphyrion, whose head, touched 
 the vault of the mighty cavern, although he was up to his 
 waist in the waters of the river. 
 
 ' Come, my noble Porphyrion,' said Tiresias, ' bestir thy. 
 self, I beseech thee. I have brought thee a Queen. Guide 
 her Majesty, I entreat thee, with safety through this awful 
 passage of Night.' 
 
 ' What a horrible creature,' whispered Proserpine. ' I 
 wonder you address him with such courtesy.' 
 
 ' I am always courteous,' replied Tiresias. ' How know 
 I that the Titans may not yet regain their lost heritage ? 
 They are terrible fellows ; and ugly or not, I have no doubt 
 that even your Majesty would not find them so ill-favoured 
 were they seated in the halls of Olympus.' 
 
 ' There is something in that,' replied Proserpine. ' I al- 
 most wish I were once more in Tartarus.' 
 
 The Titan Porphyrion in the meantime had fastened a 
 chain-cable to the vessel, which he placed over his shoulder, 
 and turning his back to the crew, then wading through the 
 waters, he dragged on the vessel in its course. The cavern
 
 THE INFERNAL MAKRIAGE. 335 
 
 widened, the waters spread. To the joy of Proserpine, ap- 
 parently, she once more beheld the moon and stars. 
 
 ' Bright crescent of Diana ! ' exclaimed the enraptured 
 Queen, ' and ye too, sweet stars, that I have so often watched 
 on the Sicilian plains ; do I, then, indeed again behold you ? 
 or is it only some exquisite vision that entrances my being ? 
 for, indeed, I do not feel the freshness of that breeze that 
 was wont to renovate my languid frame ; nor does the odor- 
 ous scent of flowers wafted from the shores delight my jaded 
 senses. What is it ? Is it life or death ; earth, indeed, or 
 'hell ? ' 
 
 ' "Tis nothing,' said Tiresias, ' but a great toy. Tou must 
 know that Saturn until at length, wearied by his ruinous 
 experiments, the Gods expelled him his empire was a great 
 dabbler in systems. He was always for making moons 
 brighter than Dian, and lighting the stars by gas ; but his 
 systems never worked. The tides rebelled against their 
 mistress, and the stars went out with a horrible stench. 
 This is one of his creations, the most ingenious, though a 
 failure. Jove made it a present to Pluto, who is quite proud 
 of having a sun and stars of his own, and reckons it among 
 the choice treasures of his kingdoms.' 
 
 ' Poor Saturn ! I pity him ; he meant well.' 
 'Very true. He is the paviour of the high-street of 
 Hades. But we cannot afford kings, and especially Gods, 
 to be philosophers. The certainty of misrule is better than 
 the chance of good government ; uncertainty makes people 
 restless.' 
 
 ' I feel very restless myself; I wish we were in Elysium! ' 
 ' The river again narrows ! ' exclaimed Manto. ' There 
 is no other portal to pass. The Saturnian moon and stars 
 grow fainter, there is a grey tint expanding in the distance ; 
 'tis the realm of Twilight; your Majesty will soon dis- 
 embark.'
 
 336 THE INFERNAL MARRIAGE. 
 
 PART III. 
 
 Containing an account of Tiresias at his Ridt'ber. 
 
 TRAVELLERS who have left their homes generally grow 
 mournful as the evening draws on ; nor is there, perhaps, 
 any time at which the pensive influence of twilight is more 
 predominant than on the eve that follows a separation 
 from those we love. Imagine, then, the feelings of the 
 Queen of Hell, as her barque entered the very region of 
 that mystic light, and the shadowy shores of the realm of 
 Twilight opened before her. Her thoughts reverted to 
 Pluto ; and she mused over all his fondness, all his adora- 
 tion, and all his indulgence, and the infinite solicitude of his 
 affectionate heart, until the tears trickled down her beau- 
 tiful cheeks, and she marvelled she ever could have quitted 
 the arms of her lover. 
 
 'Your Majesty,' observed Manto, who had been whisper- 
 ing to Tiresias, ' feels, perhaps, a little wearied ? ' 
 
 ' By no means, my kind Manto,' replied Proserpine, 
 starting from her reverie. ' But the truth is, my spirits are 
 unequal ; and though I really cannot well fix upon the cause 
 of their present depression, I am apparently not free from 
 the contagion of the surrounding gloom.' 
 
 'It is the evening air,' said Tiresias. 'Tour Majesty 
 had perhaps better re-enter the pavilion of the yacht. As 
 for myself, I never venture about after sunset. One grows 
 romantic. Night was evidently made for in-door nature. I 
 propose a rubber.' 
 
 To this popular suggestion Proserpine was pleased to 
 accede, and herself and Tiresias, Manto and the captain of 
 the yacht, were soon engaged at the proposed amusement.
 
 THE INFERNAL MARRIAGE. 337 
 
 Tiresias loved a rubber. It was true he was blind, but 
 then, being a prophet, that did not signify. Tiresias, I say, 
 loved a rubber, and was a first-rate player, though, perhaps, 
 given a little too much to finesse. Indeed, he so much en- 
 joyed taking in his fellow- creatures, that he sometimes 
 could not resist deceiving his own partner. Whist is a 
 game which requires no ordinary combination of qualities ; 
 at the same time, memory and invention, a daring fancy, 
 and a cool head. To a mind like that of Tiresias, a pack 
 of cards was full of human nature. A rubber was a micro- 
 cosm ; and he ruffed his adversary's king, or brought in a 
 long suit of his own with as much dexterity and as much 
 enjoyment as, in the real business of existence, he dethroned 
 a monarch, or introduced a dynasty. 
 
 ' Will your Majesty be pleased to draw your card ? ' re- 
 quested the sage. ' If I might venture to offer your Ma- 
 jesty a hint, I would dare to recommend your Majesty not 
 to play before your turn. My friends are fond of ascribing 
 my success in my various missions to the possession of pe- 
 culiar qualities. No such thing : I owe everything to the 
 simple habit of always waiting till it is my turn to speak. 
 And believe me, that he who plays before his turn at whist, 
 commits as great a blunder as he who speaks before his 
 turn during a negotiation.' 
 
 ' The trick, and two by honours,' said Proserpine. ' Pray, 
 my dear Tiresias, you who are such a fine player, how came 
 you to trump my best card ? ' 
 
 ' Because I wanted the lead. And those who want to 
 lead, please your Majesty, must never hesitate about sacri- 
 ficing their friends.' 
 
 'I believe you speak truly. I was right in playing that 
 thirteenth card ? ' 
 
 ' Quite so. Above all things, I love a thirteenth card. I 
 send it forth, like a mock project in a revolution, to try the 
 strength of parties.' 
 
 ' You should not have forced me, Lady Manto,' said the 
 Captain of the yacht, in a grumbling tone, to his partner. 
 
 Z
 
 338 THE INFERNAL MARRIAGE. 
 
 ' By weakening me, yon prevented me bringing in my 
 spades. We might have made the game.' 
 
 'You should not have been forced,' said Tiresias. 'If 
 she made a mistake, "who was unacquainted with your 
 plans, what a terrible blunder you committed to share her 
 error without her ignorance ! ' 
 
 ' What, then, was I to lose a trick ? ' 
 
 ' Next to knowing when to seize an opportunity,' replied 
 Tiresias, 'the most important thing in life is to know when 
 to forego an advantage.' 
 
 ' I have cut you an honour, sir,' said Manto. 
 
 ' Which reminds me,' replied Tiresias, ' that, in the last 
 hand, your Majesty unfortunately forgot to lead through 
 your adversary's ace. I have often observed that nothing ever 
 perplexes an adversary so much as an appeal to his honour.' 
 
 'I will not forget to follow your advice,' said the Captain 
 of the yacht, playing accordingly. 
 
 ' By which you have lost the game,' quietly remarked 
 Tiresias. ' There are exceptions to all rules, but it seldom 
 answers to follow the advice of an opponent.' 
 
 Confusion ! ' exclaimed the Captain of the yacht. 
 
 ' Four by honours, and the trick, I declare,' said Proser- 
 pine. ' 1 was so glad to see you turn up the queen, Tiresias.' 
 
 ' I also, Madam. Without doubt there are few cards 
 better than her royal consort, or, still more, the imperial 
 ace. Nevertheless, I must confess, I am perfectly satisfied 
 whenever I remember that I have the Queen on my side.' 
 
 Proserpine bowed. 
 
 IT. 
 
 Containing a Visit from a liberal Queen to a dethroned Monarch ; 
 and a Conversation between them respecting the ' Spirit of the 
 Age: 
 
 ' I have a good mind to do it, Tiresias,' said Queen Proser- 
 pine, as that worthy sage paid his compliments to her at 
 her toilet, at an hour which should have been noon. 
 
 ' It would be a great compliment,' said Tiresias. 
 
 ' And it is not much out of our way ?'
 
 THE INFERNAL MARRIAGE. 339 
 
 ' By no means,' replied the seer. ' 'Tis an agreeable 
 half-way house. He lives in good style.' 
 
 ' And whence can a dethroned monarch gain a revenue ?' 
 inquired the Queen. 
 
 ' Your Majesty, I see, is not at all learned in politics. A 
 sovereign never knows what an easy income is till he has 
 abdicated. He generally commences squabbling with his 
 subjects about the supplies ; he is then expelled, and voted, 
 as compensation, an amount about double the sum which 
 was the cause of the original quarrel.' 
 
 'What do you think, Man to?' said Proserpine, as that 
 lady entered the cabin ; ' we propose paying a visit to 
 Saturn. He has fixed his residence, you know, in these 
 regions of twilight.' 
 
 ' I love a junket,' replied Manto, ' above all things. And, 
 indeed, I was half frightened out of my wits at the bare 
 idea of toiling over this desert. All is prepared, please 
 your Majesty, for our landing. Tour Majesty's litter is 
 quite ready.' 
 
 "Tis well,' said Proserpine; and leaning on the arm of 
 Manto, the Queen came upon deck, and surveyed the sur- 
 rounding country, a vast grey flat, with a cloudless sky of 
 the same tint : in the distance some lowering shadows, 
 which seemed like clouds but were in fact mountains. 
 
 ' Some half-dozen hours,' said Tiresias, ' will bring us to 
 the palace of Saturn. We shall arrive for dinner ; the right 
 hour. Let me recommend your Majesty to order the cur- 
 tains of your litter to be drawn, and, if possible, to resume 
 your dreams.' 
 
 ' They were not pleasant,' said Proserpine, ' I dreamt of 
 my mother and the Parcae. Manto, methinks I'll read. 
 Hast thou some book?' 
 
 ' Here is a poem, Madam, but I fear it may induce those 
 very slumbers you dread.' 
 
 'How call you it?' 
 
 ' " The Pleasures of Oblivion." The poet apparently is 
 fond of his subject.' 
 
 ' And is, I have no doubt, equal to it. Hast any prose ? 
 z 2
 
 340 THE INFERNAL 3IAKRIAGE. 
 
 * An historical novel or so.' 
 
 ' Oh ! if you mean those things as full of costume as a 
 fancy ball, and almost as devoid of sense, I'll have none of 
 them. Close the curtains ; even visions of the Furies are 
 preferable to these insipidities.' 
 
 The halt of the litter roused the Queen from her slumbers. 
 ' We have arrived,' saidManto,as she assisted in withdrawing 
 the curtains. 
 
 The train had halted before a vast propylon of rose- 
 coloured granite. The gate was nearly two hundred feet in 
 height, and the sides of the propylon, which rose like huge 
 moles, were sculptured with colossal figures of a threatening 
 aspect. Passing through the propylon, the Queen of Hell 
 and her attendants entered an avenue in length about three- 
 quarters of a mile, formed of colossal figures of the same 
 character and substance, alternately raising in their arms 
 javelins or battle-axes, as if about to strike. At the end of 
 this heroic avenue appeared the palace of Saturn. Ascending 
 a hundred steps of black marble, you stood before a portico 
 supported by twenty columns of the same material and 
 shading a single portal of bronze. Apparently the palace 
 formed an immense quadrangle ; a vast tower rising from 
 each corner, and springing from the centre a huge and 
 hooded dome. A crowd of attendants, in grey and sad- 
 coloured raiment, issued from the portal of the palace at the 
 approach of Proserpine, who remarked with strange surprise 
 their singular countenances and demeanour ; for rare in this 
 silent assemblage was any visage resembling aught she had 
 seen, human or divine. Some bore the heads of bats ; of 
 owls and beetles others ; some fluttered moth-like wings, 
 while the shoulders of other bipeds were surmounted, in 
 spite of their human organisation, with the heads of rats 
 and weasels, of marten-cats and of foxes. But they were 
 all remarkably civil ; and Proserpine, who was now used to 
 wonders, did not shriek at all, and scarcely shuddered. 
 
 The Queen of Hell was ushered through a superb hall, 
 and down a splendid gallery, to a suite of apartments where 
 a body of damsels of a most distinguished appearance
 
 THE INFERNAL MARRIAGE. 341 
 
 awaited her. Their heads resembled those of the most 
 eagerly- sought, highly-prized, and offcenest-stolen lap-dogs. 
 Upon the shoulders of one was the visage of the smallest 
 and most thorough-hred little Blenheim in the world. 
 Upon her front was a white star, her nose was nearly flat, 
 and her ears were tied under her chin, with the most jaunty 
 air imaginable. She was an evident flirt ; and a solemn 
 prude of a spaniel, with a black and tan countenance, who 
 seemed a sort of duenna, evidently watched her with no 
 little distrust. The admirers of blonde beauties would, 
 however, have fallen in love with a poodle, with the finest 
 head of hair imaginable, and most voluptuous shoulders. 
 This brilliant band began barking in the most insinuating 
 tone on the appearance of the Queen ; and Manto, who was 
 almost as dexterous a linguist as Tiresias himself, informed 
 her Majesty that these were the ladies of her bedchamber ; 
 upon which Proserpine, who, it will be remembered, had no 
 passion for dogs, ordered them immediately out of her 
 room. 
 
 ' What a droll place ! ' exclaimed the Queen. ' Do you 
 know we are later than I imagined ? A hasty toilet to-day ; 
 I long to see Saturn. It is droll, lam hungry. My purple 
 velvet, I think ; it may be considered a compliment. !Nb 
 diamonds, only jet ; a pearl or two, perhaps. Didst ever see 
 the King ? They say he is gentlemanlike, though a bigot. 
 3S\> ! no rouge to-day ; this paleness is quite apropos. Were 
 I as radiant as usual, I should be taken for Aurora.' 
 
 So leaning on Manto, and preceded by the ladies of her 
 bed-chamber, whom, notwithstanding their repulse, she 
 found in due attendance in the antechamber, Proserpine 
 again continued her progress down the gallery, until they 
 stopped at a door, which opening, she was ushered into the 
 grand circular saloon, crowned by the dome, whose exterior 
 the Queen had already observed. The interior of this 
 apartment was entirely of black and grey marble, with the 
 exception of the dome itself, which was of ebony, richly 
 carved, and supported by more than a hundred columns. 
 There depended from the centre of the arch a single chan-
 
 342 THE HSTEKXAL MARRIAGE. 
 
 delier of frosted silver, which, was itself as big as an ordi- 
 nary chamber, but of the most elegant form, and delicate 
 and fantastic workmanship. As the Queen entered the 
 saloon, a personage of venerable appearance, dressed in a 
 suit of black velvet, and leaning on an ivory cane, advanced 
 to salute her. There was no mistaking this personage ; his 
 manners were at once so courteous and so dignified. He 
 was clearly their host ; and Proserpine, who was quite 
 charmed with his grey locks and his black velvet cap, his 
 truly paternal air, and the beneficence of his unstudied 
 smile, could scarcely refrain from bending her knee, and 
 pressing her lips to his extended hand. 
 
 ' I am proud that your Majesty has remembered me in 
 my retirement,' said Saturn, as he led Proserpine to a seat. 
 
 Their mutual compliments were soon disturbed by the 
 announcement of dinner, and Saturn offering his arm to 
 the Queen with an air of politeness which belonged to the 
 old school, but which the ladies admire in old men, handed 
 Proserpine to the banqueting-room. They were followed 
 by some of the principal personages of her Majesty's suite, 
 and a couple of young Titans, who enjoyed the posts of 
 Aides-de-Camp to the ex-King, and whose duties consisted 
 of carving at dinner. 
 
 It was a most agreeable dinner, and Proserpine was de- 
 lighted with Saturn, who, of course, sat by her side, and 
 paid her every possible attention. Saturn, whose manners, 
 as has been observed, were of the old school, loved a good 
 story, and told several. His anecdotes, especially of society 
 previous to the Trojan war, were highly interesting. There 
 ran through all his behaviour, too, a tone of high breeding 
 and of consideration for others which was really charming ; 
 and Proserpine, who had expected to find in her host a 
 gloomy bigot, was quite surprised at the truly liberal spirit 
 with which he seemed to consider affairs in general. In- 
 deed this unexpected tone made so great an impression 
 upon her, that finding a good opportunity after dinner, 
 when they were sipping their coffee apart from the rest of 
 the company, she could not refrain from entering into some
 
 THE INFERNAL MARRIAGE. 343 
 
 conversation with the ex-King upon the subject, and the 
 conversation ran thus : 
 
 ' Do you know,' said Proserpine, ' that much as I have 
 been pleased and surprised during my visit to the realms 
 of twilight, nothing has pleased, and I am. sure nothing 
 has surprised me more, than to observe the remarkably 
 liberal spirit in which your Majesty views the affairs of 
 the day.' 
 
 ' You give me a title, beautiful Proserpine, to which I 
 have no claim,' replied Saturn. ' You forget that I am 
 now only Count Hesperus ; I am no longer a king, and be- 
 lieve me, I am very glad of it.' 
 
 ' What a pity, my dear sir, that you would not condescend 
 to conform to the Spirit of the age. For myself, I am quite 
 a reformer.' 
 
 ' So I have understood, beautiful Proserpine, which I 
 confess has a little surprised me ; for to tell you the truth, 
 I do not consider that reform is exactly our trade.' 
 
 ' Affairs cannot go on as they used,' observed Proserpine, 
 oracularly; 'we must bow to the Spirit of the age.' 
 
 ' And what is that ? ' inquired Saturn. 
 
 ' I do not exactly know,' replied Proserpine, 'but one hears 
 of it everywhere.' 
 
 ' I also heard of it a great deal,' replied Saturn, ' and was 
 also recommended to conform to it. Before doing so, how- 
 ever, I thought it as well to ascertain its nature, and some- 
 thing also of its strength.' 
 
 ' It is terribly strong,' observed Proserpine. 
 
 ' But you think it will be stronger ? ' inquired the ex- 
 King. 
 
 ' Certainly ; every day it is more powerful.' 
 
 ' Then if, on consideration, we were to deem resistance 
 to it advisable, it is surely better to commence the contest 
 at once than to postpone the struggle.' 
 
 ' It is useless to talk of resisting ; one must conform.' 
 
 * I certainly should consider resistance useless,' replied 
 Saturn, ' for I tried it and failed ; but at least one has a 
 chance of success ; and yet, having resisted this spirit and
 
 344 THE INFEENAL MARRIAGE. 
 
 failed, I should not consider myself in a worse plight than 
 you would voluntarily place yourself in by conforming 
 to it,' 
 
 ' You speak riddles,' said Proserpine. 
 
 ' To be plain, then,' replied Saturn, ' I think you may as 
 well at once give up your throne, as conform to this spirit.' 
 
 ' And why so ?' inquired Proserpine very ingenuously.' 
 
 'Because,' replied Saturn, shrugging up his shoulders, 
 ' I look upon the Spirit of the age as a spirit hostile to 
 Kings and Gods.' 
 
 m. 
 Containing the Titans ; or a View of a subverted Faction. 
 
 The next morning Saturn himself attended his beautiful 
 guest over his residence, which Proserpine greatly admired. 
 
 ' 'Tis the work of the Titans,' replied the ex- King. 
 ' There never was a party so fond of building palaces.' 
 
 ' To speak the truth,' said Proserpine, ' I am a little dis- 
 appointed that I have not had an opportunity, during my 
 visit, of becoming acquainted with some of the chiefs of 
 that celebrated party ; for, although a Liberal, I am a 
 female one, and I like to know every sort of person who is 
 distinguished.' 
 
 ' The fact is,' replied her host, ' that the party has never 
 recovered from the thunderbolt of that scheming knave 
 Jupiter, and do not bear their defeat so philosophically as 
 years, perhaps, permit me to do. If we have been van- 
 quished by the Spirit of the age,' continued Saturn, 'you 
 must confess that, in our case, the conqueror did not assume 
 a material form very remarkable for its dignity. Had 
 Creation resolved itself into its original elements, had- 
 Chaos come again, or even old Coelus, the indignity might 
 have been endured ; but to be baffled by an Olympian juste 
 'milieu, and to find, after all the clamour, that nothing has 
 been changed save the places, is, you will own, somewhat 
 mortifying.' 
 
 ' But how do you reconcile,' inquired the ingenuous Pro-
 
 THE INFERNAL MARRIAGE. 345 
 
 scrpine, ' the success of Jupiter with the character which 
 you ascribed last night to the Spirit of the age ?' 
 
 ' Why, in truth,' said Saturn, ' had I not entirely freed 
 myself from all party feeling, I might adduce the success 
 of my perfidious and worthless relative as very good de- 
 monstration that the Spirit of the age is nothing better 
 than an ignis fatuus. Nevertheless, we must discriminate. 
 Even the success of Jupiter, although he now conducts 
 himself in direct opposition, to the emancipating principles 
 he at first professed, is no less good evidence of their force ; 
 for by his professions he rose. And, for my part, I consider 
 it a great homage to public opinion to find every scoundrel 
 now-a-days professing himself a Liberal.' 
 
 'You are can did,' said Proserpine. 'I should like very 
 much to see the Titans.' 
 
 ' My friends are at least consistent,' observed Saturn ; 
 ' though certainly at present I can say little more for them. 
 Between the despair of one section of the party, and the 
 over-sanguine expectations of the other, they are at present 
 quite inactive, or move only to ensure fresh rebuffs.' 
 
 ' You see little of them, then ? ' 
 
 ' They keep to themselves : they generally frequent a 
 lonely vale in the neighbourhood.' 
 
 ' I should so like to see them ! ' exclaimed Proserpine. 
 
 ' Say nothing to Tiresias,' said old Saturn, who was half 
 in love with his fair friend, ' and we will steal upon them 
 unperceived.' So saying, the God struck the earth with 
 his cane, and there instantly sprang forth a convenient car, 
 built of curiously carved cedar, and borne by four enormous 
 tawny-coloured owls. Seating himself by the side of the 
 delighted Proserpine, Saturn commanded the owls to bear 
 them to the Valley of Lamentations. 
 
 'Twas an easy fly: the chariot soon descended upon the 
 crest of a hill : and Saturn and Proserpine, leaving the car, 
 commenced, by a winding path, the slight ascent of a 
 superior elevation. Having arrived there, they looked down 
 upon a valley, apparently land-locked by black and barren 
 mountains of the most strange, although picturesque forms.
 
 346 THE INFERNAL MAKBIAUE. 
 
 In the centre of the valley was a black pool or tarn, bor- 
 dered with dark purple flags of an immense size, twining 
 and twisting among which might be observed the glancing 
 and gliding folds of several white serpents ; while croco- 
 diles and alligators, and other horrible forms, poked their 
 foul snouts with evident delight in a vast mass of black 
 slime, which had, at various times, exuded from the lake. 
 A single tree only was to be observed in this desolate place, 
 an enormous and blasted cedar, with scarcely a patch of 
 verdure, but extending its black and barren branches nearly 
 across the valley. Seated on a loosened crag, but leaning 
 against the trunk of the cedar, with his arms folded, his 
 mighty eyes fixed on the ground, and his legs crossed with 
 that air of complete repose which indicates that their owner 
 is in no hurry again to move them, was 
 
 ' A form, some granite god we deemed, 
 Or king of palmy Nile, colossal shapes 
 Such as Syene's rosy quarries yield 
 To Memphian art ; Horus, Osiris called, 
 Or Amenoph, who, on the Theban plain, 
 With magic melody the sun salutes ; 
 Or he, far mightier, to whose conquering car 
 Monarchs were yoked, Rameses: by the Greeks 
 Sesostris styled. And yet no sculptor's art 
 Moulded this shape, for form it seemed of flesh, 
 Yet motionless ; its dim unlustrous orbs 
 Gazing in stilly vacancy, its cheek 
 Grey as its hairs, which, thin as they might seem, 
 No breath disturbed ; a solemn countenance, 
 Not sorrowful, though full of woe sublime, 
 As if despair were now a distant dream 
 Too dim for memory.' 
 
 * 'Tis their great leader,' said Saturn, as he pointed out 
 the Titan to Proserpine, ' the giant Enceladus. He got us 
 into all our scrapes, but I must do him the justice to add, 
 that he is the only one who can ever get us out of them. 
 They say he has no heart ; but I think his hook nose is 
 rather fine.' 
 
 ' Superb ! ' said Proserpine. ' And who is that radiant 
 and golden-haired youth who is seated at his feet ?' 
 
 ' 'Tis no less a personage than Hyperion himself,' replied
 
 THE INFERNAL MARRIAGE. 347 
 
 Saturn, ' the favourite counsellor of Enceladus. He is a 
 fine orator, and makes up by his round sentences and choice 
 phrases for the rhetorical deficiencies of his chief, who, to 
 speak the truth, is somewhat curt and husky. They have 
 enough now to do to manage their comrades and keep a 
 semblance of discipline in their routed ranks. Mark that 
 ferocious Briareus there scowling in a corner ! Didst ever 
 see such a moustache ! He glances, methinks, with an evil 
 eye on the mighty Enceladus ; and, let me tell you, Briareus 
 has a great following among them ; so they say of him you 
 know, that he hath fifty heads and a hundred arms. See ! 
 how they gather around him.' 
 
 ' Who speaks now to Briareus ? ' 
 
 ' The young and valiant Mimas. Be assured he is coun- 
 selling war. We shall have a debate now.' 
 
 ' Ton venerable personage, who is seated by the margin 
 of the pool, and weeping with the crocodiles ' 
 
 1 Is old Oceanu's.' 
 
 ' He is apparently much affected by his overthrow.' 
 
 ' It is his wont to weep. He used to cry when he fought, 
 and yet he was a powerful warrior.' 
 
 ' Hark ! ' said Proserpine. 
 
 The awful voice of Briareus broke the silence. What a ter- 
 rible personage was Briareus ! His wild locks hung loose 
 about his shoulders, and blended with his unshorn beard. 
 
 ' Titans ! ' shouted the voice which made many a heart 
 tremble, and the breathless Proserpine clasp the arm of 
 Saturn. ' Titans ! Is that spirit dead that once heaped 
 Ossa upon Pelion ? Is it forgotten, even by ourselves, that 
 a younger born revels in our heritage ? Are these forms 
 that surround me, indeed, the shapes at whose dread sight 
 the base Olympians fled to their fitting earth ? Warriors, 
 whose weapons were the rocks, whose firebrands were the 
 burning woods, is the day forgotten when Jove himself 
 turned craven, and skulked in Egypt ? At least my 
 memory is keen enough to support my courage, and what- 
 ever the dread Enceladus may counsel, my voice is still for 
 warl'
 
 348 THE INFERNAL MARRIAGE. 
 
 There ensued, after this harangue of Briareus, a profound 
 and thrilling silence, which was, however, broken in due 
 time by the great leader of the Titans himself. 
 
 ' You mouth it well, Briareus,' replied Enceladus calmly. 
 * And if great words would re-seat us in Olympus, doubt- 
 less, with your potent aid, we might succeed. It never 
 should be forgotten, however, that had we combined at 
 first, in the spirit now recommended, the Olympians would 
 never have triumphed ; and least of all our party should 
 Briareus and his friends forget the reasons of our disunion.' 
 
 ' I take thy sneer, Enceladus,' said the young and chival- 
 ric Mimas, ' and throw it in thy teeth. This learn, then, 
 from Briareus and his friends, that if we were lukewarm in 
 the hour of peril, the fault lies not to our account, but with 
 those who had previously so conducted themselves, that, 
 when the danger arrived, it was impossible for us to dis- 
 tinguish between our friends and our foes. Enceladus ap- 
 parently forgets that had the Olympians never been per- 
 mitted to enter Heaven, it would have been unnecessary 
 ever to have combined against their machinations.' 
 
 ' Recrimination is useless,' said a Titan, interposing. ' I 
 was one of those who supported Enceladus in the admission 
 of the Olympians above, and I regret it. But at the time, 
 like others, I believed it to be the only mode of silencing 
 the agitation of Jupiter.' 
 
 'I separated from Enceladus on that question,' said a 
 huge Titan, lying his length on the ground and leaning one 
 arm on a granite crag ; ' but I am willing to forget all our 
 differences and support him with all my heart and strength 
 in another effort to restore our glorious constitution.' 
 
 ' Titans,' said Enceladus, ' who is there among you who 
 has found me a laggard in the day of battle ? When the 
 Olympians, as Briareus thinks it necessary to remind you, 
 fled, I was your leader. Remember, however, then, that 
 there were no thunderbolts. As for myself, I candidly 
 confess to you, that, since the invention of these weapons 
 by Jove, I do not see how war can be carried on by us any 
 longer with effect."
 
 THE INFERNAL MARRIAGE. 349 
 
 ' By the memory of old Ccelus and these fast-flowing 
 tears,' murmured the venerable Oceanus, patting at the 
 same time a crocodile on the back, ' I call you all to witness 
 that I ha ye no interest to deceive you. Nevertheless, we 
 should not forget that, in this affair of the thunderbolts, it 
 is the universal opinion that there is a very considerable re- 
 action. I have myself, only within these few days, received 
 authentic information that several have fallen of late with- 
 out any visible ill effects ; and I am credibly assured that, 
 during the late storm in Thessaly, a thunderbolt was pre- 
 cipitated into the centre of a vineyard, without affecting the 
 flavour of a single grape.' 
 
 Here several of the Titans, who had gathered round 
 Enceladus, shook their heads and shrugged their shoulders, 
 and a long and desultory conversation ensued upon the 
 copious and very controversial subject of Re-action. In 
 the meantime Rhcetus, a young Titan, whispered to one of 
 his companions, that for his part he was convinced that the 
 only way to beat the Olympians was to turn them into ridi- 
 cule ; and that he would accordingly commence at once 
 with the pasquinade on the private life of Jupiter, and 
 some peculiarly delicate criticisms on the characters of the 
 Goddesses.
 
