The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley Part 21

And then to you this night Laon will I betray. _4440

25.

'With me do what ye will. I am your foe!'

The light of such a joy as makes the stare Of hungry snakes like living emeralds glow, Shone in a hundred human eyes--'Where, where Is Laon? Haste! fly! drag him swiftly here! _4445 We grant thy boon.'--'I put no trust in ye, Swear by the Power ye dread.'--'We swear, we swear!'

The Stranger threw his vest back suddenly, And smiled in gentle pride, and said, 'Lo! I am he!'

NOTES: _4321 wreathed]writhed. "Poetical Works" 1839. 1st edition.

_4361 the mighty]tho' mighty edition 1818.

_4362 ye]he edition 1818.

_4432 there]then edition 1818.

CANTO 12.

1.

The transport of a fierce and monstrous gladness _4450 Spread through the mult.i.tudinous streets, fast flying Upon the winds of fear; from his dull madness The starveling waked, and died in joy; the dying, Among the corpses in stark agony lying, Just heard the happy tidings, and in hope _4455 Closed their faint eyes; from house to house replying With loud acclaim, the living shook Heaven's cope, And filled the startled Earth with echoes: morn did ope

2.

Its pale eyes then; and lo! the long array Of guards in golden arms, and Priests beside, _4460 Singing their b.l.o.o.d.y hymns, whose garbs betray The blackness of the faith it seems to hide; And see, the Tyrant's gem-wrought chariot glide Among the gloomy cowls and glittering spears-- A Shape of light is sitting by his side, _4465 A child most beautiful. I' the midst appears Laon,--exempt alone from mortal hopes and fears.

3.

His head and feet are bare, his hands are bound Behind with heavy chains, yet none do wreak Their scoffs on him, though myriads throng around; _4470 There are no sneers upon his lip which speak That scorn or hate has made him bold; his cheek Resolve has not turned pale,--his eyes are mild And calm, and, like the morn about to break, Smile on mankind--his heart seems reconciled _4475 To all things and itself, like a reposing child.

4.

Tumult was in the soul of all beside, Ill joy, or doubt, or fear; but those who saw Their tranquil victim pa.s.s, felt wonder glide Into their brain, and became calm with awe.-- _4480 See, the slow pageant near the pile doth draw.

A thousand torches in the s.p.a.cious square, Borne by the ready slaves of ruthless law, Await the signal round: the morning fair Is changed to a dim night by that unnatural glare. _4485

5.

And see! beneath a sun-bright canopy, Upon a platform level with the pile, The anxious Tyrant sit, enthroned on high, Girt by the chieftains of the host; all smile In expectation, but one child: the while _4490 I, Laon, led by mutes, ascend my bier Of fire, and look around: each distant isle Is dark in the bright dawn; towers far and near, Pierce like reposing flames the tremulous atmosphere.

6.

There was such silence through the host, as when _4495 An earthquake trampling on some populous town, Has crushed ten thousand with one tread, and men Expect the second; all were mute but one, That fairest child, who, bold with love, alone Stood up before the King, without avail, _4500 Pleading for Laon's life--her stifled groan Was heard--she trembled like one aspen pale Among the gloomy pines of a Norwegian vale.

7.

What were his thoughts linked in the morning sun, Among those reptiles, stingless with delay, _4505 Even like a tyrant's wrath?--The signal-gun Roared--hark, again! In that dread pause he lay As in a quiet dream--the slaves obey-- A thousand torches drop,--and hark, the last Bursts on that awful silence; far away, _4510 Millions, with hearts that beat both loud and fast, Watch for the springing flame expectant and aghast.

8.

They fly--the torches fall--a cry of fear Has startled the triumphant!--they recede!

For, ere the cannon's roar has died, they hear _4515 The tramp of hoofs like earthquake, and a steed Dark and gigantic, with the tempest's speed, Bursts through their ranks: a woman sits thereon, Fairer, it seems, than aught that earth can breed, Calm, radiant, like the phantom of the dawn, _4520 A spirit from the caves of daylight wandering gone.

9.

All thought it was G.o.d's Angel come to sweep The lingering guilty to their fiery grave; The Tyrant from his throne in dread did leap,-- Her innocence his child from fear did save; _4525 Scared by the faith they feigned, each priestly slave Knelt for his mercy whom they served with blood, And, like the refluence of a mighty wave Sucked into the loud sea, the mult.i.tude With crus.h.i.+ng panic, fled in terror's altered mood. _4530

10.

They pause, they blush, they gaze,--a gathering shout Bursts like one sound from the ten thousand streams Of a tempestuous sea:--that sudden rout One checked, who, never in his mildest dreams Felt awe from grace or loveliness, the seams _4535 Of his rent heart so hard and cold a creed Had seared with blistering ice--but he misdeems That he is wise, whose wounds do only bleed Inly for self,--thus thought the Iberian Priest indeed,

11.

And others, too, thought he was wise to see, _4540 In pain, and fear, and hate, something divine; In love and beauty, no divinity.-- Now with a bitter smile, whose light did s.h.i.+ne Like a fiend's hope upon his lips and eyne, He said, and the persuasion of that sneer _4545 Rallied his trembling comrades--'Is it mine To stand alone, when kings and soldiers fear A woman? Heaven has sent its other victim here.'

12.

'Were it not impious,' said the King, 'to break Our holy oath?'--'Impious to keep it, say!' _4550 Shrieked the exulting Priest:--'Slaves, to the stake Bind her, and on my head the burden lay Of her just torments:--at the Judgement Day Will I stand up before the golden throne Of Heaven, and cry, "To Thee did I betray _4555 An infidel; but for me she would have known Another moment's joy! the glory be thine own."'

13.

