Poem III

"Let the chamber be cleared."--The train disappeared--"Now call me the chief of the Haram guard"--With Giaffir is none but his only son,And the Nubian awaiting the sire's award."Haroun--when all the crowd that waitAre passed beyond the outer gate,(Woe to the head whose eye beheldMy child Zuleika's face unveiled!)Hence, lead my daughter from her tower--fcHer fate is fixed this very hour;Yet not to her repeat my thought--By me alone be duty taught!"

"Pacha! to hear is to obey."--No more must slave to despot say--Then to the tower had ta'en his way:But here young Selim silence brake,First lowly rendering reverence meet;And downcast looked, and gently spake,Still standing at the Pacha's feet:For son of Moslem must expire,Ere dare to sit before his sire!"Father! for fear that thou shouldst chideMy sister, or her sable guide--Know--for the fault, if fault there be,Was mine--then fall thy frowns on me!So lovelily the morning shone,That--let the old and weary sleep--I could not; and to view aloneThe fairest scenes of land and deep,With none to listen and replyTo thoughts with which my heart beat highWere irksome--for whate'er my mood,In sooth I love not solitude;I on Zuleika's slumber broke,And, as thou knowest that for meSoon turns the Haram's grating key,Before the guardian slaves awokeWe to the cypress groves had flown,And made earth, main, and heaven our own!There lingered we, beguiled too longWith Mejnoun's tale, or Sadi's song;fdTill I, who heard the deep tambourBeat thy Divan's approaching hour,To thee, and to my duty true,Warned by the sound, to greet thee flew:But there Zuleika wanders yet--Nay, Father, rage not--nor forgetThat none can pierce that secret bowerBut those who watch the women's tower."