The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-01-23


 her that her happiness was gone for ever. The veil had fallen in which the passion of love had first disguised it. self and now 1t was as painful for her to know that she loved as it had been de- licious to love without knowing it. Of Feramorz. too. she thought. She was convinced that he suffered also, but they must part never to meet more in this world A deep melancholy took posses sion of her. Her freshness and beauty began to fade away as the petals of rose are blighted by an early frost and scattered by rude winds
 And all the festivities which marked the entrance of the daughter of the great Aurungzebe into Lahore could not distract the thoughts of Lalla Rookh. The raJahs and omras of her train, who had kept at a certain distance during the journey and never encamped nearer to her pa vilion than her safety required, now rooe in glttering cavalcade through the gor- geously decorated streets and dispensed the most costly presents to the crowd. Engines were erected in all the squares which cast forth flowers of confestion- cry among the people, while the artisans riding in chariots gilded and ornate, dis played the sparkling badges of their re- epective trades Such brilliant displays of life and pageantry among the palaces and domes and gilded minarets or Lahore made the city like a place of encnant- ment, and when the Princess resumed her journey she was accompanied 10 the city gates by all the fairest and richest of the nobility, and rode along between ranks of beautiful boys and girls, who kept waving over their heads plates or gold and silver flowers. which they thre" around to be gathered by the popuiace. Lalla Rookh summoned no more the poet to her presence. She felt that she must not again expose herself to the witchery of that voice and that form.
 A gloom fell over the whole company and the ladies of her train, who now had nothing to do all day long but 10 pc famed by slaves with peacock feathers, seemed heartily weary of the life they led and longed for the poet again In spite of the criticisms of Fadladeen. The roao now was bad, and, in some places' dan eerous, and the chamberlain, feeling the inconvenience of the journey, was nearly oursing the memory of Jehan Cure LOT blessed memory) because he had not con tinued his delectable alley of trees at least as far as the Vale of Cashmere. It was rather mournful wedding party.
 One evening as Lalla Rookh. who had for the sake of air and exercise mounted a small palfrey, was passing by small grove she heard from amid the trees the sound of a lute and a voice she knew only too well singing to it's accompani- msnt:
 Tell me not of joys above
 If that world can give no bliss
 Truer, happier than love,
 Which enslaves our souls in this.
 Tell me not of hourrs eyes;
 Ear from me their dangerous glow.
 If the looks that light the skies
 Wound like some that burn below.
 Who that feels that love is here.
 All its falsehood, all it's pain,
 Would for evn Elysium's sphere
 Risk that fatal dream again?
 It was Feramorz. and the Princess rode on with the sad but stffl sweet certainty that he was as enamored and as miser- abls as herself at their hopeless love. The place where the expedition .encamped that evening was the first delightful spot they had pitched their tents in since leaving Lahore. On one side was a grove full of small Hindoo temples and planted with the most graceful trees of the east the tamarind, the acacia, the siiken plan tain of Ceylon and the high fan foliage of the Palmyra palm, that tree favored of the luxurious bird which lights up its nest with captive freflies. In the middle of the lawn where the royal pavilion stood was a marble tank surrounded by mango trees, and upon the clear, cool water of the tank fioated multitudes of the beautiful red lotus flowers. At little distance stood a grim and awful tower in ruins and seemingly old enough to have been the abode or shrine of some religion now forgotten. The curiosity of the Princess was aroused concerning the tower and when Fadladeen had delivered himself of an oration very learned, very prolix and proving conclusively that he knew nothing about the subject upon which he spoke. some one suggested that perhaps the poet. Feramorz. would know the history of the ruins
 Fadladeen was shocked at the sugges- tion, for, like many men of the present day, he preferred his own scientific igno- rance to the best knowledge that any one could give him. The Princess, too interposed faint objection to the sum moning of Feramorz. but amid the clam bring of her ladies slave was dispatched for the poet. who presently entered the pavilion, looking so pale and unhappy in Laila Rookh's eyes that she already re- pented of the cruelty which had kept him so long from her presence. The vener- able tower. he told them, was the remains of an ancient fire temple, built by the Ghebers. Persians of the old religion, who had many hundreds of years before fled hither from the Arab conquerors. It was impossible, he said. not to feel interested in the many glorious but unsuccessful attempts which the lire worshippers had made to cast of the yoke of their op- pressors. And he proposed, with the s.er- mission of the Princess, to recite . poem, the theme of which dealt with the devo- tees of this ancient and now extinct sect Fadladeen was aghast at the bold words of the poet, thus openly sympathizing with heresy. but before he could speak to denounce such abhorrent sentiments V1~l~ tt.n f<.r