"Look!" cried the warrior and outstretched his spear—
"'Tis not auspicious hour for such a plea."
Following the motion of his hand she saw
From the horizon phantom suns and moons
Shoot swiftly, or along the red edge roll.
Dim on the distant verge of ghostly shores
Pale fleets of paler shades, and flying hosts
Of spectral horsemen on their vanishing steeds,
Fled either way before the coming morn;
While fairies that, on snow-flakes, sailed about
Down through the valleys darted out of sight;
And meteors, coursing higher in the sky,
Exploded in their wrath, dropping down dead
The fiery ghouls who rode their shining wings.
Sudden, while Olive gazed, she thought a flame
Sprang from her feet, when looking, startled, down,
She saw the glory of the rising sun
Touching the pinnacle of sparkling ice
On which she stood. Silent and rapt she gazed
While thousand golden flames on thousand spires
Were low and lower lit; and here and there
Some broad plain glimmered into sudden white—
And frozen cataracts which, in daring leaps
Midway between vast depths were holden tight,
Gleamed out like streams of gold:—Thus, one by one,
The wonders of that soulless land appeared,
While grey and ghast, behind the sparkling towers
Of gorgeous Thug, the ancient Night stooped down.
Wole gnashed his teeth and turned again to smite
The helpless girl who pleaded; but the light
Which angered him had beautified her so,
That his cold breath grew moist upon his beard.
The sunlight melting in her eyes and flushing
Her cheeks with rosy redness, crowned her hair
With lustrous splendor, and about her form
Fell like a robe of glory, warm and soft.
"Mortal!" he cried, while in the agony
'Twixt admiration and inherent hate,
The sullen throbbing of his heart was seen
Thrilling his moistened beard—"Pass from my sight!
Thou makest old Thug's warrior drop his spear,
And should that fair face beam on me eternal,
Eternal I would swear the sun was good
And Oene was no Queen. Yet I would rather,
Crush thee beneath my feet, than be this traitor."
He would have thrust her rudely from his path.
But she arose from off her bended knee,
Turning her fair face from him, so her hair
Hid its too touching beauty from his sight;
Clasping her suppliant hands upon her bosom
She spoke out wildly, as one weary waiting
For long-expected good;—
"Oh, cruel Wole!
Where is my Bertho in this mountain hidden?—
Shaping fantastic dreams of heartless Oene,
With aching hands into a tangible beauty.
How can'st thou keep two yearning souls apart?
If thou could'st feel what love is, mighty master
Of loveless War, then thou would'st pity me!"
"Thou shalt behold thy lover, southern girl,"
Was Wole's reply, and reaching round the rock
Took up a horn shorn from some monster's head
And blew in it a blast meant to be angry:
Yet strangely pining from the curves it came,
And went down wailing through the pallid sunlight,
For it was born of the tumultuous sigh
Stirred in his bosom by the lovely stranger.
Soon the sound smote against a pinnacle
Which someway down the mountain had just caught
The radiance of the morning, and now stood
A ruby palace on a crystal base,
With emrald towers and columns sapphire-hued:
While at the summons, swift was lifted up
A shining net-work from behind the columns,
And out there flew two fair, unearthly sprites,
With wings like birds of Paradise, and bodies
Of shape uncertain; for so swiftly shifted
Their rainbow hues amid enwreathing mists,
That Olive likened them to those vagaries
Born to the eyes that gaze upon the spray
Of cataracts dashing in the sun. Their flying
Made music like the flowing on of streams,
They came and hovered in the air before her,
While she regarded them with timid looks
Of fear and pleasure, seeing not their features,
But floating hair of gold, and beamy brightness
As of white foreheads and blue, humid eyes.
Next moment she was lifted from the earth,
Encircled, as it were, by many rainbows,
And rushing, bird-like, through the airy space:
While a monotonous, soft and sleepy humming
Rose all around and filled her drowsy ears.
Brief time it was, 'till, with bewildered eyes,
She saw her fairies vanish in a mist,
Floating away in music, while she stood
Alone, far down the mountain opposite
The side that with such toil she just had climbed.
She stood alone—and where? the roses shrank
From her wan cheeks to view her new distress,—
Before her a dark chasm, and above her
A crowd of close and overhanging rocks,
All dripping, black, and hopelessly down-leant.
A glimmering hope now broke upon her sense—
Seeing an arch, and, far beyond, the gleam
Of lights that from some cavern stole away.
Under the arch she passed and found herself
Walking an ever-widening vista down,
Fading from twilight to auroral glows
And brightening into more than noon-day breadth
And gorgeousness of light, until she paused
Beneath the grand arch of that grand succession,
Standing amazed, one slender hand upheld
Shading her eyes, half blinded by that view
Of Arctic-Nature and of Arctic-Art.
In limitless magnificence the cave
Before her spread, a world within a world.
She entered in, like Eve in Paradise
Searching for Adam; and yet, oft beguiled
From the great love-thought, by the sights she saw.
If she glanced upward to the sparkling dome,
The lamps, swinging like suns as far above,
Shone down upon her beautiful young face,
Smiling to see them dwarfed within her eyes.
The crystal floor doubled her bashful feet;
She saw no walls; but the refulgent space
Was here and there disturbed by artful groups.
Once, by a fountain passing, dulcet murmurs,
Wooed her aside to listen; and, again,
Temples, which mimicked the frost's fairy work,
Burning with gems, attracted her to gaze.
Music, from hidden sources, beat the air
With wings of melody that flew abroad
Beyond th' enchanted sense, and darting back
Swept with a sweet vibration near her face.
Thrice o'er her brow she drew her languid hand,
That, if it were a dream, she might dispel
The gay enchantment; and thrice murmured o'er
The spells learned of her nurse in infancy,
Which would all witchcraft render innocent;
But that great cavern of the northern world
Was not by nurse's spells to be dissolved,
Growing more wond'rous, as she wondered more.