40 The Church. From massacre of blood untold, When persecuting Error's savage sway And in the valleys lone Of Alp-ennobled Piedmont murder led, The Church hath raised her calm, undaunted head.* A spirit standeth at her side With awed and venerable look, The vasty splendours of the wondrous star And led the wise men on, With offerings bowed to Him the earth reveres- The grandeur and the force of love The love of God from heaven to earth, With healing wing flowed from above, In many a marvellous tongued-shape flame, Lit by the radiant sun; And choirs of angels round the great divan And in despite of manacled Truth, And fierce Idolatry's foul scent Of blood, with obscene Chemos blent,† Emerge from out the brackish Papist flood; The three-crowned Harlot's smile, The modern Ammonite's ferocious band,‡ Firm on its ocean rock the Church shall stand. Hail, Isle! embosomed on the deep, Zoned by the main, on whose dim flood The Word creative erst did brood, Till Darkness bowed itself to sleep, And Light diffusive rose, The shadow of Omniscience in repose; Hail, Glory of the Main! The Christian's purest fane, Majestic altar of the freeman's prayer, The Church is on thy hills, maintain her there. To prevent obscurity, these allusions are to heathen as well as to papal persecutions. +"Next, Chemos, the obscene dread of Moab's sons."-MILTON, b. i. "First, Moloch, horrid king," &c. "him the Ammonite Awake, arise! upon thy fold The wolf is loosed; the bloodhound dark, The parded paramount of Rome hath rung Sorcery, baleful foe, Spreading its paralysing plumes, to shade The hallowed shrine Truth and true Love have made. Ye basking vales, where merry rill, Or mazy brook, runs warbling through; Enticing uplands, wood-entrancing shades, The Sabbath belfry's chime, Sounding 'tween heaven and earth the solemn "Hail !" God's Church is on the land, His voice is on the gale. Offspring of martyr'd sires, allied By furnace-flame to saintly Eve, By the great spirits who once died, That the fine faith of Truth might live; The dragon foul, abborred, That daring tempted man's anointed Lord,— The subtle, obscene breath Of Sin, and her son Death, Creeps like a black fog round thy temple's porch. Sons of the sea, awake! protect your Island Church. Hark! from the green grass graves arise Who died that to his native skies The freeman might by Truth be led. And peace, to spurn the god-creating yoke; To the lightning and the cloud, Tell it in thunder, with triumphant faith, Sons of the Church, ye stand by her till death! Yea, England's temple proudly stands, Her children's lowly grave-yards bound her; Her guardian spirits are angel bands, Who in a fiery globe surround her. Vainly shall Moloch toil To seize again the consecrated spoil; The calf in Horeb raised May be by Rome's dark worshippers bepraised; With our soul's breadth and length, With our faith-fervoured lips, to life's last spark, Will live and die for our great fathers' hallowed ark! VOYAGING IN HINDOSTAN. PART III. RUINS ON THE BANKS OF THE GANGES BY MOONLIGHT. SOON after shooting a-head of the muhajun's fleet, owing to the many jerks and severe straining the beauliah's timbers had sustained when ashore and in the chase, the manjheet reported that a leak had been sprung, and it behoved us to heave-to, in order to repair damages, and refit thoroughly for the cruise of the ensuing day. Accordingly, having baled out the water, which was fast gaining upon us, and communicated by signal with my horse and baggage boats (the beauliah's tenders), dodging along shore considerably astern, we edged away, about an hour before sunset, for the nearest bank; and on passing several deep wooded ravines, and a dry nullah, shortened sail near numerous sandbanks, and, tossing ashore the mooring tackle, lay-to for the night. After being engaged so long, in a cramp, narrow box of a cabin, oppressed almost beyond endurance with the stifling sultriness of the day, and half suffocated with the subtle odours of cockroaches and bilge-water, with joyous alacrity, shouldering a light rifle, I leaped on the bank, and sauntered along the shore. Carlo likewise, freed from restraint, and emancipated from the galling thraldom of his chain and collar, bounded over the beauliah's side, and leisurely followed my receding steps, after rolling over and over on the sand, with wild gleeful gambols. Clambering up the steep ridges of a ravine running parallel with the river, with elastic step and restrung buoyancy of spirit, I rambled exultingly through the tangled wilds that skirted the banks of the Ganges; often halting to gaze, through each opening glade, on the fair sunny aspect of the glowing and gorgeous landscape. The muhajun's fleet, after beating up tardily against the vehemency of the current, hauled closer along shore, and ran for their anchorage ground, on the lee of a Countless flocks of water-fowl on the wing, returning to