Where half-extinct the smouldering fuel glow'd,
And levell'd copses strew'd the open road.
Unharm'd as spirits while they seem'd to pass,
Their lighted features flared like molten brass;
Around the flames in writhing volumes spread,
Thwarted their path, or mingled o'er their head;
Beneath their feet the fires to ashes turn'd,
But in their wake with mounting fury burn'd.
Our host recoil'd from that amazing sight;
Scarcely the king himself restrain'd their flight;
He, with his chiefs, in brazen armor, stood
Unmoved, to meet the maniacs from the wood.
Dark as a thunder-cloud their phalanx came,
But split like lightning into forms of flame;
Soon as in purer air their heads they raised
To taste the breath of heaven, their garments blazed;
Then blind, distracted, weaponless, yet flush'd
With dreadful valor, on their foes they rush'd;
The Giants met them midway on the plain;
"T was but a struggle of a moment;-slain,
They fell; their relics, to the flames return'd,
As offerings to the immortal gods were burn'd;
And never did the light of morning rise
Upon the clouds of such a sacrifice."

Abruptly here the minstrel ceased to sing, And every face was turn'd upon the king; He, while the stoutest hearts recoil'd with fear, And Giants trembled their own deeds to hear, Unmoved and unrelenting, in his mind Deeds of more impious enterprise design'd: A dire conception labor'd in his breast; His eye was sternly pointed to the west, Where stood the mount of Paradise sublime, Whose guarded top, since man's presumptuous crime, By noon, a dusky cloud appear'd to rise, But blazed a beacon through nocturnal skies. As Etna, view'd from ocean far away, Slumbers in blue revolving smoke by day, Till darkness, with terrific splendor, shows The eternal fires that crest the eternal snows;' So where the cherubim in vision turn'd Their flaming swords, the summit lower'd or burn'd. And now, conspicuous through the twilight gloom, The glancing beams the distant hills illume, And, as the shadows deepen o'er the ground, Scatter a red and wavering lustre round.

Awhile the monarch, fearlessly amazed,
With jealous anger on the glory gazed;
Already had his arm in battle hurl'd
His thunders round the subjugated world;
Lord of the nether universe, his pride
Was rein'd, while Paradise his power defied.
An upland isle, by meeting streams embraced,
It tower'd to heaven amidst a sandy waste;
Below, impenetrable woods display'd
Depths of mysterious solitude and shade;
Above, with adamantine bulwarks crown'd,
Primeval rocks in hoary masses frown'd;

1 Sorge nel sen de la Sicilia aprica
Monte superbo al cielo,

Che d'atro incendio incoronato ha il crine;
Sparso il tergo é di neve, e fatta amica
Lambe la fiamma il gielo.

E tra discreti ardor duran le brine.-F. Testi.

O'er all were seen the cherubim of light, Like pillar'd flames amidst the falling night: So high it rose, so bright the mountain shone, It seem'd the footstool of Jehovah's throne.

The Giant panted with intense desire To scale those heights, and storm the walls of fire: His ardent soul, in ecstasy of thought, Even now with Michael and his angels fought, And saw the seraphim, like meteors, driven Before his banners through the gates of heaven, While he secure the glorious garden trod, And sway'd his sceptre from the mount of God.

When suddenly the bard had ceased to sing, While all the chieftains gazed upon their king, Whose changing looks a rising storm bespoke, Ere from his lips the dread explosion broke, The trumpets sounded, and before his face Were led the captives of the Patriarchs' race, -A lovely and a venerable band

Of young and old, amidst their foes they stand;
Unawed they see the fiery trial near;
They fear'd their God, and knew no other fear.'

To light the dusky scene, resplendent fires,
Of pine and cedar, blazed in lofty pyres;
While from the east the moon with doubtful gleams
Now tipt the hills, now glanced athwart the streams,
Till, darting through the clouds her beauteous eye,
She open'd all the temple of the sky;

The Giants, closing in a narrower ring,
By turns survey'd the prisoners and the king.
Javan stood forth;-to all the youth was known,
And every eye was fix'd on him alone.

