The frail, but the fragrant boat,
Bear it, soft Air, along!

II.
With the burthen of sound we are laden,
Like the bells on the trees of Aden,*
When they thrill with a tinkling tone
At the Wind from the Holy Throne,
Hark, as we move around,
We shake off the buds of sound;
Thy presence, Beloved, is Aden.

III.
Sweet chime that I hear and wake
I would, for my lov'd one's sake,
That I were a sound like thee,
To the depths of his heart to flee.
If my breath had his senses blest;
If my voice in his heart could rest;
What pleasure to die like thee!

*[The Mohammedans believe that musical bells hang on the trees of
Paradise, and are put in motion by a wind from the throne of God.]

The music ceased; the dancers remained motionless in their graceful
postures, as if arrested into statues of alabaster; and the young
songstress cast herself on a cushion at the feet of the monarch, and
looked up fondly, but silently, into his yet melancholy eyes,--when a
man, whose entrance had not been noticed, was seen to stand within the
chamber.

He was about the middle stature,--lean, muscular, and strongly though
sparely built. A plain black robe, something in the fashion of the
Armenian gown, hung long and loosely over a tunic of bright scarlet,
girdled by a broad belt, from the centre of which was suspended a small
golden key, while at the left side appeared the jewelled hilt of a
crooked dagger. His features were cast in a larger and grander mould
than was common among the Moors of Spain; the forehead was broad,
massive, and singularly high, and the dark eyes of unusual size and
brilliancy; his beard, short, black, and glossy, curled upward, and
concealed all the lower part of the face, save a firm, compressed, and
resolute expression in the lips, which were large and full; the nose
was high, aquiline, and well-shaped; and the whole character of the
head (which was, for symmetry, on too large and gigantic a scale as
proportioned to the form) was indicative of extraordinary energy and
power. At the first glance, the stranger might have seemed scarce on
the borders of middle age; but, on a more careful examination, the deep
lines and wrinkles, marked on the forehead and round the eyes, betrayed
a more advanced period of life. With arms folded on his breast, he stood
by the side of the