 350 THE INFERNAL MARRIAGE. 
 
 PART IV. 
 
 Containing the first View of Elysium. 
 
 THE toilsome desert was at length passed, and the royal 
 cavalcade ascended the last chasm of mountains that divided 
 Elysium, or the Regions of Bliss, from the Realm of Twi- 
 light. As she quitted those dim and dreary plains, the 
 spirit of Proserpine grew lighter, and she indulged in silent 
 but agreeable anticipations of the scene which she was now 
 approaching. On reaching, however, the summit of the 
 mountainous chain, and proceeding a short distance over 
 the rugged table-land into which it now declined, her 
 Majesty was rather alarmed at perceiving that her progress 
 was impeded by a shower of flame that extended, on either 
 side, as far as the eye could reach. Her alarm, however, 
 was of short continuance ; for, on the production of his 
 talisman by Tiresias, the shower of flame instantly changed 
 into silvery drops of rose-water and other delicious perfumes. 
 Amid joyous peals of laughter, and some slight playful 
 screams on the part of the ladies, the cavalcade ventured 
 through the ordeal. Now the effect of this magical bath 
 was quite marvellous. A burthen seemed suddenly to have 
 been removed from the spirits of the whole party; their 
 very existence seemed renewed; the blood danced about 
 their veins in the liveliest manner imaginable ; and a wild 
 but pleasing titillation ran like lightning through their 
 nerves. Their countenances sparkled with excitement ; and 
 they all talked at the same time. Proserpine was so occu- 
 pied with her own sensations, that she did not immediately 
 remark the extraordinary change that had occurred in the
 
 THE INFERNAL MARRIAGE. 351 
 
 appearance of the country immediately on passing this 
 magical barrier. She perceived that their course now led 
 over the most elastic and carefully- shaven turf; groups of 
 beautiful shrubs occasionally appeared, and she discovered 
 with delight that their flowers constantly opened, and sent 
 forth from their bells diminutive birds of radiant plumage. 
 Above them, too, the clouds vanished, and her head was 
 canopied by a sky, unlike, indeed, all things and tints of 
 earth, but which reminded her, in some degree, of the 
 splendour of Olympus. 
 
 Proserpine, restless with delight, quitted her litter, and 
 followed by Manto, ran forward to catch the first view of 
 Elysium. 
 
 * I am quite out of breath,' said her Majesty, ' and really 
 must sit down on this bank of violets. Was ever anything 
 in the world so delightful ! Why, Olympus is nothing to 
 it ! And after Tartarus, too, and that poor unhappy Saturn, 
 and his Titans and his twilight, it really is too much for 
 me. How I do long for the view ! and yet, somehow or 
 other, my heart beats so I cannot walk,' 
 
 ' Will your Majesty re-ascend your litter ? ' suggested 
 Manto. 
 
 'Ob, no ! that is worse than anything. They are a mile 
 behind ; they are so slow. Why, Manto ! what is this ? ' 
 
 A beautiful white dove hovered in the air over the head 
 of Proserpine and her attendant, and then dropping an 
 olive branch into the lap of the Queen, flapped its wings 
 and whirled away. But what an olive branch ! the stem 
 was of agate ; each leaf was an emerald ; and on the largest, 
 in letters of brilliants, was this inscription : 
 
 CDC <IgStantf t0 tfjetr Beautiful &urnr. 
 
 ' Oh, is it not superb ? ' exclaimed Proserpine. ' What 
 charming people, and what excellent subjects ! What loyalty 
 and what taste ! ' 
 
 So saying, the enraptured Proserpine rose from the bank 
 of violets, and had scarcely run forwards fifty yards when 
 she suddenly stopped? and started with an exclamation of
 
 352 THE INFERNAL HAKEIAGE. 
 
 wonder. The table-land had ceased. She stood upon a pre- 
 cipice of white marble, in many parts clothed with thick 
 bowers of myrtle ; before her extended the wide- spreading 
 plains of Elysium. They were bounded upon all sides by 
 gentle elevations entirely covered with flowers, and occa- 
 sionally shooting forward into the champaign country; 
 behind these appeared a range of mountains clothed with 
 bright green forests, and still loftier heights behind them, 
 exhibiting, indeed, only bare and sharply-pointed peaks 
 glittering with prismatic light. The undulating plain was 
 studded in all directions with pavilions and pleasure-houses, 
 and groves and gardens glowing with the choicest and most 
 charming fruit ; and a broad blue river wound through it, 
 covered with brilliant boats, the waters flashing with phos- 
 phoric light as they were cut by the swift and gliding keels. 
 And in the centre of the plain rose a city, a mighty group 
 of all that was beautiful in form and costly in materials, 
 bridges and palaces and triumphal gates of cedar and of mar- 
 ble, columns and minarets of gold, and cupolas and domes of 
 ivory ; and ever and anon appeared delicious gardens, raised 
 on the terraces of the houses ; and groups of palm trees 
 with their tall, thin stems, and quivering and languid crests, 
 rose amid the splendid masonry. A sweet soft breeze 
 touched the cheek of the entranced Proserpine, and a single 
 star of silver light glittered in the rosy sky. 
 
 "Tis my favourite hour,' exclaimed Proserpine. Thus 
 have I gazed upon Hesperus in the meads of Enna ! What a 
 scene ! How fortunate that we should have arrived at 
 sunset ! ' 
 
 ' Ah, Madam ! ' observed Manto, ' in Elysium the sky is 
 ever thus. For the Elysians, the sun seems always to have 
 just set ! ' 
 
 ' Fortunate people ! ' replied Proserpine. * In them, im- 
 mortality and enjoyment seem indeed blended together. A 
 strange feeling, half of languor, half of voluptuousness, 
 steals over my senses ! It seems that I at length behold 
 the region of my girlish dreams. Such once I fancied 
 Olympus. Ah ! why does not my Pluto live in Elysium r* '
 
 THE INFERNAL MARRIAGE. 353 
 
 II. 
 
 Containing some account of the Manners of the Elysians, and 
 of the Palace of Proserpine, and her strange Dream. 
 
 THE Elysians consisted of a few thousand beatified mortals, 
 the only occupation of whose existence was enjoyment ; the 
 rest of the population comprised some millions of Gnomes 
 and Sylphs, who did nothing but work, and ensured by their 
 labour the felicity of the superior class. Every Elysian, 
 male or female, possessed a magnificent palace in the city, 
 and an elegant pavilion on the plain ; these, with a due 
 proportion of chariots, horses, and slaves, constituted a 
 proper establishment. The Sylphs and the Gnomes were 
 either scattered about the country, which they cultivated, 
 or lived in the city, where they kept shops, and where they 
 emulated each other in displaying the most ingenious articles 
 of luxury and convenience for the enjoyment and accommoda- 
 tion of the Elysians. The townspeople, indeed, rather affected 
 to look down upon the more simple-minded agriculturists ; 
 but if these occasionally felt a little mortification in conse- 
 quence, they might have been consoled, had they been aware 
 that their brethren and sisters who were in the service of 
 the Elysians avenged their insults, for these latter were the 
 finest Gnomes and Sylphs imaginable, and scarcely deigned 
 to notice any one who was in trade. Whether there were 
 any coin or other circulating medium current in Elysium is 
 a point respecting which I must confess I have not sufiicient 
 information to decide ; but if so, it certainly would appear 
 that all money transactions were confined to the Gnomes 
 and the Sylphs, for the Elysians certainly never paid foi 
 anything. Perhaps this exemption might have been among 
 their peculiar privileges, and was a substitute for what we 
 call credit, a convenience of which the ancients appear to 
 have had a limited conception. The invention, by Jupiter, 
 of an aristocratic immortality, as a reward for a well-spent 
 life on earth, appears to have been an ingenious idea. It 
 xeally is a reward, very stimulative of good conduct before 
 
 A A
 
 854 THE INFERNAL MAKKIAGE. 
 
 we shuffle off the mortal coil, and remarkably contrasts 
 with the democracy of the damned. The Elysians, with a 
 splendid climate, a teeming soil, and a nation made on 
 purpose to wait upon them, of course enjoyed themselves 
 very much. The arts flourished, the theatres paid, and 
 they had a much finer opera than at Ephesus or at Hali- 
 carnassus. Their cookery was so refined, that one of the 
 least sentimental ceremonies in the world was not only de- 
 prived of all its grossness, but was actually converted into 
 an elegant amusement, and so famous that their artists were 
 even required at Olympus. If their dinners were admirable, 
 which is rare, their assemblies were amusing, which is still 
 more uncommon. All the arts of society were carried to 
 perfection in Elysium ; a dull thing was never said, and an 
 awkward thing never done. The Elysians, indeed, being 
 highly refined and gifted, for they comprised in their order 
 the very cream of terrestrial society, were naturally a liberal- 
 minded race of nobles, and capable of appreciating every 
 kind of excellence. If a Gnome or a Sylph, therefore, in 
 any way distinguished themselves ; if they sang very well, 
 or acted very well, or if they were at all eminent for any of 
 the other arts of amusement, ay ! indeed if the poor devils 
 could do nothing better than write a poem or a novel, they 
 were sure to be noticed by the Elysians, who always bowed 
 to them as they passed by, and sometimes indeed even ad- 
 mitted them into their circles. 
 
 Scarcely had the train of Proserpine rejoined her on the 
 brink of the precipice, than they heard the flourish of 
 trumpets near at hand, soon followed by a complete har- 
 mony of many instruments. A chorus of sweet voices was 
 next distinguished, growing each instant more loud and 
 clear ; and in a few minutes, issuing from a neighbouring 
 grove, came forth a band of heroes and beautiful women, 
 dressed in dazzling raiment, to greet the Queen. A troop 
 of chariots of light and airy workmanship followed, and a 
 crowd of Gnomes and Sylphs singing and playing on va- 
 rious instruments, and dancing with gestures of grace and 
 delicacy. Congratulating the Queen on her arrival in Ely-
 
 THE INFEKNAL MARRIAGE. 355 
 
 slum, and requesting the honour of being permitted to 
 attend her to her palace, they ushered Proserpine and her 
 companions to the chariots, and soon, winding down a 
 gradual declivity, they entered the plain. 
 
 If a bird's-eye view of the capital had enchanted Pro- 
 serpine, the agreeable impression was not diminished, as is 
 generally the case, by her entrance into the city. Never 
 were so much splendour and neatness before combined. 
 Passing through a magnificent arch, Proserpine entered a 
 street of vast and beautiful proportions, lined on each side 
 with palaces of various architecture, painted admirably in 
 fresco, and richly gilt. The road was formed of pounded 
 marbles of various colours, laid down in fanciful patterns, 
 aiforming an unrivalled mosaic ; it was bounded on each 
 sicSfcby a broad causeway of jasper, of a remarkably bright 
 green, clouded with milk-white streaks. This street led to 
 a sumptuous square, forming alone the palace destined for 
 Proserpine. Its several fronts were supported and adorned 
 by ten thousand columns, imitating the palm and the lotus ; 
 nor is it possible to conceive anything more light and 
 graceful than the general effect of this stupendous building. 
 Each front was crowned with an immense dome of ala- 
 baster, so transparent, that when the palace was illumi- 
 nated the rosy heaven grew pale, and an effect similar to 
 moonlight was diffused over the canopy of Elysium. And 
 in the centre of the square a Leviathan, carved in white 
 coral, and apparently flouncing in a huge basin of rock 
 crystal, spouted forth from his gills a fountain twelve hun- 
 dred feet in height ; from one gill ascended a stream of 
 delicious wine, which might be tempered, if necessary, by 
 the iced water that issued from the other. 
 
 At the approach of the Queen, the gigantic gates of the 
 palace, framed of carved cedar, flew open with a thrilling 
 burst of music, and Proserpine found herself in a hall 
 wherein several hundred persons, who formed her house- 
 hold, knelt in stillness before her. Wearied with her long 
 journey, and all the excitement of the day, Proserpine 
 signified to one of the Elysiana in attendance her desire for 
 
 A A 2
 
 356 THE INFERNAL MAERIAGE. 
 
 refreshment and repose. Immediately the household rose, 
 and gracefully bowing retired in silence, while four ladies 
 of the bed-chamber, very different from the dogfaced dam- 
 sels of the realm of Twilight, advanced with a gracious 
 smile, and each pressing a white hand to her heart, invited 
 her Majesty to accompany them. Twelve beautiful pages 
 in fanciful costume, and each bearing a torch of cinnamon, 
 preceded them, and Proserpine ascended a staircase of tur- 
 quoise and silver. As she passed along, she caught glimpses 
 of costly galleries, and suites of gorgeous chambers, but 
 she was almost too fatigued to distinguish anything. A 
 confused vision of long lines of white columns, roofs of 
 carved cedar, or ceilings glowing with forms of exquisite 
 beauty, walls covered with lifelike tapestry, or reflecting 
 in their mighty mirrors her own hurrying figure, and her 
 picturesque attendants, alone remained. She rejoiced when 
 she at length arrived in a small chamber, in which prepa- 
 rations evidently denoted that it was intended she should 
 rest. It was a pretty little saloon, brilliantly illuminated, 
 and hung with tapestry depicting a party of nymphs and 
 shepherds feasting in an Arcadian scene. In the middle of 
 the chamber a banquet was prepared, and as Proserpine 
 seated herself, and partook of some of the delicacies which 
 a page immediately presented to her, there arose, from in- 
 visible musicians, a joyous and festive strain, which accom- 
 panied her throughout her repast. When her Majesty had 
 sufficiently refreshed herself, and as the banquet was re- 
 moving, the music assumed a softer and more subduing, 
 occasionally even a solemn tone ; the tapestry, slowly 
 shifting, at length represented the same characters sunk in 
 repose ; the attendants all this time gradually extinguishing 
 the lights, and stealing on tiptoe from the chamber. So 
 that, at last, the music, each moment growing fainter, en- 
 tirely ceased; the figures on the tapestry were scarcely per- 
 ceptible by the dim lustre of a single remaining lamp ; and 
 the slumbering Proserpine fell back upon her couch. 
 
 But the Queen of Hell was not destined to undisturbed 
 repose. A dream descended on her brain, and the dream
 
 THE INFEKNAL MARKIAGE. 357 
 
 was terrible and strange. She beheld herself a child, 
 playing, as was her wont, in the gardens of Enna, twining 
 garlands of roses, and chasing butterflies. Suddenly, from 
 a bosky thicket of myrtle, slowly issued forth an immense 
 serpent, dark as night, but with eyes of the most brilliant 
 tint, and approached the daughter of Ceres. The innocent 
 child, ignorant of evil, beheld the monster without alarm. 
 Not only did she neither fly nor shriek, but she even wel- 
 comed and caressed the frightful stranger, patted its volu- 
 minous back, and admired its sparkling vision. The ser- 
 pent, fascinated instead of fascinating, licked her feet with 
 his arrowy tongue, and glided about for her diversion in a 
 thousand shapes. Emboldened by its gentleness, the little 
 Proserpine at length even mounted on its back, and rode in 
 triumph among her bowers. Every day the dark serpent 
 issued from the thicket, and every day he found a welcome 
 playmate. Now it came to pass that one day the serpent, 
 growing more bold, induced the young Proserpine to extend 
 her ride beyond the limits of Enna. Night came on, and 
 as it was too late to return, the serpent carried her to a 
 large cave, where it made for her a couch of leaves, and 
 while she slept the affectionate monster kept guard for her 
 protection at the mouth of the cavern. For some reason 
 or other which was not apparent, for in dreams there are 
 always some effects without causes, Proserpine never re- 
 turned to Enna, but remained and resided with cheerfulness 
 in this cavern. Each morning the serpent went forth 
 alone to seek food for its charge, and regularly returned 
 with a bough in its mouth laden with delicious fruits. One 
 day, during the absence of her guardian, a desire seized 
 Proserpine to quit the cavern, and accordingly she went 
 forth. The fresh air and fragrance of the earth were de- 
 lightful to her, and she roamed about, unconscious of time, 
 and thoughtless of her return. And as she sauntered 
 along, singing to herself, a beautiful white dove, even the 
 same dove that had welcomed her in the morning on the 
 heights of Elysium, flew before her with its wings glancing 
 in the sunshine. It seemed that the bird wished to attract
 
 358 THE INFERNAL MAKKIAGE. 
 
 the attention of the child, so long and so closely did it 
 hover about her ; now resting on a branch, as if inviting 
 capture, and then skimming away only to return more 
 swiftly ; and occasionally, when for a moment unnoticed, 
 even slightly flapping the rambler with its plume. At 
 length the child was taken with a fancy to catch the bird. 
 But no sooner had she evinced this desire, than the bird, 
 once apparently so anxious to be noticed, seemed resolved 
 to lead her a weary chace ; and hours flew away ere Pro- 
 serpine, panting and exhausted, had captured the beautiful 
 rover and pressed it to her bosom. 
 
 It was, indeed, a most beautiful bird, and its possession 
 repaid her for all her exertions. But lo ! as she stood, in 
 a wild sylvan scene caressing it, smoothing its soft plu- 
 mage, and pressing its head to her cheek, she beheld in the 
 distance approaching her the serpent, and she beheld her 
 old friend with alarm. Apparently her misgiving was not 
 without cause. She observed in an instant that the ap- 
 pearance and demeanour of the serpent were greatly 
 changed. It approached her swift as an arrow, its body 
 rolling in the most agitated contortions, its jaws were 
 distended as if to devour her, its eyes flashed fire, its 
 tongue was a forked flame, and its hiss was like a stormy 
 wind. Proserpine shrieked, and the Queen of Hell awoke 
 from her dream. 
 
 in. 
 
 Containing some account of the wonderful Morality of the Ely- 
 sians. Of Helen and J)ido. General Society and Coteries. 
 Characters of Achilles, Amphion, Patroclus and Memnon. 
 The next morning the Elysian world called to pay their 
 respects to Proserpine. Her Majesty, indeed, held a 
 drawing-room, which was fully and brilliantly attended. 
 Her beauty and her graciousness were universally pro- 
 nounced enchanting. From this moment the career of 
 Proserpine was a series of magnificent entertainments. 
 The principal Elysians vied with each other in the splen- 
 dour and variety of the amusements, which they offered to
 
 THE INFEBSAL MAKHIAGE. 359 
 
 she almost regretted that, for the sake of an establishment 
 00^^ been induced to cast her lot in the rega 
 gloom of Tartarus. Elysium exactly suited her he 
 beauty of the climate and the country, the tota 1 absence of 
 
 entered into all the gay pursuits of her subjects ; ^ she even 
 invented new combinations of diversion. Under her 
 sng rule every one confessed that Elysium became every 
 
 ^kfln^of her companions greatly pleased her 
 Shi "those faces always wreathed with smiles yet 
 never bursting into laughter She was charmed at the 
 miable tone in which they addressed each other. JNever 
 ere eole at the same time so agreeable so 

 
 360 THE INFERNAL MARRIAGE. 
 
 she was lost for ever, and packed off immediately to the 
 realm of Twilight. Indeed, they were so particular, that 
 the moment one of the softer sex gave the slightest symp- 
 toms of preference to a fortunate admirer, the Elysian 
 world immediately began to look unutterable things, shrug 
 its moral shoulders, and elevate its charitable eye-brows. 
 But if the preference, by any unlucky chance, assumed the 
 nobler aspect of devotion, and the unhappy fair one gave 
 any indication of really possessing a heart, rest assured she 
 was already half way on the road to perdition. Then com- 
 menced one of the most curious processes imaginable, pe- 
 culiar I apprehend to Elysium, but which I record that the 
 society of less fortunate lands may avail itself of the ad- 
 vantage, and adopt the regulation in its moral police. Im- 
 mediately that it was clearly ascertained that two persons 
 of different sexes took an irrational interest in each other's 
 society, all the world instantly went about, actuated by a 
 purely charitable sentiment, telling the most extraordinary 
 falsehoods concerning them that they could devise. Thus 
 it was the fashion to call at one house and announce that 
 you had detected the unhappy pair in a private box at the 
 theatre, and immediately to pay your respects at another 
 mansion and declare that you had observed them on the 
 very same day, and at the very same hour, in a boat on the 
 river. At the next visit, the gentleman had been disco- 
 vered driving her in his cab ; and in the course of the morn- 
 ing the scene of indiscretion was the Park, where they 
 had been watched walking by moonlight, muffled up in 
 sables and cashmeres. 
 
 This curious process of diffusing information was known 
 in Elysium under the title of 'being talked about',' and 
 although the stories thus disseminated were universally 
 understood to be fictions, the Elysians ascribed great virtue 
 to the proceeding, maintaining that many an indiscreet fair 
 one had been providentially alarmed by thus becoming the 
 subject of universal conversation ; that thus many a repu- 
 tation had been saved by this charitable slander. There 
 were some malignant philosophers, indeed, doubtless from
 
 THE INFERNAL MARRIAGE. 361 
 
 that silly love of paradox in all ages too prevalent, who 
 pretended that all this Elysian morality was one great 
 delusion, and that this scrupulous anxiety about the con- 
 duct of others arose from a principle, not of Purity, but 
 of Corruption. The woman who is ' talked about,' these 
 sages would affirm, is generally virtuous, and she is only 
 abused because she devotes to one the charms which, all 
 wish to enjoy. 
 
 Thus Dido, who is really one of the finest creatures that 
 ever existed, and who with, a majestic beauty combines an 
 heroic soul, has made her way with difficulty to the Elysian 
 circle, to which her charms and rank entitle her ; while 
 Helen, who, from her very debut, has been surrounded by 
 fifty lovers, and whose intrigues have ever been notorious, 
 is the very queen of fashion ; and all this merely because 
 she has favoured fifty instead of one, and in the midst of 
 all her scrapes has contrived to retain the countenance of 
 her husband. 
 
 Apropos of Dido, the Queen of Carthage was the person 
 in all Elysium for whom Proserpine took the greatest 
 liking. Exceedingly beautiful, with the most generous 
 temper and the softest heart in the world, and blessed by 
 nature with a graceful simplicity of manner, which fashion 
 had never sullied, it really was impossible to gaze upon the 
 extraordinary brilliancy of her radiant countenance, to watch 
 the symmetry of her superb figure, and to listen to the 
 artless yet lively observations uttered by a voice musical as 
 a bell, without being fairly bewitched. 
 
 When we first enter society, we are everywhere; yet 
 there are few, I imagine, who, after a season, do not sub- 
 side into a coterie. When the glare of saloons has ceased 
 to dazzle, and we are wearied with the heartless notice of a 
 crowd, we require refinement and sympathy. We find 
 them, and we sink into a clique. And after all, can the 
 river of life flow on more agreeably than in a sweet course 
 of pleasure with those we love ? To wander in the green 
 shade of secret woods and whisper our affection ; to float 
 on the sunny waters of some gentle stream, and listen to a
 
 362 THE INFERNAL MARRIAGE. 
 
 serenade ; to canter with a light-liearted cavalcade over 
 breezy downs, or cool our panting chargers in the summer 
 stillness of winding and woody lanes ; to banquet with the 
 beautiful and the witty ; to send care to the devil, and in- 
 dulge the whim of the moment ; the priest, the warrior, 
 and the statesman may frown and struggle as they like ; 
 but this is existence, and this, this is Elysium ! 
 
 So Proserpine deemed when, wearied with the monotony 
 of the great world, she sought refuge in the society of Dido 
 and Atalanta, Achilles, Amphion, and Patroclus or Mem- 
 non. When ^Eneas found that Dido had become fashion- 
 able, he made overtures for a reconciliation, but Dido 
 treated him with calm contempt. The pious ./Eneas, 
 indeed, was the aversion of Proserpine. He was the head 
 of the Elysian saints, was president of a society to induce 
 the Gnomes only to drink water, and was so horrified at 
 the general conduct of the Elysians, that he questioned the 
 decrees of Minos and Rhadamanthus, who had permitted 
 them to enter the happy region so easily. The pious 
 jiEneas was of opinon that everybody ought to have been, 
 damned except himself. Proserpine gave him no encourage- 
 ment. Achilles was the finest gentleman in Elysium. 
 No one dressed or rode like him. He was very handsome, 
 very witty, very unaffected, and had an excellent heart. 
 Achilles was the leader of the Elysian youth, who were 
 indeed devoted to him : Proserpine took care, therefore, 
 that he should dangle in her train. Amphion had a 
 charming voice for a supper after the opera. He was a 
 handsome little fellow, but not to be depended upon. He 
 broke a heart, or a dinner engagement, with the same reck- 
 less sentimentality ; for he was one of those who always weep 
 when they betray you, and whom you are sure never to see 
 again immediately that they have vowed eternal friendship. 
 Patroclus was a copy of Achilles without his talents and 
 vivacity, but elegant and quiet. Of all these, Memnon was 
 perhaps the favourite of Proserpine ; nor must he be for- 
 gotten ; amiable, gay, brilliant, the child of whim and im- 
 pulse, in love with every woman he met for four-and-twenty 
 hours, and always marvelling at his own delusion ! 

 
 POPANILLA.
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 This narrative of an imaginary voyage was first published 
 in 1827.
 
 POPANILLA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THERE is an island in the Indian Ocean, so nnfbrtunate as 
 not yet to have been visited either by Discovery Ships or 
 Missionary Societies. It is a place where all those things 
 are constantly found which men most desire to see, and 
 with the sight of which they are seldom favoured. It 
 abounds in flowers, and fruit, and sunshine. Lofty moun- 
 tains, covered with green and mighty forests, except where 
 the red rocks catch the fierce beams of the blazing sun, 
 bowery valleys, broad lakes, gigantic trees, and gushing 
 rivers bursting from rocky gorges, are crowned with a 
 purple and ever cloudless sky. Summer, in its most unc- 
 tuous state and most mellow majesty, is here perpetual. 
 So intense and overpowering, in the daytime, is the rich 
 union of heat and perfume, that living animal or creature 
 is never visible ; and were you and I to pluck, before sunset, 
 the huge fruit from yonder teeming tree, we might fancy 
 ourselves for the moment the future sinners of another 
 Eden. Yet a solitude it is not. 
 
 The island is surrounded by a calm and blue lagoon, 
 formed by a ridge of coral rocks, which break the swell of 
 the ocean, and prevent the noxious spray from banishing 
 the rich shrubs which grow even to the water's edge. It 
 is a few minutes before sunset, that the first intimation of 
 animal existence in this seeming solitude is given, by the 
 appearance of mermaids; who, floating on the rosy sea, 
 congregate about these rocks. They sound a loud but
 
 366 POPANILLA. 
 
 melodious chorus from their sea-shells, and a faint and distant 
 chorus soon answers from the island. The mermaidens 
 immediately repeat their salutations, and are greeted with 
 a nearer and a louder answer. As the red and rayless sun 
 drops into the glowing waters, the choruses simultaneously 
 join ; and rushing from the woods, and down the mountain 
 steeps to the nearest shore, crowds of human beings, at the 
 same moment, appear and collect. 
 
 The inhabitants of this island, in form and face, do not 
 misbecome the clime and the country. With the vivacity 
 of a Faun, the men combine the strength of a Here ales and 
 the beauty of an Adonis ; and, as their more interesting 
 companions flash upon his presence, the least classical of 
 poets might be excused for imagining that, like their 
 blessed Goddess, the women had magically sprung from the 
 brilliant foam of that ocean which is gradually subsiding 
 before them. 
 
 But sunset in this land is not the signal merely for the 
 evidence of human existence. At the moment that the 
 Islanders, crowned with flowers, and waving goblets and 
 garlands, burst from their retreats, upon each mountain 
 peak a lion starts forward, stretches his proud tail, and, 
 bellowing to the sun, scours back exulting to his forest ; 
 immense bodies, which before would have been mistaken 
 for the trunks of trees, now move into life, and serpents, 
 untwining their green and glittering folds, and slowly 
 bending their crested heads around, seem proudly conscious 
 of a voluptuous existence ; troops of monkeys leap from, 
 tree to tree ; panthers start forward, and alarmed, not 
 alarming, instantly vanish ; a herd of milk-white elephants 
 tramples over the back-ground of the scene ; and instead 
 of gloomy owls and noxious beetles, to hail the long-endur- 
 ing twilight, from the bell of every opening flower beautiful 
 birds, radiant with every rainbow tint, rush with a long 
 and living melody into the cool air. 
 
 The twilight in this island is not that transient moment 
 of unearthly bliss, which, in our less favoured regions, 
 always leaves us so thoughtful and so sad ; on the contrary,
 
 POPANILLA. 367 
 
 it lasts many hours, and consequently the Islanders are 
 neither moody nor sorrowful. As they sleep during the 
 day, four or five hours of ' tipsy dance and revelry ' are 
 exercise and not fatigue. At length, even in this delightful 
 region, the rosy tint fades into purple, and the purple into 
 blue ; the white moon gleams, and at length glitters ; and 
 the invisible stars first creep into light, and then blaze into 
 radiancy. But no hateful dews discolour their loveliness ! 
 and so clear is the air, that instead of the false appearance 
 of a studded vault, the celestial bodies may be seen floating 
 in aether, at various distances and of various tints. Ere 
 the showery fire-flies have ceased to shine, and the blue 
 lights to play about the tremulous horizon, amid the 
 voices of a thousand birds, the dancers solace themselves 
 with the rarest fruits, the most delicate fish, and the most 
 delicious wines ; but flesh they love not. They are an 
 innocent and a happy, though a voluptuous and ignorant 
 race. They have no manufactures, no commerce, no agri- 
 culture, and no printing-presses ; but for their slight cloth- 
 ing they wear the bright skins of serpents; for corn, 
 Nature gives them the bread-fruit ; and for intellectual 
 amusement, they have a pregnant fancy and a ready wit ; tell 
 inexhaustible stories, and always laugh at each other's 
 jokes. A natural instinct gave them the art of making 
 wine ; and it was the same benevolent Nature that blessed 
 them also with the knowledge of the art of making love. 
 But time flies even here. The lovely companions have 
 danced, and sung, and banqueted, and laughed ; what 
 further bliss remains for man ? They rise, and in pairs 
 wander about the island, and then to their bowers ; their 
 life ends with the Night they love so well ; and ere Day, the 
 everlasting conqueror, wave his flaming standard in the 
 luminous East, solitude and silence will again reign in the 
 ISLE OF FANTAISIE.
 
