Thus we stood:—snake and victim: life ebbing out from me, to her.
But from that spell, I burst again, as all the Past smote all the Present in me.
“Oh Hautia! thou knowest the mystery I die to fathom. I see it crouching in thine eye:—Reveal!”
“Weal or woe?”
“Life or death!”
“See, see!” and Yillah’s rose-pearl danced before me.
I snatched it from her hand:—“Yillah! Yillah!”
“Rave on: she lies too deep to answer; stranger voices than thine she hears:—bubbles are bursting round her.”
“Drowned! drowned then, even as she dreamed:—I come, I come!—Ha, what form is this?—hast mosses? sea-thyme? pearls?—Help, help! I sink!—Back, shining monster!—-What, Hautia,—is it thou?—Oh vipress, I could slay thee!”
“Go, go,—and slay thyself: I may not make thee mine;—go,—dead to dead!—There is another cavern in the hill.” Swift I fled along the valley-side; passed Hautia’s cave of pearls; and gained a twilight arch; within, a lake transparent shone. Conflicting currents met, and wrestled; and one dark arch led to channels, seaward tending.