Lara: A Tale[;] Canto the First

1. 1The Serfs are glad through Lara's wide domain,
2. 2And Slavery half forgets her feudal chain;
3. 3He, their unhoped, but unforgotten lord,
4. 4The long self-exiled Chieftain, is restored:
5. 5There be bright faces in the busy hall,
6. 6Bowls on the board, and banners on the wall;
7. 7Far checkering o'er the pictured window, plays
8. 8The unwonted faggot's hospitable blaze;
9. 9And gay retainers gather round the hearth,
10. 10With tongues all loudness, and with eyes all mirth.

1. 11The Chief of Lara is returned again:
2. 12And why had Lara crossed the bounding main?
3. 13Left by his Sire, too young such loss to know,
4. 14Lord of himself,--that heritage of woe,
5. 15That fearful empire which the human breast
6. 16But holds to rob the heart within of rest!--
7. 17With none to check, and few to point in time
8. 18The thousand paths that slope the way to crime;
9. 19Then, when he most required commandment, then
10. 20Had Lara's daring boyhood governed men.
11. 21It skills not, boots not step by step to trace
12. 22His youth through all the mazes of its race;
13. 23Short was the course his restlessness had run,
14. 24But long enough to leave him half undone.

1. 25And Lara left in youth his father-land;
2. 26But from the hour he waved his parting hand
3. 27Each trace waxed fainter of his course, till all
4. 28Had nearly ceased his memory to recall.
5. 29His sire was dust, his vassals could declare,
6. 30'Twas all they knew, that Lara was not there;
7. 31Nor sent, nor came he, till conjecture grew
8. 32Cold in the many, anxious in the few.
9. 33His hall scarce echoes with his wonted name,
10. 34His portrait darkens in its fading frame,
11. 35Another chief consoled his destined bride,
12. 36The young forgot him, and the old had died;
13. 37"Yet doth he live!" exclaims the impatient heir,
14. 38And sighs for sables which he must not wear.
15. 39A hundred scutcheons deck with gloomy grace
16. 40The Laras' last and longest dwelling-place;
17. 41But one is absent from the mouldering file,
18. 42That now were welcome in that Gothic pile.

1. 43He comes at last in sudden loneliness,
2. 44And whence they know not, why they need not guess;
3. 45They more might marvel, when the greeting's o'er
4. 46Not that he came, but came not long before:
5. 47No train is his beyond a single page,
6. 48Of foreign aspect, and of tender age.
7. 49Years had rolled on, and fast they speed away
8. 50To those that wander as to those that stay;
9. 51But lack of tidings from another clime
10. 52Had lent a flagging wing to weary Time.
11. 53They see, they recognise, yet almost deem
12. 54The present dubious, or the past a dream.

1. 55He lives, nor yet is past his Manhood's prime,
2. 56Though seared by toil, and something touched by Time;
3. 57His faults, whate'er they were, if scarce forgot,
4. 58Might be untaught him by his varied lot;
5. 59Nor good nor ill of late were known, his name
6. 60Might yet uphold his patrimonial fame:
7. 61His soul in youth was haughty, but his sins
8. 62No more than pleasure from the stripling wins;
9. 63And such, if not yet hardened in their course,
10. 64Might be redeemed, nor ask a long remorse.

1. 65And they indeed were changed--'tis quickly seen,
2. 66Whate'er he be, 'twas not what he had been:
3. 67That brow in furrowed lines had fixed at last,
4. 68And spake of passions, but of passion past:
5. 69The pride, but not the fire, of early days,
6. 70Coldness of mien, and carelessness of praise;
7. 71A high demeanour, and a glance that took
8. 72Their thoughts from others by a single look;
9. 73And that sarcastic levity of tongue,
10. 74The stinging of a heart the world hath stung,
11. 75That darts in seeming playfulness around,
12. 76And makes those feel that will not own the wound;
13. 77All these seemed his, and something more beneath
14. 78Than glance could well reveal, or accent breathe.
15. 79Ambition, Glory, Love, the common aim,
16. 80That some can conquer, and that all would claim,
17. 81Within his breast appeared no more to strive,
18. 82Yet seemed as lately they had been alive;
19. 83And some deep feeling it were vain to trace
20. 84At moments lightened o'er his livid face.