 368 POPANILLA. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE last and loudest chorus had died away, and the 
 Islanders were pouring forth their libation to their great 
 enemy the Sun, when suddenly a vast obscurity spread 
 over the glowing West. They looked at each other, and 
 turned pale, and the wine from their trembling goblets 
 fell useless on the shore. The women were too frightened 
 to scream, and, for the first time in the Isle of Fantaisie, 
 silence existed after sunset. They were encouraged when 
 they observed that the darkness ceased at that point in 
 the heavens which overlooked their coral rocks ; and per- 
 ceiving that their hitherto unsullied sky was pure, even 
 at this moment of otherwise universal gloom, the men 
 regained their colour, touched the goblets with their lips, 
 further to reanimate themselves, and the women, now less 
 discomposed, uttered loud shrieks. 
 
 Suddenly the wind roared with unaccustomed rage, the 
 sea rose into large billows, and a ship was seen tossing in 
 the offing. The Islanders, whose experience of navigation 
 extended only to a slight paddling in their lagoon, in the 
 half of a hollow trunk of a tree, for the purpose of fishing, 
 mistook the tight little frigate for a great fish ; and being 
 now aware of the cause of this disturbance, and at the 
 same time feeling confident that the monster could never 
 make way through the shallow waters to the island, they 
 recovered their courage, and gazed upon the labouring 
 leviathan with the same interested nonchalance with 
 which students at a modern lecture observe an expounding 
 philosopher. 
 
 ' What a shadow he casts over the sky ! ' said the King, 
 a young man, whose divine right was never questioned 
 by his female subjects. ' What a commotion in the waters, 
 and what a wind he snorts forth! It certainly must be 
 the largest fish that exists. I remember my father telling 
 me that a monstrous fish once got entangled among our 
 rocks, and this part of the island really smelt for a month ;
 
 POPANILLA. 369 
 
 I cannot help fancying that there is a rather odd smell 
 now ; pah ! ' 
 
 A favourite Queen flew to the suffering monarch, and 
 pressing her aromatic lips upon his offended nostrils, his 
 Majesty recovered. 
 
 The unhappy crew of the frigate, who, with the aid of 
 their telescopes, had detected the crowds upon the shore, 
 now fired their signal guns of distress, which came sullenly 
 booming through the wind. 
 
 ' Oh ! the great fish is speaking ! ' was the universal 
 exclamation. 
 
 ' I begin to get frightened,' said the favourite Queen. 
 ' I am sure the monster is coming here ! ' So saying, 
 her Majesty grasped up a handful of pearls from the shore, 
 to defend herself. 
 
 As screaming was now the fashion, all the women of 
 course screamed ; and animated by the example of their 
 sovereign, and armed with the marine gems, the Amazons 
 assumed an imposing attitude. 
 
 Just at the moment that they had worked up their en- 
 thusiasm to the highest pitch, and were actually desirous 
 of dying for their country, the ship sunk. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 IT is the flush of noon; and, strange to say, a human 
 figure is seen wandering on the shore of the Isle of Fan- 
 taisie. 
 
 ' One of the crew of the wrecked frigate, of course ? 
 What an escape ! Fortunate creature ! interesting man ! 
 Probably the indefatigable Captain Parry ; possibly the 
 undaunted Captain Franklin; perhaps the adventurous 
 Captain Lyon ! ' 
 
 No ! sweet blue-eyed girl ! my plots are not of that 
 extremely guessable nature so admired by your adorable 
 sex. Indeed, this book is so constructed that if you were 
 even, according to custom, to commence its perusal by 
 
 B B
 
 370 POPANILLA. 
 
 reading the last page, yon would not gain the slightest 
 assistance in finding out ' how the story ends.' 
 
 The wanderer belongs to no frigate-building nation. He 
 is a true Fantaisian ; who having, in his fright, during 
 yesterday's storm, lost the lock of hair which, in a moment 
 of glorious favour, he had ravished from his fair mistress's 
 brow, is now, after a sleepless night, tracing every remem- 
 bered haunt of yesterday, with the fond hope of regaining 
 his most precious treasure. Ye Gentlemen of England, 
 who live at home at ease, know full well the anxiety and 
 exertion, the days of management, and the nights of medi- 
 tation which the rape of a lock requires, and you can con- 
 sequently sympathize with the agitated feelings of the 
 handsome and the hapless Popanilla. 
 
 The favourite of all the women, the envy of all the men, 
 Popanilla passed a pleasant life. No one was a better judge 
 of wine, no one had a better taste for fruit, no one 
 danced with more elegant vivacity, and no one whispered 
 compliments in a more meaning tone. His stories ever 
 had a point, his repartees were never ill-natured. What a 
 pity that such an amiable fellow should have got into such 
 a scrape ! 
 
 In spite of his grief, however, Popanilla soon found that 
 the ardency of his passion evaporated under a smoking sun ; 
 and, exhausted, he was about to return home from his 
 fruitless search, when his attention was attracted by a sin- 
 gular appearance. He observed before him, on the shore, 
 a square and hitherto unseen form. He watched it for 
 some minutes, but it was motionless. He drew nearer, 
 and observed it with intense attention ; but, if it were a 
 being, it certainly was fast asleep. He approached close to 
 its side, but it neither moved nor breathed. He applied 
 his nose to the mysterious body, and the elegant Fantaisian 
 drew back immediately from a most villanous smell of 
 pitch. Not to excite too much, in this calm age, the reader's 
 curiosity, let him know at once that this strange substanoo 
 was a sea-chest. Upon it was marked, in large black loi- 
 ters, S. D. K. No. 1.
 
 POPANILLA. 371 
 
 For the first time in his life Popanilla experienced a 
 feeling of overwhelming curiosity. His fatigue, his loss, 
 the scorching hour, and the possible danger were all for- 
 gotten in an indefinite feeling that the body possessed 
 contents more interesting than its unpromising exterior, 
 and in a resolute determination that the development of 
 the mystery should be reserved only for himself. 
 
 Although he felt assured that he must be unseen, he 
 could not refrain from throwing a rapid glance of anxiety 
 around him. It was a moment of perfect stillness : the 
 island slept in sunshine, and even the waves had ceased to 
 break over the opposing rocks. A thousand strange and 
 singular thoughts rushed into his mind, but his first pur- 
 pose was ever uppermost ; and at length, unfolding his 
 girdle of skin, he tied the tough cincture round the chest, 
 and, exerting all his powers, dragged his mysterious waif 
 into the nearest wood. 
 
 But during this operation the top fell off, and revealed 
 the neatest collection of little packages that ever pleased 
 the eye of the admirer of spruce arrangement. Popanilla 
 took up packets upon all possible subjects ; smelt them, 
 but they were not savory ; he was sorely puzzled. At 
 last, he lighted on a slender volume bound in brown calf, 
 which, with the confined but sensual notions of a savage, 
 he mistook for gingerbread, at least. It was ' The Uni- 
 versal Linguist, by Mr. Hamilton ; or, the Art of Dreaming 
 in Languages.' 
 
 No sooner had Popanilla passed that well-formed nose, 
 which had been so often admired by the lady whose lock 
 of hair he had unfortunately lost, a few times over a few 
 pages of the Hamiltonian System than he sank upon his 
 bed of flowers, and, in spite of his curiosity, was instantly 
 overcome by a profound slumber. But his slumber, though 
 deep, was not peaceful, and he was the actor in an agitating 
 drama. 
 
 He found himself alone in a gay and glorious garden. 
 In the centre of it grew a pomegranate tree of prodigious 
 size ; its top was lost in the sky, and its innumerable 
 B B 2
 
 372 POPANILLA. 
 
 branches sprang out in all directions, covered with large 
 fruit of a rich golden hue. Beautiful birds were perched 
 upon all parts of the tree, and chanted with perpetual 
 melody the beauties of their bower. Tempted by the de- 
 licious sight, Popanilla stretched forward his ready hand to 
 pluck ; but no sooner had he grasped the fruit than the 
 music immediately ceased, the birds rushed away, the 
 sky darkened, the tree fell under the wind, the garden va- 
 nished, and Popanilla found himself in the midst of a 
 raging sea, buffeting the waves. 
 
 He would certainly have been drowned had he not been 
 immediately swallowed up by the huge monster which had 
 not only been the occasion of the storm of yesterday, but, 
 ah ! most unhappy business ! been the occasion also of his 
 losing that lock of hair. 
 
 Ere he could congratulate himself on his escape he found 
 fresh cause for anxiety, for he perceived that he was no 
 longer alone. No friends were near him ; but, on the con- 
 trary, he was surrounded by strangers of a far different 
 aspect. They were men certainly ; that is to say, they had 
 legs and arms, and heads, and bodies as himself ; but instead 
 of that bloom of youth, that regularity of feature, that 
 amiable joyousness of countenance, which he had ever been 
 accustomed to meet and to love in his former companions, 
 he recoiled in horror from the swarthy complexions, the sad 
 visages, and the haggard features of his present ones. 
 They spoke to him in a harsh and guttural accent. He 
 would have fled from their advances ; but then he was in 
 the belly of a whale ! When he had become a little used 
 to their tones he was gratified by finding that their atten- 
 tions were far from hostile ; and, after having received from 
 them a few compliments, he began to think that they were 
 not quite so ugly. He discovered that the object of their 
 inquiries was the fatal pomegranate which still remained in 
 his hand. They admired its beauty, and told him that they 
 greatly esteemed an individual who possessed such a mass 
 of precious ore. Popanilla begged to undeceive them, and 
 courteously presented the fruit. No sooner, however, had
 
 POPANILLA. ;J73 
 
 he parted with, this apple of discord, than the countenances 
 of his companions changed. Immediately discovering its 
 real nature, they loudly accused Popanilla of having deceived 
 them ; he remonstrated, and they recriminated ; and the 
 great fish, irritated by their clamour, lashed its huge tail, 
 and with one efficacious vomit spouted the innocent Popa- 
 nilla high in the air. He fell with such a dash into the 
 waves that he was awakened by the sound of his own 
 fall. 
 
 The dreamer awoke amidst real chattering, and scuffling, 
 and clamour. A troop of green monkeys had been aroused 
 by his unusual occupation, and had taken the opportunity 
 of his slumber to become acquainted with some of the first 
 principles of science. What progress they had made it is 
 difficult to ascertain ; because, each one throwing a tract at 
 Popanilla's head, they immediately disappeared. It is said, 
 however, that some monkeys have been since seen skipping 
 about the island, with their tails cut off; and that they 
 have even succeeded in passing themselves off for human 
 beings among those people who do not read novels, and are 
 consequently unacquainted with mankind. 
 
 The morning's adventure immediately rushed into Popa- 
 nilla's mind, and he proceeded forthwith to examine the 
 contents of his chest ; but with advantages which had not 
 been yet enjoyed by those who had previously peeped into 
 it. The monkeys had not been composed to sleep by the 
 ' Universal Linguist ' of Mr. Hamilton. As for Popanilla, 
 he took up a treatise on hydrostatics, and read it straight 
 through on the spot. For the rest of the day he was hy- 
 drostatically mad ; nor could the commonest incident con- 
 nected with the action or conveyance of water take place 
 without his speculating on its cause and consequence. 
 
 So enraptured was Popanilla with his new accomplish- 
 ments and acquirements that by degrees he avoided attend- 
 ance on the usual evening assemblages, and devoted him- 
 self solely to the acquirement of useful knowledge. After 
 a short time his absence was remarked ; but the greatest 
 and the most gifted has only to leave his coterie, called the
 
 374 POPANILLA. 
 
 world, for a few days, to be fully convinced of what slight 
 importance he really is. And so Popanilla, the delight of 
 society and the especial favourite of the women, was in a 
 very short time not even inquired after. At first, of course, 
 they supposed that he was in love, or that he had a slight 
 cold, or that he was writing his memoirs ; and as these 
 suppositions, in due course, take their place in the annals 
 of society as circumstantial histories, in about a week one 
 knew the lady, another had heard him sneeze, and a third 
 had seen the manuscript. At the end of another week 
 Popanilla was forgotten. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Six months had elapsed since the first chest of the cargo 
 of Useful Knowledge destined for the fortunate Maldives 
 had been digested by the recluse Popanilla ; for a recluse 
 he had now become. Great students are rather dull com- 
 panions. Our Fantaisian friend, during his first studies, 
 was as moody, absent, and querulous as are most men of 
 genius during that mystical period of life. He was conse- 
 quently avoided by the men and quizzed by the women, 
 and consoled himself for the neglect of the first and the 
 taunts of the second by the indefinite sensation that he 
 should, some day or other, turn out that little being called 
 a great man. As for his mistress, she considered herself 
 insulted by being addressed by a man who had lost her 
 lock of hair. When the chest was exhausted Popanilla 
 was seized with a profound melancholy. Nothing depresses 
 a man's spirits more completely than a self-conviction of 
 self-conceit; and Popanilla, who had been accustomed to 
 consider himself and his companions as the most elegant 
 portion of the visible creation, now discovered, with dis- 
 may, that he and his fellow-islanders were nothing more 
 than a horde of useless savages. 
 
 This mortification, however, was soon succeeded by a 
 proud consciousness that he, at any rate, was now civilised j
 
 POPANILLA. 375 
 
 and that proud consciousness by a fond hope that in a short 
 time he might become a civiliser. Like all projectors, he 
 was not of a sanguine temperament ; but he did trust that 
 in the course of another season the Isle of Fantaisie might 
 take its station among the nations. He was determined, 
 however, not to be too rapid. It cannot be expected that 
 ancient prejudices can in a moment be eradicated, and new 
 modes of conduct instantaneously substituted and estab- 
 lished. Popanilla, like a wise man, determined to conciliate. 
 His views were to be as liberal, as his principles were en- 
 lightened. Men should be forced to do nothing. Bigotry, 
 and intolerance, and persecution were the objects of his 
 decided disapprobation ; resembling, in this particular, all 
 the great and good men who have ever existed, who have 
 invariably maintained this opinion so long as they have 
 been in the minority. 
 
 Popanilla appeared once more in the world. 
 
 ' Dear me ! is that you, Pop ? ' exclaimed the ladies. 
 ' What have you been doing with yourself all this time ? 
 Travelling, I suppose. Every one travels now. Really you 
 travelled men get quite bores. And where did you get that 
 coat, if it be a coat ? ' 
 
 Such was the style in which the Fantaisian females 
 saluted the long absent Popanilla ; and really, when a man 
 shuts himself up from the world for a considerable time, 
 and fancies that in condescending to re-enter it he has 
 surely the right to expect the homage due to a superior 
 being, these salutations are awkward. The ladies of Eng- 
 land peculiarly excel in this species of annihilation ; and 
 while they continue to drown puppies, as they daily do, in. 
 a sea of sarcasm, I think no true Englishman will hesitate 
 one moment in giving them the preference for tact and 
 manner over all the vivacious French, all the self-possessing 
 Italian, and all the tolerant German women. This is a clap- 
 trap, and I have no doubt will sell the book. 
 
 Popanilla, however, had not re-entered society with the 
 intention of subsiding into a nonentity ; and he therefore 
 took the opportunity, a few minutes after sunset, just as
 
 376 POPANILLA. 
 
 his companions were falling into the dance, to beg the 
 favour of being allowed to address his sovereign only for 
 one single moment. 
 
 ' Sire! ' said he, in that mild tone of subdued supercilious- 
 ness with which we should always address kings, and which, 
 while it vindicates our dignity, satisfactorily proves that we 
 are above the vulgar passion of envy, ' Sire ! ' but let us not 
 encourage that fatal faculty of oratory so dangerous to free 
 states, and therefore let us give only the ' substance of Po- 
 panilla's speech.'* He commenced his address in a man- 
 ner somewhat resembling the initial observations of those 
 pleasing pamphlets which are the fashion of the present 
 hour ; and which, being intended to diffuse information 
 among those who have not enjoyed the opportunity and ad- 
 vantages of study, and are consequently of a gay and 
 cheerful disposition, treat of light subjects in a light and 
 polished style. Popanilla, therefore, spoke of man in a 
 savage state, the origin of society, and the elements of the 
 social compact, in sentences which would not have disgraced 
 the mellifluous pen of Bentham. From these he naturally 
 digressed into an agreeable disquisition on the Anglo- 
 Saxons ; and, after a little badinage on the Bill of Bights, 
 flew off to an airy aperqu of the French Bevolution. When 
 he had arrived at the Isle of Fantaisie he begged to inform 
 his Majesty that man was born for something else besides 
 enjoying himself. It was, doubtless, extremely pleasant to 
 dance and sing, to crown themselves with chaplets, and to 
 drink wine ; but he was ' free to confess' that he did not 
 imagine that the most barefaced hireling of corruption 
 could for a moment presume to maintain that there was any 
 utility in pleasure. Lf there were no utility in pleasure, it 
 was quite clear that pleasure could profit no one. If, there- 
 fore, it were unprofitable, it was injurious ; because that 
 which does not produce a profit is equivalent to a loss ; 
 
 * Substance of a speech, in Parliamentary language, means a printed 
 edition of an harangue which contains all that was uttered in the House, 
 and about as much again.
 
 POPANILLA. 377 
 
 therefore pleasure is a losing business ; consequently plea- 
 sure is not pleasant. 
 
 He also showed that man was not born for himself, but 
 for society ; that the interests of the body are alone to be 
 considered, and not those of the individual ; and that a 
 nation might be extremely happy, extremely powerful, and 
 extremely rich, although every individual member of it 
 might at the same time be miserable, dependent, and in 
 debt. He regretted to observe that no one in the island 
 seemed in the slightest degree conscious of the object of his 
 being. Man is created for a purpose ; the object of his ex- 
 istence is to perfect himself. Man is imperfect by nature, 
 because if nature had made him perfect he would have had 
 no wants ; and it is only by supplying his wants that utility 
 can be developed. The development of utility is therefore 
 the object of our being, and the attainment of this great 
 end the cause of our existence. This principle clears all 
 doubts, and rationally accounts for a state of existence 
 which has puzzled many pseudo-philosophers. 
 
 Popanilla then went on to show that the hitherto received 
 definitions of man were all erroneous ; that man is neither 
 a walking animal, nor a talking animal, nor a cooking 
 animal, nor a lounging animal, nor a debt-incurring animal, 
 nor a tax-paying animal, nor a printing animal, nor a puf- 
 fing animal, but a developing animal. Development is the 
 discovery of utility. By developing the water we get fish ; 
 by developing the earth we get corn, and cash, and cotton ; 
 by developing the air we get breath ; by developing the 
 fire we get heat. Thus, the use of the elements is demon- 
 strated to the meanest capacity. But it was not merely a 
 material development to which he alluded ; a moral deve- 
 lopment was equally indispensable. He showed that it was 
 impossible for a nation either to think too much or to do 
 too much. The life of man was therefore to be passed in a 
 moral and material development until he had consummated 
 his perfection. It was the opinion of Popanilla that this 
 great result was by no means so near at hand as some phi- 
 losophers flattered themselves ; and that it might possibly
 
 378 POPANILLA. 
 
 require another half-century before even the most civilised 
 nation could be said to have completed the destiny of the 
 human race. At the same time, he intimated that there 
 were various extraordinary means by which this rather 
 desirable result might be facilitated ; and there was no 
 saying what the building of a new University might do, 
 of which, when built, he had no objection to be appointed 
 Principal. 
 
 In answer to those who affect to admire that deficient 
 system of existence which they style simplicity of manners, 
 and who are perpetually committing the blunder of sup- 
 posing that every advance towards perfection only with- 
 draws man further from his primitive and proper condition, 
 Popanilla triumphantly demonstrated that no such order 
 as that which they associated with the phrase ' state of 
 nature ' ever existed. ' Man,' said he, ' is called the master- 
 piece of nature ; and man is also, as we all know, the most 
 curious of machines ; now, a machine is a work of art, con- 
 sequently, the masterpiece of nature is the masterpiece of 
 art. The object of all mechanism is the attainment of 
 utility ; the object of man, who is the most perfect machine, 
 is utility in the highest degree. Can we believe, therefore, 
 that this machine was ever intended for a state which never 
 could have called forth its powers, a state in which no 
 utility could ever have been attained, a state in which there 
 are no wants ; consequently, no demand ; consequently, no 
 supply ; consequently, no competition ; consequently, no 
 invention ; consequently, no profits ; only one great perni- 
 cious monopoly of comfort and ease ? Society without 
 wants is like a world without winds. It is quite clear, 
 therefore, that there is no such thing as Nature; Nature is 
 Art, or Art is Nature ; that which is most useful is most 
 natural, because utility is the test of nature ; therefore a 
 steam-engine is in fact a much more natural production than 
 a mountain.* 
 
 * The age seems as anti-mountainous as it is anti-monarchical. . A 
 late -writer insinuates that if the English had spent their millions in 
 levelling the Andes, instead of excavating the table-lauds, society might
 
 POPANILLA. 379 
 
 ' You are convinced, therefore,' he continued, 'by these ob- 
 servations, that it is impossible for an individual or a nation 
 to be too artificial in their manners, their ideas, their laws, 
 or their general policy ; because, in fact, the more artificial 
 you become the nearer you approach that state of nature 
 of which you are so perpetually talking.' Here observing 
 that some of his audience appeared to be a little sceptical, 
 perhaps only surprised, he told them that what he 
 said must be true, because it entirely consisted of first 
 principles.* 
 
 After having thus preliminarily descanted for about two 
 hours, Popanilla informed his Majesty that he was unused 
 to public speaking, and then proceeded to show that the 
 grand characteristic of the social action f of the Isle of 
 Fantaisie was a total want of development. This he 
 observed with, equal sorrow and surprise ; he respected the 
 wisdom of their ancestors ; at the same time, no one could 
 deny that they were both barbarous and ignorant ; he 
 highly esteemed also the constitution, but regretted that it 
 was not in the slightest degree adapted to the existing 
 want of society : he was not for destroying any establish- 
 ments, but, on the contrary, was for courteously affording 
 them the opportunity of self-dissolution. He finished by 
 re-urging, in strong terms, the immediate development of 
 the island. In the first place, a great metropolis must be 
 instantly built, because a great metropolis always produces 
 a great demand ; and, moreover, Popanilla had some legal 
 doubts whether a country without a capital could in fact 
 be considered a State. Apologising for having so long 
 
 have been benefited. These monstrosities are decidedly useless, and 
 therefore can neither be sublime nor beautiful, as has been unanswer- 
 ably demonstrated by another recent writer on political aesthetics. See 
 also a personal attack on Mont Blanc, in the second number of the 
 Foreign Quarterly Review, 1828. 
 
 * First principles are the ingredients of positive truth. They are 
 immutable, as may be seen by comparing the first principles of the 
 eighteenth century with the first principles of the nineteenth. 
 
 f This simple and definite phrase we derive from the nation to whom 
 we were indebted during the last century for some other phrases about 
 as definite, but rather more dangerous.
 
 380 POPANILLA. 
 
 trespassed upon the attention of the assembly, he begged 
 distinctly to state* that he had no wish to see his Majesty 
 and his fellow-subjects adopt these new principles without 
 examination and without experience. They might com- 
 mence on a small scale ; let them cut down their forests, and 
 by turning them into ships and houses discover the uti- 
 lity of timber ; let the whole island be dug up ; let canals 
 be cut, docks be built, and 'all the elephants be killed 
 directly, that their teeth might yield an immediate article 
 for exportation. A short time would afford a sufficient 
 trial. In the meanwhile, they would not be pledged to 
 farther measures, and these might be considered ' only as 
 an experiment. 'f Taking for granted that these prin- 
 ciples would be acted on, and taking into consideration the 
 site of the island in the map of the world, the nature and 
 extent of its resources, its magnificent race of human 
 beings, its varieties of the animal creation, its wonderfully 
 fine timber, its undeveloped mineral treasures, the spacious- 
 ness of its harbours, and its various facilities for extended 
 international communication, Popanilla had no hesitation 
 in saying that a short time could not elapse ere, instead of 
 passing their lives in a state of unprofitable ease and useless 
 enjoyment, they might reasonably expect to be the terror 
 and astonishment of the universe, and to be able to annoy 
 every nation of any consequence. 
 
 Here, observing a smile upon his Majesty's countenance, 
 Popanilla told the King that he was only a chief magistrate, 
 and he had no more right to laugh at him than a parish 
 constable. He concluded by observing that although what 
 he at present urged might appear strange, nevertheless, if 
 the listeners had been acquainted with the characters and 
 cases of Galileo and Turgot, they would then have seen, as 
 
 * Another phrase of Parliament, which, I need not observe, is always 
 made use of in oratory when the orator can see his meaning about as 
 distinctly as Sancho perceived the charms of Dulcinea. 
 
 t A very famous and convenient phrase this but in politics experi- 
 ments mean revolutions. 1828.
 
 POPANILLA. 381 
 
 a necessary consequence, that his system was perfectly 
 correct, and he himself a man of extraordinary merit. 
 
 Here the chief magistrate, no loiager daring to smile, 
 burst into a fit of laughter ; and turning to his courtiers 
 said, ' I have not an idea what this man is talking about, 
 but I know that he makes my head ache : give me a cup of 
 wine, and let us have a dance.' 
 
 All applauded the royal proposition ; and pushing Po- 
 panilla from one to another, until he was fairly hustled to 
 the brink of the lagoon, they soon forgot the existence of 
 this bore : in one word, he was cut. When Popanilla found 
 himself standing alone, and looking grave while all the 
 rest were gay, he began to suspect that he was not so in- 
 fluential a personage as he previously imagined. Bather 
 crest-fallen, he sneaked home ; and consoled himself for 
 having nobody to speak to by reading some amusing ' Con- 
 versations on Political Economy.' 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 POPANILLA was discomposed, but he was not discomfited. 
 He consoled himself for the Royal neglect by the recollec- 
 tion of the many illustrious men who had been despised, 
 banished, imprisoned, and burnt for the maintenance of 
 opinions which, centuries afterwards, had been discovered 
 to be truth. He did not forget that in still further cen- 
 turies the lately recognised truth had been re-discovered to 
 be falsehood ; but then these men were not less illustrious ; 
 and what wonder that their opinions were really erroneous, 
 since they were not his present ones ? The reasoning was 
 equally conclusive and consolatory. Popanilla, therefore, 
 was not discouraged; and although he deemed it more 
 prudent not to go out of his way to seek another audience 
 of his sovereign, or to be too anxious again to address a 
 public meeting, he nevertheless determined to proceed cau- 
 tiously, but constantly, propagating his doctrines and 
 proselytizing in private.
 
 382 POPAXILLA. 
 
 Unfortunately for Popanilla, he did not enjoy one advan- 
 tage which all founders of sects have duly appreciated, and 
 by which they have been materially assisted. It is a great 
 and an unanswerable argument in favour of a Providence 
 that we constantly perceive that the most beneficial results 
 are brought about by the least worthy and most insigni- 
 ficant agents. The purest religions would never have been 
 established had they not been supported by sinners who 
 felt the burthen of the old faith ; and the most free and 
 enlightened governments are often generated by the dis- 
 contented, the disappointed, and the dissolute. Now, in 
 the Isle of Fantaisie, unfortunately for our revolutionizer, 
 there was not a single grumbler. 
 
 Unable, therefore, to make the bad passions of his fellow- 
 creatures the unconscious instruments of his good purposes, 
 Popanilla must have been contented to have monopolised 
 all the wisdom of the moderns, had he not, with the un- 
 baffled wit of an inventor, hit upon a new expedient. Like 
 Socrates, our philosopher began to cultivate with sedulous- 
 ness the society of youth. 
 
 In a short time the ladies of Fantaisie were forced to 
 observe that the fair sex most unfashionably predominated 
 in. their evening assemblages ; for the young gentlemen of 
 the island had suddenly ceased to pay their graceful homage 
 at the altar of Terpsichore. In an Indian isle not to dance 
 was as bad as heresy. The ladies rallied the recreants, but 
 their playful sarcasms failed of their wonted effect. In the 
 natural course of things they had recourse to remon- 
 strances, but their appeals were equally fruitless. The 
 delicate creatures tried reproaches, but the boyish cynics 
 received them with a scowl and answered them with a 
 sneer. 
 
 The women fled in indignation to their friendly monarch ; 
 but the voluptuary of nature only shrugged his shoulders 
 and smiled. He kissed away their tears, and their frowns 
 vanished as he crowned their long hair with roses. 
 
 ' If the lads really show such bad taste,' said his Majesty, 
 * why I and my lords must do double duty, and danco with
 
 POPANILLA. 383 
 
 a couple of you at once.' Consoled and complimented, and 
 crowned by a King, who could look sad ? The women 
 forgot their anger in their increasing loyalty. 
 
 But the pupils of Popanilla had no sooner mastered the 
 first principles of science than they began to throw off 
 their retired habits and uncommunicative manners. Being 
 not utterly ignorant of some of the rudiments of knowledge, 
 and consequently having completed their education, it was 
 now their duty, as members of society, to instruct and not 
 to study. They therefore courted, instead of shunned, 
 their fellow-creatures ; and on all occasions seized all oppor- 
 tunities of assisting the spread of knowledge. The voices 
 of lecturing boys resounded in every part of the island. 
 Their tones were so shrill, their manners so presuming, 
 their knowledge so crude, and their general demeanour so 
 completely unamiable, that it was impossible to hear them 
 without delight, advantage, and admiration. 
 
 The women were not now the only sufferers and the only 
 complainants. Dinned to death, the men looked gloomy ; 
 and even the King, for the first time in his life, looked 
 grave. Could this Babel, he thought, be that empire of 
 bliss, that delightful Fantaisie, where to be ruler only 
 proved that you were the most skilful in making others 
 happy ! His brow ached under his light flowery crown, as 
 if it were bound by the barbarous circle of a tyrant, heavy 
 with gems and gold. In his despair he had some thoughts 
 of leaving his kingdom and betaking himself to the 
 mermaids. 
 
 The determination of the most precious portion of his 
 subjects saved his empire. As the disciples of the new 
 school were daily demanding, 'What is the use of dancing? 
 what is the use of drinking wine ? what is the use of 
 smelling flowers ? ' the women, like prescient politicians, 
 began to entertain a nervous suspicion that in time these 
 sages might even presume to question the utility of that 
 homage which, in spite of the Grecian Philosophers and 
 the British Essayists, we have been in the habit of con- 
 ceding to them ever since Eden ; and they rushed again
 
 384 POPANILLA. 
 
 to the King like frightened deer. Something now was 
 to be done ; and the monarch, with an expression of coun- 
 tenance which almost amounted to energy, whispered con- 
 solation. 
 