CANTO IX.

The King's Determination to sacrifice the Patriarchs and their Families to his Demon-Gods.-His Sentence on Javan.-Zillah's Distress.-The Sorcerer pretends to declare the Secret of the Birth of the King, and proposes his Deification.-Enoch appears

A GLEAM of joy, at that expected sight, Shot o'er the monarch's brow with baleful light: "Behold," thought he, "the great decisive hour; Ere morn, the sons of God shall prove my power: Offer'd by me, their blood shall be the price Of demon-aid to conquer Paradise." Thus while he threaten'd, Javan caught his view, And instantly his visage changed its hue; Inflamed with rage past utterance, he frown'd, He gnash'd his teeth, and wildly glared around, As one who saw a spectre in the air, And durst not look upon it, nor forbear; Still on the youth, his eye, wherever cast, Abhorrently return'd, and fix'd at last : "Slaves! smite the traitor; be his limbs consign'd To flames, his ashes scatter'd to the wind!" He cried in tone so vehement, so loud, Instinctively recoil'd the shuddering crowd;

1 Je crains Dieu, cher Abner, et n'ai point d'autre crainte.

Racina

Who, still his evil genius, fully bent

On one bold purpose, went where'er he went;
That purpose, long in his own bosom seal'd,
Ripe for fulfilment now, he thus reveal'd.
Full in the midst he rush'd; alarm'd, aghast,
Giants and captives trembled as he pass'd,
For scarcely seem'd he of the sons of earth;
Unchronicled the hour that gave him birth;
Though shrunk his cheek, his temples deeply plow'd,
Keen was his vulture-eye, his strength unbow'd;
Swarthy his features; venerable grey,
His beard dishevell'd o'er his bosom lay:

Bald was his front; but white as snow behind
His ample locks were scatter'd to the wind;
Naked he stood, save round his loins a zone
Of shagged fur, and o'er his shoulders thrown
A serpent's skin, that cross'd his breast, and round
His body thrice in glittering volumes wound.

All gazed with horror-deep unutter'd thought
In every muscle of his visage wrought;
His eye, as if his eye could see the air,
Was fix'd up-writhing rose his horrent hair;
His limbs grew dislocate, convulsed his frame;
Deep from his chest mysterious noises came;
Now purring, hissing, barking, then they swell'd
To hideous dissonance; he shriek'd, he yell'd,
As if the Legion-fiend his soul possess'd,
And a whole hell were worrying in his breast;
Then down he dash'd himself on earth, and roll'd
In agony, till powerless, stiff, and cold,
With face upturn'd to Heaven, and arms outspread,
A ghastly spectacle, he lay as dead;

The living too stood round like forms of death,
And every pulse was hush'd, and every breath.

Meanwhile the wind arose, the clouds were driven In wat'ry masses through the waste of Heaven, The groaning woods foretold a tempest nigh, And silent lightning skirmish'd in the sky.

Ere long the wizard started from the ground,
Giddily reel'd, and look'd bewilder'd round,
Till on the king he fix'd his hideous gaze;
Then rapt with ecstacy and broad amaze,
He kneel'd in adoration, humbly bow'd
His face upon his hands, and cried aloud;
Yet so remote and strange his accents fell,
They seem'd the voice of an invisible:

Hail! king and conqueror of the peopled earth,
And more than king and conqueror! Know thy birth:
Thou art a ray of uncreated fire,
The sun himself is thy celestial sire;
The moon thy mother, who to me consign'd
Her babe in secrecy, to bless mankind.
These eyes have watch'd thee rising, year by year,
More great, more glorious, in thine high career.
As the young eagle plies his growing wings
In bounded flights, and sails in wider rings,
Till to the fountain of meridian day,
Full plumed and perfected, he soars away;
Thus have I mark'd thee, since thy course begun.
Sall upward tending to thy sire the sun:
Now midway meet him; from yon flaming height,
Chase the vain phantoms of cherubic light;

There build a tower, whose spiral top shall rise,
Circle o'er circle, lessening to the skies;
The stars, thy brethren, in their spheres shall stand,
To hail thee welcome to thy native land;
The moon shall clasp thee in her glad embrace,
The sun behold his image in thy face,
And call thee, as his offspring and his heir,
His throne, his empire, and his orb, to share."

