THE PASHA AND THE DERVISH

 ("Un jour Ali passait.") 
 
 {XIII, Nov. 8, 1828.} 


 Ali came riding by—the highest head 
 Bent to the dust, o'ercharged with dread, 
 Whilst "God be praised!" all cried; 
 But through the throng one dervish pressed, 
 Aged and bent, who dared arrest 
 The pasha in his pride. 
 
 "Ali Tepelini, light of all light, 
 Who hold'st the Divan's upper seat by right, 
 Whose fame Fame's trump hath burst— 
 Thou art the master of unnumbered hosts, 
 Shade of the Sultan—yet he only boasts 
 In thee a dog accurst! 
 
 "An unseen tomb-torch flickers on thy path, 
 Whilst, as from vial full, thy spare-naught wrath 
 Splashes this trembling race: 
 These are thy grass as thou their trenchant scythes 
 Cleaving their neck as 'twere a willow withe— 
 Their blood none can efface. 
 
 "But ends thy tether! for Janina makes 
 A grave for thee where every turret quakes, 
 And thou shalt drop below 
 To where the spirits, to a tree enchained, 
 Will clutch thee, there to be 'mid them retained 
 For all to-come in woe! 
 
 "Or if, by happy chance, thy soul might flee 
 Thy victims, after, thou shouldst surely see 
 And hear thy crimes relate; 
 Streaked with the guileless gore drained from their veins, 
 Greater in number than the reigns on reigns 
 Thou hopedst for thy state. 
 
 "This so will be! and neither fleet nor fort 
 Can stay or aid thee as the deathly port 
 Receives thy harried frame! 
 Though, like the cunning Hebrew knave of old, 
 To cheat the angel black, thou didst enfold 
 In altered guise thy name." 
 
 Ali deemed anchorite or saint a pawn— 
 The crater of his blunderbuss did yawn, 
 Sword, dagger hung at ease: 
 But he had let the holy man revile, 
 Though clouds o'erswept his brow; then, with a smile, 
 He tossed him his pelisse. 


 

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