1. 85Not much he loved long question of the past,
2. 86Nor told of wondrous wilds, and deserts vast,
3. 87In those far lands where he had wandered lone,
4. 88And--as himself would have it seem--unknown:
5. 89Yet these in vain his eye could scarcely scan,
6. 90Nor glean experience from his fellow man;
7. 91But what he had beheld he shunned to show,
8. 92As hardly worth a stranger's care to know;
9. 93If still more prying such inquiry grew,
10. 94His brow fell darker, and his words more few.

1. 95Not unrejoiced to see him once again,
2. 96Warm was his welcome to the haunts of men;
3. 97Born of high lineage, linked in high command,
4. 98He mingled with the Magnates of his land;
5. 99Joined the carousals of the great and gay,
6. 100And saw them smile or sigh their hours away;
7. 101But still he only saw, and did not share,
8. 102The common pleasure or the general care;
9. 103He did not follow what they all pursued
10. 104With hope still baffled still to be renewed;
11. 105Nor shadowy Honour, nor substantial Gain,
12. 106Nor Beauty's preference, and the rival's pain:
13. 107Around him some mysterious circle thrown
14. 108Repelled approach, and showed him still alone;
15. 109Upon his eye sat something of reproof,
16. 110That kept at least Frivolity aloof;
17. 111And things more timid that beheld him near
18. 112In silence gazed, or whispered mutual fear;
19. 113And they the wiser, friendlier few confessed
20. 114They deemed him better than his air expressed.

1. 115Twas strange--in youth all action and all life,
2. 116Burning for pleasure, not averse from strife;
3. 117Woman--the Field--the Ocean, all that gave
4. 118Promise of gladness, peril of a grave,
5. 119In turn he tried--he ransacked all below,
6. 120And found his recompense in joy or woe,
7. 121No tame, trite medium; for his feelings sought
8. 122In that intenseness an escape from thought:
9. 123The Tempest of his Heart in scorn had gazed
10. 124On that the feebler Elements hath raised;
11. 125The Rapture of his Heart had looked on high,
12. 126And asked if greater dwelt beyond the sky:
13. 127Chained to excess, the slave of each extreme,
14. 128How woke he from the wildness of that dream!
15. 129Alas! he told not--but he did awake
16. 130To curse the withered heart that would not break.

1. 131Books, for his volume heretofore was Man,
2. 132With eye more curious he appeared to scan,
3. 133And oft in sudden mood, for many a day,
4. 134From all communion he would start away:
5. 135And then, his rarely called attendants said,
6. 136Through night's long hours would sound his hurried tread
7. 137O'er the dark gallery, where his fathers frowned
8. 138In rude but antique portraiture around:
9. 139They heard, but whispered--"that must not be known--
10. 140The sound of words less earthly than his own.
11. 141Yes, they who chose might smile, but some had seen
12. 142They scarce knew what, but more than should have been.
13. 143Why gazed he so upon the ghastly head
14. 144Which hands profane had gathered from the dead,
15. 145That still beside his opened volume lay,
16. 146As if to startle all save him away?
17. 147Why slept he not when others were at rest?
18. 148Why heard no music, and received no guest?
19. 149All was not well, they deemed--but where the wrong?
20. 150Some knew perchance--but 'twere a tale too long;
21. 151And such besides were too discreetly wise,
22. 152To more than hint their knowledge in surmise;
23. 153But if they would--they could"--around the board
24. 154Thus Lara's vassals prattled of their lord.

