Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 3.djvu/143

When left to roll its folds below,
As midst her handmaids in the hall
She stood superior to them all,
Hath swept the marble where her feet 500
Gleamed whiter than the mountain sleet
Ere from the cloud that gave it birth
It fell, and caught one stain of earth.
The cygnet nobly walks the water;
So moved on earth Circassia's daughter,
The loveliest bird of Franguestan!^{[decimal 1]}
As rears her crest the ruffled Swan,
And spurns the wave with wings of pride,
When pass the steps of stranger man
Along the banks that bound her tide; 510
Thus rose fair Leila's whiter neck:—
Thus armed with beauty would she check
Intrusion's glance, till Folly's gaze
Shrunk from the charms it meant to praise.
Thus high and graceful was her gait;
Her heart as tender to her mate;
Her mate-stern Hassan, who was he?
Alas! that name was not for thee!^{[decimal 2]}
*****
Stern Hassan hath a journey ta'en
With twenty vassals in his train, 520
Each armed, as best becomes a man,
With arquebuss and ataghan;

Notes

"The fragrant hyacinths of Azza's hair
That wanton with the laughing summer-air;"


and refers Milton's "Hyacinthine locks” (Paradise Lost, iv. 301) to Lucian's Pro Imaginibus, cap. v.]
1. "Franguestan," Circassia. [Or Europe generally—the land of the Frank.]
2. [Lines 504-518 were inserted in the second revise of the Third Edition, July 31, 1813.]