Rising, and turning his terrific head, That chill'd beholders, thus the enchanter said: -"Prepare, prepare the piles of sacrifice, The power that rules on earth shall rule the skies; Hither, O chiefs! the captive Patriarchs bring, And pour their blood an offering to your king; He, like his sire the sun, in transient clouds, His veil'd divinity from mortals shrouds, Too pure to shine till these his foes are slain, And conquer'd Paradise hath crown'd his reign. Haste, heap the fallen cedars on the pyres, And give the victims living to the fires: Shall He, in whom they vainly trust, withstand Your sovereign's wrath, or pluck them from his hand? We dare him;-if He saves his servants now, To Him let every knee in Nature bow, For He is GOD"at that most awful name, A spasm of horror wither'd up his frame, Even as he stood and look'd;-he looks, he stands, With heaven-defying front, and clenched hands, And lips half-open'd, eager from his breast To bolt the blasphemy, by force represt; For not in feign'd abstraction, as before, He practised foul deceit by damned lore; A frost was on his nerves, and in his veins A fire, consuming with infernal pains; Conscious, though motionless, his limbs were grown; Alive to suffering, but alive in stone.

In silent expectation, sore amazed, The king and chieftains on the sorcerer gazed; Awhile no sound was heard, save through the woods, The wind deep-thundering, and the dashing floods : At length, with solemn step, amidst the scene, Where that false prophet show'd his frantic mien, Where lurid flames from green-wood altars burn'd, Enoch stood forth;-on him all eyes were turn'd; O'er his dim form and saintly visage fell The light that glared upon that priest of hell. Unutterably awful was his look; Through every joint the Giant-monarch shook; Shook, like Belshazzar, in his festive hall, When the hand wrote his judgment on the wall;' Shook, like Eliphaz, with dissolving fright," In thoughts amidst the visions of the night, When as the spirit pass'd before his face, Nor limb nor lineament his eye could trace; A form of mystery, that chill'd his blood, Close at his couch, in living terror stood, And death-like silence, till a voice more drear, More dreadful than the silence, reach'd his ear: Thus from surrounding darkness Enoch brake, And thus the Giant trembled while he spake.

Sends forth the floods, commission'd to devour,
With boundless license and resistless power;
They own no impulse but the tempest's sway,
Nor find a limit but the light of day.

"The vision opens-sunk beneath the wave, The guilty share an universal grave: One wilderness of water rolls in view,

And heaven and ocean wear one turbid hue;
Still stream unbroken torrents from the skies,
Higher beneath the inundations rise;

A lurid twilight glares athwart the scene,

Low thunders peal, faint lightnings flash between. -Methinks I see a distant vessel ride,

A lonely object on the shoreless tide;

Within whose ark the innocent have found
Safety, while stay'd Destruction ravens round;
Thus, in the hour of vengeance, God, who knows
His servants, spares them, while he smites his foes.