1. 155It was the night--and Lara's glassy stream
2. 156The stars are studding, each with imaged beam;
3. 157So calm, the waters scarcely seem to stray,
4. 158And yet they glide like Happiness away;
5. 159Reflecting far and fairy-like from high
6. 160The immortal lights that live along the sky:
7. 161Its banks are fringed with many a goodly tree,
8. 162And flowers the fairest that may feast the bee;
9. 163Such in her chaplet infant Dian wove,
10. 164And Innocence would offer to her love.
11. 165These deck the shore; the waves their channel make
12. 166In windings bright and mazy like the snake.
13. 167All was so still, so soft in earth and air,
14. 168You scarce would start to meet a spirit there;
15. 169Secure that nought of evil could delight
16. 170To walk in such a scene, on such a night!
17. 171It was a moment only for the good:
18. 172So Lara deemed, nor longer there he stood,
19. 173But turned in silence to his castle-gate;
20. 174Such scene his soul no more could contemplate:
21. 175Such scene reminded him of other days,
22. 176Of skies more cloudless, moons of purer blaze,
23. 177Of nights more soft and frequent, hearts that now--
24. 178No--no--the storm may beat upon his brow,
25. 179Unfelt, unsparing--but a night like this,
26. 180A night of Beauty, mocked such breast as his.

1. 181He turned within his solitary hall,
2. 182And his high shadow shot along the wall:
3. 183There were the painted forms of other times,
4. 184'Twas all they left of virtues or of crimes,
5. 185Save vague tradition; and the gloomy vaults
6. 186That hid their dust, their foibles, and their faults;
7. 187And half a column of the pompous page,
8. 188That speeds the specious tale from age to age;
9. 189Where History's pen its praise or blame supplies,
10. 190And lies like Truth, and still most truly lies.
11. 191He wandering mused, and as the moonbeam shone
12. 192Through the dim lattice, o'er the floor of stone,
13. 193And the high fretted roof, and saints, that there
14. 194O'er Gothic windows knelt in pictured prayer,
15. 195Reflected in fantastic figures grew,
16. 196Like life, but not like mortal life, to view;
17. 197His bristling locks of sable, brow of gloom,
18. 198And the wide waving of his shaken plume,
19. 199Glanced like a spectre's attributes--and gave
20. 200His aspect all that terror gives the grave.

1. 201'Twas midnight--all was slumber; the lone light
2. 202Dimmed in the lamp, as both to break the night.
3. 203Hark! there be murmurs heard in Lara's hall--
4. 204A sound--a voice--a shriek--a fearful call!
5. 205A long, loud shriek--and silence--did they hear
6. 206That frantic echo burst the sleeping ear?
7. 207They heard and rose, and, tremulously brave,
8. 208Rush where the sound invoked their aid to save;
9. 209They come with half-lit tapers in their hands,
10. 210And snatched in startled haste unbelted brands.

1. 211Cold as the marble where his length was laid,
2. 212Pale as the beam that o'er his features played,
3. 213Was Lara stretched; his half-drawn sabre near,
4. 214Dropped it should seem in more than Nature's fear;
5. 215Yet he was firm, or had been firm till now,
6. 216And still Defiance knit his gathered brow;
7. 217Though mixed with terror, senseless as he lay,
8. 218There lived upon his lip the wish to slay;
9. 219Some half formed threat in utterance there had died,
10. 220Some imprecation of despairing Pride;
11. 221His eye was almost sealed, but not forsook,
12. 222Even in its trance, the gladiator's look,
13. 223That oft awake his aspect could disclose,
14. 224And now was fixed in horrible repose.
15. 225They raise him--bear him;--hush! he breathes, he speaks,
16. 226The swarthy blush recolours in his cheeks,
17. 227His lip resumes its red, his eye, though dim,
18. 228Rolls wide and wild, each slowly quivering limb
19. 229Recalls its function, but his words are strung
20. 230In terms that seem not of his native tongue;
21. 231Distinct but strange, enough they understand
22. 232To deem them accents of another land;
23. 233And such they were, and meant to meet an ear
24. 234That hears him not--alas! that cannot hear!

1. 235His page approached, and he alone appeared
2. 236To know the import of the words they heard;
3. 237And, by the changes of his cheek and brow,
4. 238They were not such as Lara should avow,
5. 239Nor he interpret,--yet with less surprise
6. 240Than those around their Chieftain's state he eyes,
7. 241But Lara's prostrate form he bent beside,
8. 242And in that tongue which seemed his own replied;
9. 243And Lara heeds those tones that gently seem
10. 244To soothe away the horrors of his dream--
11. 245If dream it were, that thus could overthrow
12. 246A breast that needed not ideal woe.