 The King sent for Popanilla ; the message produced a 
 great sensation; the enlightened introducer of the new 
 principles had not been at Court since he was cut. ~No 
 doubt his Majesty was at last impregnated with the liberal 
 spirit of the age ; and Popanilla was assuredly to be Pre- 
 mier. In fact, it must be so ; he was ' sent for ;' there 
 was no precedent in Fantaisie, though there might be in 
 other islands, for a person being ' sent for ' and not being 
 Premier. His disciples were in high spirits ; the world 
 was now to be regulated upon right principles, and they 
 were to be installed into their right places. 
 
 ' Illustrious Popanilla ! ' said the King, ' you once did 
 me the honour of making me a speech which, unfortu- 
 nately for myself, I candidly confess, I was then incapable 
 of understanding ; no wonder, as it was the first I ever 
 heard. I shall not, however, easily forget the effect which 
 it produced upon me. I have since considered it my duty, 
 as a monarch, to pay particular attention to your sugges- 
 tions. I now understand them with sufficient clearness to 
 be fully convinced of their excellence, and in future I in- 
 tend to act upon them, without any exception or deviation. 
 To prove my sincerity, I have determined to commence the 
 new system at once ; and as I think that, without some 
 extension of our international relations, the commercial 
 interest of this island will be incapable of furnishing the 
 taxes which I intend to levy, I have determined, therefore, 
 to fit out an expedition for the purpose of discovering new 
 islands and forming relations with new islanders. It is 
 but due to your merit that you should be appointed to the 
 command of it ; and further to testify my infinite esteem 
 for your character, and my complete confidence in your 
 abilities, I make you post-captain on the spot. As the 
 axiom of your school seems to be that everything can be 
 made perfect at once, without time, without experience,
 
 POPANILLA. 385 
 
 without practice, and without preparation, I have no doubt, 
 with the aid of a treatise or two, you will make a consum- 
 mate naval commander, although you have never been at 
 sea in the whole course of your life. Farewell, Captain 
 Popanilla ! ' 
 
 No sooner was this adieu uttered than four brawny lords 
 of the bedchamber seized the Turgot of Fantaisie by the 
 shoulders, and carried him with inconceivable rapidity to 
 the shore. His pupils, who would have fled to his rescue, 
 were stifled with the embraces of their former partners, 
 and their utilitarianism dissolved in the arms of those they 
 once so rudely rejected. As for their tutor, he was thrust 
 into one of the canoes, with some fresh water, bread-fruit, 
 dried fish, and a basket of alligator-pears. A band of 
 mermaids carried the canoe with exquisite management 
 through the shallows and over the breakers, and poor 
 Popanilla in a few minutes found himself out at sea. 
 Tremendously frightened, he offered to recant all his opin- 
 ions, and denounce as traitors any individuals whom the 
 Court might select. But his former companions did not 
 exactly detect the utility of his return. His offers, his 
 supplications, were equally fruitless ; and the only answer 
 which floated to him on the wind was, ' Farewell, Captain 
 Popanilla ! ' 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 NIGHT fell upon the waters, dark and drear, and thick 
 and misty. How unlike those brilliant hours that once 
 summoned him to revelry and love ! Unhappy Popanilla ! 
 Thy delicious Fantaisie has vanished ! Ah, pitiable youth ! 
 What could possibly have induced you to be so very rash ? 
 And all from that unlucky lock of hair ! 
 
 After a few natural paroxysms of rage, terror, anguish, 
 and remorse, the Captain as naturally subsided into de- 
 spair, and awaited with sullen apathy that fate which 
 could not be far distant. The only thing which puzzled 
 the philosophical navigator was his inability to detect 
 c c
 
 386 POPANILLA. 
 
 what useful end could be attained by his death. At length, 
 remembering that fish must be fed, his theory and his des- 
 peration were at the same time confirmed. 
 
 A clear, dry morning succeeded the wet, gloomy night, 
 and Popanilla had not yet gone down. This extraordinary 
 suspension of his fate roused him from his stupor, and 
 between the consequent excitement and the morning air 
 he acquired an appetite. Philosophical physicians appear 
 to have agreed that sorrow, to a certain extent, is not 
 unfavourable to digestion ; and as Popanilla began to 
 entertain some indefinite and unreasonable hopes, the alli- 
 gator-pears quickly disappeared. In the meantime tho 
 little canoe cut her way as if she were chasing a smuggler; 
 and had it not been for a shark or two who, in anticipation of 
 their services being required, never left her side for a second, 
 Popanilla really might have made some ingenious obser- 
 vations on the nature of tides. He was rather surprised, 
 certainly, as he watched his frail bark cresting the waves; 
 but he soon supposed that this was all in the natural course 
 of things ; and he now ascribed his previous fright, not to 
 the peril of his situation, but to his inexperience of it. 
 
 Although his apprehension of being drowned was now 
 removed, yet when he gazed on the boundless vacancy 
 before him, and also observed that his provisions rapidly 
 decreased, he began to fear that he was destined for a still 
 more horrible fate, and that, after having eaten his own 
 shoes, he must submit to be starved. In this state of 
 despondency, with infinite delight and exultation he clearly 
 observed, on the second day, at twenty-seven minutes past 
 three P.M., though at a considerable distance, a mountain 
 and an island. His joy and his pride were equal, and 
 excessive : he called the first Alligator Mountain, in gra- 
 titude to the pears ; and christened the second after his 
 mistress, that unlucky mistress ! The swift canoe soon 
 reached the discoveries, and the happy discoverer farther 
 found, to his mortification, that the mountain was a mist 
 and the island a sea- weed. Popanilla now grew sulky, and 
 threw himself down in the bottom of his boat.
 
 POPANILLA. 387 
 
 On the third morning he was awakened by a tremendous 
 roar ; on looking around him he perceived that ho was in 
 a valley formed by two waves, each several hundred feet 
 high. This seemed the crisis of his fate ; he shut his eyes, 
 as people do when they are touched by a dentist, and in a 
 few minutes was still bounding on the ocean in the eternal 
 canoe, safe but senseless. Some tremendous peals of 
 thunder, a roaring wind, and a scathing lightning con- 
 firmed his indisposition ; and had not the tempest subsided, 
 Popanilla would probably have been an idiot for life. The 
 dead and soothing calm which succeeded this tornado called 
 him back again gradually to existence. He opened his 
 eyes, and, scarcely daring to try a sense, immediately shut 
 them ; then heaving a deep sigh, he shrugged his shoulders, 
 and looked as pitiable as a prime minister with a rebellious 
 cabinet. At length he ventured to lift up his head ; there 
 was not a wrinkle on the face of ocean ; a halcyon fluttered 
 over him, and then scudded before his canoe, and game- 
 some porpoises were tumbling at his side. The sky was 
 cloudless, except in the direction to which he was driving ; 
 but even as Popanilla observed, with some misgivings, the 
 mass of vapours which had there congregated, the great 
 square and solid black clouds drew off like curtains, and 
 revealed to his entranced vision a magnificent city rising 
 out of the sea. 
 
 Tower, and dome, and arch, column, and spire, and 
 obelisk, and lofty terraces, and many-windowed palaces, 
 rose in all directions from a mass of building which ap- 
 peared to him each instant to grow more huge, till at 
 length it seemed to occupy the whole horizon. The sun 
 lent additional lustre to the dazzling quays of white marble 
 which apparently surrounded this mighty city, and which 
 rose immediately from the dark blue waters. As the navi- 
 gator drew nearer, he observed that in most parts the 
 quays were crowded with beings who, he trusted, were 
 human, and already the hum of multitudes broke upon his 
 inexperienced ear : to him a sound far more mysterious 
 and far more exciting than the most poetical of winds to 
 c c 2
 
 388 POPANILLA. 
 
 the most windy of poets. On the right of this vast city 
 rose what was mistaken by Popanilla for an immense but 
 leafless forest ; bat more practical men than the Fantaisian 
 Captain have been equally confounded by the first sight of 
 a million of masts. 
 
 The canoe cut its way with increased rapidity, and ere 
 Popanilla had recovered himself sufficiently to make even 
 an ejaculation, he found himself at the side of a quay. 
 Some amphibious creatures, whom he supposed to be mer- 
 men, immediately came to his assistance, rather stared at 
 his serpent-skin coat, and then helped him up the steps. 
 Popanilla was instantly surrounded. 
 
 ' Who are you ? ' said one. 
 
 ' What are you ? ' asked another. 
 
 ' Who is it ? ' exclaimed a third. 
 
 ' What is it ? ' screamed a fourth. 
 
 ' My friends, I am a man ! ' 
 
 ' A man ! ' said the women ; ' are you sure you are a real 
 man?' 
 
 ' He must be a sea-god ! ' said the females. 
 
 ' She must be a sea-goddess ! ' said the males. 
 
 * A Triton ! ' maintained the women. 
 
 ' A Nereid ! ' argued the men. 
 
 ' It is a great fish ! ' said the boys. 
 
 Thanks to the Universal Linguist, Captain Popanilla, 
 under these peculiar circumstances, was more loquacious 
 than could have been Captain Parry. 
 
 ' Good people ! you see before you the most injured of 
 human beings.' 
 
 This announcement inspired general enthusiasm. The 
 women wept, the men shook hands with him, and all the 
 boys huzzaed. Popanilla proceeded : 
 
 ' Actuated by the most pure, the most patriotic, the most 
 noble, the most enlightened, and the most useful sentiments, 
 I aspired to ameliorate the condition of my fellow-men. 
 To this grand object I have sacrificed all that makes life 
 delightful : I have lost my station in society, my taste for 
 dancing, ray popularity with the men, my favour with
 
 
 POPANILLA. 389 
 
 the women ; and last, but, oh ! not least (excuse this 
 emotion), I have lost a very particular lock of hair. In 
 one word, my friends, you see before you, banished, ruined, 
 and unhappy, the victim of a despotic sovereign, a corrupt 
 aristocracy, and a misguided people.' 
 
 No sooner had he ceased speaking than Popanilla 
 really imagined that he had only escaped the dangers of 
 sedition and the sea to expire by less hostile, though not 
 less effective, means. To be strangled was not much better 
 than to be starved : and certainly, with half-a-dozen highly 
 respectable females clinging round his neck, he was not 
 reminded for the first time in his life what a domestic 
 bowstring is an* affectionate woman. In an agony of suffo- 
 cation he thought very little of his arms, although the 
 admiration of the men had already, in his imagination, 
 separated these useful members from his miserable body ; 
 and had it not been for some justifiable kicking and plung- 
 ing, the veneration of the ingenuous and surrounding youth, 
 which manifested itself by their active exertions to divide 
 his singular garment into relics of a martyr of liberty, 
 would soon have effectually prevented the ill-starred 
 Popanilla from being again mistaken for a Nereid. Order 
 was at length restored, and a committee of eight appointed 
 to regulate the visits of the increasing mob. 
 
 The arrangements were judicious ; the whole populace 
 was marshalled into ranks ; classes of twelve persons were 
 allowed consecutively to walk past the victim of tyranny, 
 corruption, and ignorance ; and each person had the 
 honour to touch his finger. During this proceeding, which 
 lasted a few hours, an influential personage generously offered 
 to receive the eager subscriptions of the assembled thou- 
 sands. Even the boys subscribed, and ere six hours had 
 passed since his arrival as a coatless vagabond in this 
 liberal city, Captain Popanilla found himself a person of 
 considerable means. 
 
 The receiver of the subscriptions, while he crammed 
 Popanilla's serpent-skin pockets full of gold pieces, at the 
 earae time kindly offered the stranger to introduce him to
 
 \ 
 
 390 POPANILLA. 
 
 an hotel. Popanilla, who was quite beside himself, could 
 only bow his assent, and mechanically accompanied his 
 conductor. When he had regained his faculty of speech, 
 lie endeavoured, in wandering sentences of grateful inco- 
 herency, to express his deep sense of this unparalleled 
 liberality. ' It was an excess of generosity in which man- 
 kind could never have before indulged ! ' 
 
 ' By no means ! ' said his companion, with great coolness ; 
 ' far from this being an unparalleled affair, I assure you it 
 is a matter of hourly occurrence : make your mind quite easy. 
 You are probably not aware that you are now living in the 
 richest and the most charitable country in the world ? ' 
 
 ' Wonderful ! ' said Popanilla ; ' and what is the name, 
 may I ask, of this charitable city ? ' 
 
 ' Is it possible,' said his companion, with a faint smile, 
 ' that you are ignorant of the great city of Hubbabub ; the 
 largest city not only that exists, but that ever did exist, 
 and the capital of the island of Vraibleusia, the most famous 
 island not only that is known, but that ever was known? ' 
 
 While he was speaking they were accosted by a man 
 upon crutches, who, telling them in a broken voice that he 
 had a wife and twelve infant children dependent on his 
 support, supplicated a little charity. Popanilla was about 
 to empty part of his pocketfuls into the mendicant's cap, 
 but his companion repressed his unphilosophical facility. 
 ' By no means ! ' said his friend, who, turning round to 
 the beggar, advised him, in a mild voice, to work ; calmly 
 adding, that if he presumed to ask charity again he should 
 certainly have him bastinadoed. Then they walked on. 
 
 Popanilla's attention was so distracted by the variety, 
 the number, the novelty, and the noise of the objects which 
 were incessantly hurried upon his observation, that he 
 found no time to speak ; and as his companion, though 
 exceedingly polite, was a man of few words, conversation 
 rather flagged. 
 
 At last, overwhelmed by the magnificence of the streets, 
 the splendour of the shops, the number of human beings, 
 the rattling of the vehicles, the dashing of the horses, and
 
 POPANILLA.. . 391 
 
 a thousand other sounds and objects, Popanilla gave loose 
 to a loud and fervent wish that his hotel might have the 
 good fortune of being situated in this interesting quarter. 
 
 ' By no means ! ' said his companion ; ' we have yet much 
 further to go. Far from this being a desirable situation 
 for you, my friend, no civilised person is ever seen here ; 
 and had not the cause of civil and religious liberty for- 
 tunately called me to the water-side to-day, I should have 
 lost the opportunity of showing how greatly I esteem a 
 gentleman who has suffered so severely in the cause of 
 national amelioration.' 
 
 ' Sir ! ' said Popanilla, ' your approbation is the only 
 reward which I ever shall desire for my exertions. You 
 will excuse me for not quite keeping up with you ; but the 
 fact is, my pockets are so stuffed with cash that the action 
 of my legs is greatly impeded.' 
 
 ' Credit me, my friend, that you are suffering from an 
 inconvenience which you will not long experience in Hub- 
 babub. Nevertheless, to remedy it at present, I think the 
 best thing we can do is to buy a purse.' 
 
 They accordingly entered a shop where such an article 
 might be found, and taking up a small sack, for Popanilla 
 was very rich, his companion inquired its price, which he 
 was informed was four crowns. No sooner had the desired 
 information been given than the proprietor of the opposite 
 shop rushed in, and offered him the same article for three 
 crowns. The original merchant, not at all surprised at the 
 intrusion, and not the least apologising for his former 
 extortion, then demanded two. His rival, being more than 
 his match, he courteously dropped upon his knee, and 
 requested his customer to accept the article gratis, for his 
 sake. The generous dealer would infallibly have carried 
 the day, had not his rival humbly supplicated the purchaser 
 not only to receive his article as a gift, but also the com- 
 pliment of a crown inside. 
 
 'What a terrible cheat the first merchant must have 
 been ! ' said the puzzled Popanilla, as they proceeded on 
 their way.
 
 392 POPANILLA. 
 
 ' By no means ! ' said his calm companion ; ' the purse 
 was sufficiently cheap even at four crowns. This is not 
 Cheatery ; this is Competition ! ' 
 
 'What a wonderful nation, then, this must be, where 
 you not only get purses gratis but even well loaded ! What 
 use, then, is all this heavy gold? It is a tremendous trouble 
 to carry ; I will empty the bag into this kennel, for money 
 surely can be of no use in a city where, when in want of 
 cash, you have only to go into a shop and buy a purse ! ' 
 
 ' Your pardon ! ' said his companion ; ' far from this being 
 the case, Vraibleusia is, without doubt, the dearest country 
 in the world.' 
 
 'If, then,' said the inquisitive Popanilla, with great ani- 
 mation, ' if, then, this country be the dearest in the world ; 
 if, how ' 
 
 ' My good friend ! ' said his companion, ' I really am the 
 last person in the world to answer questions. All that I 
 know is, that this country is extremely dear, and that the 
 only way to get things cheap is to encourage Competition.' 
 
 Here the progress of his companion was impeded for 
 some time by a great crowd, which had assembled to catch 
 a glimpse of a man who was to fly off a steeple, but who 
 had not yet arrived. A chimney-sweeper observed to a 
 scientific friend that probably the density of the atmosphere 
 might prevent the intended volitation ; and Popanilla, who, 
 having read almost as many pamphlets as the observer, 
 now felt quite at home, exceedingly admired the obser- 
 vation. 
 
 'He must be a very superior man, this gentleman in 
 black ! ' said Popanilla to his companion. 
 
 ' By no means ! he is of the lowest class in society. But 
 you are probably not aware that you are in the most 
 educated country in the world.' 
 
 ' Delightful ! ' said Popanilla. 
 
 The Captain was exceedingly desirous of witnessing the 
 flight of the Vraibleusian Daedalus, but his friend advised 
 their progress. This, however, was not easy; and Popa- 
 nilla, animated for the moment by his natural aristocratic
 
 POPANILLA. 393 
 
 disposition, and emboldened by his superior size and 
 strength, began to clear his way in a manner which was 
 more cogent than logical. The chimney-sweeper and his 
 comrades were soon in arms, and Popanilla would certainly 
 have been killed or ducked by this superior man and his 
 friends, had it not been for the mild remonstrance of his 
 conductor and the singular appearance of his costume. 
 
 ' What could have induced you to be so imprudent ? ' said 
 his rescuer, when they had escaped from the crowd. 
 
 ' Truly,' said Popanilla, ' I thought that in a country 
 where you may bastinado the wretch who presumes to ask 
 you for alms, there could surely be no objection to my 
 knocking down the scoundrel who dared to stand in my 
 way.' 
 
 ' By no means ! ' said his friend, slightly elevating his 
 eyebrows. ' Here all men are equal. You are probably not 
 aware that you are at present in the freest countiy in the 
 world.' 
 
 ' I do not exactly understand you ; what is this freedom ? ' 
 
 'My good friend, I really am the last person in the 
 world to answer questions. Freedom is, in one word, 
 Liberty: a kind of thing which you foreigners never can 
 understand, and which mere theory can make no man under- 
 stand. When you have been in the island a few weeks all 
 will be quite clear to you. In the meantime, do as others 
 do, and never knock men down ! ' 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ' ALTHOUGH we are yet some way from our hotel,' remarked 
 Popanilla' s conductor, ' we have now arrived at a part of 
 the city where I can ease you, without difficulty, from your 
 troublesome burthen ; let us enter here ! ' 
 
 As he spoke, they stopped before a splendid palace, and 
 proceeding through various halls full of individuals appa- 
 rently intently busied, the companions were at last ushered 
 into an apartment of smaller size, but of more elegant cha-
 
 394 POPAXILLA. 
 
 racter. A personage of prepossessing appearance was lolling 
 on a couch of an appearance equally prepossessing. Before 
 him, on a table, were some papers, exquisite fruits, and some 
 liqueurs. Popanilla was presented, and received with fasci- 
 nating complaisance. His friend stated the object of their 
 visit, and handed the sackful of gold to the gentleman on 
 the sofa. The gentleman on the sofa ordered a couple of 
 attendants to ascertain its contents. While this computa- 
 tion was going on he amused his guests by his lively con- 
 versation, and charmed Popanilla by his polished man Tiers 
 and easy civility. He offered him, during his stay in 
 Vraibleusia, the use of a couple of equipages, a villa, and 
 an opera-box ; insisted upon sending to his hotel some pine- 
 apples and some rare wine, and gave him a perpetual ticket 
 to his picture-gallery. When his attendants had concluded 
 their calculation, he ordered them to place Popanilla' s 
 precious metal in his treasury; and then, presenting the 
 Captain with a small packet of pink shells, he kindly en- 
 quired whether he could be of any further use to him. 
 Popanilla was loth to retire without his gold, of the utility 
 of which, in spite of the conveniency of competition, he 
 seemed to possess an instinctive conception ; but as his 
 friend rose and withdrew, he could do nothing less than 
 accompany him ; for, having now known him nearly half a 
 day, his confidence in his honour and integrity was natu- 
 rally unbounded. 
 
 ' That was the King, of course ? ' said Popanilla, when 
 they were fairly out of the palace. 
 
 ' The King ! ' said the unknown, nearly surprised into an 
 exclamation ; ' by no means ! ' 
 
 ' And what then ? ' 
 
 ' My good friend ! is it possible that you have no bankers 
 in your country ? ' 
 
 ' Yes, it is very possible ; but we have mermaids, who 
 also give us shells which are pretty. What then are your 
 bankers ? ' 
 
 ' Really, my good friend, that is a question which I never 
 remember having been asked before ; but a banker is a man 
 who keeps oar money for us.'
 
 POPANILLA. 395 
 
 ' Ah ! and he is bound, I suppose, to return your money 
 when you choose ? ' 
 
 ' Most assuredly ! ' 
 
 ' He is, then, in fact, your servant : you must pay him 
 handsomely, for him to live so well ? ' 
 
 ' By no means ! we pay him nothing.' 
 
 ' That is droll ; he must be very rich then ? ' 
 
 ' Really, my dear friend, I cannot say. Why, yes ! 
 I I suppose he may be very rich ! ' 
 
 ' 'Tis singular that a rich man should take so much 
 trouble for others ! ' 
 
 ' My good friend ! of course he lives by his trouble.' 
 
 ' Ah ! How, then,' continued the inquisitive Fantaisian, 
 ' if you do not pay him for his services, and he yet lives by 
 them ; how, I pray, does he acquire these immense riches ? ' 
 
 ' Really, my good sir, I am, in truth, the very last man 
 in the world to answer questions : he is a banker ; bankers 
 are always rich ; but why they are, or how they are, I 
 really never had time to inquire. But I suppose, if the 
 truth were known, they must have very great opportu- 
 nities.' 
 
 ' Ah ! I begin to see,' said Popanilla. ' It was really 
 very kind of him,' continued the Captain, ' to make me a 
 present of these little pink shells : what would I not give to 
 turn them into a necklace, and send it to a certain person 
 at Fantaisie ! ' 
 
 ' It would be a very expensive necklace,' observed his 
 companion, almost surprised. ' I had no idea, I confess 
 from your appearance, that in your country they indulged 
 in such expensive tastes in costume.' 
 
 ' Expensive ! ' said Popanilla. ' We certainly have no 
 such shells as these in Fantaisie ; but we have much more 
 beautiful ones. I should think, from their look, they must 
 be rather common.' 
 
 His conductor for the first time nearly laughed. ' I 
 forgot,' said he, ' that you could not be aware that these 
 pink shells are the most precious coin of the land, com- 
 pared with which those bits of gold with which you have
 
 396 POPANILLA. 
 
 recently parted are nothing ; your whole fortune is now in 
 that little packet. The fact is,' continued the unknown, 
 making an effort to communicate, ' although we possess in 
 this country more of the precious metals than all the rest 
 of the world together, the quantity is nevertheless utterly 
 disproportioned to the magnitude of our wealth and our 
 wants. We have been, therefore, under the necessity of 
 resorting to other means of representing the first and 
 supplying the second ; and, taking advantage of our insular 
 situation, we have introduced these small pink shells, which 
 abound all round the coast. Being much more convenient 
 to carry, they are in general circulation, and no genteel 
 person has ever anything else in his pocket.' 
 
 ' Wonderful ! But surely, then, it is no very difficult 
 thing in this country to accumulate a fortune, since all 
 that is necessary to give you every luxury of life is a stroll 
 one morning of your existence along the beach ? ' 
 
 ' By no means, my friend ! you are really too rapid. 
 The fact is, that no one has the power of originally circu- 
 lating these shells but our Government ; and if any one, 
 by any chance, choose to violate this arrangement, we make 
 up for depriving him of his solitary walks on the shore by 
 instant submersion in the sea.' 
 
 ' Then the whole circulation of the country is at the 
 mercy of your Government ? ' remarked Popanilla, sum- 
 moning to his recollection the contents of one of those 
 shipwrecked brochures which had exercised so strange an 
 influence on his destiny. ' Suppose they do not choose to 
 issue ? ' 
 
 ' That is always guarded against. The mere quarterly 
 payments of interest upon our national debt will secure an 
 ample supply.' 
 
 ' Debt ! I thought you were the richest nation in the 
 world ? ' 
 
 ' 'Tis true; nevertheless, if there were a golden pyramid 
 with a base as big as the whole earth and an apex touching 
 the heavens, it would not supply us with sufficient metal to 
 satisfy our creditors.'
 
 POPANILLA. 307 
 
 { But, my dear sir,' exclaimed the perplexed Popanilla, 
 ' if this really be true, how then can you be said to be the 
 richest nation in the world ? ' 
 
 ' It is very simple. The annual interest upon our debt 
 exceeds the whole wealth of the rest of the world ; there- 
 fore we must be the richest nation in the world.' 
 
 ' "Tis true,' said Popanilla ; ' I see I have yet much to learn. 
 But with regard to these pink shells, how can you possibly 
 create for them a certain standard of value ? It is merely 
 agreement among yourselves that fixes any value to them.' 
 
 ' By no means ! you are so rapid ! Each shell is imme- 
 diately convertible into gold ; of which metal, let me again 
 remind you, we possess more than any other nation ; but 
 which, indeed, we only keep as a sort of dress coin, chiefly 
 to indulge the prejudices of foreigners.' 
 
 ' But,' said the perpetual Popanilla, ' suppose every man 
 who held a shell on the same day were to ' 
 
 ' My good friend ! I really am the last person in the 
 world to give explanations. In Vraibleusia, we have so 
 much to do that we have no time to think ; a habit which 
 only becomes nations who are not employed. You are now 
 fast approaching the Great Shell Question ; a question 
 which, I> confess, affects the interests of every man in this 
 island more than any other ; but of which, I must candidly 
 own, every man in this island is more ignorant than of any 
 other. No one, however, can deny that the system works 
 well ; and if anything at any time go wrong, why really 
 Mi\ Secretary Periwinkle is a wonderful man, and our 
 most eminent conchologist. He, no doubt, will set it right ; 
 and if, by any chance, things are past even his management, 
 why then, I suppose, to use our national motto, something 
 will turn up. 1 
 
 Here they arrived at the hotel. Having made every 
 arrangement for the comfort and convenience of the Fan- 
 taisian stranger, Popanilla's conductor took his leave, pre- 
 viously informing him that his name was Skindeep ; that 
 he was a member of one of the largest families in the island ; 
 that, had he not been engaged to attend a lecture, he
 
 398 POPANILLA. 
 
 would have stayed and dined with him ; but that he would 
 certainly call upon him on the morrow. 
 
 Compared with his hotel the palace of his banker was a 
 dungeon ; even the sunset voluptuousness of Fantaisie was 
 now remembered without regret in the blaze of artificial 
 light and in the artificial gratification of desires which 
 art had alone created. After a magnificent repast, his host 
 politely inquired of Popanilla whether he would like to go 
 to the Opera, the comedy, or a concert ; but the Fantaisian 
 philosopher was not yet quite corrupted ; and, still inspired 
 with a desire to acquire useful knowledge, he begged his 
 landlord to procure him immediately a pamphlet on the 
 Shell Question. 
 
 While his host was engaged in procuring this luxury a 
 man entered the room and told Popanilla that he had 
 walked that day two thousand five hundred paces, and 
 that the tax due to the Excise upon this promenade was 
 fifty crowns. The Captain stared, and remarked to the 
 excise-officer that he thought a man's paces were a strange 
 article to tax. The excise-officer, with great civility, an- 
 swered that no doubt at first sight it might appear rather 
 strange, but that it was the only article left untaxed in 
 Vraibleusia ; that there was a slight deficiency in the last 
 quarter's revenue, and that therefore the Government had 
 no alternative ; that it was a tax which did not press 
 heavily upon the individual, because the Vraibleusians were 
 of a sedentary habit ; that, besides, it was an opinion every 
 day more received among the best judges that the more a 
 man was taxed the richer he ultimately would prove ; and 
 he concluded by saying that Popanilla need not make him- 
 self uneasy about these demands, because, if he were ruined 
 to-morrow, being a foreigner, he was entitled by the law of 
 the land to five thousand a-year ; whereas he, the excise- 
 man, being a native-born Vraibleusian, had no claims what- 
 ever upon the Government ; therefore he hoped his honour 
 would give him something to drink. 
 
 His host now entered with the ' Novum Organon ' of the 
 great Periwinkle. While Popanilla devoured the lively
 
 POPANILLA. 399 
 
 pages of this treatise, lie discovered that the system which 
 had been so subtilely introduced by the Government, and 
 which had so surprised him in the morning, had soon been 
 adopted in private life ; and although it was drowning 
 matter to pick up pink shells, still there was nothing to 
 prevent the whole commerce of the country from being 
 carried on by means of a system equally conchological. He 
 found that the social action in every part of the island was 
 regulated and assisted by this process. Oyster-shells were 
 first introduced ; muscle-shells speedily followed ; and, as 
 commerce became more complicate, they had even been 
 obliged to have recourse to snail-shells. Popanilla retired 
 to rest with admiration of the people who thus converted 
 to the most useful purposes things apparently so useless. 
 There was no saying now what might not be done even 
 with a nutshell. It was evident that the nation who con- 
 trived to be the richest people in the world while they 
 were over head and ears in debt must be fast approaching 
 to a state of perfection. Finally, sinking to sleep in a bed 
 of eiderdown, Popanilla was confirmed in his prejudices 
 against a state of nature. 
 
 CHAPTER Yin. 
 
 SKINDEEP called upon Popanilla on the following morn- 
 ing in an elegant equipage, and with great politeness pro- 
 posed to attend him in a drive about the city. 
 
