⁂Thomas Moore has made this the subject of a poetical tale, in his _Lalla Rookh_ (“The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan,” 1817). There, on that throne, ... sat the prophet-chief, The great Mokanna. O’er his features hung The veil, the silver veil, which he had flung In mercy there, to hide from mortal sight His dazzling brow, till man could bear its light. * * * * * * * * * “’Tis time these features were uncurtained, This brow whose light--oh, rare celestial light!-- Hath been reserved to bless thy favored sight ... Turn now and look; then wonder, if thou wilt, That I should hate, should take revenge by guilt, Upon the hand whose mischief or whose mirth Sent me thus maimed and monstrous upon earth ... Here--judge if hell, with all its power to damn, Can add one curse to the foul thing I am!” He raised the veil; the maid turned slowly round, Looked at him, shrieked, and sunk upon the ground. _The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan._ =Velasquez=, the Spanish governor of Portugal in 1640, when the people, led by Don Juan, duke of Braganza, rose in rebellion, shook off the Spanish yoke, and established the duke on the throne, under the name and title of Juan or John IV. The same dynasty still continues. Velasquez was torn to pieces by the mob. The duchess calls him a Discerning villain, Subtle, insidious, false, and plausible; He can with ease assume all outward forms ... While with the lynx’s beam he penetrates The deep reserve of every other breast. R. Jephson, _Braganza_, ii. 2 (1785). =Velinspeck=, a country manager, to whom Matthew Stuffy makes application for the post of prompter.--Charles Mathews, _At Home_ (1818). =Vellum=, in Addison’s comedy, _The Drummer_ (1715). =Velvet= (_The Rev. Morphine_), a popular preacher, who feeds his flock on _eau sucrée_ and wild honey. He assures his hearers that the way to heaven might once be thorny and steep, but now “every hill is brought low, every valley is filled up, the crooked ways are made straight, and even in the valley of the shadow of death, they need fear no evil, for One will be with them to support and comfort them.” =Veneering= (_Mr._), a new man, “forty, wavy-haired, dark, tending to corpulence, sly, mysterious, filmy; a kind of well-looking veiled prophet, not prophesying.” He was a drug merchant of the firm of Chicksey, Stobbles and Veneering. The two former were his quondam masters, but their names had “become absorbed in Veneering, once their traveller or commission agent.”