1. 247Whate'er his frenzy dreamed or eye beheld,--
2. 248If yet remembered ne'er to be revealed,--
3. 249Rests at his heart: the customed morning came,
4. 250And breathed new vigour in his shaken frame;
5. 251And solace sought he none from priest nor leech,
6. 252And soon the same in movement and in speech,
7. 253As heretofore he filled the passing hours,
8. 254Nor less he smiles, nor more his forehead lowers,
9. 255Than these were wont; and if the coming night
10. 256Appeared less welcome now to Lara's sight,
11. 257He to his marvelling vassals showed it not,
12. 258Whose shuddering proved their fear was less forgot.
13. 259In trembling pairs (alone they dared not) crawl
14. 260The astonished slaves, and shun the fated hall;
15. 261The waving banner, and the clapping door,
16. 262The rustling tapestry, and the echoing floor;
17. 263The long dim shadows of surrounding trees,
18. 264The flapping bat, the night song of the breeze;
19. 265Aught they behold or hear their thought appals,
20. 266As evening saddens o'er the dark grey walls.

1. 267Vain thought! that hour of ne'er unravelled gloom
2. 268Came not again, or Lara could assume
3. 269A seeming of forgetfulness, that made
4. 270His vassals more amazed nor less afraid.
5. 271Had Memory vanished then with sense restored?
6. 272Since word, nor look, nor gesture of their lord
7. 273Betrayed a feeling that recalled to these
8. 274That fevered moment of his mind's disease.
9. 275Was it a dream? was his the voice that spoke
10. 276Those strange wild accents; his the cry that broke
11. 277Their slumber? his the oppressed, o'erlaboured heart
12. 278That ceased to beat, the look that made them start?
13. 279Could he who thus had suffered so forget,
14. 280When such as saw that suffering shudder yet?
15. 281Or did that silence prove his memory fixed
16. 282Too deep for words, indelible, unmixed
17. 283In that corroding secrecy which gnaws
18. 284The heart to show the effect, but not the cause?
19. 285Not so in him; his breast had buried both,
20. 286Nor common gazers could discern the growth
21. 287Of thoughts that mortal lips must leave half told;
22. 288They choke the feeble words that would unfold.

1. 289In him inexplicably mixed appeared
2. 290Much to be loved and hated, sought and feared;
3. 291Opinion varying o'er his hidden lot,
4. 292In praise or railing ne'er his name forgot:
5. 293His silence formed a theme for others' prate--
6. 294They guessed--they gazed--they fain would know his fate.
7. 295What had he been? what was he, thus unknown,
8. 296Who walked their world, his lineage only known?
9. 297A hater of his kind? yet some would say,
10. 298With them he could seem gay amidst the gay;
11. 299But owned that smile, if oft observed and near,
12. 300Waned in its mirth, and withered to a sneer;
13. 301That smile might reach his lip, but passed not by,
14. 302Nor e'er could trace its laughter to his eye:
15. 303Yet there was softness too in his regard,
16. 304At times, a heart as not by nature hard,
17. 305But once perceived, his Spirit seemed to chide
18. 306Such weakness, as unworthy of its pride,
19. 307And steeled itself, as scorning to redeem
20. 308One doubt from others' half withheld esteem;
21. 309In self-inflicted penance of a breast
22. 310Which Tenderness might once have wrung from Rest;
23. 311In vigilance of Grief that would compel
24. 312The soul to hate for having loved too well.