 The island of Vraibleusia is one hundred and fifty miles 
 in circumference, two-thirds of which are covered by the 
 city of Hubbabub. It contains no other city, town, or vil- 
 lage. The rest of the island consists of rivers, canals, and 
 railroads. Popanilla was surprised when he was informed 
 that Hubbabub did not contain more than five millions of 
 inhabitants ; but his surprise was decreased when their 
 journey occasionally lay through tracts of streets, consist- 
 ing often of capacious mansions entirely tenantless. On 
 seeking an explanation of this seeming desolation, he was 
 told that the Hubbabubians were possessed by a frenzy of
 
 400 POPAX1LLA. 
 
 always moving westward; and that consequently great 
 quarters of the city are perpetually deserted. Even as 
 Skindeep was speaking their passage was stopped by a 
 large caravan of carriages and waggons heavily laden with 
 human creatures and their children and chattels. On Skin- 
 deep inquiring the cause of this great movement, he was 
 informed by one on horseback, who seemed to be the leader 
 of the horde, that they were the late dwellers in sundry 
 squares and streets situated far to the east ; that their 
 houses having been ridiculed by an itinerant ballad-singer, 
 the female part of the tribe had insisted upon immediately 
 quitting their unfashionable fatherland ; and that now, 
 after three days' journey, they had succeeded in reaching 
 the late settlement of a horde who had migrated to the 
 extreme west. 
 
 Quitting regions so subject to revolutions and vicissi- 
 tudes, the travellers once more emerged into quarters of a 
 less transitory reputation ; and in the magnificent parks, 
 the broad streets, the ample squares, the palaces, the trium- 
 phal arches, and the theatres of occidental Hubbabub, Po- 
 panilla lost those sad and mournful feelings which are ever 
 engendered by contemplating the gloomy relics of departed 
 greatness. It was impossible to admire too much the ar- 
 chitecture of this part of the city. The elevations were 
 indeed imposing. In general, the massy Egyptian appro- 
 priately graced the attic-stories ; while the finer and more 
 elaborate architecture of Corinth was placed on a level 
 with the eye, so that its beauties might be more easily dis- 
 covered. Spacious colonnades were flanked by porticoes, 
 surmounted by domes ; nor was the number of columns at 
 all limited, for you occasionally met with porticos of two 
 tiers, the lower one of which consisted of three, the higher 
 one of thirty columns. Pedestals of the purest Ionic Gothic 
 were ingeniously intermixed with Palladian pediments ; and 
 the surging spire exquisitely harmonised with the horizon- 
 tal architecture of the ancients. But perhaps, after all, 
 the most charming eftect was produced by the pyramids, 
 surmounted by weathercocks.
 
 POPANILLA. 401 
 
 Popanilla was particularly pleased by some chimneys of 
 Caryatides, and did not for a moment hesitate in assenting 
 to the assertion of Skindeep that the Vraibleusians were 
 the most architectural nation in the world. True it was, 
 they had begun late ; their attention as a people having 
 been, for a considerable time, attracted to much more im- 
 portant affairs ; but they had compensated for their tardy 
 attention by their speedy excellence.* 
 
 Before they returned home Skindeep led Popanilla to 
 the top of a tower, from whence they had a complete view 
 of the whole island. Skindeep particularly directed the 
 Captain's attention to one spot, where nourished, as he 
 said, the only corn-fields in the country, which supplied 
 the whole nation, and were the property of one individual. 
 So unrivalled was his agricultural science that the vulgar 
 only accounted for his admirable produce by a miraculous 
 fecundity ! The proprietor of these hundred golden acres 
 was a rather mysterious sort of personage. He was an 
 aboriginal inhabitant, and, though the only one of the abo- 
 rigines in existence, had lived many centuries, and, to the 
 consternation of some of the Vraibleusians and the exulta- 
 tion of others, exhibited no signs of decay. This awful 
 being was without a name. When spoken of by his ad- 
 mirers he was generally described by such panegyrical 
 periphrases as ' soul of the country, ' ' foundation of the 
 State,' ' the only real, and true, and substantial being ; ' 
 while, on the other hand, those who presumed to differ from 
 those sentiments were in the habit of styling him 'the 
 dead weight,' ' the vampire,' ' the night-mare,' and other 
 titles equally complimentary. They also maintained that, 
 instead of being either real or substantial, he was, in fact, 
 the most flimsy and fictitious personage in the whole island ; 
 and then, lashing themselves up into metaphor, they would 
 call him a meteor, or a vapour, or a great windy bubble, 
 that would some day burst. 
 
 * See a work which will be shortly published, entitled, ' The differ- 
 ence detected between Architecture and ^architecture, by Sansovino the 
 Second.' 
 
 D D
 
 402 POPANILLA. 
 
 The Aboriginal insisted that it was the common law of 
 the land that the islanders should purchase their corn only 
 of him. They grumbled, but he growled ; he swore that it 
 was the constitution of the country ; that there was an 
 uninterrupted line of precedents to confirm the claim ; and 
 that, if they did not approve of the arrangement, they and 
 their fathers should not have elected to have settled, or 
 presumed to have been spawned, upon his island. Then, 
 as if he were not desirous of resting his claim on its mere 
 legal merits, he would remind them of the superiority of his 
 grain, and the impossibility of a scarcity, in the event of 
 which calamity an insular people could always find a plen- 
 tiful though temporary resource in sea-weed. He then 
 clearly proved to them that, if ever they had the impru- 
 dence to change any of their old laws, they would neces- 
 sarily never have more than one meal a day as long as they 
 lived. Finally, he recalled to their recollection that he had 
 made the island what it was, that he was their mainstay, 
 and that his counsel and exertions had rendered them the 
 wonder of the world. Thus, between force, and fear, and 
 flattery, the Vraibleusians paid for their corn nearly its 
 weight in gold ; but what did that signify to a nation with 
 so many pink shells ! 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE third day after his drive with his friend Skindeep, 
 Popanilla was waited upon by the most eminent bookseller 
 in Hubbabub, who begged to have the honour of intro- 
 ducing to the public a Narrative of Captain Popanilla' s 
 Voyage. This gentleman assured Popanilla that the Vrai- 
 bleusian public were nervously alive to anything connected 
 with discovery ; that so ardent was their attachment to 
 science and natural philosophy that voyages and travels 
 were sure to be read with eagerness, particularly if they 
 had coloured plates. Popanilla was charmed with the 
 proposition, but blushingly informed the mercantile Ma3cenas
 
 POPANILLA. 403 
 
 that lie did not know how to write. The publisher told 
 him that this circumstance was not of the slightest im- 
 portance ; that he had never for a moment supposed that 
 so sublime a savage could possess such a vulgar accom- 
 plishment ; and that it was by no means difficult for a man 
 to publish his travels without writing a line of them. 
 
 Popanilla having consented to become an author upon 
 these terms, the publisher asked him to dine with him, and 
 introduced him to an intelligent individual. This intelli- 
 gent individual listened attentively to all P opanilla's ad- 
 ventures. The Captain concealed nothing. He began 
 with the eternal lock of hair, and showed how wonderfully 
 this world was constituted, that even the loss of a thing 
 was not useless ; from which it was clear that Utility was 
 Providence. After drinking some capital wine, the intelli- 
 gent individual told Popanilla that he was wrong in sup- 
 posing Fantaisie to be an island ; that, on the contrary, it 
 was a great continent ; that this was proved by the pro- 
 bable action of the tides in the part of the island which 
 had not yet been visited; that the consequence of these 
 tides would be that, in the course of a season or two, Fan- 
 taisie would become a great receptacle for icebergs, and be 
 turned into the North Pole ; that, therefore, the seasons 
 throughout the world would be changed ; that this year, in 
 "Vraibleusia, the usual winter would be omitted, and that 
 when the present summer was finished the dog-days would 
 again commence. Popanilla took his leave highly delighted 
 with this intelligent individual and with the bookseller's 
 wine. 
 
 Owing to the competition which existed between the 
 publishers, the printers, and the engravers of the city of 
 Hubbabub, and the great exertions of the intelligent in- 
 dividual, the Narrative of Captain Popanilla's Voyage was 
 brought out in less than a week, and was immediately in 
 everybody's hand. The work contained a detailed account of 
 everything which took place during the whole of the three 
 days, and formed a quarto volume. The plates were 
 numerous and highly interesting. There was a line en- 
 
 D D 2
 
 404 POPANILLA. 
 
 graving of Alligator Mountain and a mezzotint of Seaweed 
 Island ; a view of the canoe N.E. ; a view of the canoe 
 N.W. ; a view of the canoe S.E. ; a view of the canoe S.W. 
 There were highly-finished coloured drawings of the dried 
 fish and the bread-fruit, and an exquisitely tinted repre- 
 sentation, of the latter in a mouldy state. But the chef- 
 d'oeuvre was the portrait of the Author himself. He was 
 represented trampling on the body of a boa constrictor of 
 the first quality, in the skin of which he was dressed; at 
 his back were his bow and arrows ; his right hand rested 
 on an uprooted pine-tree ; he stood in a desert between two 
 , volcanoes ; at his feet was a lake of magnitude ; the distance 
 lowered with an approaching tornado ; but a lucky flash 
 of lightning revealed the range of the Andes and both 
 oceans. Altogether he looked the most dandified of 
 savages, and the most savage of dandies. It was a sublime 
 lithograph, and produced scarcely less important effects 
 upon Popanilla's fortune than that lucky ' lock of hair ; ' 
 for no sooner was the portrait published than Popanilla 
 received a ticket for the receptions of a lady of quality. On 
 showing it to Skindeep, he was told that the honour was 
 immense, and therefore he must go by all means. Skin- 
 deep regretted that he could not accompany him, but he 
 was engaged to a lecture on shoemaking ; and a lecture 
 was a thing he made it a point never to miss, because, as 
 he very properly observed, ' By lectures you may become 
 extremely well informed without any of the inconveniences 
 of study. No fixity of attention, no continuity of medita- 
 tion, no habits of reflection, no aptitude of combination, 
 are the least requisite ; all which things only give you a 
 nervous headache ; and yet you gain all the results of all 
 these processes. True it is that that which is so easily 
 acquired is not always so easily remembered ; but what of 
 that ? Suppose you forget any subject, why then you go 
 to another lecture.' ' Very true ! ' said Popanilla. 
 
 Popanilla failed not to remember his invitation from 
 Lady Spirituelle ; and at the proper hour his announce- 
 ment produced a sensation throughout her crowded saloons.
 
 POPANILLA. 405 
 
 Spirituelle was a most enchanting lady ; she asked Popa- 
 nilla how tall he really was, and whether the women in 
 Fantaisie were as handsome as the men. Then she said 
 that the Vraibleusians were the most intellectual and the 
 most scientific nation in the world, and that the society at 
 her house was the most intellectual and the most scientific 
 in Vraibleusia. She told him also that she had hoped by 
 this season the world would have been completely regulated 
 by mind ; but that the subversion of matter was a more 
 substantial business than she and the Committee of Man- 
 agement had imagined: she had no doubt, however, that 
 in a short time mind must carry the day, because matter 
 was mortal and mind eternal ; therefore mind had the 
 best chance. Finally, she also told him that the passions 
 were the occasion of all the misery which had ever existed ; 
 and that it was impossible for mankind either to be happy 
 or great until, like herself and her friends, they were ' all 
 soul.' 
 
 Popanilla was charmed with his company. What a 
 difference between the calm, smiling, easy, uninteresting, 
 stupid, sunset countenances of Fantaisie and those around 
 him. All looked so interested and so intelligent ; their 
 eyes were so anxious, their gestures so animated, their 
 manners so earnest. They must be very clever ! He drew 
 nearer. If before he were charmed, now he was enchanted. 
 What an universal acquisition of useful knowledge ! Three 
 or four dukes were earnestly imbibing a new theory of gas 
 from a brilliant little gentleman in black, who looked like a 
 Will-o'-the-wisp. The Prime Minister was anxious about pin- 
 making ; a Bishop equally interested in a dissertation on the 
 escapements of watches ; a Field- Marshal not less intent on 
 a new specific from the concentrated essence of hellebore. But 
 what most delighted Popanilla was hearing a lecture from 
 the most eminent lawyer and statesman in Vraibleusia on 
 his first and favourite study of hydrostatics. His associa- 
 tions quite overcame him : all Fantaisie rushed upon his 
 memory, and he was obliged to retire to a less frequented 
 part of the room to relieve his too excited feelings.
 
 406 POPAtflLLA. 
 
 He was in a few minutes addressed by the identical 
 little gentleman who had recently been speculating with 
 the three dukes. 
 
 The little gentleman told him that he had heard with 
 great pleasure that in Fantaisie they had no historians, 
 poets, or novelists. He proved to Popanilla that no such 
 thing as experience existed ; that, as the world was now 
 to be regulated on quite different principles from those by 
 which it had hitherto been conducted, similar events to 
 those which had occurred could never again take place ; 
 and therefore it was absolutely useless to know anything 
 about the past. With regard to literary fiction, he ex- 
 plained that, as it was absolutely necessary, from his nature, 
 that man should experience a certain quantity of excite- 
 ment, the false interest which these productions created 
 prevented their readers from obtaining this excitement by 
 methods which, by the discovery of the useful, might 
 greatly benefit society. 
 
 'You are of opinion, then,' exclaimed the delighted 
 Popanilla, ' that nothing is good which is not useful ? ' 
 
 ' Is it possible that an individual exists in this world who 
 doubts this great first principle ? ' said the little man, with 
 great animation. 
 
 ' Ah, my dear friend ! ' said Popanilla, ' if you only 
 knew what an avowal of this great first principle has cost 
 me ; what I have suffered ; what I have lost ! ' 
 
 ' What have you lost ? ' asked the little gentleman. 
 
 ' In the first place, a lock of bair ' 
 
 ' Poh, nonsense ! ' 
 
 * Ah ! you may say Poh ! but it was a particular lock of 
 hair.' 
 
 * My friend, that word is odious. Nothing is particular, 
 everything is general. Rules are general, feelings are 
 general, and property should be general ; and, sir, I tell 
 you what, in a very short time it must be so. Why should 
 Lady Spirituelle, for instance, receive me at her house, 
 rather than I receive her at mine ? ' 
 
 ' Why don't you, then ? ' asked the simple Popanilla.
 
 POPANILLA. 407 
 
 ' Because I have not got one, sir ! ' roared the little gen- 
 tleman. 
 
 He would certainly have broken away had not Popanilla 
 begged him to answer one question. The Captain, reitera- 
 ting in the most solemn manner his firm belief in the 
 dogma that nothing was good which was not useful, and 
 again detailing the persecutions which this conviction had 
 brought upon him, was delighted that an opportunity was 
 now afforded to gain from the lips of a distinguished phi- 
 losopher a definition of what utility really was. The dis- 
 tinguished philosopher could not refuse so trifling a favour. 
 
 ' Utility,' said he, ' is ' 
 
 At this critical moment there was a universal buzz 
 throughout the rooms, and everybody looked so interested 
 that the philosopher quite forgot to finish his answer. On 
 inquiring the cause of this great sensation, Popanilla was 
 informed that a rumour was about that a new element had 
 been discovered that afternoon. The party speedily broke 
 up, the principal philosophers immediately rushing to their 
 clubs to ascertain the truth of this report. Popanilla was 
 unfashionable enough to make his acknowledgments to his 
 hostess before he left her house. As he gazed upon her 
 ladyship's brilliant eyes and radiant complexion, he felt 
 convinced of the truth of her theory of the passions ; he 
 could not refrain from pressing her hand in a manner which 
 violated etiquette, and which a nativity in the Indian Ocean 
 could alone excuse ; the pressure was graciously returned. 
 As Popanilla descended the staircase, he discovered a little 
 note of pink satin paper entangled in his ruffle. He opened 
 it with curiosity. It was ' All soul.' He did not return to 
 his hotel quite so soon as he expected. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 POPANILLA breakfasted rather late the next morning, and on 
 looking over the evening papers, which were just published, 
 his eyes lighted on the following paragraph :
 
 408 POPANILLA. 
 
 ' Arrived yesterday at the Hotel Diplomatique, His Ex- 
 cellency Prince Popanilla, Ambassador Extraordinary and 
 Minister Plenipotentiary from the newly-recognised State 
 of Fantaisie.' 
 
 Before his Excellency could either recover from his asto- 
 nishment or make any inquiries which might throw any 
 illustration upon its cause, a loud shout in the street made 
 him naturally look out of the window. He observed three 
 or four magnificent equipages drawing up at the door of 
 the hotel, and followed by a large crowd. Each carriage 
 was drawn by four horses, and attended by footmen so 
 radiant with gold and scarlet that, had Popanilla been the 
 late ingenious Mr. Keates, he would have mistaken them 
 for the natural children of Phoebus and Aurora. The 
 Ambassador forgot the irregularity of the paragraph in the 
 splendour of the liveries. He felt triumphantly conscious 
 that the most beautiful rose in the world must look ex- 
 tremely pale by the side of scarlet cloth ; and this new 
 example of the superiority of art over nature reminding 
 him of the inferiority of bread-fruit to grilled muffin, he 
 resolved to return to breakfast. 
 
 But it was his fate to be reminded of the inutility of the 
 best resolutions, for ere the cup of coffee had touched his 
 parched lips the door of his room flew open, and the Mar- 
 quess of Moustache was announced. 
 
 His Lordship was a young gentleman with an expressive 
 countenance ; that is to say, his face was so covered with 
 hair, and the back of his head cropped so bald, that you 
 generally addressed him in the rear by mistake. He did 
 not speak, but continued bowing for a considerable time, 
 in that diplomatic manner which means so much. By the 
 time he had finished bowing his suite had gained the apart- 
 ment, and his Private Secretary, one of those uncommonly 
 able men who only want an opportunity, seized the present 
 one of addressing Popanilla. 
 
 Bowing to the late Captain with studied respect, he in- 
 formed him that the Marquess Moustache was the nobleman 
 appointed by the Government of Yraibleusia to attend upon
 
 POPANILLA. 409 
 
 his Excellency during the first few weeks of his mission, 
 with the view of affording him all information upon those 
 objects which might naturally be expected to engage the 
 interest or attract the attention of so distinguished a per- 
 sonage. The ' ancien marin' and present Ambassador had 
 been so used to miracles since the loss of that lock of hair, 
 that he did not think it supernatural, having during the 
 last few days been in turn a Fantaisian nobleman, a post- 
 captain, a fish, a goddess, and, above all, an author, he 
 should now be transformed into a plenipotentiary. Drink- 
 ing, therefore, his cup of coffee, he assumed an air as if he 
 really were used to have a Marqness for an attendant, and 
 said that he was at his Lordship's service. 
 
 The Marquess bowed low, and the Private Secretary 
 remarked that the first thing to be done by his Excellency 
 was to be presented to the Government. After that he 
 was to visit all the manufactories in Vraibleusia, subscribe 
 to all the charities, and dine with all the Corporations, 
 attend a dejeuner a la fourchette at a palace they were at 
 present building under the sea, give a gold plate to be run 
 for on the fashionable racecourse, be present at morning 
 prayers at the Government Chapel, hunt once or twice, 
 give a dinner or two himself, make one pun, and go to the 
 Play, by which various means, he said, the good under- 
 standing between the two countries would be materially 
 increased and, in a manner, established. 
 
 As the Fantaisian Ambassador and his suite entered their 
 carriages, the sky, if it had not been for the smoke, would 
 certainly have been rent by the acclamations of the mob. 
 ' Popanilla for ever ! ' sounded from all quarters, except 
 where the shout was varied by ' Vraibleusia and Fantaisie 
 against the world ! ' which perhaps was even the most 
 popular sentiment of the two. The Ambassador was quite 
 agitated, and asked the Marquess what he was to do. The 
 Private Secretary told his Excellency to bow. Popanilla 
 bowed with such grace that in five minutes the horses were 
 taken out of his carriage, and that carriage dragged in 
 triumph by the enthusiastic populace. He continued
 
 410 POPAMLLA. 
 
 bowing, and their enthusiasm continued increasing. In the 
 meantime his Excellency's portrait was sketched by an 
 artist who hung upon his wheel, and in less than half an 
 hour a lithographic likeness of the popular idol was wor- 
 shipped in eveiy print-shop in Hubbabub. 
 
 As they drew nearer the Hall of Audience the crowd 
 kept increasing, till at length the whole city seemed poured 
 forth to meet him. Although now feeling conscious that 
 he was the greatest man in the island, and therefore only 
 thinking of himself, Popanilla's attention was nevertheless 
 at this moment attracted by a singular figure. He was 
 apparently a man : in stature a Patagonian, and robust as 
 a well-fed ogre. His countenance was jolly, but consequen- 
 tial ; and his costume a curious mixture of a hunting-dress 
 and a court suit. He was on foot, and in spite of the 
 crowd, with the aid of a good whip and his left fist made 
 his way with great ease. On inquiring who this extraor- 
 dinary personage might be, Popanilla was informed that it 
 was THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANT. As the giant passed the 
 Ambassador's carriages, the whole suite, even Lord Mous- 
 tache, rose and bent low ; and the Secretary told Popanilla 
 that there was no person in the island for whom the 
 Government of Vraibleusia entertained so profound a 
 respect. 
 
 The crowd was now so immense that even the progress 
 of the Aboriginal Inhabitant was for a moment impeded. 
 The great man got surrounded by a large body of little 
 mechanics. The contrast between the pale perspiring 
 visages and lean forms of these emaciated and half-gene- 
 rated creatures, and the jolly form and ruddy countenance, 
 gigantic limbs and ample frame, of the Aboriginal, was 
 most striking ; nor could any one view the group for an 
 instant without fee'ling convinced that the latter was 
 really a superior existence. The mechanics, who were 
 worn by labour, not reduced by famine, far from being 
 miserable, were impudent. They began rating the mighty 
 one for the dearness of his corn. He received their attacks 
 with mildness. He reminded them that the regulation
 
 POPANILLA. 411 
 
 fcy which they procured their bread was the aboriginal law 
 of the island, under which they had all so greatly nourished. 
 He explained to them that it was owing to this protecting 
 principle that he and his ancestors, having nothing to do 
 but to hunt and shoot, had so preserved their health that, 
 unlike the rest of the human race, they had not degene- 
 rated from the original form and nature of man. He 
 showed that it was owing to the vigour of mind and body 
 consequent upon this fine health that Vraibleusia had 
 become the wonder of the world, and that they themselves 
 were so actively employed ; and he inferred that they surely 
 could not grudge him the income which he derived, since 
 that iucome was, in fact, the foundation of their own 
 profits. He then satisfactorily demonstrated to them that 
 if by any circumstances he were to cease to exist, the whole 
 island would immediately sink under the sea. Having thus 
 condescended to hold a little parley with his fellow-subjects, 
 though not fellow-creatures, he gave them all a good sound 
 flogging, and departed amidst the enthusiastic cheering of 
 those whom he had so briskly lashed. 
 
 By this time Popanilla had arrived at the Hall of 
 
 Audience. 
 
 ' It was a vast and venerable pile.' 
 
 His Excellency and suite quitted their carriages amidst 
 the renewed acclamations of the mob. Proceeding through 
 a number of courts and quadrangles, crowded with guards 
 and officials, they stopped before a bronze gate of great 
 height. Over it was written, in vast characters of living 
 flame, this inscription : 
 
 TO 
 
 THE WISEST AND THE BEST, 
 THE RICHEST AND THE MIGHTIEST, 
 
 THE GLORY AND THE ADMIRATION, 
 THE DEFENCE AND THE CONSTERNATION. 
 
 On reading this mysterious inscription his Excellency 
 experienced a sudden and awful shudder. Lord Moustache, 
 however, who was more used to mysteries, taking np a
 
 412 POPANILLA. 
 
 silver trumpet, which, was fixed to the portal by a crimson 
 cord, gave a loud blast. The gates flew open with the 
 sound of a whirlwind, and Popanilla found himself in what 
 at first appeared an illimitable hall. It was crowded, but 
 perfect order was preserved. The Ambassador was con- 
 ducted with great pomp to the upper end of the apartment, 
 where, after an hour's walk, his Excellency arrived. At 
 the extremity of the hall was a colossal and metallic Statue 
 of extraordinary appearance. It represented an armed 
 monarch. The head and bust were of gold, and the curling 
 hair was crowned with an imperial diadem ; the body and 
 arms were of silver, worked in the semblance of a complete 
 suit of enamelled armour of the feudal ages ; and the thighs 
 and legs were of iron, which the artist had clothed in the 
 bandaged hose of the old Saxons. The figure bore the 
 appearance of great antiquity, but had evidently been often 
 repaired and renovated since its first formation. The 
 workmanship was clearly of different eras, and the repa- 
 rations, either from ignorance or intention, had often been 
 effected with little deference to the original design. Part 
 of the shoulders had been supplied by the other, though 
 less precious, metal, and the Roman and Imperial orna- 
 ments had unaccountably been succeeded by the less classic, 
 though more picturesque, decorations of Gothic armour. 
 On the other hand, a great portion of the chivalric and 
 precious material of the body had been removed, and re- 
 placed by a style and substance resembling those of the 
 lower limbs. In its right hand the Statue brandished a 
 naked sword, and with its left leant upon a huge, though 
 extremely rich and elaborately carved, crosier. It trampled 
 upon a shivered lance and a broken chain. 
 
 ' Your Excellency perceives,' said the Secretary, pointing 
 to the Statue, ' that ours is a mixed Government.' 
 
 Popanilla was informed that this extraordinary Statue 
 enjoyed all the faculties of an intellectual being, with the 
 additional advantage of some faculties which intellectual 
 beings do not enjoy. It possessed not only the faculty of 
 epeech, but of speaking truth ; not only the power of judg-
 
 POPANILLA. 413 
 
 ment, but of judging rightly ; not only the habit of listening, 
 but of listening attentively. Its antiquity was so remote 
 that the most profound and acute antiquarians had failed in 
 tracing back its origin. The Aboriginal Inhabitant, how- 
 ever, asserted that it was the work of one of his ancestors ; 
 and as his assertion was confirmed by all traditions, the 
 allegation was received. Whatever might have been its 
 origin, certain it was that it was now immortal, for it 
 could never die ; and to whomsoever it might have been 
 originally indebted for its power, not less sure was it that 
 it was now omnipotent, for it could do all things. Thus 
 alleged and thus believed the Vraibleusians, marvellous 
 and sublime people ! who, with all the impotence of mor- 
 tality, have created a Government which is both immortal 
 and omnipotent ! 
 
 Generally speaking, the Statue was held in great reve- 
 rence and viewed with great admiration by the whole 
 Vraibleusian people. There were a few persons, indeed, 
 who asserted that the creation of such a Statue was by no 
 means so mighty a business as it had been the fashion to 
 suppose ; and that it was more than probable that, with 
 the advantages afforded by the scientific discoveries of 
 modern times, they would succeed in making a more useful 
 one. This, indeed, they offered to accomplish, provided 
 the present Statue were preliminarily destroyed ; but as 
 they were well assured that this offer would never be 
 accepted, it was generally treated by those who refused it 
 as a braggadocio. There were many also who, though 
 they in general greatly admired and respected the present 
 Statue, affected to believe that, though the execution was 
 wonderful, and the interior machinery indeed far beyond the 
 powers of the present age, nevertheless the design was in 
 many parts somewhat rude, and the figure altogether far 
 from being well-proportioned. Some thought the head too 
 big, some too small ; some that the body was dispropor- 
 tionately little ; others, on the contrary, that it was so much 
 too large that it had the appearance of being dropsical ; 
 others maintained that the legs were too weak for the sup-
 
 414 POPANILLA. 
 
 port of the whole, and that they should be rendered more 
 important and prominent members of the figure ; while, on 
 the contrary, there were yet others who cried out that 
 really these members were already so extravagantly huge, 
 so coarse, and so ungenteel, that they quite marred the 
 general effect of a beautiful piece of sculpture. 
 
 The same differences existed about the comparative ex- 
 cellence of the three metals and the portions of the body 
 which they respectively formed. Some admired the gold, 
 and maintained that if it were not for the head the Statue 
 would be utterly useless ; others preferred the silver, and 
 would assert that the body, which contained all the ma- 
 chinery, must clearly be the most precious portion ; while 
 a third party triumphantly argued that the iron legs which 
 supported both body and head must surely be the most 
 valuable part, since without them the Statue must fall. 
 The first party advised that in all future reparations gold 
 only should be introduced ; and the other parties, of course, 
 recommended with equal zeal their own favourite metals. 
 It is observable, however, that if, under these circumstances, 
 the iron race chanced to fail in. carrying their point, they 
 invariably voted for gold in preference to silver. But the 
 most contradictory opinions, perhaps, were those which 
 were occasioned by the instruments with which the 
 Statue was armed and supported. Some affected to be so 
 frightened by the mere sight of the brandished sword, 
 although it never moved, that they pretended it was dan- 
 gerous to live even under the same sky with it ; while 
 others, treating very lightly the terrors of this warlike 
 instrument, would observe that much more was really to 
 be apprehended from the remarkable strength and thick- 
 ness of the calm and peace-inspiring crosier ; and that as 
 long as the Government was supported by this huge pas- 
 toral staff nothing could prevail against it ; that it could 
 dare all things, and even stand without the help of its 
 legs. All these various opinions at least proved that, 
 although the present might not be the most miraculous 
 Statue that could possibly be created, it was nevertheless
 
 POPANILLA. 415 
 
 quite impossible ever to form one which would please all 
 parties. 
 
 The care of this wonderful Statue was entrusted to twelve 
 ' Managers,' whose duty it was to wind-up and regulate its 
 complicated machinery, and who answered for its good 
 management by their heads. It was their business to 
 consult the oracle upon all occasions, and by its decisions 
 to administer and regulate all the affairs of the State. 
 They alone were permitted to hear its voice ; for the Sta- 
 tue never spoke in public save on rare occasions, and its 
 sentences were then really so extremely commonplace 
 that, had it not been for the deep wisdom of its general 
 conduct, the Yraibleusians would have been almost tempted 
 to believe that they really might exist without the services 
 of the capital member. The twelve Managers surrounded 
 the Statue at a respectful distance ; their posts were the 
 most distinguished in the State ; and indeed the duties at- 
 tached to them were so numerous, so difficult, and so respon- 
 sible, that it required no ordinary abilities to fulfil, and 
 demanded no ordinary courage to aspire to, them. 
 
 The Fantaisian Ambassador, having been presented, 
 took his place on the right hand of the Statue, next to 
 the Aboriginal Inhabitant, and public business then com- 
 menced. 
 
