CHAPTER XLI.

IARINE FINDS HER MOTHER IN THE SEQUESTERED PENINSULA.

WHILE Phantasmion and his allies were conducting their armed force to Rockland, driving along with them troops of sheep and kine formerly plundered from the land of Palms, and followed at a distance by a train of wolves and tigers, which seemed ready to brave any danger for the sake of obtaining a share in the booty, Karadan still contended with the impetuous gale. At length it sank and was no more renewed; the voyagers gained the coast and silence reigned on sea and land while the dark youth placed Iarine on the beach. He told her how she was to find the dwelling of Anthemmina, and tears streamed from the maiden's eyes when he declared that she must seek it alone. "Farewell!" cried Karadan passionately; a ray of joy, at sight of those tears, brightening his sad face. "More than betrothed thou canst not be to any one but him who owns this charmed vessel, and thou hast been betrothed to me -Alas! that wreath upon thy brow !—When next we meet may it be there no longer! Then thou wilt know that I have ventured for thy sake as he who gave that pledge will never dare to do." Sorrowful indeed was the parting of Iarine and Karadan, while each had a heart full of the gloomiest forebodings; but

little did either suspect what worse calamity awaited the other. Karadan stood at the vessel's prow and watched the maiden, hurrying with tremulous feet, along the rocky coast; again and again she turned to wave her hand, and beheld him still keeping his station; at last she disappeared, and her garment, fluttering behind her, vanished out of sight. Then Karadan fastened the pitcher securely to his body, steered away his skiff into the deep water, and looking to the sky, beheld, just dawning into view, a winged form, which, since he first beheld it, had a thousand times been present to his nightly slumbers. He waited not to see the dreaded shape more fully revealed, but plunged into the waves and perished, the charmed vessel remaining still bound to a heart which fear and love could agitate no longer.

Unconscious of his miserable fate Iarine pursued her way to Anthemmina's abode. No living creature met her eye as she hastened on amid sickly herbage or blighted bushes, and the sky wore a leaden hue even more melancholy than that of the plain. Once she looked up and beheld a flight of swallows, which soon descended, like a shower of dappled stones, and lay dead on the ground before her. The farther she advanced the more pining and desolate the face of nature appeared. Beyond the cliffs of the shore she journeyed over a perfectly level plain, and, after a time, the turrets of a solitary dwelling came within view amid the tops of spiral cypresses. Just such a landscape Iarine had beheld in mournful dreams, and she hurried on, hoping by quick motion to escape the sad feelings which the scene re-awakened. After passing a collection of low mounds like graves, she gained the cypress wood, and,

advancing through it, soon found herself in front of that mansion which she had seen at a distance. The door stood open, and Iarine entered, but no one greeted her at the threshold. She traversed many empty apartments, all such as would have befitted a palace; they were decorated with black marble and costly hangings, but the colours of the drapery had fled, while the ornaments and utensils around were tarnished and rusty. She visited a small chamber which contained a bed, hoping to find some tokens of living inhabitants; the bed was occupied, the body of an old man being laid out there, and branches of cypress mixed with yew arranged over the head of the corse.' This solemn sight assured Iarine that some one yet survived in the house or its neighbourhood. She retraced her steps, quitted the mansion, and having crossed the grove that extended behind it, descried two figures, standing beside a boundless sheet of sluggish, lurid water. On she went, and beheld a stately lady all hung over with blue garlands of star-shaped blossoms, her long black tresses floating wide, and her head and neck adorned with strings of pearl. An aged woman, who held a basket, seemed to be contending with her, while she persisted in throwing cakes of bread afar into the marsh with an air of sullen fierceness her companion, having tried in vain to stop her hand, let fall the empty basket, and crossed her arms in all the tranquillity of settled despair.

On Iarine's approach the women in humble apparel turned about and looked at her in astonishment; but the majestic lady continued to gaze upon the marsh. The maiden felt unable to speak, but, perusing her face with deep anxiety, felt assured that she beheld her

mother. The outline of her form and features was grandly beautiful; but her cheeks were white as wax, her blue eyes spectrally bright, and her delicate arms and fingers wasted to the bone. There was something wild and ghastly in her countenance, and strangely it was contrasted with that of her companion, who seemed benumbed by misery, but not bewildered. Who art thou?" said the feeble creature, "and why hast thou come hither to see us perish, and to perish thyself when we are gone?" "Art thou not Dorna, my mother's nurse?" replied the damsel, "and is not this Anthemmina, the wife of Albinian ?” "Woe is me! thou sayest true," replied the aged woman; " and surely thou art the sweet Iarine, whom this wretched lady left in the Palace of Rockland, when she quitted it never to return." All this time Anthemmina remained with her eyes fixed upon the stagnant water, speechless and motionless. The damsel related who she was, and how she had come to that coast, tenderly addressing her mother, but obtaining not a word, nor even a single glance, in return; till at last, she took her hand and implored her to break this fearful silence. Then she who was so gaily bedecked looked up, and, beholding the wreath of jewelled flowers, gazed at it with an astonished countenance. "Zalia," she cried, at length, her eyes kindling with frenzy; "art thou come instead of Dorimant ?" Then, with a wild shriek, she snatched the chaplet from the maiden's brow, and trampled it under her feet. Heart-stricken and overpowered, Jarine sank upon the ground at the feet of the once gentle and captivating Anthemmina. She had found her mother, but alas in what state! Here was the goodly fabric,

to outward view still perfect : all the wondrous materials were yet in being, but the springs within had failed, and the whole was a wreck.

"We are starving!" Dorna cried; "no fresh provisions have been sent us for many months, and our last remnant of food now lies in yonder marsh. Alas! my mistress feels no trouble concerning things like these. Sorrow and the noxious vapours of this pool have turned her brain, and daily she decks herself, as when she first came hither, still expecting to be visited by Dorimant, king of Palmland." "How came she hither?" Iarine exclaimed. "By the arts of Glandreth," Dorna answered, "a storm drove our vessel to this desolate coast, but that storm was raised by Glandreth's power. In those days the wicked chief was enamoured of my mistress, and, I doubt not, beguiled her with feigned tales, saying that Queen Zalia was near her end, and that, when she died, Dorimant would carry her into Palmland. So she trusted herself with him, and, never consenting to become his wife, has remained his wretched captive. I will tell thee more while we repair to the beach : let us go in haste lest thy conductor should sail away." He bade me return to my own country by land," replied the maiden; "saying that this peninsula could scarce be a day's journey from the chief palace of Rockland." "If he is gone we must all perish!" Dorna replied; "there is no passage hence by land. The place is separated from Rockland and Tigridia by this vast marsh, the exhalations whereof are so baleful that any birds which attempt to wing their way high in the air above it are sure to perish. All our household have died, one after another, of lingering