1. 313There was in him a vital scorn of all:
2. 314As if the worst had fallen which could befall,
3. 315He stood a stranger in this breathing world,
4. 316An erring Spirit from another hurled;
5. 317A thing of dark imaginings, that shaped
6. 318By choice the perils he by chance escaped;
7. 319But 'scaped in vain, for in their memory yet
8. 320His mind would half exult and half regret:
9. 321With more capacity for love than Earth
10. 322Bestows on most of mortal mould and birth.
11. 323His early dreams of good outstripped the truth,
12. 324And troubled Manhood followed baffled Youth;
13. 325With thought of years in phantom chase misspent,
14. 326And wasted powers for better purpose lent;
15. 327And fiery passions that had poured their wrath
16. 328In hurried desolation o'er his path,
17. 329And left the better feelings all at strife
18. 330In wild reflection o'er his stormy life;
19. 331But haughty still, and loth himself to blame,
20. 332He called on Nature's self to share the shame,
21. 333And charged all faults upon the fleshly form
22. 334She gave to clog the soul, and feast the worm:
23. 335Till he at last confounded good and ill,
24. 336And half mistook for fate the acts of will:
25. 337Too high for common selfishness, he could
26. 338At times resign his own for others' good,
27. 339But not in pity--not because he ought,
28. 340But in some strange perversity of thought,
29. 341That swayed him onward with a secret pride
30. 342To do what few or none would do beside;
31. 343And this same impulse would, in tempting time,
32. 344Mislead his spirit equally to crime;
33. 345So much he soared beyond, or sunk beneath,
34. 346The men with whom he felt condemned to breathe,
35. 347And longed by good or ill to separate
36. 348Himself from all who shared his mortal state;
37. 349His mind abhorring this had fixed her throne
38. 350Far from the world, in regions of her own:
39. 351Thus coldly passing all that passed below,
40. 352His blood in temperate seeming now would flow:
41. 353Ah! happier if it ne'er with guilt had glowed,
42. 354But ever in that icy smoothness flowed!
43. 355'Tis true, with other men their path he walked,
44. 356And like the rest in seeming did and talked,
45. 357Nor outraged Reason's rules by flaw nor start,
46. 358His Madness was not of the head, but heart;
47. 359And rarely wandered in his speech, or drew
48. 360His thoughts so forth as to offend the view.

1. 361With all that chilling mystery of mien,
2. 362And seeming gladness to remain unseen,
3. 363He had (if 'twere not nature's boon) an art
4. 364Of fixing memory on another's heart:
5. 365It was not love perchance--nor hate--nor aught
6. 366That words can image to express the thought;
7. 367But they who saw him did not see in vain,
8. 368And once beheld--would ask of him again:
9. 369And those to whom he spake remembered well,
10. 370And on the words, however light, would dwell:
11. 371None knew, nor how, nor why, but he entwined
12. 372Himself perforce around the hearer's mind;
13. 373There he was stamped, in liking, or in hate,
14. 374If greeted once; however brief the date
15. 375That friendship, pity, or aversion knew,
16. 376Still there within the inmost thought he grew.
17. 377You could not penetrate his soul, but found,
18. 378Despite your wonder, to your own he wound;
19. 379His presence haunted still; and from the breast
20. 380He forced an all unwilling interest:
21. 381Vain was the struggle in that mental net--
22. 382His Spirit seemed to dare you to forget!

1. 383There is a festival, where knights and dames,
2. 384And aught that wealth or lofty lineage claims,
3. 385Appear--a high-born and a welcome guest
4. 386To Otho's hall came Lara with the rest.
5. 387The long carousal shakes the illumined hall,
6. 388Well speeds alike the banquet and the ball;
7. 389And the gay dance of bounding Beauty's train
8. 390Links grace and harmony in happiest chain:
9. 391Blest are the early hearts and gentle hands
10. 392That mingle there in well according bands;
11. 393It is a sight the careful brow might smooth,
12. 394And make Age smile, and dream itself to youth,
13. 395And Youth forget such hour was past on earth,
14. 396So springs the exulting bosom to that mirth!

1. 397And Lara gazed on these, sedately glad,
2. 398His brow belied him if his soul was sad;
3. 399And his glance followed fast each fluttering fair,
4. 400Whose steps of lightness woke no echo there:
5. 401He leaned against the lofty pillar nigh,
6. 402With folded arms and long attentive eye,
7. 403Nor marked a glance so sternly fixed on his--
8. 404Ill brooked high Lara scrutiny like this:
9. 405At length he caught it--'tis a face unknown,
10. 406But seems as searching his, and his alone;
11. 407Prying and dark, a stranger's by his mien,
12. 408Who still till now had gazed on him unseen:
13. 409At length encountering meets the mutual gaze
14. 410Of keen enquiry, and of mute amaze;
15. 411On Lara's glance emotion gathering grew,
16. 412As if distrusting that the stranger threw;
17. 413Along the stranger's aspect, fixed and stern,
18. 414Flashed more than thence the vulgar eye could learn.