their favourite roosting haunts, swept along the windings of the river, with rustling pinions; while, at intervals, a solitary heron, or gaunt gigantic crane, sailing slowly onward with long-arching neck, trumpeted forth a shrill note, startling as the blast of a clarion. From afar the jangling tinkle of bells, mellowed by distance, and wild clamour of guowallahs, § urging on their swimming herds across the shallows, fell on the listening ear. While threading my way through dense bamboo thickets, some peafowl, startled by Carlo, ranging in the van, took wing; and scarce had they flashed across a narrow gully, when I heard a sudden crash, and simultaneously a spotted fawn, starting out of the rustling covert, eyed me timidly for an instant, and then vaulting past, along the edge of some dwarf jungle, bounded away with arrowy swiftness. Though somewhat taken aback at the abruptness of this movement, I levelled my rifle, and fired almost at random. The fawn, reeling, staggered forward a pace or two, then instantly rallying again, limped away rapidly through a patch of reeds; whereupon, having reloaded, Carlo and I following eagerly, tracked the stricken deer inland on its bloody trail, and plunged into the jungle. After toiling laboriously over height and hollow, crashing through sundry prickly brakes, and struggling across a narrow swamp, sometimes fast closing with the wounded quarry, and anon bewildered and at fault, I luffed up from the fruitless chase, edged away on a different tack, and whistled off my Beauliah; small decked passage-boat. Pulwar budjerows, or beauliahs of this description, manned with some eight or ten boatmen, owing to their light build, are much more preferable than heavy budjerows, carrying double the above specified complement of rowers, at certain seasons of the year, when the river has little depth teter and the shallows are frequent. four-footed comrade. But I whistled in vain; Carlo was missing. Just at this moment a solitary vulture, descending from the clouds with a sudden swoop, flapped its great dusky wings, and alighted on a tree a little distance ahead, whereupon a brake of reeds began to rustle. Whew! the wounded fawn, again starting up from its covert, burst through some dwarf bramble bushes; while the waving rank grass betrayed its line of retreat, and at the same time precluded my taking steady aim, or expending another random shot. Once more I dashed forward in close pursuit of the crippled game, which still continued to limp onward marvellously fast, notwithstanding the loss of blood, and by an unaccountable mysterious witchery still eluded capture. Nevertheless, I lagged not, nor lingered far behind, but stanchly followed the chase, shouting loud and long, to arrest the further ranging of the missing dog, fearing lest unawares he might fall into the clutches of some ravenous beast. Having heard of the Flying Dutchman, and of satyrs, who could assume at will divers alluring forms, I began to entertain shrewd suspicions that I had encountered some wood demon; but ere long the gasping quarry, after brushing through a long winding alley of the forest, with tottering step and flagging pace scrambled up a bare sandy steep. At this moment the fawn, in the dubious chequered light, seemed to expand in height and volume. Deli berately I brought the rifle to my shoulder, levelled, and pulled the trigger. Ha, Diavolo! the piece missed fire. My blood was up; and, without tarrying to reprime or hammer the flint anew, I clambered up the bank. The fawn, meanwhile, limping through a narrow lagoon, partially dried up by the summer's drought, gained the further side, and finally disappeared. Having crossed the lagoon, I reprimed my piece, and vociferously hailed my lagging companion, until the hoarse emphatic call rang hollowly through the awakened solitude; but a wandering mocking echo only replied in due response to my reiterated summons. Gazing around with eager scrutiny, I sought for some trace of the vanished fawn, and paused bewildered in my career, for the day was far spent. Suddenly, frequent gasps, with a faint, whimpering, pattering sound, caught my attention; and, on wheeling round, rightl gladly I descried the stray dog, "scant of breath," with muzzle poked close to the ground, scenting his master's track throughout its devious windings. At my well-known whistle, Carlo, dabbled with green slime, panting and haggard, darted forward, and cowered timidly by my side, as if haunted by the apparition of some gaunt hyena; and continued closely to stick by me, as I resumed traversing the ground, with hurried strides, in quest of some guiding landmark. While speeding through the sombre arches of a colossal banian tree, under whose umbrageous expanse an herd of a hundred elephants might have found shelter, a sudden brightness glimmered athwart the dim perspective. A murmuring sound, "as of many