7. Vain was her hope! he did not rest from pain, The Curse was burning in his brain. Alas! the innocent maiden thought he slept, But Sleep the Rajah's dread commandment kept, Sleep knew Kehama's Curse. The dews of night fell round them now, They never bath'd Ladurlad's brow, They knew Kehama's Curse. The night-wind is abroad, Aloft it moves among the stirring trees. He only heard the breeze, . . . No healing aid to him it brought, It play'd around his head and touch'd him not, It knew Kehama's Curse. 8. Listening, Ladurlad lay in his despair, If Kailyal slept, for wherefore should she share {41} Her father's wretchedness which none could cure? Better alone to suffer; he must bear The burthen of his Curse, but why endure The unavailing presence of her grief? She too, apart from him, might find relief; For dead the Rajah deem'd her, and as thus Already she his dread revenge had fled, So might she still escape and live secure. 9. Gently he lifts his head, And Kailyal does not feel; Gently he rises up, . . . she slumbers still; Gently he steals away with silent tread. Anon she started, for she felt him gone; She call'd, and through the stillness of the night, His step was heard in flight. Mistrustful for a moment of the sound, She listens! till the step is heard no more; But then she knows that he indeed is gone, And with a thrilling shriek she rushes on. The darkness and the wood impede her speed; She lifts her voice again, Ladurlad! . . . and again, alike in vain, {42} And with a louder cry Straining its tone to hoarseness; . . . far away, Selfish in misery, He heard the call and faster did he fly. 10. She leans against that tree whose jutting bough Smote her so rudely. Her poor heart How audibly it panted, With sudden stop and start: Her breath how short and painfully it came! Hark! all is still around her, . . . And the night so utterly dark, She opened her eyes and she closed them, And the blackness and blank were the same. 11. 'Twas like a dream of horror, and she stood Half doubting whether all indeed were true. A Tyger's howl loud echoing through the wood, Rous'd her; the dreadful sound she knew, And turn'd instinctively to what she feared. Far off the Tyger's hungry howl was heard; A nearer horror met the maiden's view, {43} For right before her a dim form appear'd, A human form in that black night, Distinctly shaped by its own lurid light, Such light as the sickly moon is seen to shed, Through spell-rais'd fogs, a bloody baleful red.