They trembled, but replied not, nor obeyed, Pausing in breathless silence. Cythna sprung From her gigantic steed, who, like a shade _4560 Chased by the winds, those vacant streets among Fled tameless, as the brazen rein she flung Upon his neck, and kissed his mooned brow.

A piteous sight, that one so fair and young, The clasp of such a fearful death should woo _4565 With smiles of tender joy as beamed from Cythna now.

14.

The warm tears burst in spite of faith and fear From many a tremulous eye, but like soft dews Which feed Spring's earliest buds, hung gathered there, Frozen by doubt,--alas! they could not choose _4570 But weep; for when her faint limbs did refuse To climb the pyre, upon the mutes she smiled; And with her eloquent gestures, and the hues Of her quick lips, even as a weary child Wins sleep from some fond nurse with its caresses mild, _4575

15.

She won them, though unwilling, her to bind Near me, among the snakes. When there had fled One soft reproach that was most thrilling kind, She smiled on me, and nothing then we said, But each upon the other's countenance fed _4580 Looks of insatiate love; the mighty veil Which doth divide the living and the dead Was almost rent, the world grew dim and pale,-- All light in Heaven or Earth beside our love did fail.--

16.

Yet--yet--one brief relapse, like the last beam _4585 Of dying flames, the stainless air around Hung silent and serene--a blood-red gleam Burst upwards, hurling fiercely from the ground The globed smoke,--I heard the mighty sound Of its uprise, like a tempestuous ocean; _4590 And through its chasms I saw, as in a swound, The tyrant's child fall without life or motion Before his throne, subdued by some unseen emotion.--

17.

And is this death?--The pyre has disappeared, The Pestilence, the Tyrant, and the throng; _4595 The flames grow silent--slowly there is heard The music of a breath-suspending song, Which, like the kiss of love when life is young, Steeps the faint eyes in darkness sweet and deep; With ever-changing notes it floats along, _4600 Till on my pa.s.sive soul there seemed to creep A melody, like waves on wrinkled sands that leap.

18.

The warm touch of a soft and tremulous hand Wakened me then; lo! Cythna sate reclined Beside me, on the waved and golden sand _4605 Of a clear pool, upon a bank o'ertwined With strange and star-bright flowers, which to the wind Breathed divine odour; high above, was spread The emerald heaven of trees of unknown kind, Whose moonlike blooms and bright fruit overhead _4610 A shadow, which was light, upon the waters shed.

19.

And round about sloped many a lawny mountain With incense-bearing forests and vast caves Of marble radiance, to that mighty fountain; And where the flood its own bright margin laves, _4615 Their echoes talk with its eternal waves, Which, from the depths whose jagged caverns breed Their unreposing strife, it lifts and heaves,-- Till through a chasm of hills they roll, and feed A river deep, which flies with smooth but arrowy speed. _4620

20.

As we sate gazing in a trance of wonder, A boat approached, borne by the musical air Along the waves which sung and sparkled under Its rapid keel--a winged shape sate there, A child with silver-s.h.i.+ning wings, so fair, _4625 That as her bark did through the waters glide, The shadow of the lingering waves did wear Light, as from starry beams; from side to side, While veering to the wind her plumes the bark did guide.

21.

The boat was one curved sh.e.l.l of hollow pearl, _4630 Almost translucent with the light divine Of her within; the prow and stern did curl Horned on high, like the young moon supine, When o'er dim twilight mountains dark with pine, It floats upon the sunset's sea of beams, _4635 Whose golden waves in many a purple line Fade fast, till borne on sunlight's ebbing streams, Dilating, on earth's verge the sunken meteor gleams.

22.

Its keel has struck the sands beside our feet;-- Then Cythna turned to me, and from her eyes _4640 Which swam with unshed tears, a look more sweet Than happy love, a wild and glad surprise, Glanced as she spake: 'Ay, this is Paradise And not a dream, and we are all united!

Lo, that is mine own child, who in the guise _4645 Of madness came, like day to one benighted In lonesome woods: my heart is now too well requited!'

23.

And then she wept aloud, and in her arms Clasped that bright Shape, less marvellously fair Than her own human hues and living charms; _4650 Which, as she leaned in pa.s.sion's silence there, Breathed warmth on the cold bosom of the air, Which seemed to blush and tremble with delight; The glossy darkness of her streaming hair Fell o'er that snowy child, and wrapped from sight _4655 The fond and long embrace which did their hearts unite.

24.

Then the bright child, the plumed Seraph came, And fixed its blue and beaming eyes on mine, And said, 'I was disturbed by tremulous shame When once we met, yet knew that I was thine _4660 From the same hour in which thy lips divine Kindled a clinging dream within my brain, Which ever waked when I might sleep, to twine Thine image with HER memory dear--again We meet; exempted now from mortal fear or pain. _4665

25.

'When the consuming flames had wrapped ye round, The hope which I had cherished went away; I fell in agony on the senseless ground, And hid mine eyes in dust, and far astray My mind was gone, when bright, like dawning day, _4670 The Spectre of the Plague before me flew, And breathed upon my lips, and seemed to say, "They wait for thee, beloved!"--then I knew The death-mark on my breast, and became calm anew.

26.

'It was the calm of love--for I was dying. _4675 I saw the black and half-extinguished pyre In its own gray and shrunken ashes lying; The pitchy smoke of the departed fire Still hung in many a hollow dome and spire Above the towers, like night,--beneath whose shade _4680 Awed by the ending of their own desire The armies stood; a vacancy was made In expectation's depth, and so they stood dismayed.

27.

'The frightful silence of that altered mood, The tortures of the dying clove alone, _4685 Till one uprose among the mult.i.tude, And said--"The flood of time is rolling on; We stand upon its brink, whilst THEY are gone To glide in peace down death's mysterious stream.