but a brief and a mocking ray,
To make darkness darker to-morrow.

"And 'tis not to the vile and base alone
That unchanging grief and sorrow are known,
But as oft to the pure and guileless;
And he, from whose fervid and generous lip,
Gush words of the kindest fellowship,
Of the same pure fountain may not sip
In return, but it is sad and smileless!

"Yes; such doomed mortals, alas! there be
And mine is that self-same destiny;
The fate of the lorn and lonely;
For e'en in my childhood's early day,
The comrades I sought would turn away;
And of all the band, from the sportive play
Was I thrust and excluded only.

"When fifteen summers had passed o'er my head,
I stood on the battle-field strewn with the dead.
For the day of the Moslem's glory
Had made me an orphan child, and there
My sire was stretched; and his bosom bare
Showed a gaping wound; and the flowing hair
Of his head was damp and gory.

"My sire was the chief of the patriot band,
That had fought and died for their native land,
When her rightful prince betrayed her;
On his kith and kin did the vengeance fall
Of the Mussulman foes--and each and all
Were swept from the old ancestral hall,
Save myself, by the fierce invader!

"And I was spared from that blood-stained grave
To be dragged away as the Moslem's slave,
And bend to the foe victorious,--
But, O Greece! to thee does my memory turn
Its longing eyes--and my heart-strings yearn
To behold thee rise in thy might and spurn,
As of yore, thy yoke inglorious!

"But oh! whither has Spartan courage fled?
And why, proud Athens! above thine head
Is the Mussulman crescent gleaming?
Have thine ancient memories no avail?
And art thou not fired at the legend tale
Which reminds thee how the whole world grew pale,
And recoiled from thy banners streaming?"

"Enough, boy," exclaimed Ibrahim: then in a low tone, he murmured to
himself, "The Christians have indeed much cause to anathematize the
encroachments and tyranny of the Moslems."

There was a short pause, during which the grand vizier was absorbed in
profound meditation, while the Greek page never once withdrew his eyes
from the countenance of that high functionary.

"Boy," at length said Ibrahim, "you appear attached to me. I have
observed many proofs of you