The Soudan cried: "O, Sphinxes, with the torch-like eye, I am the Conqueror--my name is high-arrayed In characters like flame upon the vaulted sky, Far from oblivion's reach or an effacing shade. Upon a sheaf of thunderbolts I rest my arm, And gods might wish my exploits with them were their own. I live--I am not open to the points of harm, And e'en my throne will be with age an altar-stone. When the time comes for me to cast off earthly robe, And enter--being Day--into the realms of light, The gods will say, we call Zizimi from his globe That we may have our brother nearer to our sight! Glory is but my menial, Pride my own chained slave, Humbly standing when Zizimi is in his seat. I scorn base man, and have sent thousands to the grave. They are but as a rushen carpet to my feet. Instead of human beings, eunuchs, blacks, or mutes, Be yours, oh, Sphinxes, with the glad names on your fronts! The task, with voice attuned to emulate the flute's, To charm the king, whose chase is man, and wars his hunts. "Some portion of your splendor back on me reflect, Sing out in praiseful chains of melodious links! Oh, throne, which I with bloody spoils have so bedecked, Speak to your lord! Speak you, the first rose-crested Sphinx!" Soon on the summons, once again was stillness broke, For the ten figures, in a voice which all else drowned, Parting their stony lips, alternatively spoke-- Spoke clearly, with a deeply penetrative sound. THE FIRST SPHINX. So lofty as to brush the heavens' dome, Upon the highest terrace of her tomb Is Queen Nitrocis, thinking all alone, Upon her line, long tenants of the throne, Terrors, scourges of the Greeks and Hebrews, Harsh and bloodthirsty, narrow in their views. Against the pure scroll of the sky, a blot, Stands out her sepulchre, a fatal spot That seems a baneful breath around to spread. The birds which chance to near it, drop down dead. The queen is now attended on by shades, Which have replaced, in horrid guise, her maids. No life is here--the law says such as bore A corpse alone may enter through yon door. Before, behind, around the queen, her sight Encounters but the same blank void of night. Above, the pilasters are like to bars, And, through their gaps, the dead look at the stars, While, till the dawn, around Nitrocis' bones, Spectres hold council, crouching on the stones. THE SECOND SPHINX.