1. 415"'Tis he!" the stranger cried, and those that heard
2. 416Re-echoed fast and far the whispered word.
3. 417"'Tis he!"--"'Tis who?" they question far and near,
4. 418Till louder accents rung on Lara's ear;
5. 419So widely spread, few bosoms well could brook
6. 420The general marvel, or that single look:
7. 421But Lara stirred not, changed not, the surprise
8. 422That sprung at first to his arrested eyes
9. 423Seemed now subsided--neither sunk nor raised
10. 424Glanced his eye round, though still the stranger gazed;
11. 425And drawing nigh, exclaimed, with haughty sneer,
12. 426"'Tis he!--how came he thence?--what doth he here?"

1. 427It were too much for Lara to pass by
2. 428Such questions, so repeated fierce and high;
3. 429With look collected, but with accent cold,
4. 430More mildly firm than petulantly bold,
5. 431He turned, and met the inquisitorial tone--
6. 432"My name is Lara--when thine own is known,
7. 433Doubt not my fitting answer to requite
8. 434The unlooked for courtesy of such a knight.
9. 435'Tis Lara!--further wouldst thou mark or ask?
10. 436I shun no question, and I wear no mask."

1. 437"Thou shunn'st no question! Ponder--is there none
2. 438Thy heart must answer, though thine ear would shun?
3. 439And deem'st thou me unknown too? Gaze again!
4. 440At least thy memory was not given in vain.
5. 441Oh! never canst thou cancel half her debt--
6. 442Eternity forbids thee to forget."
7. 443With slow and searching glance upon his face
8. 444Grew Lara's eyes, but nothing there could trace
9. 445They knew, or chose to know--with dubious look
10. 446He deigned no answer, but his head he shook,
11. 447And half contemptuous turned to pass away;
12. 448But the stern stranger motioned him to stay.

1. 449"A word!--I charge thee stay, and answer here
2. 450To one, who, wert thou noble, were thy peer,
3. 451But as thou wast and art--nay, frown not, Lord,
4. 452If false, 'tis easy to disprove the word--
5. 453But as thou wast and art, on thee looks down,
6. 454Distrusts thy smiles, but shakes not at thy frown.
7. 455Art thou not he? whose deeds----"
8. 456"Whate'er I be,
9. 457Words wild as these, accusers like to thee,
10. 458I list no further; those with whom they weigh
11. 459May hear the rest, nor venture to gainsay
12. 460The wondrous tale no doubt thy tongue can tell,
13. 461Which thus begins so courteously and well.
14. 462Let Otho cherish here his polished guest,
15. 463To him my thanks and thoughts shall be expressed."
16. 464And here their wondering host hath interposed--
17. 465"Whate'er there be between you undisclosed,
18. 466This is no time nor fitting place to mar
19. 467The mirthful meeting with a wordy war.
20. 468If thou, Sir Ezzelin, hast aught to show
21. 469Which it befits Count Lara's ear to know,
22. 470To-morrow, here, or elsewhere, as may best
23. 471Beseem your mutual judgment, speak the rest;
24. 472I pledge myself for thee, as not unknown,
25. 473Though, like Count Lara, now returned alone
26. 474From other lands, almost a stranger grown;
27. 475And if from Lara's blood and gentle birth
28. 476I augur right of courage and of worth,
29. 477He will not that untainted line belie,
30. 478Nor aught that Knighthood may accord, deny."

1. 479"To-morrow be it," Ezzelin replied,
2. 480"And here our several worth and truth be tried;
3. 481I gage my life, my falchion to attest
4. 482My words, so may I mingle with the blest!"
5. 483What answers Lara? to its centre shrunk
6. 484His soul, in deep abstraction sudden sunk;
7. 485The words of many, and the eyes of all
8. 486That there were gathered, seemed on him to fall;
9. 487But his were silent, his appeared to stray
10. 488In far forgetfulness away--away--
11. 489Alas! that heedlessness of all around
12. 490Bespoke remembrance only too profound.

