nd now at Odo, that last threshold, waited to
destroy; or there, missing the revenge they sought, still swore to
hunt me round Eternity.

Behind the avengers, raged a stormy mob, invoking Media to renounce
his rule. But one hand waving like a pennant above the smoke of some
sea-fight, straight through that tumult Media sailed serene: the
rioters parting from before him, as wild waves before a prow
inflexible.

A haven gained, he turned to Mohi and the minstrel:--"Oh, friends!
after our long companionship, hard to part! But henceforth, for many
moons, Odo will prove no home for old age, or youth. In Serenia only,
will ye find the peace ye seek; and thither ye must carry Taji, who
else must soon be slain, or lost. Go: release him from the thrall of
Hautia. Outfly the avengers, and gain Serenia. Reek not of me. The
state is tossed in storms; and where I stand, the combing billows must
break over. But among all noble souls, in tempest-time, the headmost
man last flies the wreck. So, here in Odo will I abide, though every
plank breaks up beneath me. And then,--great Oro! let the king die
clinging to the keel! Farewell!"

Such Mohi's tale.

In trumpet-blasts, the hoarse night-winds now blew; the Lagoon, black
with the still shadows of the mountains, and the driving shadows of
the clouds. Of all the stars, only red Arcturus shone. But through the
gloom, and on the circumvallating reef, the breakers dashed ghost-white.

An outlet in that outer barrier was nigh.

"Ah! Yillah! Yillah!--the currents sweep thee ocean-ward; nor will I
tarry behind.--Mardi, farewell!--Give me the helm, old man!"

"Nay, madman! Serenia is our haven. Through yonder strait, for thee,
perdition lies. And from the deep beyond, no voyager e'er puts back."

"And why put back? is a life of dying worth living o'er again?--Let
_me_, then, be the unreturning wanderer. The helm! By Oro, I will
steer my own fate, old man.--Mardi, farewell!"

"Nay, Taji: commit not the last, last crime!" cried Yoomy.

"He's seized the helm! eternity is in his eye! Yoomy: for our lives we
must now swim."

And plunging, they struck out for land: Yoomy buoying Mohi up, and the
salt waves dashing the tears from his pallid face, as through the
scud, he turned it on me mournfully.

"Now, I am my own soul's emperor; and my first act is abdication!
Hail! realm of shades!"--and turning my prow into the racing tide,
which seized me like a hand omnipotent, I darted through.