waters,” first faint, then louder and sullener, every moment became more distinctly audible. I advanced apace; and, on clearing the jungle, stood on the sheer brink of the Ganges, that rolled past, glowing lustrously in the setting sun. Close below, the bastions and buttresses of some ancient stronghold, or palace, overwhelmed by the encroaching flood, formed a reef of ruins, that was seen jutting out towards mid channel. Some of the bastions were lying so entirely on a level with the current, that their site could only be distinguished, amid the rush of waters, by the transient upheaving of the swell, or by the frequent eddy that played around them with a sullen, gurgling sound. Others, like black rocks, stood forth bold and isolated, and might be descried by the river mariner afar off. Around me the wrecked monuments of antiquity were thickly strewn. Forest trees, whose gnarled trunks were hoar with age, waved gloomily over the populous haunts of other days, where of yore had been heard unceasingly "the hum and shock of men ;" and the time-rent structures, in their gaunt desolation, loomed grimmer and sterner beneath the twilight's deepening shadows. I felt awed. A mysterious dread, insensibly stealing upon me, utterly quenched my lust for blood. The fawn and the chase were alike forgotten. Stepping softly over the hollow ground, where once the high born and the mighty men of remotest ancestry had trod, I gained a broken terrace, and there, sitting down, watched the close of day. In the East, what wanderer, far from his fatherland, bas not acknowledged the soft hallowing influences of the hour of eventide, as it steals with its tranquilising serenity and lingering shadows over the landscape? Often a mysterious stillness ushers in the tropic twilight, hushing to peace the disquieted breast, after sleepless nights and scorching days, and lulling the soul to voluptuous abandonment and repose. If ever there be a season when the exile, far removed from the turmoil of a busy world, reviews the past with deepening emotions, with rekindling warmth of heart, and contemplates with feelings of mingled joy and regret the scenes of happier years, emphatically that season is the hour of sunset. As the gloaming faded away, the tropic skies, "not as in northern climes obscurely bright," tinged with a transient rosy flush, glowed gorgeously. Along the crest of the forest-bound horizon, bright masses of vapour, vividly defined against the heaven's deep crimson, wreathed, volume upon volume, into the similitude of domes, turrets, and minarets, in faultless accuracy of outline and detail. Erewhile the summer lightnings began to flit, with red flickering glances, aslant the cloud-built pinnacles, until they gleamed fitfully with evanescent refulgence, like the gilded domes of a Moslem city illumined by the last quivering rays of the setting sun. Numerous squirrels were vaulting sportively from bough to bough. Flocks of parakeets, green as emerald," darted overhead, screaming harshly. The lemon-scented grass and odoriferous shrubs exhaled a more balmy The sombre masses of fragrance. . jungle, "immeasurably spread," almost imperceptibly assumed a blacker and duskier aspect. Swarms of fluttering insects, that had basked unseen in the languor and sultriness of noonday, started into active life, and brake upon the evening's stilly hush with a continuous buzzing hum. Through the broken arches the bat skimmed by with a drowsy flutter; while the crisp withered leaves that strewed the ground rustled faintly, as a solitary green lizard glided past to its dwelling-place, in some old hollow stump. Myriads of fire-flies twinkled with brilliant vivid ness beneath the banian tree's low- 'Alingering halo, hovering round decay." Anon the moon, rising with unclouded refulgence, overcapped the crest of eternal forests, and lighted up the ruins. Immediately thereafter the stars and fire-flies, acknowledging the splendour of "heaven's bright queen," waned and became less lustrous "So does the brighter glory dim the less." The hoary woods, throughout their tangled depths, glistened faintly in the moonshine; and the slow rolling Ganges, serene as a summer's lake, along its winding expanse, grew chequered with the tremulous silvery light, and glimmered with the phosphores cence of a tropic sea. Lingering on this half-forgotten site of ancient palaces, I gazed wistfully on the moonlit ruin. Erewhile the night breeze, whispering softly through tufts of jungle-grass that waved from crevices in the mouldering walls, in a still small voice seemed to tell of other years, and bemoan with a plaintive dirge the ravages of time and glories now departed. Withdrawing within myself, as it were, in solemn communings with my own heart, I pondered on things that once were, and mused pensively on the chivalrous daring and heroism of the warriors of remotest antiquity-warriors |