THE VICTORIES OF THE SUTLEJ. "Arma! Arma! aqui vienen los Ingleses." Canto the First. I. THE moon had risen radiant and fair, II. It peeped through the trellis of Leila's bower, B Leila waits for her husband's return, By the moonbeams' gentle ray; III. Her long raven tresses were loose to the breeze, "Why lingers he thus from his lonely bride? IV. "But, hark! what footfall strikes upon mine ear? That mighty tread is full familiar here. Or is it that my anxious ear deceives, And fancies what my fluttering heart believes? I surely heard the rustling fig leaves part, Ah, see he comes! But what forebodes my heart? How sad, how lowering is his manly brow! What ill impending shall afflict me now?" With flashing eyes that gleamed with sullen ire, With darkly shaded and portentous brow, With lion-heart, unused to bend or fawn, An Indian, a Sikh, in short-a Man! In stepped his Leila's glory-Abdoul Khan. V. His Leila's form he fondly pressed, And still his long-drawn sighs betrayed Its nature or its cause explaining. But Leila must this sorrow know, And set herself, with all her woman's art, To make the pent-up torrent flow, And all his pain beguile him to impart. 'Twas thus at length the mourning chief revealed The dread disasters of the fatal field. B 2 Canto the Second. I. "I SAW the sun so brightly shining O'er the blue Indus' wave, But ere 'twas on that wave reclining I saw on Moodkee's plains advancing By twilight dim their swords were glancing In grim, imposing show. Where is the Punjab's ancient glory, Her splendour and her pride? 'Tis now a tale of olden story, Departed like the tide. Her palmy days of freedom over, To British lords she bows, Whose blood-stained sway, enthralling ever, No free-drawn breath allows. |