hate'er it was that flashed on Conrad, now 1060
A laughing wildness half unbent his brow:
And these his accents had a sound of mirth,
As if the last he could enjoy on earth;
Yet 'gainst his nature--for through that short life,
Few thoughts had he to spare from gloom and strife.

XIV.

"Corsair! thy doom is named--but I have power
To soothe the Pacha in his weaker hour.
Thee would I spare--nay more--would save thee now,
But this--Time--Hope--nor even thy strength allow;
But all I can,--I will--at least delay 1070
The sentence that remits thee scarce a day.
More now were ruin--even thyself were loth
The vain attempt should bring but doom to both."

"Yes!--loth indeed:--my soul is nerved to all,
Or fall'n too low to fear a further fall:
Tempt not thyself with peril--me with hope
Of flight from foes with whom I could not cope:
Unfit to vanquish--shall I meanly fly,
The one of all my band that would not die?
Yet there is one--to whom my Memory clings, 1080
Till to these eyes her own wild softness springs.
My sole resources in the path I trod
Were these--my bark--my sword--my love--my God!
The last I left in youth!--He leaves me now--
And Man but works his will to lay me low.
I have no thought to mock his throne with prayer
Wrung from the coward crouching of Despair;
It is enough--I breathe--and I can bear.
My sword is shaken from the worthless hand
That might have better kept so true a brand; 1090
My bark is sunk or captive--but my Love--
For her in sooth my voice would mount above:
Oh! she is all that still to earth can bind--
And this will break a heart so more than kind,
And blight a form--till thine appeared, Gulnare!
Mine eye ne'er asked if others were as fair."

"Thou lov'st another then?--but what to me
Is this--'tis nothing--nothing e'er can be:
But yet--thou lov'st--and--Oh! I envy those
Whose hearts on hearts as faithful can repose, 1100
Who never feel the void--the wandering thought
That sighs o'er visions--such as mine hath wrought."

"Lady--methought thy love was his, for whom
This arm redeemed thee from a fiery tomb."

"My love stern Seyd's! Oh--No--No--not my love--
Yet much this