 There came forward a messenger, who, knocking his nose 
 three times with great reverence on the floor, a knock for 
 each metal of the figure, thus spoke : 
 
 ' thou wisest and best ! thou richest and mightiest I 
 thou glory and admiration ! thou defence and consterna- 
 tion ! Lo ! the King of the North is cutting all his subjects' 
 heads off ! ' 
 
 This announcement produced a great sensation. The 
 Marquess Moustache took snuff; the Private Secretary 
 said he had long suspected that this would be the case ; and 
 the Aboriginal Inhabitant remarked to Popanilla that the 
 corn in the North was of an exceedingly coarse grain. 
 While they were making these observations the twelve 
 Managers had assembled in deep consultation around the
 
 416 POPANILLA. 
 
 Statue, and in a very few minutes the Oracle -was pre- 
 pared. The answer was very simple, but the exordium was 
 sublime. It professed that the Vraibleusian nation was the 
 saviour and champion of the world ; that it was the first 
 principle of its policy to maintain the cause of any people 
 struggling for their rights as men ; and it avowed itself to 
 be the grand patron of civil and religious liberty in all 
 quarters of the globe. Forty-seven battalions of infantry 
 and eighteen regiments of cavalry, twenty-four sail of the 
 line, seventy transports, and fifteen bombketches, were 
 then ordered to leave Vraibleusia for the North in less than 
 sixty minutes ! 
 
 ' What energy ! ' said Popanilla ; ' what decision ! what 
 rapidity of execution ! ' 
 
 'Ay ! ' said the Aboriginal, smacking his thigh ; ' let them 
 say what they like about their proportions, and mixtures, 
 and metals abstract nonsense ! No one can deny that our 
 Government works well. But see ! here comes another 
 messenger ! ' 
 
 ' thou wisest and best ! thou richest and mightiest ! 
 thou glory and admiration ! thou defence and consterna- 
 tion ! Lo ! the people of the South have cut their king's 
 head off! ' 
 
 ' Well ! I suppose that is exactly what you all want,' said 
 the innocent Popanilla. 
 
 The Private Secretary looked mysterious, and said that 
 he was not prepared to answer ; that his department never 
 having been connected with this species of business, he was 
 unable at the moment to give his Excellency the requisite 
 information. At the same time, he begged to state that, 
 provided anything he said should not commit him, he had 
 no objection to answer the question hypothetically. The 
 Aboriginal Inhabitant said that he would have no hypo- 
 theses or Jacobins ; that he did not approve of cutting off 
 kings' heads ; and that the Vraibleusians were the most 
 monarchical people in the world. So saying, he walked up, 
 without any ceremony, to the chief Manager, and taking
 
 POPANILLA. 417 
 
 him by the button, conversed with him some time in an 
 earnest manner, which made the stocks fall two per cent. 
 
 The Statue ordered three divisions of the grand army 
 and a battering-train of the first grade off to the South 
 without the loss of a second. A palace and establishment 
 were immediately directed to be prepared for the family of 
 the murdered monarch, and the commander-in-chief was 
 instructed to make every exertion to bring home the body 
 of his Majesty embalmed. Such an immense issue of pink 
 shells was occasioned by this last expedition that stocks not 
 only recovered themselves, but rose considerably. 
 
 The excitement occasioned by this last announcement 
 evaporated at the sight of a third messenger. He informed 
 the Statue that the Emperor of the East was unfortunately 
 unable to pay the interest upon his national debt ; that his 
 treasury was quite empty and his resources utterly ex- 
 hausted. He requested the assistance of the most wealthy 
 and the most generous of nations ; and he offered them as 
 security for their advances his gold and silver mines, 
 which, for the breadth' of their veins and the richness of 
 their ores, he said, were unequalled. He added, that the 
 only reason they were un worked was the exquisite flavour 
 of the water-melons in his empire, which was so delicious 
 that his subjects of all classes, passing their whole day in 
 devouring them, could be induced neither by force nor per- 
 suasion to do anything else. The cause was so reasonable, 
 and the security so satisfactory, that the Vraibleusian 
 Government felt themselves authorised in shipping off im- 
 mediately all the gold in the island. Pink shells abounded, 
 and stocks were still higher. 
 
 ' You have no mines in Vraibleusia, I believe ? ' said 
 Popanilla to the Aboriginal. 
 
 ' No ! but we have taxes.' 
 
 ' Very true ! ' said Popanilla. 
 
 ' I understand that a messenger has just arrived from 
 the West,' said the Secretary to the Fantaisian Plenipo- 
 tentiary. ' He must bring interesting intelligence from 
 such interesting countries. Next to ourselves, they are 
 
 E E
 
 418 POPANILLA. 
 
 evidently the most happy, the most wealthy, the most en- 
 lightened, and the most powerful Governments in the 
 world. Although founded only last week, they already 
 rank in the first class of nations. I will send you a little 
 pamphlet to-morrow, which I have just published upon this 
 subject, in which you will see that I have combated, I trust 
 not unsuccessfully, the ridiculous opinions of those cautious 
 statesmen who insinuate that the stability of these Govern- 
 ments is even yet questionable.' 
 
 The messenger from the Republics of the West now 
 prostrated himself before the Statue. He informed it that 
 two parties had, unfortunately, broken out in these coun- 
 tries, and threatened their speedy dissolution ; that one 
 party maintained that all human government originated in 
 the wants of man ; while the other party asserted that it 
 originated in the desires of man. That these factions had 
 become so violent and so universal that public business 
 was altogether stopped, trade quite extinct, and the instal- 
 ments due to Yraibleusia not forthcoming. Finally, he 
 entreated the wisest and the best of nations to send to 
 these distracted lands some discreet and trusty personages, 
 well instructed in the first principles of government, in 
 order that they might draw up constitutions for the igno- 
 rant and irritated multitude. 
 
 The Private Secretary told Popanilla that this was no 
 more than he had long expected; that all this would subside, 
 and that he should publish a postscript to his pamphlet in a 
 few days, which he begged to dedicate to him. 
 
 A whole corps diplomatique and another shipful of 
 abstract philosophers, principally Scotchmen, were imme- 
 diately ordered off to the West ; and shortly after, to 
 render their first principles still more effective and their 
 administrative arrangements still more influential, some 
 brigades of infantry and a detachment of the guards 
 followed. Free constitutions are apt to be misunderstood 
 until half of the nation are bayoneted and the rest im- 
 prisoned. 
 
 As this mighty Vraibleusian nation had, within the last
 
 POPANILLA. 419 
 
 half-hour, received intelligence from all quarters of the 
 globe, and interfered in all possible affairs, civil and mili- 
 tary, abstract, administrative, diplomatic, and financial, 
 Popanilla supposed that the assembly would now break up. 
 Some petty business, however, remained. "War was de- 
 clared against the King of Sneezeland, for presuming to 
 buy pocket-handkerchiefs of another nation ; and the Em- 
 peror of Pastilles was threatened with a bombardment for 
 daring to sell his peppers to another people. There were 
 also some dozen commercial treaties to be signed, or can- 
 vassed, or cancelled ; and a report having got about that 
 there was a rumour that some disturbance had broken out 
 in some parts unknown, a flying expedition was despatched, 
 with sealed orders, to circumnavigate the globe and arrange 
 affairs. By this time Popanilla thoroughly understood the 
 meaning of the mysterious inscription. 
 
 Just as the assembly was about to be dissolved another 
 messenger, who, in his agitation, even forgot the accustomed 
 etiquette of salutation, rushed into the presence. 
 
 ' O most mighty ! Sir Bombastes Furioso, who com- 
 manded our last expedition, having sailed, in the hurry, 
 with wrong orders, has attacked our ancient ally by mis- 
 take, and utterly destroyed him ! ' 
 
 Here was a pretty business for the Best and Wisest ! At 
 first the Managers behaved in a manner the most undiplo- 
 matic, and quite lost their temper ; they raved, they 
 stormed, they contradicted each other, they contradicted 
 themselves, and swore that Sir Bombastes' head should 
 answer for it. Then they subsided into sulkiness, and at 
 length, beginning to suspect that the fault might ultimately 
 attach only to themselves, they got frightened, and held 
 frequent consultations with pale visages and quivering 
 lips. After some time they thought they could do nothing 
 wiser than put a good face upon the affair ; whatever might 
 be the result, it was, at any rate, a victory, and a victory 
 would please the vainest of nations : and so these blundering 
 and blustering gentlemen determined to adopt the con- 
 queror, whom they were at first weak enough to disclaim, 
 
 E E 2
 
 420 POPANILLA. 
 
 then vile enough, to bully, and finally forced to reward. 
 The Statue accordingly whispered a most elaborate pane- 
 gyric on Furioso, which was of course duly delivered. The 
 Admiral, who was neither a coward nor a fool, was made 
 ridiculous by being described as the greatest commander 
 that ever existed ; one whom Nature, in a gracious freak, 
 had made to shame us little men ; a happy compound of the 
 piety of Noah, the patriotism of Themistocles, the skill of 
 Columbus, and the courage of Nelson ; and his exploit styled 
 the most glorious and unrivalled victory that was ever 
 achieved, even by the Vraibleusians ! Honours were decreed 
 in profusion, a general illumination ordered for the next 
 twenty nights, and an expedition immediately despatched 
 to attack the right man. 
 
 All this time the conquerors were in waiting in an ante- 
 room, in great trepidation, and fully prepared to be cashiered 
 or cut in quarters. They were rather surprised when, 
 bowing to the ground, they were saluted by some half- 
 dozen lords-in-waiting as the heroes of the age, congra- 
 tulated upon their famous achievements, and humbly re- 
 quested to appear in the Presence. 
 
 The warriors accordingly walked up in procession to the 
 Statue, who, opening its mighty mouth, vomited forth a 
 flood of ribbons, stars, and crosses, which were divided 
 among the valiant band. This oral discharge the Vraibleu- 
 sians called the ' fountain of honour.' 
 
 Scarcely had the mighty Furioso and his crew disap- 
 peared than a body of individuals arrived at the top of the 
 hall, and, placing themselves opposite the Managers, began 
 rating them for their inefficient administration of the island, 
 and expatiated on the inconsistency of their late conduct to 
 the conquering Bombastes. The Managers defended them- 
 selves in a manner perfectly in character with their recent 
 behaviour ; but their opponents were not easily satisfied 
 with their confused explanations and their explained con- 
 fusions, and the speeches on both sides grew warmer. At 
 length the opposition proceeded to expel the administration 
 from their places by force, and an eager scuffle between the
 
 POPANILLA. 421 
 
 two parties now commenced. The general body of specta- 
 tors continued only to observe, and did not participate in 
 the fray. At first, this melee only excited amusement ; but 
 as it lengthened some wisely observed that public business 
 greatly suffered by these private squabbles ; and some even 
 ventured to imagine that the safety of the Statue might 
 be implicated by their continuance. But this last fear was 
 futile. 
 
 Popanilla asked the Private Secretary which party he 
 thought would ultimately succeed. The Private Secretary 
 said that, if the present Managers retained their places, he 
 thought that they would not go out ; but if, on the other 
 hand, they were expelled by the present opposition, it was 
 probable that the present opposition would become Managers. 
 The Aboriginal thought both parties equally incompetent ; 
 and told Popanilla some long stories about a person who 
 was chief Manager in his youth, about five hundred years 
 ago, to whom he said he was indebted for all his political 
 principles, which did not surprise Popanilla. 
 
 At this moment a noise was heard throughout the hall 
 which made his Excellency believe that something un- 
 toward had again happened, and that another conqueror by 
 mistake had again arrived. A most wonderful being 
 galloped up to the top of the apartment. It was half man 
 and half horse. The Secretary told Popanilla that this was 
 the famous Centaur Chiron ; that his Horseship, having 
 wearied of his ardent locality in the constellations, had 
 descended some years back to the island of Vraibleusia ; 
 that he had commanded the armies of the nation in all the 
 great wars, and had gained every battle in which, he had 
 ever been engaged. Chiron was no less skilful, he said, in 
 civil than in military affairs; but the Vraibleusians, being 
 very jealous of allowing themselves to be governed by their 
 warriors, the Centaur had lately been out of employ. While 
 the Secretary was giving him this information Popanilla 
 perceived that the great Chiron was attacking the com- 
 batants on both sides. The tutor of Achilles, Hercules, and 
 ./Eneas, of course, soon succeeded in kicking them all out,
 
 422 POPANILLA. 
 
 and constituted himself chief and sole Manager of the 
 Statue. Some grumbled at this autocratic conduct ' upon 
 principle,' but they were chiefly connections of the expelled. 
 The great majority, wearied with public squabbles occa- 
 sioned by private ends, rejoiced to see the public interest 
 entrusted to an individual who had a reputation to lose. 
 Intelligence of the appointment of the Centaur was speedily 
 diffused throughout the island, and produced great and 
 general satisfaction. There were a few, indeed, impartial 
 personages, who had no great taste for Centaurs in civil 
 capacities, from an apprehension that, if he could not 
 succeed in persuading them by his eloquence, his Grace 
 might chance to use his heels. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 ON the evening of his presentation day his Excellency the 
 Fantaisian Ambassador and suite honoured the national 
 theatre with their presence. Such a house was never 
 known ! The pit was miraculously overflown before the 
 doors were opened, although the proprietor did not permit 
 a single private entrance. The enthusiasm was universal, 
 and only twelve persons were killed. The Private Secre- 
 tary told Popanilla, with an air of great complacency, that 
 the "Vraibleusian theatres were the largest in the world. 
 Popanilla had little doubt of the truth of this information, 
 as a long time elapsed before he could even discover the 
 stage. He observed that every person in the theatre 
 carried a long black glass, which he kept perpetually fixed 
 to his eye. To sit in a huge room hotter than a glass-house, 
 in a posture emulating the most sanctified Faquir, with a 
 throbbing head-ache, a breaking back, and twisted legs, 
 with a heavy tube held over one eye, and the other covered 
 with the unemployed hand, is in Vraibleusia called a public 
 amusement. 
 
 The play was by the most famous dramatist that Vrai-
 
 POPANILLA. 423 
 
 bleusia ever produced ; and certainly, when his Excellency 
 witnessed the first scenes, it was easier to imagine that he 
 was once more in his own sunset Isle of Fantaisie than in 
 the railroad state of Vraibleusia : but, unfortunately, this 
 evening the principal characters and scenes were omitted, 
 to make room for a moving panorama, which lasted some 
 hours, of the chief and most recent Vraibleusian victories. 
 The audience fought their battles o'er again with great 
 fervour. During the play one of the inferior actors was 
 supposed to have saluted a female chorus-singer with an 
 ardour which was more than theatrical, and every lady in 
 the house immediately fainted ; because, as the eternal 
 Secretary told Popanilla, the Vraibleusians are the most 
 modest and most moral nation in the world. The male 
 part of the audience insisted, in indignant terms, that the 
 offending performer should immediately be dismissed. In 
 a few minutes he appeared upon the stage to make a most 
 humble apology for an offence which he was not conscious 
 of having committed ; but the most moral and the most 
 modest of nations was implacable, and the wretch was 
 expelled. Having a large family dependent upon his exer- 
 tions, the actor, according to a custom prevalent in Vrai- 
 bleusia, went immediately and drowned himself in the 
 nearest river. Then the ballet commenced. 
 
 It was soon discovered that the chief dancer, a celebrated 
 foreigner, who had been announced for this evening, was 
 absent. The uproar was tremendous, and it was whispered 
 that the house would be pulled down ; because, as Popanilla 
 was informed, the Vraibleusians are the most particular 
 and the freest people in the world, and never will permit 
 themselves to be treated with disrespect. The principal 
 chandelier having been destroyed, the manager appeared, 
 and regretted that Signer Zephyrino, being engaged to 
 dine with a Grandee of the first class, was unable to fulfil 
 his engagement. The house became frantic, and the terrified 
 manager sent immediately for the Signor. The artist, after 
 a proper time had elapsed, appeared with a napkin round 
 his neck and a fork in his hand, with which he stood some
 
 424 POPAMLLA. 
 
 moments, until the uproar had subsided, picking his teeth. 
 At length, when silence was obtained, he told them that he 
 was surprised that the most polished and liberal nation in 
 the world should behave themselves in such a brutal and 
 narrow-minded manner. He threatened them that he 
 would throw up his engagement immediately, and announce 
 to all foreign parts that they were a horde of barbarians ; 
 then, abusing them for a few seconds in round terms, he 
 retired, amidst the cheerings of the whole house, to finish 
 his wine. 
 
 When the performances were finished the audience rose 
 and joined in chorus. On Popanilla enquiring the name 
 and nature of this effusion, he was told that it was the 
 national air of the Isle of Fantaisie, sung in compliment to 
 himself. His Excellency shrugged his shoulders and 
 bowed low. 
 
 The next morning, attended by his suite, Popanilla visited 
 the most considerable public offices and manufactories in 
 Hubbabub. He was received in all places with the greatest 
 distinction. He was invariably welcomed either by the 
 chiefs of the department or the proprietors themselves, and 
 a sumptuous collation was prepared for him in every place. 
 His Excellency evinced the liveliest interest in everything 
 that was pointed out to him, and instantaneously perceived 
 that the Vraibleusians exceeded the rest of the world in 
 manufactures and public works as much as they did in 
 arms, morals, modesty, philosophy, and politics. The Pri- 
 vate Secretary being absent upon his postscript. Popanilla 
 deceived the most satisfactory information upon all subjects 
 from the Marquess himself. Whenever he addressed any 
 question to his Lordship, his noble attendant, with the 
 greatest politeness, begged him to take some refreshment. 
 Popanilla returned to his hotel with a great admiration of 
 the manner in which refined philosophy in Vraibleusia was 
 applied to the common purposes of life ; and found that he 
 had that morning acquired a general knowledge of the 
 chief arts and sciences, eaten some hundred sandwiches, 
 and tasted as many bottles of sherry.
 
 POPANILLA. 425 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE most commercial nation in the world was now busily 
 preparing to diffuse the blessings of civilisation and com- 
 petition throughout the native country of their newly- 
 acquired friend. The greatest exporters that ever existed had 
 never been acquainted with such a subject for exportation 
 as the Isle of Fantaisie. There everything was wanted. It 
 was not a partial demand which was to be satisfied, nor a 
 particular deficiency which was to be supplied ; but a vast 
 population was thoroughly to be furnished with every 
 article which a vast population must require. From the 
 manufacturer of steam-engines to the manufacturer of 
 stockings, all were alike employed. There was no branch 
 of trade in Vraibleusia which did not equally rejoice at this 
 new opening for commercial enterprise, and which was not 
 equally interested in this new theatre for Vraibleusian 
 industry, Vraibleusian invention, Vraibleusian activity, and, 
 above all, Vraibleusian competition. 
 
 Day and night the whole island was employed in pre- 
 paring for the great fleet and in huzzaing Popanilla. 
 When at home, every ten minutes he was obliged to appear 
 in the balcony, and then, with hand on heart and hat in 
 hand, ah ! that bow ! that perpetual motion of popularity ! 
 If a man love ease, let him be most unpopular. The Ma- 
 nagers did the impossible to assist and advance the in- 
 tercourse between the two nations. They behaved in a 
 liberal and enlightened manner, and a deputation of liberal 
 and enlightened merchants consequently waited upon them 
 with a vote of thanks. They issued so many pink shells 
 that the price of the public funds was doubled, and affairs 
 arranged so skilfully that money was universally declared 
 to be worth nothing, so that every one in the island, from 
 the Premier down to the Mendicant whom the lecture-lov- 
 ing Skindeep threatened with the bastinado, was enabled 
 to participate, in some degree, in the approaching venture, 
 if we should use so dubious a term in speaking of profits so 
 certain.
 
 426 POPA^ILLA. 
 
 Compared with, the Fantaisian connection, the whole 
 commerce of the world appeared to the Vraibleusians a 
 retail business. All other customers were neglected or 
 discarded, and each individual seemed to concentrate his 
 resources to supply the wants of a country where they 
 dance by moonlight, live on fruit, and sleep on flowers. At 
 length the first fleet of five hundred sail, laden with 
 wonderful specimens of Vraibleusian mechanism, and in- 
 numerable bales of Vraibleusian manufactures ; articles 
 raw and refined, goods dry and damp, wholesale and retail ; 
 silks and woollen cloths ; cottons, cutlery, and camlets ; 
 flannels and ladies' albums ; under waistcoats, kid gloves, en- 
 gravings, coats, cloaks, and ottomans; lamps and looking- 
 glasses ; sofas, round tables, equipages, and scent-bottles ; 
 fans and tissue-flowers ; porcelain, poetry, novels, news- 
 papers, and cookery books ; bear's-grease, blue pills, and 
 bijouterie ; arms, beards, poodles, pages, mustachios, court- 
 guides, and bon-bons; music, pictures, ladies' maids, scrap- 
 books, buckles, boxing-gloves, guitars, and snuff-boxes ; 
 together with a company of opera-singers, a band of come- 
 dians, a popular preacher, some quacks, lecturers, artists, 
 and literary gentlemen, principally sketch-book men, 
 quitted, one day, with a favourable wind, and amid the 
 exultation of the inhabitants, the port of Hubbabub ! 
 
 When his Excellency Prince Popanilla heard of the 
 contents of this stupendous cargo, notwithstanding his 
 implicit confidence in the superior genius and useful know- 
 ledge of the Vraibleusians, he could not refrain from ex- 
 pressing a doubt whether, in the present undeveloped 
 state of his native land, any returns could be made pro- 
 portionate to so curious and elaborate an importation ; but 
 whenever he ventured to intimate his opinion to any of 
 the most commercial nation in the world he was only 
 listened to with an incredulous smile which seemed to 
 pity his inexperience, or told, with an air of profound 
 self-complacency, that in Fantaisie ' there must be great 
 resources.' 
 
 In the meantime, public companies were formed for
 
 POPANILLA. 427 
 
 working the mines, colonizing the waste lands, and cutting 
 the coral rocks of the Indian Isle, of all which associations 
 Popanilla was chosen Director by acclamation. These, 
 however, it must be confessed, were speculations of a some- 
 what doubtful nature ; but the Branch Bank Society of the 
 Isle of Fantaisie really held out flattering prospects. 
 
 When the fleet had sailed they gave Popanilla a public 
 dinner. It was attended by all the principal men in the 
 island, and he made a speech, which was received in a 
 rather different manner than was his sunset oration by the 
 monarch whom he now represented. Fantaisie and its 
 accomplished Envoy were at the same time the highest 
 and the universal fashion. The ladies sang a la Syrene, 
 dressed their hair a la Mermede, and themselves a la Fan- 
 tastique', which, by-the-bye, was not new ; and the gentle- 
 men wore boa-constrictor cravats and waltzed a la mer 
 Indienne a title probably suggested by a remembrance of 
 the dangers of the sea. 
 
 It was soon discovered that, without taking into con- 
 sideration the average annual advantages which would 
 necessarily spring from their new connection, the profits 
 which must accrue upon the present expedition alone had 
 already doubled the capital of the island. Everybody in, 
 Vraibleusia had either made a fortune, or laid the founda- 
 tion of one. The penniless had become prosperous, and 
 the principal merchants and manufacturers, having realised 
 large capitals, retired from business. But the colossal 
 fortunes were made by the gentlemen who had assisted the 
 administration in raising the price of the public funds and 
 in managing the issues of the pink shells. The effect of 
 this immense increase of the national wealth and of this 
 creation of new and powerful classes of society was speedily 
 felt. Great moves to the westward were perpetual, and a 
 variety of sumptuous squares and streets were immediately 
 run up in that chosen land. Butlers were at a premium ; 
 coach-makers never slept; card-engravers, having exhausted 
 copper, had recourse to steel ; and the demand for arms at 
 the Heralds' College was so great that even the mystical
 
 428 POPA3OLLA. 
 
 genius of Garter was exhausted, and hostile meetings were 
 commenced between the junior members of some ancient 
 families, to whom the same crest had been unwittingly ap- 
 portioned ; but, the seconds interfering, they discovered 
 themselves to be relations. All the eldest sons were im- 
 mediately to get into Parliament, and all the younger ones 
 as quickly into the Guards ; and the simple Fantaisian En- 
 voy, who had the peculiar felicity of taking everything au 
 pied du lettre, made a calculation that, if these arrange- 
 ments were duly effected, in a short time the Vraibleusian 
 representatives would exceed the Yraibleusian represented ; 
 and that there would be at least three officers in the Vrai- 
 bleusian Guards to every private. Judging from the beards 
 and mustachios which now abounded, this great result was 
 near at hand. With the snub nose which is the character- 
 istic of the millionaires, these appendages produce a pleasing 
 effect. 
 
 When the excitement had a little subsided ; when their 
 mighty mansions were magnificently furnished ; when their 
 bright equipages were fairly launched, and the due comple- 
 ment of their liveried retainers perfected ; when, in short, 
 they had imitated the aristocracy in every point in which 
 wealth could rival blood : then the new people discovered 
 with dismay that one thing was yet wanting, which treasure 
 could not purchase, and which the wit of others could not 
 supply Manner. In homely phrase, the millionaires did 
 not know how to behave themselves. Accustomed to the 
 counting-house, the factory, or the exchange, they looked 
 queer in saloons, and said ' Sir ! ' when they addressed you ; 
 and seemed stiff, and hard, and hot. Then the solecisms 
 they committed in more formal society, oh ! they were out- 
 rageous ; and a leading article in an eminent journal was 
 actually written upon the subject. I dare not write the 
 deeds they did ; but it was whispered that when they drank 
 wine they filled their glasses to the very brim. All this 
 delighted the old class, who were as envious of their riches 
 as the new people were emulous of their style. 
 
 In any other country except Vraibleusia persona so
 
 POPANILLA. 429 
 
 situated would have consoled themselves for their disagree- 
 able position by a consciousness that their posterity would 
 not be annoyed by the same deficiencies ; but the wonder- 
 ful Vraibleusian people resembled no other, even in their 
 failings. They determined to acquire in a day that which 
 had hitherto been deemed the gradual consequence of 
 tedious education. 
 
 A ' Society for the Diffusion of Fashionable Knowledge ' 
 was announced ; the Millionaires looked triumphantly mys- 
 terious, the aristocrats quizzed. The object of the society is 
 intimated by its title ; and the method by which its insti- 
 tutors proposed to attain this object was the periodical 
 publication of pamphlets, under the superintendence of a 
 competent committee. The first treatise appeared : its 
 subject was NONCHALANCE. It instructed its students ever 
 to appear inattentive in the society of men, and heartless 
 when they conversed with women. It taught them not to 
 understand a man if he were witty ; to misunderstand him 
 if he were eloquent ; to yawn or stare if he chanced to 
 elevate his voice, or presumed to ruffle the placidity of the 
 social calm by addressing his fellow- creatures with teeth 
 unparted. Excellence was never to be recognised, but 
 only disparaged with a look : an opinion or a sentiment, 
 and the nonchalant was lost for ever. For these, he was 
 to substitute a smile like a damp sunbeam, a moderate curl of 
 the tipper lip, and the all-speaking and perpetual shrug of 
 the shoulders. By a skilful management of these qualities 
 it was shown to be easy to ruin another's reputation and 
 ensure your own without ever opening your mouth. To 
 woman, this exquisite treatise said much in few words : 
 * Listlessness, listlessness, listlessness,' was the edict by 
 which the most beautiful works of nature were to be regu- 
 lated, who are only truly charming when they make us 
 feel and feel themselves. ' Listlessness, listlessness, list- 
 lessuess ; ' for when you choose not to be listless, the con- 
 trast is so striking that the triumph must be complete. 
 
 The treatise said much more, which I shall omit. It 
 forgot, however, to remark that this vaunted nonchalance
 
 430 POPANILLA. 
 
 may be the offspring of the most contemptible and the most 
 odious of passions : and that while ifc may be exceedingly 
 refined to appear uninterested when others are interested, 
 to witness excellence without emotion, and to listen to 
 genius without animation, the heart of the Insensible may 
 as often be inflamed by Envy as inspired by Fashion. 
 
 Dissertations ' On leaving cards,' ' On cutting intimate 
 friends,' ' On cravats,' ' On dinner courses,' ' On poor rela- 
 tions.' ' On bores,' ' On lions,' were announced as speedily 
 to appear. In the meantime, the Essay on Nonchalance 
 produced the best effects. A ci-devant stock-broker cut a 
 Duke dead at his club the day after its publication ; and 
 his daughter yawned while his Grace's eldest son, the 
 Marquess, made her an offer as she was singing ' Di tanti 
 palpiti.' The aristocrats got a little frightened, and when 
 an eminent hop-merchant and his lady had asked a dozen 
 Countesses to dinner, and forgot to be at home to receive 
 them, the old class left off quizzing. 
 
 The pamphlets, however, continued issuing forth, and 
 the new people advanced at a rate which was awful. They 
 actually began to originate some ideas of their own, and 
 there was a whisper among the leaders of voting the aris- 
 tocrats old-fashioned. The Diffusion Society now caused 
 these exalted personages great anxiety and uneasiness. 
 They argued that Fashion was a relative quality ; that it 
 was quite impossible, and not to be expected, that all people 
 were to aspire to be fashionable ; that it was not in the 
 nature of things, and that, if it were, society could not 
 exist ; that the more their imitators advanced the more 
 they should baffle their imitations ; that a first and fashion- 
 able class was a necessary consequence of the organisation 
 of man ; and that a line of demarcation would for ever be 
 drawn between them and the other islanders. The warmth 
 and eagerness with which they maintained and promul- 
 gated their opinions might have tempted, however, an 
 impartial person to suspect that they secretly entertained 
 some doubts of their truth and soundness. 
 
 On the other hand, the other party maintained that
 
 POPANILLA. 431 
 
 Fashion was a positive quality ; that the moment a person 
 obtained a certain degree of refinement he or she became, 
 in fact and essentially, fashionable ; that the views of the 
 old class were unphilosophical and illiberal, and unworthy 
 of an enlightened age ; that men are equal, and that every- 
 thing is open to everybody ; and that when we take into 
 consideration the nature of man, the origin of society, 
 and a few other things, and duly consider the constant 
 inclination and progression towards perfection which man- 
 kind evince, there was no reason why, in the coarse of 
 time, the whole nation should not go to Almack's on the 
 same night. 
 
 At this moment of doubt and dispute the Government 
 of Vraibleusia, with that spirit of conciliation and liberality 
 and that perfect wisdom for which it had been long cele- 
 brated, caring very little for the old class, whose interest, 
 it well knew, was to support it, and being exceedingly 
 desirous of engaging the affections of the new race, 
 declared in their favour ; and acting upon that sublime 
 scale of measures for which this great nation has always 
 been so famous, the Statue issued an edict that a new lite- 
 rature should be invented, in order at once to complete the 
 education of the Millionaires and the triumph of the 
 Romantic over the Classic School of Manners. 
 