1. 491"To-morrow!--aye, to-morrow!" further word
2. 492Than those repeated none from Lara heard;
3. 493Upon his brow no outward passion spoke;
4. 494From his large eye no flashing anger broke;
5. 495Yet there was something fixed in that low tone,
6. 496Which showed resolve, determined, though unknown.
7. 497He seized his cloak--his head he slightly bowed,
8. 498And passing Ezzelin, he left the crowd;
9. 499And, as he passed him, smiling met the frown
10. 500With which that Chieftain's brow would bear him down:
11. 501It was nor smile of mirth, nor struggling pride
12. 502That curbs to scorn the wrath it cannot hide;
13. 503But that of one in his own heart secure
14. 504Of all that he would do, or could endure.
15. 505Could this mean peace? the calmness of the good?
16. 506Or guilt grown old in desperate hardihood?
17. 507Alas! too like in confidence are each,
18. 508For man to trust to mortal look or speech;
19. 509From deeds, and deeds alone, may he discern
20. 510Truths which it wrings the unpractised heart to learn.

1. 511And Lara called his page, and went his way--
2. 512Well could that stripling word or sign obey:
3. 513His only follower from those climes afar,
4. 514Where the Soul glows beneath a brighter star:
5. 515For Lara left the shore from whence he sprung,
6. 516In duty patient, and sedate though young;
7. 517Silent as him he served, his faith appears
8. 518Above his station, and beyond his years.
9. 519Though not unknown the tongue of Lara's land,
10. 520In such from him he rarely heard command;
11. 521But fleet his step, and clear his tones would come,
12. 522When Lara's lip breathed forth the words of home:
13. 523Those accents, as his native mountains dear,
14. 524Awake their absent echoes in his ear,
15. 525Friends'--kindred's--parents'--wonted voice recall,
16. 526Now lost, abjured, for one--his friend, his all:
17. 527For him earth now disclosed no other guide;
18. 528What marvel then he rarely left his side?

1. 529Light was his form, and darkly delicate
2. 530That brow whereon his native sun had sate,
3. 531But had not marred, though in his beams he grew,
4. 532The cheek where oft the unbidden blush shone through;
5. 533Yet not such blush as mounts when health would show
6. 534All the heart's hue in that delighted glow;
7. 535But 'twas a hectic tint of secret care
8. 536That for a burning moment fevered there;
9. 537And the wild sparkle of his eye seemed caught
10. 538From high, and lightened with electric thought,
11. 539Though its black orb those long low lashes' fringe
12. 540Had tempered with a melancholy tinge;
13. 541Yet less of sorrow than of pride was there,
14. 542Or, if 'twere grief, a grief that none should share:
15. 543And pleased not him the sports that please his age,
16. 544The tricks of Youth, the frolics of the Page;
17. 545For hours on Lara he would fix his glance,
18. 546As all-forgotten in that watchful trance;
19. 547And from his chief withdrawn, he wandered lone,
20. 548Brief were his answers, and his questions none;
21. 549His walk the wood, his sport some foreign book;
22. 550His resting-place the bank that curbs the brook:
23. 551He seemed, like him he served, to live apart
24. 552From all that lures the eye, and fills the heart;
25. 553To know no brotherhood, and take from earth
26. 554No gift beyond that bitter boon--our birth.

