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Oh Life! mysterious-subtle-fragile thread!
Spark that divid'st the living from the dead!
What-what art thou, that we should cling to thee
With miser grasp in death's last agony ?

We hugged the mast when pallid hope had sped-
We hugged it when the power of speech had fled-
And we were left not even the aid of cries;
The Cannibal was glaring from our eyes,
When by the wreck a Pirate's cruiser rode,

And offered aid—a friendly, safe abode.

X1.

"This was our sire, who saved me from the main-

The common author of our grief and pain—

Thou art my sister-partner of my woe

My tears-my anguish".

"ZAMEN-ZAMEN-NO!

Thanks to the Heaven that made me not akin

Unto the hideous wretch thy sire hath been!
Villain most vile-I had not, from my birth,
Dreamed Heaven permitted such to tread this earth.
Thy story fills my heart with grief and fear,
And renders thee a thousand times more dear;
For aye, amid thy matchless woes and tears,
The virtue of thy noble heart appears-

Virtue, that lofty souls must ever love—
Virtues that Angels register above.

My sire, the rightful heir of Mora, fell
In battle, ere I can remember well.

He flew, poor man, to GREECE, his native land,
To wrench her from the heartless Tyrant's hand ;
There fell upon the shrine of Liberty—
And well my mother kept his memory,

Until GONZALO, by the wizard's art,

Sought and obtained her youthful hand and heart;

Which done, with him she sailed to HELLAS' shore

And to HESPERIA fair returned no more.

He said she of a fatal fever died;

That they had laid her by my father's side

But now I see it all-'tis all too true

Alas alas! she was his victim too!

Foul fiend they whispered this into my ear—

But such aspersions I could never hear

He was so fatherly-so dear to me,

I could not link him with such infamy!

Oh, GOD! avenge the injuries of the dead—

Pour thy fierce wrath upon the murderer's head!
I've dwelt from childhood from the world apart,

Deeming it sinless as I knew my heart;

My lute, the birds, the flowers, have been my friends

My book, the soft blue heaven that o'er me bends,

My Fancy never, in her wildest dream,

Painted such hideous deeds as form thy theme,
Which circumscribes my knowledge of mankind ;-
But though all else are vile, thou'rt good and kind—
Oh! in these vales afar from sin and strife,
Loving but virtue, let us walk through life,
Forgetting all the ills our hearts have tried!"
On his responsive breast she sobbing sighed.

XII.

And they were wed-Love chased their tears away,

As mists are driven before the smile of day,
Gave softer radiance to both earth and sky,
And made each lovelier in the other's eye.
No discord rose to mar their happiness ;-
Each morning brought to them untasted bliss ;
No pangs-no sorrows came with varying years;
No cold distrust, no faithlessness, no tears,—
But hand in hand, as EVE and ADAM trod
EDEN, they walked beneath the smile of GOD.
At morn they wandered through the dewy bowers,
Tended the birds, or trained the garden flowers ;-
Or, weary of these health-inspiring Arts,

With music and sweet song refreshed their hearts;
Then all day seated in the colonnade,

Or where the myrtle made a genial shade,

They pored upon the tomes of other days—
CERVANTES' wit, and OSSIAN'S sounding lays;

And DANTE's dreams, and PETRARCH's deathless love—
All that mad TASSO into numbers wove—
SHAKSPEARE'S deep harp, and MILTON'S loftier song-
From all creations of the minstrel throng-
Statues and busts by Grecian chisels wrought,
They drew the nutriment of love and thought.—
Then, moved by Genius, ZAMEN swept his lyre,
And, like a meteor, flashed its latent fire

Upon the world; and thrilled its inmost heart—
All that his soul had gleaned from beauty-art-
Love-ruin-melancholy-anguish-wrong-
Revenge-he wove into harmonious song,—
And to his country, and to lasting fame,

Bequeathed a cherished and a spotless name.

NOTES.

CANTO I.

NOTE 1, Sect. III., p. 246.

"Fond lingering over ANDALUSIA's shrines."

The name of Andalusia, meaning the region of evening, or the west, was applied by the Arabs, not only to the province so called, but to the whole Peninsula.

NOTE 2, Sect. III., p. 246.

"Fresh blows the breeze on TARICK's burnished bay."

"Tarick, whom Mousa, the Arab General, sent over with a body of troops to make the first attempt on Spain, crossed the Straits, and was the first that set his foot on the Rock of Gibraltar, from which circumstance it was called Ghebal Tarick, meaning in Arabic, the Rock or Mountain of Tarick. Gibraltar is a corruption of Ghebal Tarick."-See BUSK's History of Spain and Portugal, p. 8.

"Mousa était ambitieux et entreprenant, mais la prudence tempésait en lui l'ambition et l'audace; il fit prendre des renseignements sur l'Espagne, sur le souverain, sur les forces militaires du pays, et ses agents lui firent un rapport fidèle de tout ce qu'ils avaient vu et remarqué. Ils lui vantèrent la douce température de cette contrée, son beau ciel, ses richesses, la bonté de ses fruits,

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