The earth was spread, the walls were hung, with silken fabrics fine, And arabesque and lotus-flower bore each the broidered sign Of jewels plucked from land and sea, and red gold from the mine. Upon his throne he sat alone, half buried in the gems That strewed his tapestries like stars, and tipped their tawny hems, And glittered with the glory of a hundred diadems. He saw from his pavilion door the nodding heron plumes His nobles wore upon their brows, while, from the rosy glooms Which hid his harem, came low songs, on wings of rare perfumes! The elephants, a thousand strong, had passed his dreaming eye, Caparisoned with golden plates on head and breast and thigh, And a hundred flashing troops of horse unmarked had thundered by. He sat upon old Akbar's throne, the heir of power and fame, But all his glory was as dust, and dust his wondrous name-- Swept into air, and scattered far, by one consuming flame! For on that day of all the days, and in that festal hour, He sickened with his glory and grew weary of his power, And pined to bind upon his breast his harem's choicest flower, "Oh Nourmahal! oh Nourmahal! why sit I here," he cried,-- "The victim of these gaudy shows, and of my haughty pride, When thou art dearer to my soul than all the world beside! "Thy eyes are brighter than the gems piled round gilded seat; Thy cheeks are softer than the silks that shimmer at my feet, And purer heart than thine in woman's breast hath never beat! "My first love--and my only love--Oh babe of Candahar! Torn from my boyish arms at first, and, like a silver star Shining within another heaven, and worshipped from afar, "Thou art my own at last, my own! I pine to see thy face; Come to me, Nourmahal! Oh come, and hallow with thy grace The glories that without thy love are meaningless and base!" He spoke a word, and, quick as light, before him lying prone A dark-eyed page, with gilded vest and crimson-belted zone, Looked up with waiting ear to mark the message from the throne. "Go summon Nourmahal, my queen; and when her radiance comes, Bear my command of silence to the vinas and the drums, And for your guerdon take your choice of all these gilded crumbs." He tossed a handful of the gems down where his minion lay, Who snatched a jewel from the drift, and swiftly sped away With his command to Nourmahal, who waited to obey. But needlessly the mandate fell of silence on the crowd, For when the Empress swept the path, ten thousand heads were bowed, And drum and vina ceased their din, and no one spoke aloud. As comes the moon from out the sea with her attendant breeze, As sweeps the morning up the hills and blossoms in the trees, So Nourmahal to Selim came: then fell upon her knees! The envious jewels looked at her with chill, barbaric stare, The cloth-of-gold she knelt upon grew lusterless and bare, And all the place was cooler in the darkness of her hair.