Part 15 (2/2)

SORAIS' SONG

As a desolate bird that through darkness its lost way is winging, As a hand that is helplessly raised when Death's sickle is swinging, So is life! ay, the life that lends passion and breath tothat is full of a sweetness unspoken, As a spirit unbarring the gates of the skies for a token, So is love! ay, the love that shall fall when his pinion is broken

As the tra, As the shout of the Stor, So is power! ay, the power that shall lie in the dust at its ending

So short is our life; yet with space for all things to forsake us, A bitter delusion, a drea footsteps at morn or at eve shall o'ertake us

Refrain

Oh, the world is fair at the dawning--dawning--dawning, But the red sun sinks in blood--the red sun sinks in blood

I only wish that I could write down the an the second verse, and turned my back

'Nyleptha,' he said--for my nerves were so much on the stretch that I could hear every word, low as it was spoken, even through Sorais' divine notes--'Nyleptha, I ht, upon my life I must Say me not nay; oh, say me not nay!'

'How can I speak with thee?' she answered, looking fixedly before her; 'Queens are not like other people I am surrounded and watched'

'Listen, Nyleptha, thus I will be before the statue of Raden and can pass in

Macuuard, and with him the Zulu Oh come, my Queen, deny me not'

'It is not seemly,' she an to die in the last wail of the refrain, and Sorais slowly turned her round

'I will be there,' said Nyleptha, hurriedly; 'on thy life see that thou fail ht--dead night--and the silence lay on the Frowning City like a cloud

Secretly, as evildoers, Sir Henry Curtis, Ues towards a by-entrance to the great Throne Chae of the sentry I gave the countersign, and the rounded his spear and let us pass Also ere officers of the Queens' bodyguard, and in that capacity had a right to coained the hall in safety So empty and so still was it, that even e had passed the sound of our footsteps yet echoed up the lofty walls, vibrating faintly and still hosts of the footsteps of deadthe place that once they trod

It was an eerie spot, and it oppressed reat pencils and patches of light through the high less openings in the walls, that lay pure and beautiful upon the blackness of the marble floor, like white flowers on a coffin One of these silver arrows fell upon the statue of the sleeping Rade it, and a s me of that hich Catholics illumine the altars of their cathedrals

Here by the statue we took our stand, and waited Sir Henry and I close together, Uaas some paces off in the darkness, so that I could only juston the outline of an axe

So long did ait that I alainst the cold ive a quick catching breath Then froh the statues that lined the walls hispering to each other soes

It was the faint sweep of a lady's dress Nearer it grew, and nearer yet We could see a figure steal froht, and even hear the soft fall of sandalled feet Another second and I saw the black silhouette of the old Zulu raise its arm in mute salute, and Nyleptha was before us

Oh, how beautiful she looked as she paused a ht! Her hand was pressed upon her heart, and her white bosom heaved beneath it Round her head a broidered scarf was loosely thrown, partially shadowing the perfect face, and thus rendering it even more lovely; for beauty, dependent as it is to a certain extent upon the iination, is never so beautiful as when it is half hid