"Eastward I turn ;-o'er all the deluged lands,
Unshaken yet, a mighty mountain stands,
Where Seth, of old, his flock to pasture led,
And watch'd the stars at midnight, from its head;
An island now, its dark majestic form
Scowls through the thickest ravage of the storm;
While on its top, the monument of fame,
Built by thy murderers to adorn thy name,
Defies the shock;-a thousand cubits high,
The sloping pyramid ascends the sky.
Thither, their latest refuge in distress,
Like hunted wolves, the rallying Giants press;
Round the broad base of that stupendous tower,
The shuddering fugitives collect their power,
Cling to the dizzy cliff, o'er ocean bend,
And howl with terror as the deeps ascend.
The mountain's strong foundations still endure,
The heights repel the surge.-Awhile secure,
And cheer'd with frantic hope, thy votaries climb
The fabric, rising step by step sublime.
Beyond the clouds they see the summit glow
In heaven's pure daylight, o'er the gloom below;
There too thy worshipp'd image shines like fire,
In the full glory of thy fabled sire.
They hail the omen, and with heart and voice,
Call on thy name, and in thy smile rejoice:
False omen! on thy name in vain they call;
Fools in their joy;-a moment, and they fall.
Rent by an earthquake of the buried plain,
And shaken by the whole disrupted main,
The mountain trembles on its failing base,
It slides, it stoops, it rushes from its place;
From all the Giants bursts one drowning cry;
Hark! 't is thy name-they curse it as they die;
Sheer to the lowest gulf the pile is hurl'd,
The last sad wreck of a devoted world.

"So fall transgressors:-Tyrant! now fulfil Thy secret purposes, thine utmost will; Here crown thy triumphs-life or death decree, The weakest here disdains thy power and thee."

Thus when the Patriarch ceased, and every ear Still listen'd in suspense of hope and fear, Sublime, ineffable, angelic grace Beam'd in his meek and venerable face;

And sudden glory, streaming round his head,
O'er all his robes with lambent lustre spread;
His earthly features grew divinely bright,
His essence seem'd transforming into light.
Brief silence, like the pause between the flash,
At midnight, and the following thunder-crash,
Ensued:-Anon, with universal cry,

The Giants rush'd upon the prophet-" Die!"
The king leapt foremost from his throne-he drew
His battle-sword, as on his mark he flew;
With aim unerring, and tempestuous sound,
The blade descended deep along the ground;
The foe was fled, and, self-o'erwhelm'd, his strength
Hurl'd to the earth his Atlantean length;
But ere his chiefs could stretch the helping arm,
He sprang upon his feet in pale alarm;
Headlong and blind with rage he search'd around,
But Enoch walk'd with God, and was not found.

Yet where the captives stood, in holy awe,
Rapt on the wings of cherubim, they saw
Their sainted sire ascending through the night;
He turn'd his face to bless them in his flight;
Then vanish'd:-Javan caught the prophet's eye,
And snatch'd his mantle falling from the sky;
O'er him the Spirit of the Prophet came,
Like rushing wind awakening hidden flame:
"Where is the God of Enoch now?" he cried: 1
"Captives, come forth! Despisers, shrink aside."
He spake, and bursting through the Giant-throng,
Smote with the mantle as he moved along;
A power invisible their rage controll'd,
Hither and thither as he turn'd they roll'd;
Unawed, unharm'd, the ransom'd prisoners pass'd
Through ranks of foes astonished and aghast :
Close in the youth's conducting steps they trod
-So Israel march'd when Moses raised his rod,
And led their host, enfranchised, through the wave,
The people's safeguard, the pursuers' grave.

Thus from the wolves this little flock was torn, And sheltering in the mountain-caves till morn, They join'd to sing, in strains of full delight, Songs of deliverance through the dreary night.

The Giants' frenzy, when they lost their prey, No tongue of man or angel might portray: First on their idol-gods their vengeance turn'd, Those gods on their own altar-piles they burn'd; Then, at their sovereign's mandate, sallied forth To rouse their host to combat, from the north; Eager to risk their uttermost emprize, Perish ere morn, or reign in Paradise. Now the slow tempest, that so long had lower'd, Keen in their faces sleet and hailstones shower'd; The winds blew loud, the waters roar'd around, An earthquake rock'd the agonizing ground; Red in the west the burning mount, array'd With tenfold terror by incumbent shade (For moon and stars were wrapt in dunnest gloom), Glared like a torch amidst creation's tomb:

1" And he (Elisha) took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters (of Jordan), and said,-Where is the Lord God of Elijah ?-and when he had smitten the waters. they parted hither and thither; and Elisha went over." II. Kings, ii, v. 14.