Page:Lalla Rookh - Moore - 1817.djvu/113

The Gheber bowed, thinking his idol star
Had waked, and burst impatient thro' the bar
Of midnight to inflame him to the war;
While he of MOUSSA'S creed saw in that ray
The glorious Light which in his freedom's day
Had rested on the Ark, and now again^[1]
Shone out to bless the breaking of his chain.

"To victory!" is at once the cry of all--
Nor stands MOKANNA loitering at that call;
But instant the huge gates are flung aside,
And forth like a diminutive mountain-tide
Into the boundless sea they speed their course
Right on into the MOSLEM'S mighty force.
The watchmen of the camp,--who in their rounds
Had paused and even forgot the punctual sounds
Of the small drum with which they count the night,^[2]
To gaze upon that supernatural light,--

1. The Shechinah, called Sakfnat in the Koran.--See Sale's Note, chap. ii.
2. The parts of the night are made known as well by instruments of music, as by the rounds of the watchmen with cries and small drums.--See Burder's Oriental Customs, vol. i. p. 119.