University of Virginia Library

Disarm'd—despairing—wounded—pain'd;—
His brain on fire;—his body chain'd;—
With sullen sadness, Assad paced
To the dark cell:—his mind a waste!
And sadly in the cell of stone,
He pass'd the gloomy night, alone,
Save one poor sharer of his care,
That harass'd deeply,—slumber'd there.
He gazed upon his vassal sadly,—
And tears, the medicine to his grief,
Stole down his cheek,—a cool relief!
To one whose spirit burn'd so madly.
“To live is but to crawl along
“A weary world, amidst a throng
“Of heartless beings, form'd to prey
“On all who cross their watchful way.
“To live, when all we love of life
“Is overwhelm'd by woe and strife,
“Is but to drag a lengthen'd chain,
“Whose links are solitude and pain.
“When what the heart most seeks to love
“Leaves it in solitude to move,—
“When all of earthly joy is gone,
“And what the hopes were fix'd upon,—
“When light no more can gladness give,
“'Tis best to die!—'Tis base to live!”
By fitful ray of lamp's dim light
He pass'd the long and weary night,
In tracing to his faithless fair
The 'wilder'd sorrows of despair!
And ere the morning twilight came,
To mock and mark his woe and shame,
An Ataghan, misfortune's token,
Pierced deep the heart which love had broken;—
But first he call'd the slumbering slave,
And thus his latest orders gave.—
“Vassal!—The scroll which I shall leave,
“When all my loneliness is o'er,
“And when 'twill be my fate no more
“The form to love,—the heart to grieve,—
“I charge you see it safe convey'd
“Unto that dear, deluding maid,
“Beloved,—betraying,—and betray'd:
“She'll find within a sadden'd tale,
“And many a hopeless word to wail,—
“The fragments of a gloomy mind,
“Left by its sufferer's hand behind;—
“The reasons why he sigh'd so long,
“The upbraidings of his woeful wrong;—
“His sad resolves at last to part;—
“The throbbings of a broken heart!”