28 

 *ASLAN AND VASILIKI. 



He sleeps yet o'er that pale, majestic brow 



What sadness droops ; his noble countenance 



Is -wrought on by the spirit of a dream, 



Awhile 'tis clothed in darkness like a sky 



Ere tempests rend it and anon it thrills 



With quick and dreadful change as through a fiend 



Distorted every feature. Ah ! he starts 



And with instinctive and convulsive grasp 



Unsheaths a poinard from his jewelled vest, 



As though some deadly conflict sought its aid ; 



Then, like the victim of delirium spent 



With fever's fiery effort, he sinks down 



In melancholy stupor. Yet he lies 



Beneath a gorgeous canopy : around 



Are scattered shining riches of the South, 



Wine of Tokay and viands that might tempt 



The sickliest appetite : his silken robes 



Are matched not in Genoa's curious loom 



Nor Persia's finest craft, and yet they fail 



To find him happiness. His hoary head 



Is rested on a loved and lovely breast 



That throbs with anxious care a gentle hand 



With softest touch arranges every fold 



Of his disordered robe a form, whose gaze 



Denotes affection that can live through change, 



Is bending o'er him : Vasiliki weeps ! 



Weeps o'er the fortunes of her Moslem lord 



And with devotion's pious tone invokes 



The Virgin's aid the saving hand of Heaven 



Fair Slave ! the victim of a tyrant's lust, 



Though Asian's isle is leagured, though the sound 



Of booming guns comes howling on the wind, 



Though foes are round him mixed with traitor-friends, 



Ali Pacha, of Janina, was surnamed Asian or the Lion. 