 The most eminent writers were, as usual, in the pay of 
 the Government, and BURLINGTON, A TALE OF FASHIONABLE 
 LIFE, in three volumes post octavo, was sent forth. Two 
 or three similar works, bearing titles equally euphonious 
 and aristocratic, were published daily ; and so exquisite 
 was the style of these productions, so naturally arti- 
 ficial the construction of their plots, and so admirably 
 inventive the conception of their characters, that many 
 who had been repulsed by the somewhat abstract matter 
 and arid style of the treatises, seduced by the interest of a 
 story, and by the dazzling delicacies of a charming style, 
 really now picked up a considerable quantity of very useful 
 knowledge ; so that when the delighted students had eaten 
 some fifty or sixty imaginary dinners in my lord's dining-
 
 432 POPANILLA. 
 
 room, and whirled some fifty or sixty imaginary waltzes in 
 my lady's dancing- room, there was scarcely a brute left 
 among the whole Millionaires. Bat what produced the 
 most beneficial effects on the new people, and excited the 
 greatest indignation and despair among the old class, were 
 some volumes which the Government, with shocking 
 Machiavelism, bribed some needy scions of nobility to 
 scribble, and which revealed certain secrets vainly believed 
 to be quite sacred and inviolable. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 SHORTLY after the sailing of the great fleet the Private 
 Secretary engaged in a speculation which was rather more 
 successful than any one contained in his pamphlet on ' The 
 Present State of the Western Republics.' 
 
 One morning, as he and Popanilla were walking on a 
 quay, and deliberating on the clauses of the projected com- 
 mercial treaty between Vraibleusia and Fantaisie, the 
 Secretary suddenly stopped, as if he had seen his father's 
 ghost or lost the thread of his argument, and asked Popa- 
 nilla, with an air of suppressed agitation, whether lie 
 observed anything in the distance. Popanilla, who, like all 
 savages, was long-sighted, applying to his eye the glass 
 which, in conformity to the custom of the country, he 
 always wore round his neck, confessed that he saw nothing. 
 The Secretary, who had never unfixed his glass nor moved 
 a step since he asked the question, at length, by pointing 
 with his finger, attracted Popanilla' s attention to what his 
 Excellency conceived to be a porpoise bobbing up and down 
 in the waves. The Secretary, however, was not of the 
 same opinion as the Ambassador. He was not very com- 
 municative, indeed, as to his own opinion upon this grave 
 subject, but he talked of making farther observations when 
 the tide went down ; and was so listless, abstracted, and 
 absent, during the rest of their conversation, that it soon 
 ceased, and they speedily parted.
 
 POPANILLA. 433 
 
 The next day, when Popanilla read the morning papers, 
 a feat which he regularly performed, for spelling the news- 
 paper was quite delicious to one who had so recently 
 learned to read, he found that they spoke of nothing but 
 of the discovery of a new island, information of which had 
 been received by the Government only the preceding night. 
 The Fantaisian Ambassador turned quite pale, and for the 
 first time in his life experienced the passion of jealousy, 
 the green-eyed monster, so called from only being experi- 
 enced by green-horns. Already the prominent state he 
 represented seemed to retire to the background. He did 
 not doubt that the Yraibleusians were the most capricious 
 as well as the most commercial nation in the world. His 
 reign was evidently over. The new island would send 
 forth a Prince still more popular. His allowance of pink 
 shells would be gradually reduced, and finally withdrawn. 
 His doubts, also, as to the success of the recent expedition 
 to Fantaisie began to revive. His rising reminiscences of 
 his native land, which, with the joint assistance of popu- 
 larity and philosophy, he had hitherto succeeded in stifling, 
 were indeed awkward. He could not conceive his mistress 
 with a page and a poodle. He feared much that the cargo 
 was not well assorted. Popanilla determined to enquire 
 after his canoe. 
 
 His courage, however, was greatly reassured when, on 
 reading the second edition, he learned that the new island 
 was not of considerable size, though most eligibly situate ; 
 and, moreover, that it was perfectly void of inhabitants. 
 When the third edition was published he found, to his 
 surprise, that the Private Secretary was the discoverer of 
 this opposition island. This puzzled the Plenipotentiary 
 greatly. He read on ; he found that this acquisition, upon 
 which all Vraibleusia was congratulated in such glowing 
 terms by all its journals, actually produced nothing. His 
 Excellency began to breathe ; another paragraph, and he 
 found that the rival island was, a rock ! He remembered 
 the porpoise of yesterday. The island certainly could not 
 be very large, even at low water. Popanilla once more 
 
 F F
 
 434 POPANILLA. 
 
 felt like a Prince : lie defied all the discoverers tliat could 
 ever exist. He thought of the great resources of the great 
 country he represented with proud satisfaction. He waited 
 with easy confidence the return of the fleet which had 
 carried out the most judicious assortment with which he 
 had ever been acquainted to the readiest market of which 
 lie had any knowledge. He had no doubt his mistress 
 would look most charmingly in a barege. Popanilla 
 determined to present his canoe to the National Museum. 
 
 Although his Excellency had existed in the highest state 
 of astonishment during his whole mission to Vraibleusia, it 
 must be confessed, now that he understood his companion's 
 question of yesterday, he particularly stared. His wonder 
 was not decreased in the evening, when the ' Government 
 Gazette ' appeared. It contained an order for the imme- 
 diate fortification of the new island by the most skilful 
 engineers, without estimates. A strong garrison was in- 
 stantly embarked. A Governor, and a Deputy-Governor, 
 and Storekeepers, more plentiful than stores, were to ac- 
 company them. The Private Secretary went out as Presi- 
 dent of Council. A Bishop was promised ; and a complete 
 Court of Judicature, Chancery, King's Bench, Common 
 Pleas, and Exchequer, were to be off the next week. It is 
 only due to the characters of courtiers, who are so often 
 reproached. with ingratitude to their patrons, to record 
 that the Private Secretary, in the most delicate manner, 
 placed at the disposal of his former employer, the Marquess 
 Moustache, the important office of Agent for the Indemnity 
 Claims of the original Inhabitants of the Island ; the post 
 being a sinecure, the income being considerable, and local 
 attendance being unnecessary, the noble Lord, in a manner 
 equally delicate, appointed himself. 
 
 ' Upon what system,' one day enquired that unwearied 
 political student, the Fantaisian Ambassador, of his old 
 friend Skindeep, ' does your Government surround a small 
 rock in the middle of the sea with fortifications, and cram 
 it full of clerks, soldiers, lawyers, and priests ? ' 
 
 ' Why, really, your Excellency, I am the last man in the
 
 POPANILLA. 435 
 
 world to answer questions ; but I believe we call it THE 
 COLONIAL SYSTEM ! ' 
 
 Before the President, and Governor, and Deputy- Go- 
 vernor, and Storekeepers had embarked, the Vraibleusian 
 journals, who thought that the public had been satiated 
 with congratulations on the Colonial System, detected that 
 the present colony was a job. Their reasoning was so con- 
 vincing, and their denunciations so impressive, that the 
 Managers got frightened, and cut off one of the Deputy- 
 Storekeepers. The President of Council now got more 
 frightened than the Managers. He was one of those men 
 who think that the world can be saved by writing a pam- 
 phlet. A pamphlet accordingly appeared upon the subject 
 of the new colony. The writer showed that the debateable 
 land was the most valuable acquisition ever attained by a 
 nation famous for their acquisitions ; that there was a spring 
 of water in the middle of the rock of a remarkable fresh- 
 ness, and which was never dry except during the summer 
 and the earlier winter months ; that all our outward-bound, 
 ships would experience infinite benefit from this fresh 
 water ; that the scurvy would therefore disappear from the 
 service ; and that the naval victories which the Vraibleu- 
 sians would gain in future wars would consequently be 
 occasioned by the present colony. No one could mistake 
 the felicitous reasoning of the author of ' The Present State 
 of the Western Republics ! ' 
 
 About this time Popanilla fell ill. He lost his appetite 
 and his spirits, and his digestion was sadly disordered. His 
 friends endeavoured to console him by telling him that 
 dyspepsia was the national disease of Vraibleusia ; that its 
 connection with civil and religious liberty was indissoluble ; 
 that every man, woman, and child above fifteen in the 
 island was a martyr to it ; that it was occasioned by their 
 rapid mode of despatching their meals, which again was 
 occasioned by the little time which the most active nation 
 in the world could afford to bestow upon such a losing 
 business as eating. 
 
 All this was no consolation to a man who had lost his 
 
 F F 2
 
 436 POPANILLA. 
 
 appetite ; and so Popanilla sent for a gentleman who, he 
 was told, was the most eminent physician in the island. 
 The most eminent physician, when he arrived, would not 
 listen to a single syllable that his patient wished to address 
 to him. He told Popanilla that his disorder was 'de- 
 cidedly liver ; ' that it was occasioned by his eating his 
 meat before his bread instead of after it, and drinking at 
 the end of the first course instead of the beginning of the 
 second ; that he had only to correct these ruinous habits, 
 and that he would then regain his tone. 
 
 Popanilla observed the instructions of the eminent phy- 
 sician to the very letter. He invariably eat his bread before 
 his meat, and watched the placing of the first dish of the 
 second course upon the table ere he ventured to refresh 
 himself with any liquid. At the end of a week he was 
 infinitely worse. 
 
 He now called in a gentleman who was recommended to 
 him as the most celebrated practitioner in all Yraibleusia. 
 The most celebrated practitioner listened with great atten- 
 tion to every particular that his patient had to state, but 
 never condescended to open his own mouth. Popanilla was 
 delighted, and revenged himself for the irritability of the 
 eminent physician. After two more visits, the most cele- 
 brajbed practitioner told Popanilla that his disorder was 
 ' unquestionably nervous ; ' that he had over-excited himself 
 by talking too much ; that in future he must count five 
 between each word he uttered, never ask any questions, 
 and avoid society ; that is, never stay at an evening party 
 on any consideration later than twenty-two minutes past 
 two, and never be induced by any persuasion to dine out 
 more than once on the same day. The most celebrated 
 practitioner added that he had only to observe these regu- 
 lations, and that he would speedily recover his energy. 
 
 Popanilla never asked a question for a whole week, and 
 Skindeep never knew him more delightful. He not only 
 counted five, but ten, between every word he uttered ; and 
 determining that his cure should not be delayed, whenever 
 he had nobody to speak to he continued counting. In a
 
 POPANILLA. 437 
 
 few days this solitary computation brought on a slow 
 fever. 
 
 He now determined to have a consultation between the 
 most eminent physician and the most celebrated practi- 
 tioner. It was delightful to witness the meeting of these 
 great men. Not a shade of jealousy dimmed the sunshine 
 of their countenances. After a consultation, they agreed 
 that Popanilla's disorder was neither ' liver,' nor ' nervous,' 
 but ' mind : ' that he had done too much ; that he had over- 
 worked his brain ; that he must take more exercise ; that 
 he must breathe more air ; that he must have relaxation ; 
 that he must have change of scene. 
 
 ' Where shall I go ? ' was the first question which Po- 
 panilla had sent forth for a fortnight, and it was addressed 
 to Skindeep. 
 
 ' Really, your Excellency, I am the last man in the world 
 to answer questions ; but the place which is generally fre- 
 quented by us when we are suffering from your complaint 
 is Blunderland.' 
 
 ' Well, then, to Blunderland let us go ! ' 
 
 Shortly before Popanilla's illness he had been elected a 
 member of the Vraibleusian Horticultural Society, and one 
 evening he had endeavoured to amuse himself by reading 
 the following CHAPTER ON FKUIT. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THAT a taste for fruit is inherent in man is an opinion 
 which is sanctioned by the conduct of man in all ages and 
 in all countries. While some nations have considered it 
 profanation or pollution to nourish themselves with flesh 
 or solace themselves with fish, while almost every member 
 of the animal creation has in turn been considered either 
 sacred or unclean, mankind, in all climes and in all coun- 
 tries, the Hindoo and the Hebrew, the Egyptian and the 
 Greek, the Roman and the Frank, have, in some degree, 
 made good their boastful claim to reason, by universally
 
 438 POPANILLA. 
 
 feeding upon those delightful productions of Nature which 
 are nourished with the dews of heaven, and which live for 
 ever in its breath. 
 
 And, indeed, when we consider how exceedingly refresh- 
 ing at all times is the flavour of fruit ; how very natural, 
 and, in a manner, born in him, is man's inclination for it ; 
 how little it is calculated to pall upon his senses ; and how 
 conducive, when not eaten to excess, it is to his health, as 
 well as to his pleasure ; we must not be surprised that a 
 conviction of its excellence should have been one of those 
 few subjects on which men have never disagreed. 
 
 That some countries are more favoured in their fruit than 
 others is a fact so notorious that its notice is unnecessary ; 
 but we are not therefore to suppose that their appetite for 
 it is more keen than the appetite of other nations for their 
 fruit who live in less genial climes. Indeed, if we were 
 not led to believe that all nations are inspired by an equal 
 love for this production, it might occasionally be suspected 
 that some of those nations who are least skilful as horticul- 
 turists evince a greater passion for their inferior growths 
 than more fortunate people for their choicer produce. The 
 effects of bad fruit, however, upon the constitution, and 
 consequently upon the national character, are so injurious 
 that every liberal man must regret that any people, either 
 from ignorance or obligation, should be forced to have re- 
 course to anything so fatal, and must feel that it is the 
 duty of everyone who professes to be a philanthropist to 
 propagate and encourage a taste for good fruit throughout 
 all countries of the globe. 
 
 A vast number of centuries before Popanilla had the for- 
 tune to lose his mistress's lock of hair, and consequently to 
 become an ambassador to Vraibleusia, the inhabitants of 
 that island, then scarcely more civilised than their new 
 allies of Fantaisie were at present, suffered very consider- 
 ably from the trash which they devoured, from that innate 
 taste for fruit already noticed. In fact, although there 
 are antiquaries who pretend that the Vraibleusians pos- 
 sessed some of the species of wild plums and apples even
 
 POPANILLA. 439 
 
 at that early pei'iod, the majority of enquirers are disposed 
 to believe that their desserts were solely confined to the 
 wildest berries, horse-chestnuts, and acorns. 
 
 A tradition runs, that while they were committing these 
 abominations a ship, one of the first ships that had ever 
 touched at the island, arrived at the present port of Hub- 
 babub, then a spacious and shipless bay. The master of 
 the vessel, on being brought before the King (for the story 
 I am recording happened long before the construction of 
 the miraculous Statue), presented, with his right hand, to 
 his Majesty, a small pyramidal substance of a golden hue, 
 which seemed to spring out of green and purple leaves. 
 His Majesty did not exactly understand the intention of 
 this ceremony ; but of course, like a true legitimate, con- 
 strued it into a symbol of homage. No sooner had the 
 King brought the unknown substance near to his eyes, with 
 the intention of scrutinising its nature, than the fragrance 
 was so delightful that by mistake he applied it to his 
 mouth. The King only took one mouthful, and then, with 
 a cry of rapture, instantly handed the delicacy to his 
 favourite, who, to the great mortification of the Secretary 
 of State, finished it. The stranger, however, immediately 
 supplied the surrounding courtiers from a basket which 
 was slung on his left arm ; and no sooner had they all tasted 
 his gift than they fell upon their knees to worship him, 
 vowing that the distributor of such delight must be more 
 than man. If this avowal lie considered absurd and extra- 
 ordinary in this present age of philosophy, we must not 
 forget to make due allowance for the palates of individuals 
 who, having been so long accustomed merely to horse- 
 chestnuts and acorns, suddenly, for the first time in their 
 lives, tasted Pine -apple. 
 
 The stranger, with an air of great humility, disclaimed 
 their proffered adoration, and told them that, far from being 
 superior to common mortals, he was, on the contrary, one 
 of the lowliest of the human race ; in fact, he did not wish 
 to conceal it ; in spite of his vessel and his attendants, he 
 was merely a market-gardener on a great scale. This
 
 440 POPANILLA. 
 
 beautiful fruit he had recently discovered in the East, to 
 which quarter of the world he annually travelled in order 
 to obtain a sufficient quantity to supply the great Western 
 hemisphere, of which he himself was a native. Accident 
 had driven him, with one of his ships, into the Island of 
 Vraibleusia ; and, as the islanders appeared to be pleased 
 with his cargo, he said that he should have great pleasure 
 in supplying them at present and receiving their orders for 
 the future. 
 
 The proposition was greeted with enthusiasm. The King 
 immediately entered into a contract with the market-gar- 
 dener on his own terms. The sale, or cultivation, or even 
 the eating of all other fruits was declared high-treason, 
 and pine-apple, for weighty reasons duly recited in the 
 royal proclamation, announced as the established fruit of 
 the realm. The cargo, under the superintendence of some 
 of the most trusty of the crew, was unshipped for the im- 
 mediate supply of the island ; and the merchant and his 
 customers parted, mutually delighted and mutually profited. 
 
 Time flew on. The civilisation of Vraibleusia was pro- 
 gressive, as civilisation always is ; and the taste for pine- 
 apples ever on the increase, as the taste for pine-apples 
 ever should be. The supply was regular and excellent, 
 the prices reasonable, and the tradesmen civil. They, of 
 course, had not failed to advance in fair proportion with 
 the national prosperity. Their numbers had much in- 
 creased as well as their customers. Fresh agents arrived 
 with every fresh cargo. They had long quitted the stalls 
 with which they had been contented on their first settle- 
 ment in the island, and now were the dapper owners of 
 neat depots in all parts of the kingdom where depots could 
 find customers. 
 
 A few more centuries, and affairs began to change. All 
 that I have related as matter of fact, and which certainly 
 is not better authenticated than many other things that 
 happened two or three thousand years ago, which, how- 
 ever, the most sceptical will not presume to maintain did 
 not take place, was treated as the most idle and ridiculous 
 fable by the dealers in pine-apples themselves. They said
 
 POPANILLA. 441 
 
 that they knew nothing about a market-gardener ; that 
 they were, and had always been, the subjects of the greatest 
 Prince in the world, compared with whom all other 
 crowned heads ranked merely as subjects did with their 
 immediate sovereigns. This Prince, they said, lived in the 
 most delicious region in the world, and the fruit which 
 they imported could only be procured from his private 
 gardens, where it sprang from one of the trees that had 
 bloomed in the gardens of the Hesperides. The Vrai- 
 bleusians were at first a little surprised at this information, 
 but the old tradition of the market-gardener was certainly 
 an improbable one ; and the excellence of the fruit and the 
 importance assumed by those who supplied it were deemed 
 exceedingly good evidence of the truth of the present story. 
 When the dealers had repeated their new tale for a certain 
 number of years, there was not an individual in the island 
 who in the slightest degree suspected its veracity. One 
 more century, and no person had ever heard that any sus- 
 picions had ever existed. 
 
 The immediate agents of the Prince of the World could, 
 of course, be no common personages ; and the servants of 
 the gardener, who some centuries before had meekly dis- 
 claimed the proffered reverence of his delighted customers, 
 now insisted upon constant adoration from every eater of 
 pine-apples in the island. In spite, however, of the arro- 
 gance of the dealers, of their refusal to be responsible to 
 the laws of the country in which they lived, and of the 
 universal precedence which, on all occasions, was claimed 
 even by the shop-boys, so decided was the taste which the 
 Vraibleusians had acquired for pine-apples that there is 
 little doubt that, had the dealers in this delicious fruit been 
 contented with the respect and influence and profit which 
 were the consequences of their vocation, the Vraibleusians 
 would never have presumed to have grumbled at their 
 arrogance or to have questioned their privileges. But the 
 agents, wearied of the limited sphere to which their exer- 
 tions were confined, and encouraged by the success which 
 every new claim and pretence on their part invariably
 
 442 POPANILLA. 
 
 experienced, began to evince an inclination to interfere in 
 other affairs besides those of fruit, and even expressed 
 their willingness to undertake no less an office than the 
 management of the Statue. 
 
 A ceutury or two were solely occupied by conflicts occa- 
 sioned by the unreasonable ambition of these dealers in 
 pine-apples. Such great political effects could be produced 
 by men apparently so unconnected with politics as market- 
 gardeners ! Ever supported by the lower ranks, whom 
 they supplied with fruit of the most exquisite flavour with- 
 out charge, they were, for a long time, often the successful 
 opponents, always the formidable adversaries, of the Vrai- 
 bleusian aristocracy, who were the objects of their envy 
 and the victims of their rapaciousness. The Government 
 at last, by a vigorous effort, triumphed. In spite of the 
 wishes of the majority of the nation, the whole of the 
 dealers were one day expelled the island, and the Managers 
 of the Statue immediately took possession of their establish- 
 ments. 
 
 By distributing the stock of fruit which was on hand 
 liberally, the Government, for a short time, reconciled the 
 people to the change ; but as their warehouses became daily 
 less furnished they were daily reminded that, unless some 
 system were soon adopted, the Islanders must be deprived 
 of a luxury to which they had been so long accustomed 
 that its indulgence had, in fact, become a second nature. 
 No one of the managers had the hardihood to propose a 
 recurrence to horse-chestnuts. Pride and fear alike forbade 
 a return to their old purveyor. Other fruits there were 
 which, in spite of the contract with the market-gardener, 
 had at various times been secretly introduced into the 
 island ; but they had never greatly flourished, and the 
 Statue was loth to recommend to the notice of his subjects 
 productions an indulgence in which, through the instiga- 
 tion of the recently-expelled agents, it had so often de- 
 nounced as detrimental to the health, and had so often 
 discouraged by the severest punishments. 
 
 At this difficult and delicate crisis, when even expedients
 
 POPANILLA. 443 
 
 seemed exhausted and statesmen were at fault, the genius 
 of an individual offered a substitute. An inventive mind 
 discovered the power of propagating suckers. The expelled 
 dealers had either been ignorant of this power, or had con- 
 cealed their knowledge of it. They ever maintained that it 
 was impossible for pine-apples to grow except in one spot, 
 and that the whole earth must be supplied from the gardens 
 of the palace of the Prince of the World. Now, the Vrai- 
 bleusians were flattered with the patriotic fancy of eating 
 pine-apples of a home-growth ; and the blessed fortune of 
 that nation, which did not depend for their supply of fruit 
 upon a foreign country, was eagerly expatiated on. Secure 
 from extortion and independent of caprice, the Vraibleu- 
 sians were no longer to be insulted by the presence of 
 foreigners ; who, while they violated their laws with im- 
 punity, referred the Vraibleusians, when injured and com- 
 plaining, to a foreign master. 
 
 No doubt this appeal to the patriotism, and the common 
 sense, and the vanity of the nation would have been suc- 
 cessful had not the produce of the suckers been both 
 inferior in size and deficient in flavour. The Vraibleusians 
 tasted and shook their heads. The supply, too, was as 
 imperfect as the article ; for the Government gardeners 
 were but sorry horticulturists, and were ever making 
 experiments and alterations in their modes of culture. The 
 article was scarce, though the law had decreed it universal; 
 and the Vraibleusians were obliged to feed upon fruit which 
 they considered at the same time both poor and expensive. 
 They protested as strongly against the present system as 
 its promulgators had protested against the former one, 
 and they revenged themselves for their grievances by break- 
 ing the shop-windows. 
 
 As any result was preferable, in the view of the Statue, 
 to the re-introduction of foreign fruit and foreign agents, 
 and as the Managers considered it highly important that 
 an indissoluble connection should in future exist between 
 the Government and so influential and profitable a branch 
 of trade, they determined to adopt the most vigorous mea-
 
 444 POPANILLA. 
 
 sures to infuse a taste for suckers in the discontented popu- 
 lace. But the eating of fruit being clearly a matter of 
 taste, it is evidently a habit which should rather be 
 encouraged by a plentiful supply of exquisite produce than 
 enforced by the introduction of burning and bayonets. The 
 consequences of the strong measures of the Government 
 were universal discontent and partial rebellion. The 
 Islanders, foolishly ascribing the miseries which they en- 
 dured, not so much to the folly of the Government as to 
 the particular fruit through which the dissensions had 
 originated, began to entertain a disgust for pine-apples 
 altogether, and to sicken at the very mention of that 
 production which had once occasioned them so much 
 pleasure, and which had once commanded such decided 
 admiration. They universally agreed that there were many 
 other fruits in the world besides Pine-apple which had 
 been too long neglected. One dilated on the rich flavour 
 of Melon ; another panegyrised Pumpkin, and offered to 
 make up by quantity for any slight deficiency in gout ; 
 Cherries were not without their advocates ; Strawberries 
 were not forgotten. One maintained that the Fig had 
 been pointed out for the established fruit of all countries ; 
 while another asked, with a reeling eye, whether they need 
 go far to seek when a God had condescended to preside 
 over the Grape ! In short, there was not a fruit which 
 flourishes that did not find its votaries. Strange to say, 
 another foreign product, imported from a neighbouring 
 country famous for its barrenness, counted the most ; and 
 the fruit faction which chiefly frightened the Vraibleusian 
 Government was an acid set, who crammed themselves 
 with Crab-apples. 
 
 It was this party which first seriously and practically 
 conceived the idea of utterly abolishing the ancient custom 
 of eating pine-apples. While they themselves professed to 
 devour no other fruit save crabs, they at the same time 
 preached the doctrine of an universal fruit toleration, which 
 they showed would be the necessary and natural conse- 
 quence of the destruction of the old monopoly. Influenced
 
 POPANILLA. 445 
 
 by these representations, the great body of the people 
 openly joined the Crab-apple men in their open attacks. 
 The minority, who still retained a taste for pines, did 
 not yield without an arduous though ineffectual struggle. 
 During the riots occasioned by this rebellion the Hall of 
 Audience was broken open, and the miraculous Statue, 
 which was reputed to have a great passion for pine-apples, 
 dashed to the ground. The Managers were either slain or 
 disappeared. The whole affairs of the kingdom were con- 
 ducted by a body called ' the Fruit Committee ; ' and thus 
 a total revolution of the Government of Vraibleusia was 
 occasioned by the prohibition of foreign pine-apples. What 
 an argument in favour of free-trade ! 
 
 Every fruit, except that one which had so recently been 
 supported by the influence of authority and the terrors of 
 law, might now be seen and devoured in the streets of 
 Hubbabub. In one corner men were sucking oranges, as if 
 they had lived their whole lives on salt : in another, stuffing 
 pumpkin, like cannibals at their first child. Here one 
 took in at a mouthful a bunch of grapes, from which might 
 have been pressed a good quart. Another was lying on 
 the ground from a surfeit of mulberries. The effect of this 
 irrational excess will be conceived by the judicious reader. 
 Calcutta itself never suffered from a cholera morbus half so 
 fearful. Thousands were dying. "Were I Thucydides or 
 Boccaccio, I would write pages on this plague. The com- 
 monwealth itself must soon have yielded its ghost, for all 
 order had ceased throughout the island ever since they 
 had deserted pine-apples. There was no Government : 
 anarchy alone was perfect. Of the Fruit Committee, many 
 of the members were dead or dying, and the rest were 
 robbing orchards. 
 
 At this moment of disorganisation and dismay a stout 
 soldier, one of the crab-apple faction,who had possessed suffi- 
 cient command over himself, in spite of the seeming voracity 
 of his appetite, not to indulge to a dangerous excess, 
 made his way one morning into the old Hall of Audience, 
 and there, groping about, succeeded in finding the golden
 
 446 POPANILLA. 
 
 head of the Statue ; which placing on the hilt of his sword, 
 the point of which he had stuck in the pedestal, he an- 
 nounced to the city that he had discovered the secret of 
 conversing with this wonderful piece of mechanism, and 
 that in future he would take care of the health and fortune 
 of the State. 
 
 There were some who thought it rather strange that the 
 head-piece should possess the power of resuming its old 
 functions, although deprived of the aid of the body which 
 contained the greater portion of the machinery. As it was 
 evidently well supported by the sword, they were not 
 surprised that it should stand without the use of its legs. 
 But the stout soldier was the only one in the island who 
 enjoyed the blessing of health. He was fresh, vigorous, 
 and vigilant ; they, exhausted, weak, and careless of every- 
 thing except cure. He soon took measures for the pre- 
 vention of future mischief and for the cure of the present ; 
 and when his fellow-islanders had recovered, some were 
 grateful, others fearful, and all obedient. 
 
 So long as the stout soldier lived no dissensions on the 
 subject of fruit ever broke out. Although he himself never 
 interfered in the sale of the article, and never attempted to 
 create another monopoly, still, by his influence and autho- 
 rity, he prevented any excess being occasioned by the Fruit 
 toleration which was enjoyed. Indeed, the Vraibleusians 
 themselves had suffered so severely from their late indis- 
 cretions that such excesses were not likely again to occur. 
 People began to discover that it was not quite so easy a 
 thing as they had imagined for every man to be his own 
 Fruiterer ; and that gardening was a craft which, like 
 others, required great study, long practice, and early ex- 
 perience. Unable to supply themselves, the majority be- 
 came the victims of quack traders. They sickened of spongy 
 apricots, and foxy pears, and withered plums, and blighted 
 apples, and tasteless berries. They at length suspected 
 that a nation might fare better if its race of fruiterers were 
 overseen and supported by the State, if their skill and their 
 market were alike secured. Although, no longer being
 
 POPANILLA. 447 
 
 tempted to suffer from a surfeit, the health of the Islanders 
 had consequently recovered, this was, after all, but a 
 negative blessing, and they sadly missed a luxury once so 
 reasonable and so refreshing. They sighed for an estab- 
 lished fruit and a protected race of cultivators. Bat the 
 stout soldier was so sworn an enemy to any Government 
 Fruit, and so decided an admirer of the least delightful, 
 that the people, having no desire of being forced to eat 
 crab-apples, only longed for more delicious food in silence. 
 
 At length the stout soldier died, and on the night of his 
 death the sword which had so long supported the pre- 
 tended Government snapped in twain. No arrangement 
 existed for carrying on the administration of affairs. The 
 master-mind was gone, without having imparted the secret 
 of conversing with the golden head to any successor. The 
 people assembled in agitated crowds. Each knew his 
 neighbour's thoughts without their being declared. All 
 smacked their lips, and a cry for pine-apples rent the skies. 
 