1. 555If aught he loved, 'twas Lara; but was shown
2. 556His faith in reverence and in deeds alone;
3. 557In mute attention; and his care, which guessed
4. 558Each wish, fulfilled it ere the tongue expressed.
5. 559Still there was haughtiness in all he did,
6. 560A spirit deep that brooked not to be chid;
7. 561His zeal, though more than that of servile hands,
8. 562In act alone obeys, his air commands;
9. 563As if 'twas Lara's less than his desire
10. 564That thus he served, but surely not for hire.
11. 565Slight were the tasks enjoined him by his Lord,
12. 566To hold the stirrup, or to bear the sword;
13. 567To tune his lute, or, if he willed it more,
14. 568On tomes of other times and tongues to pore;
15. 569But ne'er to mingle with the menial train,
16. 570To whom he showed nor deference nor disdain,
17. 571But that well-worn reserve which proved he knew
18. 572No sympathy with that familiar crew:
19. 573His soul, whate'er his station or his stem,
20. 574Could bow to Lara, not descend to them.
21. 575Of higher birth he seemed, and better days,
22. 576Nor mark of vulgar toil that hand betrays,
23. 577So femininely white it might bespeak
24. 578Another sex, when matched with that smooth cheek,
25. 579But for his garb, and something in his gaze,
26. 580More wild and high than Woman's eye betrays;
27. 581A latent fierceness that far more became
28. 582His fiery climate than his tender frame:
29. 583True, in his words it broke not from his breast,
30. 584But from his aspect might be more than guessed.
31. 585Kaled his name, though rumour said he bore
32. 586Another ere he left his mountain-shore;
33. 587For sometimes he would hear, however nigh,
34. 588That name repeated loud without reply,
35. 589As unfamiliar--or, if roused again,
36. 590Start to the sound, as but remembered then;
37. 591Unless 'twas Lara's wonted voice that spake,
38. 592For then--ear--eyes--and heart would all awake.

1. 593He had looked down upon the festive hall,
2. 594And mark'd that sudden strife so marked of all:
3. 595And when the crowd around and near him told
4. 596Their wonder at the calmness of the bold,
5. 597Their marvel how the high-born Lara bore
6. 598Such insult from a stranger, doubly sore,
7. 599The colour of young Kaled went and came,
8. 600The lip of ashes, and the cheek of flame;
9. 601And o'er his brow the dampening heart-drops threw
10. 602The sickening iciness of that cold dew,
11. 603That rises as the busy bosom sinks
12. 604With heavy thoughts from which Reflection shrinks.
13. 605Yes--there be things which we must dream and dare,
14. 606And execute ere thought be half aware:
15. 607Whate'er might Kaled's be, it was enow
16. 608To seal his lip, but agonise his brow.
17. 609He gazed on Ezzelin till Lara cast
18. 610That sidelong smile upon the knight he past;
19. 611When Kaled saw that smile his visage fell,
20. 612As if on something recognised right well:
21. 613His memory read in such a meaning more
22. 614Than Lara's aspect unto others wore:
23. 615Forward he sprung--a moment, both were gone,
24. 616And all within that hall seemed left alone;
25. 617Each had so fixed his eye on Lara's mien,
26. 618All had so mixed their feelings with that scene,
27. 619That when his long dark shadow through the porch
28. 620No more relieves the glare of yon high torch,
29. 621Each pulse beats quicker, and all bosoms seem
30. 622To bound as doubting from too black a dream,
31. 623Such as we know is false, yet dread in sooth,
32. 624Because the worst is ever nearest truth.
33. 625And they are gone--but Ezzelin is there,
34. 626With thoughtful visage and imperious air;
35. 627But long remained not; ere an hour expired
36. 628He waved his hand to Otho, and retired.

1. 629The crowd are gone, the revellers at rest;
2. 630The courteous host, and all-approving guest,
3. 631Again to that accustomed couch must creep
4. 632Where Joy subsides, and Sorrow sighs to sleep,
5. 633And Man, o'erlaboured with his Being's strife,
6. 634Shrinks to that sweet forgetfulness of life:
7. 635There lie Love's feverish hope, and Cunning's guile,
8. 636Hate's working brain, and lulled Ambition's wile;
9. 637O'er each vain eye Oblivion's pinions wave,
10. 638And quenched Existence crouches in a grave.
11. 639What better name may Slumber's bed become?
12. 640Night's sepulchre, the universal home,
13. 641Where Weakness--Strength--Vice--Virtue--sunk supine,
14. 642Alike in naked helplessness recline;
15. 643Glad for a while to heave unconscious breath,
16. 644Yet wake to wrestle with the dread of Death,
17. 645And shun--though Day but dawn on ills increased--
18. 646That sleep,--the loveliest, since it dreams the least.