ASLAN AND VASILIKI. 29 



Though Stamboul's chieftain claims the sleeper's head, 



Though pale Destruction o'er him waves her wing, 



Yet thou canst love him thou, a * Christian girl 



In youth's bewitching light of southern bloom, 



Hast flung thy fondness like a soothing power 



Around the man of self-created woes. 



Thy pure affection sure might find a charm 



To lull him from his wild and restless dream. 



Oh ! no his slumber teems with vengeful forms 



Reminding him of crimes that one would deem 



Were never planned beneath that noble brow. 



He starts again ! Phrosina's dying tone, 



The curse of injured Vely, Sephir's draught 



Of poison and the shrieks of those who died, 



To sate his appetite for gold and blood, 



At Suli and Preveza, all combine 



In torture to his senses. What can quench 



The flames of burning conscience ? what assuage 



The spirit that hath made itself a hell ? 



* Heine Vasiliki was a model of virtue and piety. Her 

 elevation was one of those prodigies so often occurring in absolute 

 governments. In 1800 Ali had prosecuted her father for coining; 

 and the whole family being seized, Ali accidentally saw Heine, then 

 quite young. He ordered her to be brought up in his harem. The 

 graces of her form, which was of surprising beauty, having attained 

 perfection, Ali married her, without requiring her to abjure the 

 rites of baptism which she had received at her birth. " If I abjured 

 the Holy Virgin, the protector of my infancy, how could you con- 

 fide in the attachment of a woman who sacrificed the riches of 

 immortality for the perishing honours of this life ? " This generous 

 sentiment increased Ali's affection for his young wife, and he not 

 only permitted, but insisted, that an oratory should be erected in 

 his palace, where she might worship according to her own creed. 

 When Ali received his mortal wound, his dying request was that 

 Vasiliki might be poinarded to save her from the ignominy of insult 

 at the hands of his enemies. 



