“Obey’d!—’tis well—yes, I deserve it all— “On me, on me Heaven’s vengeance cannot fall “Too heavily—but AZIM, brave and true “And beautiful—must _he_ be ruin’d too? “Must _he_ too, glorious as he is, be driven “A renegade like me from Love and Heaven? “Like me?—weak wretch, I wrong him—not like me; “No—he’s all truth and strength and purity! “Fill up your madd’ning hell-cup to the brim, “Its witch’ry, fiends, will have no charm for him. “Let loose your glowing wantons from their bowers, “He loves, he loves, and can defy their powers! “Wretch as I am, in _his_ heart still I reign “Pure as when first we met, without a stain! “Though ruin’d—lost—my memory, like a charm “Left by the dead, still keeps his soul from harm. “Oh! never let him know how deep the brow “He kiss’d at parting is dishonour’d now;— “Ne’er tell him how debas’d, how sunk is she, “Whom once he lov’d—once!—_still_ loves dotingly. “Thou laugh’st, tormentor,—what!—thou’lt brand my name? “Do, do—in vain—he’ll not believe my shame— “He thinks me true, that nought beneath God’s sky “Could tempt or change me, and—so once thought I. “But this is past—though worse than death my lot, “Than hell—’tis nothing while _he_ knows it not. “Far off to some benighted land I’ll fly, “Where sunbeam ne’er shall enter till I die; “Where none will ask the lost one whence she came, “But I may fade and fall without a name. “And thou—curst man or fiend, whate’er thou art, “Who found’st this burning plague-spot in my heart, “And spread’st it—oh, so quick!—through soul and frame, “With more than demon’s art, till I became “A loathsome thing, all pestilence, all flame!— “If when I’m gone⸺” “Hold, fearless maniac, hold, “Nor tempt my rage—by Heaven, not half so bold “The puny bird, that dares with teasing hum “Within the crocodile’s stretch’d jaws to come![56] “And so thou’lt fly, forsooth?—what!—give up all “Thy chaste dominion in the Haram Hall, “Where now to Love and now to ALLA given, “Half mistress and half saint, thou hang’st as even “As doth MEDINA’S tomb, ’twixt hell and heaven! “Thou’lt fly!—as easily may reptiles run, “The gaunt snake once hath fix’d his eyes upon; “As easily, when caught, the prey may be “Pluck’d from his loving folds, as thou from me. “No, no, ’tis fix’d—let good or ill betide, “Thou’rt mine till death, till death MOKANNA’S bride! “Hast thou forgot thy oath?” At this dread word, The Maid, whose spirit his rude taunts had stirr’d Through all its depth, and rous’d an anger there, That burst and lighten’d ev’n through her despair— Shrunk back, as if a blight were in the breath That spoke that word, and stagger’d, pale as death.