 At this moment the Aboriginal Inhabitant appeared, and 
 announced that in examining the old Hall of Audience, 
 which had been long locked up, he had discovered in a 
 corner, where they had been flung by the stout soldier when 
 he stole away the head, the remaining portions of the Statue ; 
 that they were quite uninjured, and that on fixing the head 
 once more upon them, and winding up the works, he was 
 delighted to find that this great work of his ancestor, under 
 whose superintendence the nation had so flourished, re- 
 sumed all its ancient functions. The people were in a state 
 of mind for a miracle, and they hailed the joyful wonder 
 with shouts of triumph. The Statue was placed under the 
 provisional care of the Aboriginal. All arrangements for 
 its superintendence were left to his discretion, and its 
 advice was instantly to be taken upon that subject which at 
 present was nearest the people's hearts. 
 
 But that subject was encompassed with difficulties. Pine- 
 apples could only be again procured by an application to 
 the Prince of the World, whose connection they had re- 
 jected, and by an introduction into the island of thoo
 
 448 POPANILLA. 
 
 foreign agents, who, now convinced that the Vraibleusians 
 could not exist without their presence, would be more arro- 
 gant and ambitious and turbulent than ever. Indeed, the 
 Aboriginal feared that the management of the Statue would 
 be the sine qua non of negotiation with the Prince. If this 
 were granted, it was clear that Vraibleusia must in future 
 only rank as a dependent state of a foreign power, since 
 the direction of the whole island would actually be at the 
 will of the supplier of pine-apples. Ah ! this mysterious 
 taste for fruit ! In politics it has often occasioned infinite 
 embarrassment. 
 
 At this critical moment the Aboriginal received informa- 
 tion that, although the eating of pine-apples had been 
 utterly abolished, and although it was generally supposed 
 that a specimen of this fruit had long ceased to exist in the 
 country, nevertheless a body of persons, chiefly consisting 
 of the descendants of the Government gardeners who had 
 succeeded the foreign agents, and who had never lost their 
 taste for this pre-eminent fruit, had long been in the habit 
 of secretly raising, for their private eating, pine-apples from 
 the produce of those suckers which had originally excited 
 such odium and occasioned such misfortunes. Long prac- 
 tice, they said, and infinite study, had so perfected them in 
 this art that they now succeeded in producing pine-apples 
 which, both for size and flavour, were not inferior to the 
 boasted produce of a foreign clime. Their specimens veri- 
 fied their assertion, and the whole nation were invited to 
 an instant trial. The long interval which had elapsed since 
 any man had enjoyed a treat so agreeable lent, perhaps, an 
 additional flavour to that which was really excellent ; and 
 so enraptured and enthusiastic were the great majority of 
 the people that the propagators of suckers would have had 
 no difficulty, had they pushed the point, in procuring as 
 favourable and exclusive a contract as the market-gardener 
 of ancient days. 
 
 But the Aboriginal and his advisers were wisely mindful 
 that the passions of a people are not arguments for legisla- 
 tion ; and they felt conscious that when the first enthusiasm 
 had subsided, and when their appetites were somewhat
 
 POPANILLA. 441) 
 
 satisfied, the discontented voices of many who had been long 
 used to other fruits would be recognised even amidst the 
 shouts of the majority. They therefore greatly qualified the 
 contract between the nation and the present fruiterers. An 
 universal Toleration of Fruit was allowed ; but no man 
 was to take office under Government, or enter the services, 
 or in any way become connected with the Court, who was 
 not supplied from the Government depots. 
 
 Since this happy restoration Pine-apple has remained the 
 established fruit of the Island of Vraibleusia ; and, it must 
 be confessed, has been found wonderfully conducive to the 
 health and happiness of the Islanders. Some sectarians 
 still remain obstinate, or tasteless enough to prefer pump- 
 kin, or gorge the most acid apples, or chew the commonest 
 pears ; but they form a slight minority, which will gradually 
 altogether disappear. The votaries of Pine-apple pretend 
 to observe the characteristic effect which such food pro- 
 duces upon the feeders. They denounce them as stupid, 
 sour, and vulgar. 
 
 But while, notwithstanding an universal toleration, such 
 an unanimity of taste apparently prevails throughout the 
 island, as if Fruit were a subject of .such peculiar nicety 
 that difference of opinion must necessarily rise among men, 
 great Fruit factions even now prevail in Vraibleusia ; and, 
 what is more extraordinary, prevail even among the admi- 
 rers of pine-apples themselves. Of these, the most im- 
 portant is a sect which professes to discover a natural 
 deficiency not only in all other fruits, but even in the finest 
 pine-apples. Fruit, they maintain, should never be eaten 
 in the state in which Nature yields it to man ; and they 
 consequently are indefatigable in prevailing upon the less 
 discriminating part of mankind to heighten the flavour of 
 their pine-apples with ginger, or even with pepper. Al- 
 though they profess to adopt these stimulants from the 
 great admiration which they entertain for a high flavour, 
 there are, nevertheless, some less ardent people who sus- 
 pect that they rather have recourse to them from tho 
 weakness of their digestion. 
 
 G
 
 450 POPASILLA. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 As his Excellency Prince Popanilla really could not think 
 of being annoyed by the attentions of the mob during his 
 visit to Blunderland, he travelled quite in a quiet way, 
 under the name of the Chevalier de Fantaisie, and was 
 accompanied only by Skindeep and two attendants. As 
 Blunderland was one of the islands of the Vraibleusian 
 Archipelago, they arrived there after the sail of a few 
 hours. 
 
 The country was so beautiful that the Chevalier was 
 almost reminded of Fantaisie. Green meadows and nourish- 
 ing trees made him remember the railroads and canals of 
 Vraibleusia without regret, or with disgust, which is much 
 the same. The women were angelic, which is the highest 
 praise ; and the men the most light-hearted, merry, obliging, 
 entertaining fellows that he had met with in the whole 
 course of his life. Oh ! it was delicious. 
 
 After an hour's dashing drive, he arrived at a city which, 
 had he not seen Hubbabub, he should have imagined was 
 one of the most considerable in the world ; but compared 
 with the Vraibleusian capital it was a street. 
 
 Shortly after his arrival, according to the custom of the 
 place, Popanilla joined the public table of his hotel at dinner. 
 He was rather surprised that, instead of knives and forks 
 being laid for the convenience of the guests, the plates were 
 flanked by daggers and pistols. As Popanilla now made a 
 point of never asking a question of Skindeep, he addressed 
 himself for information to his other neighbour, one of the 
 civilest, most hospitable, and joyous rogues that ever set a 
 table in a roar. On Popanilla inquiring the reason of their 
 using these singular instruments, his neighbour, with an 
 air of great astonishment, confessed his ignorance of any 
 people ever using any other ; and in his turn asked how 
 they could possibly eat their dinner without. The Chevalier 
 was puzzled, but he was now too well bred ever to pursue 
 an enquiry.
 
 POPANILLA. 451 
 
 Popanilla, being thirsty, helped himself to a goblet of 
 water, which was at hand. It was the most delightful water 
 that he ever tasted. In a few minutes he found that he was 
 a little dizzy, and, supposing this megrim to be occasioned 
 by the heat of the room, he took another draught of water 
 to recover himself. 
 
 As his neighbour was telling him an excellent joke a 
 man entered the room and shot the joker through the head. 
 The opposite guest immediately charged his pistol with 
 effect, and revenged the loss. A party of men, well armed, 
 now rushed in, and a brisk conflict immediately ensued. 
 Popanilla, who was very dizzy, was fortunately pushed under 
 the table. When the firing and slashing had ceased, he 
 ventured to crawl out. He found that the assailants had 
 been beaten off, though unfortunately with the total loss of 
 all the guests, who lay lifeless about the room. Even the 
 prudent Skindeep, who had sought refuge in a closet, had 
 lost his nose, which was a pity ; because, although this gen- 
 tleman had never been in Blunderland before, he had passed 
 his whole life in maintaining that the accounts of the dis- 
 turbances in that country were greatly exaggerated. Popa- 
 nilla rang the bell, and the waiters, who were remarkably 
 attentive, swept away the dead bodies, and brought him a 
 roasted potato for supper. 
 
 The Chevalier soon retired to rest. He found at the side 
 of his bed a blunderbuss, a cutlass, and a pike ; and he was 
 directed to secure the door of his chamber with a great 
 chain and a massy iron bar. Feeling great confidence in 
 his securities, although he was quite ignorant of the cause 
 of alarm, and very much exhausted with the bustle of the 
 day, he enjoyed sounder sleep than had refreshed him for 
 many weeks. He was awakened in the middle of the night 
 by a loud knocking at his door. He immediately seized his 
 blunderbuss, but, recognising the voice of his own valet, he 
 only took his pike. His valet told him to unbar without 
 loss of time, for the house had been set on fire. Popanilla 
 immediately made his escape, but found himself surrounded 
 by the incendiaries. He gave himself Tip for lost, when a 
 
 O G 2
 
 452 POPANILLA. 
 
 sudden charge of cavalry brought him off in triumph. He 
 was convinced of the utility of light-horse. 
 
 The military had arrived with such despatch that the 
 fire was the least effective that had wakened the house for 
 the whole week. It was soon extinguished, and Popanilla 
 again retired to his bedroom, not forgetting his bar and his 
 chain. 
 
 In the morning Popanilla was roused by his landlord, 
 who told him that a large party was about to partake of the 
 pleasures of the chase, and most politely enquired whether 
 he would like to join them. Popanilla assented, and after 
 having eaten an excellent breakfast, and received a favour- 
 able bulletin of Skindeep's wound, he mounted his horse. 
 The party was numerous and well armed. Popanilla en- 
 quired of a huntsman what sport they generally followed 
 in Blunderland. According to the custom of this country, 
 where they never give a direct answer, the huntsman said 
 that he did not know that there was any other sport but 
 one. Popanilla thought him a brute, and dug his spurs 
 into his horse. 
 
 They went off at a fine rate, and the exercise was most 
 exhilarating. In a short time, as they were cantering along 
 a defile, they received a sliarp fire from each side, which 
 rather reduced their numbers ; but they revenged themselves 
 for this loss when they regained the plain, where they burnt 
 two villages, slew two or three hundred head of women, 
 and bagged children without number. On their return 
 home to dinner they chased a small body of men over a 
 heath for nearly two hours, which afforded good sport ; but 
 they did not succeed in running them down, as they them- 
 selves were in turn chased by another party. Altogether, 
 the day was not deficient in interest, and Popanilla found 
 in the evening his powers of digestion improved. 
 
 After passing his days in this manner for about a fort- 
 night, Popanilla perfectly recovered from his dyspepsia ; 
 and Skindeep's wound having now healed, he retired with 
 regret from this healthy climate. He took advantage of 
 the leisure moment which was afforded during the sail to
 
 POPANILLA. 453 
 
 enquire the reason of the disturbed state of this interesting 
 country. He was told that it was in consequence of the 
 majority of the inhabitants persisting in importing their 
 own pine-apples. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 ON his return to Hubbabub, the Chevalier de Fantaisie 
 found the city in the greatest confusion. The military were 
 marshalled in all directions ; the streets were lined with 
 field-pieces ; no one was abroad ; all the shops were 
 shut. Although not a single vehicle was visible, Popa- 
 nilla's progress was slow, from the quantity of shells of all 
 kinds which choked up the public way. When he arrived 
 at his hotel he found that all the windows were broken. 
 He entered, and his landlord immediately presented him 
 with his bill. As the landlord was pressing, and as Popa- 
 nilla wished for an opportunity of showing his confidence 
 in Skindeep's friendship, he requested him to pay the 
 amount. Skindeep sent a messenger immediately to his 
 banker, deeming an ambassador almost as good security as 
 a nation, which we all know to be the very best. 
 
 This little arrangement being concluded, the landlord 
 resumed his usual civility. He informed the travellers that 
 the whole island was in a state of the greatest commotion, 
 and that martial law universally prevailed. He said that 
 this disturbance was occasioned bythe return of the expe- 
 dition destined to the Isle of Fantaisie. It appeared, from 
 his account, that after sailing about from New Guinea to 
 New Holland, the expedition had been utterly unable not 
 only to reach their new customers, but even to obtain the 
 slightest intelligence of their locality. No such place as 
 Fantaisie was known at Ceylon. Sumatra gave informa- 
 tion equally unsatisfactory. Java shook its head. Celebes 
 conceived the enquirers were jesting. The Philippine Isles 
 offered to accommodate them with spices, but could assist 
 them in no other way. Had it not been too hot at Borneo,
 
 454 POPANILLA. 
 
 they would have fairly laughed outright. The Maldives 
 and the Moluccas, the Luccadives and the Andamans, were 
 nearly as impertinent. The five hundred ships and the 
 judiciously-assorted cargo were therefore under the neces- 
 sity of returning home. 
 
 No sooner, however, had they reached Vraibleusia than 
 the markets were immediately glutted with the unsold 
 goods. AH the manufacturers, who had been working day 
 and night in preparing for the next expedition, were in- 
 stantly thrown out of employ. A run commenced on the 
 Government Bank. That institution perceived too late 
 that the issues of pink shells had been too unrestricted. 
 As the Emperor of the East had all the gold, the Govern- 
 ment Bank only protected itself from failure by bayoneting 
 its creditors. The manufacturers, who were starving, con- 
 soled themselves for the absence of food by breaking all 
 the windows in the country with the discarded shells. 
 Every tradesman failed. The shipping interest advertised 
 two or three fleets for firewood. Biots were universal. 
 The Aboriginal was attacked on all sides, and made so 
 stout a resistance, and broke so many cudgels on the backs 
 of his assailants, that it was supposed he would be finally 
 exhausted by his own exertions. The public funds sunk 
 ten per cent, daily. All the Millionaires crashed. In a 
 word, dismay, disorganisation, despair, pervaded in all di- 
 rections the wisest, the greatest, and the richest nation in 
 the world. The master of the hotel added, with an air of 
 becoming embarrassment, that, had not his Excellency 
 been fortunately absent, he probably would not have had 
 the pleasure of detailing to him this little narrative ; that 
 he had often been enquired for by the populace at his old 
 balcony ; and that a crowd had perpetually surrounded the 
 house till within the last day, when a report had got about 
 that his Excellency had turned into steam and disappeared. 
 He added that caricatures of his Highness might be pro- 
 cured in any shop, and his account of his voyage obtained 
 at less than half-price.
 
 POPANILLA. 455 
 
 ' Ah ! ' said Popauilla, in a tone of great anguish, ' and 
 all this from losing a lock of hair ! ' 
 
 At this moment the messenger whom Skindeep had 
 deapatched returned, and informed him with great regret 
 that his banker, to whom he had entrusted his whole for- 
 tune, had been so unlucky as to stop payment during his 
 absence. It was expected, however, that when his stud 
 was sold a respectable dividend might be realised. This 
 was the personage of prepossessing appearance who had 
 presented Popanilla with a perpetual ticket to his picture 
 gallery. On examining the banker's accounts, it was dis- 
 covered that his chief loss had been incurred by supporting 
 that competition establishment where purses were bought 
 full of crowns. 
 
 In spite of his own misfortunes, Popanilla hastened to 
 console his friend. He explained to him that things were 
 not quite so bad as they appeared ; that society consisted of 
 two classes, those who laboured, and those who paid the 
 labourers ; that each class was equally useful, because, if 
 there were none to pay, the labourers would not be remu- 
 nerated, and if there were none to labour, the payers would 
 not be accommodated ; that Skindeep might still rank in 
 one of these classes ; that he might therefore still be a 
 useful member of society ; that, if he were useful, he must 
 therefore be good ; and that, if he were good, he must 
 therefore be happy ; because happiness is the consequence 
 of assisting the beneficial development of the ameliorating 
 principles of the social action. 
 
 As he was speaking, two gentlemen in blue, with red 
 waistcoats, entered the chamber and seized Popanilla by 
 the collar. The Vraibleusian Government, which is so 
 famous for its interpretation of National Law, had arrested 
 tiie Ambassador for high treason.
 
 456 POPANILLA. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 A PRISON conveyed the most lugubrious ideas to the 
 mind of the unhappy Plenipotentiary ; and shut up in a 
 hackney-coach, with a man on each side of him with a 
 cocked pistol, he formed the most gloomy conceptions of 
 dark dungeons, confined cells, overwhelming fetters, black 
 bread, and green water. He arrived at the principal gaol 
 in Hubbabub. He was ushered into an elegantly furnished 
 apartment, with French sash windows and a piano. Its 
 lofty walls were entirely hung with a fanciful paper, which 
 represented a Tuscan vineyard ; the ceiling was covered 
 with sky and clouds ; roses were in abundance ; and the 
 windows, though well secured, excited no jarring associa- 
 tions in the mind of the individual they illumined, pro- 
 tected, as they were, by polished bars of cut steel. This 
 retreat had been fitted up by a poetical politician, who had 
 recently been confined for declaring that the Statue was 
 an old idol originally imported from the Sandwich Isles. 
 Taking up a brilliantly bound volume which reposed 
 upon a rosewood table, Popanilla recited aloud a sonnet to 
 Liberty; but the account given of the goddess by the 
 bard was so confused, and he seemed so little acquainted 
 with his subject, that the reader began to suspect it was 
 an effusion of the gaoler. 
 
 Next to being a Plenipotentiary, Popanilla preferred 
 being a prisoner. His daily meals consisted of every deli- 
 cacy in season : a marble bath was ever at his service ; a 
 billiard-room and dumb-bells always ready ; and his old 
 friend, the most eminent physician and the most cele- 
 brated practitioner in Hubbabub, called upon him daily to 
 feel his pulse and look at his tongue. These attentions 
 authorised a hope that he might yet again be an Ambassa- 
 dor, that his native land might still be discovered, and its 
 resources still be developed : but when his gaoler told him 
 that the rest of the prisoners were treated in a manner 
 equally indulgent, because the Vraibleusians are the most
 
 POPANILLA. 457 
 
 humane people in the world, Popanilla's spirits became 
 somewhat depressed. 
 
 He was greatly consoled, however, by a daily visit from a 
 body of the most beantiful, the most accomplished, and the 
 most virtuous females in Hubbabnb, who tasted his food 
 to see that his cook did his duty, recommended him a plen- 
 tiful use of pine-apple well peppered, and made him a pre- 
 sent of a very handsome shirt, with worked frills and 
 ruffles, to be hanged in. This enchanting committee gene- 
 rally confined their attentions to murderers and other 
 victims of the passions, who were deserted in their hour 
 of need by the rest of the society they had outraged ; but 
 Popanilla, being a foreigner, a Prince, and a Plenipo- 
 tentiary, and not ill-looking, naturally attracted a great 
 deal of notice from those who desire the amelioration of 
 their species. 
 
 Popanilla was so pleased with his mode of life, and had 
 acquired such a taste for poetry, pine-apples, and pepper 
 since he had ceased to be an active member of society, that 
 he applied to have his trial postponed, on the ground of 
 the prejudice which had been excited against him by the 
 public press. As his trial was at present inconvenient to 
 the Government, the postponement was allowed on these 
 grounds. 
 
 In the meantime, the public agitation Avas subsiding. 
 The nation reconciled itself to the revolution in its for- 
 tunes. The ci-devant millionaires were busied with re- 
 trenchment ; the Government engaged in sweeping in as 
 many pink shells as were lying about the country ; the 
 mechanics contrived to live upon chalk and sea- weed ; and 
 as the Aboriginal would not give his corn away gratis, the 
 Vraibleusians determined to give up bread. The intellec- 
 tual part of the nation were intently interested in disco- 
 vering the cause of the National Distress. One of the 
 philosophers said that it might all be traced to the effects 
 of a war in which the Vraibleusians had engaged about a 
 century before. Another showed that it was altogether 
 clearly ascribable to the pernicious custom of issuing pink
 
 458 POPANILLA. 
 
 shells ; but if, instead of this mode of representing wealth, 
 they had had recourse to blue shells, the nation would 
 now have advanced to a state of prosperity which it had 
 never yet reached. A third demonstrated to the satisfaction 
 of himself and his immediate circle that it was all owing 
 to the Statue having recently been repaired Avith silver 
 instead of iron. The public were unable to decide between 
 these conflicting opinions ; but they were still more de- 
 sirous of finding out a remedy for the evil than the cause 
 of it. 
 
 An eloquent and philosophical writer, who entertains con- 
 solatory opinions of human nature, has recently told us 
 that ' it is in the nature of things that the intellectual wants 
 of society should be supplied. Whenever the man is re- 
 quired invariably the man will appear.' So it happened in 
 the present instance. A public instructor jumped up in the 
 person of Mr. Flummery Flam, the least insinuating and 
 the least plausible personage that ever performed the easy 
 task of gulling a nation. His manners were vulgar, his 
 voice was sharp, and his language almost unintelligible. 
 Flummery Flam was a provisional optimist. He maintained 
 that everything would be for the best, if the nation would 
 only follow his advice. He told the Vraibleusians that the 
 present universal and overwhelming distress was all and en- 
 tirely and merely to be ascribed to ' a slight over-trading,' and 
 that all that was required to set everything right again was 'a 
 little time.' He showed that this over-trading and every 
 other injudicious act that had ever been committed were 
 entirely to be ascribed to the nation being imbued with 
 erroneous and imperfect ideas of the nature of Demand and 
 Supply. He proved to them that if a tradesman cannot 
 find customers his goods will generally stay upon his own 
 hands. He explained to the Aboriginal the meaning of 
 rent ; to the mechanics the nature of wages ; to the manu- 
 facturers the signification of profits. He recommended that 
 a large edition of his own work should be printed at the 
 public expense and sold for his private profit. Finally, he 
 explained how immediate, though temporary, relief would
 
 POPANILLA. 459 
 
 be afforded to the State by the encouragement of EMI- 
 GRATION. 
 
 The Vraibleusians began to recover their spirits. The 
 Government had the highest confidence in Flummery Flam, 
 because Flummery Flam served to divert the public 
 thoughts. By his direction lectures were instituted at the 
 corner of every street, to instil the right principles of poli- 
 tics into the mind of the great body of the people. Every 
 person, from the Managers of the Statue down to the chalk- 
 chewing mechanics, attended lectures on Flummery- Flam- 
 mism. The Vraibleusians suddenly discovered that it was 
 the great object of a nation not to be the most powerful, or 
 the richest, or the best, or the wisest, but to be the most 
 Flummery-Flammistical. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 THE day fixed for Popanilla's trial was at hand. The Prince 
 was not unprepared for the meeting. For some weeks 
 before the appointed day lie had been deeply studying the 
 published speeches of the greatest rhetorician that flourished 
 at the Vraibleusian bar. He was so inflated with their 
 style that he nearly blew down the gaoler every morning 
 when he rehearsed a passage before him. Indeed, Popa- 
 nilla looked forward to his trial with feelings of anticipated 
 triumph. He determined boldly and fearlessly to state the 
 principles upon which his public conduct had been founded, 
 the sentiments he professed on most of the important sub- 
 jects which interest mankind, and the views he entertained 
 of the progress of society. He would then describe, in the 
 most glowing language, the domestic happiness which he 
 enjoyed in his native isle. He would paint, in harrowing 
 sentences, the eternal misery and disgrace which his igno- 
 minious execution would entail upon the grey-headed father, 
 who looked up to him. as a prop for his old age; the 
 affectionate mother, who perceived in him her husband 
 again a youth ; the devoted wife, who could never survive
 
 460 POPANILLA. 
 
 his loss ; and the sixteen children, chiefly girls, whom his 
 death would infallibly send upon the parish. This, with an 
 eulogistic peroration on the moral qualities of the Vrai- 
 bleusians and the political importance of Yraibleusia, would, 
 he had no doubt, not only save his neck, but even gain him 
 a moderate pension. 
 
 The day arrived, the Court was crowded, and Popanilla 
 had the satisfaction of observing in the newspapers that 
 tickets for the best gallery to witness his execution were 
 selling at a premium. 
 
 The indictment was read. He listened to it with intense 
 attention. To his surprise, he found himself accused of 
 stealing two hundred and nineteen Camelopards. All was 
 now explained. He perceived that he had been mistaken 
 the whole of this time for another person. He could not 
 contain himself. He burst into an exclamation. He told 
 the judge, in a voice of mingled delight, humility, and 
 triumph, that it was possible he might be guilty of high 
 treason, because he was ignorant of what the crime con- 
 sisted; but as for stealing two hundred and nineteen Came- 
 lopards, he declared that such a larceny was a moral impos- 
 sibility, because he had never seen one such animal in the 
 whole course of his life. 
 
 The judge was kind and considerate. He told the pri- 
 soner that the charge of stealing Camelopards was a fiction 
 of law; that he had no doubt he had never seen one 
 in the whole course of his life, nor in all probability had 
 any one in the whole Court. He explained to Popanilla, 
 that originally this animal greatly abounded in Vrai- 
 bleusia; that the present Court, the highest and most 
 ancient in the kingdom, had then been instituted for the 
 punishment of all those who molested or injured that 
 splendid animal. The species, his lordship continued, had 
 been long extinct ; but the Vraibleusians, duly reverencing 
 the institutions of their ancestors, had never presumed to 
 abrogate the authority of the Camelopard Court, or invest 
 any other with equal privileges. Therefore, his lordship 
 added, in order to try you in this Court for a modern
 
 POPANILLA. 461 
 
 offence of high, treason, you must first be introduced by 
 fiction of law as a stealer of Camelopards, and thl'n being 
 in prcesenti regio, in a manner, we proceed to business by a 
 special power for the absolute offence. Popanilla was so 
 confounded by the kindness of the judge and the clearness 
 of his lordship's statement that he quite lost the thread of 
 his peroration. 
 
 The trial proceeded. Everybody with whom Popanilla 
 had conversed during his visit to Vraibleusia was subpoenaed 
 against him, and the evidence was conclusive. Skindeep, 
 who was brought up by a warrant from the King's Bench, 
 proved the fact of Popanilla's landing; and that he had 
 given himself out as a political exile, the victim of a tyrant, 
 a corrupt aristocracy, and a misguided people. But, either 
 from a secret feeling towards his former friend or from his 
 aversion to answer questions, this evidence was on the 
 whole not very satisfactory. 
 
 The bookseller proved the publication of that fatal volume 
 whose deceptive and glowing statements were alone suffi- 
 cient to ensure Popanilla's fate. It was in vain that the 
 author avowed that he had never written a line of his own 
 book. This only made his imposture more evident. The 
 little philosopher with whom he had conversed at Lady 
 Spirituelle's, and who, being a friend of Flummery Flam, 
 had now obtained a place under Government, invented the 
 most condemning evidence. The Marquess of Moustache 
 sent in a state paper, desiring to be excused from giving 
 evidence, on account of the delicate situation in which he 
 had been placed with regard to the prisoner ; but he referred 
 them to his former Private Secretary, who, he had no 
 doubt, would afford every information. Accordingly, the 
 President of Fort Jobation, who had been brought over 
 specially, finished the business. 
 
 The Judge, although his family had suffered considerably 
 by the late madness for speculation, summed up in the 
 most impartial manner. He told the jury that, although 
 the case was quite clear against the prisoner, they were 
 bound to give him the advantage of every reasonable
 
 462 POPANILLA. 
 
 doubt. The foreman was about to deliver the verdict, when. 
 a trumpet sounded, and a Government messenger ran 
 breathless into Court. Presenting a scroll to the presiding 
 genius, he informed him that a remarkably able young man, 
 recently appointed one of the Managers of the Statue, in 
 consequence of the inconvenience which the public sus- 
 tained from the innumerable quantity of edicts of the 
 Statue at present in force, had last night consolidated them 
 all into this single act, which, to render its operation still 
 more simple, was gifted with a retrospective power for the 
 last half century. 
 
 His lordship, looking over the scroll, passed a high eulo- 
 gium upon the young consolidator, compared to whom, he 
 said, Justinian was a country attorney. Observing, how- 
 ever, that the crime of high treason had been accidentally 
 omitted in the consolidated legislation of Vraibleusia, he 
 directed the jury to find the prisoner ' not guilty.' As in 
 Vraibleusia the law believes every man's character to be 
 perfectly pure until a jury of twelve persons finds the re- 
 verse, Popanilla was kicked out of court, amid the hootings 
 of the mob, without a stain upon his reputation. 
 
 It was late in the evening when he left the court. Ex- 
 hausted both in mind and body, the mischief being now 
 done, and being totally unemployed, according to custom, 
 he began to moralise. ' I begin to perceive,' said he, ' that 
 it is possible for a nation to exist in too artificial a state ; 
 that a people may both think too much and do too much. 
 All here exists in a state of exaggeration. The nation itself 
 professes to be in a situation in which it is impossible for 
 any nation ever to be naturally placed. To maintain them- 
 selves in this false position, they necessarily have recourse 
 to much destructive conduct and to many fictitious prin- 
 ciples. And as the character of a people is modelled on 
 that of their Government, in private life this system of 
 exaggeration equally prevails, and equally produces a due 
 quantity of ruinous actions and false sentiment ! In the 
 meantime, I am starving, and dare not show my face in the 
 light, of day!'
 
 POPANILLA. 463 
 
 As lie said this the house opposite was suddenly Jit up, 
 and the words ' EMIGRATION COMMITTEE ' were distinctly visible 
 on a transparent blind. A sudden resolution entered Popa- 
 nilla's mind to make an application to this body. He 
 entered the Committee-room, and took his place at the end 
 of a row of individuals, who were severally examined. 
 When it was his turn to come forward he began to tell his 
 story from the beginning, and would certainly have got to 
 the lock of hair had not the President enjoined silence. 
 Popanilla was informed that the last Emigration-squadron 
 was about to sail in a few minutes ; and that, although the 
 number was completed, his broad shoulders and powerful 
 frame had gained him a place. He was presented with a 
 spade, a blanket, and a hard biscuit, and in a quarter of an 
 hour was quitting the port of Hubbabub. 
 
 Once more upon the waters, yet once more ! 
 
 As the Emigration-squadron quitted the harbour two 
 large fleets hove in sight. The first was the expedition 
 which had been despatched against the decapitating King 
 of the North, and which now returned heavily laden with 
 his rescued subjects. The other was the force which had 
 flown to the preservation of the body of the decapitated 
 King of the South, and which now brought back his 
 Majesty embalmed, some Princes of the blood, and an 
 emigrant Aristocracy. 
 
 What became of the late Fantaisian Ambassador ; whether 
 he were destined for Van Diemen's Land or for Canada ; 
 what rare adventures he experienced in Sydney, or Port 
 Jackson, or Guelph City, or Goodrich Town ; and whether 
 he discovered that man might exist in too natural a state, 
 as well as in too artificial a one, will probably be discovered, 
 if over we obtain Captain Popanilla' s Second Voyage. 
 
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