The Works of William Harrison Ainsworth
Page 844
Bays the garbage-glutted hound,
Quakes the blind mole underground.
Hissing glides the speckled snake;
Loathliest things their meal forsake.
From their, holes beneath the wall,
Newt, and toad, and adder crawl —
In the Sabbath-dance to sprawl!
Round with whistle and with whoop,
Sweep the ever-whirling troop;
Louder grows their frantic glee —
Wilder yet their revelry,
“Her Sabat! — Sabat!” — they cry,
A young girl joins their company.
III.
See that dark-hair’d girl advances —
In her hand a poignard glances;
On her bosom, white and bare,
Rests an infant passing fair:
Like a thing from heavenly region,
‘Mid that diabolic legion.
Lovelier maid was never seen
Than that ruthless one, I ween:
Shape of symmetry hath she,
And a step as wild-doe free.
Her jetty hair is all unbound,
And its long locks sweep the ground,
Hushed in sleep her infant lies —
“Perish! child of sin,” she cries,
“To fiends thy frame I immolate —
To fiends thy soul I dedicate!
Unbaptised, unwept, unknown —
In hell thy sire may claim his own.”
From her dark eyes fury flashes —
From her breast her babe she dashes.
Gleams the knife — her brow is wrinkled —
With warm blood her hand is sprinkled!
Without a gasp — without a groan,
Her slumbering infant’s soul hath flown.
At Sathan’s feet the corse is laid ——
To Sathan’s view the knife display’d.
A roar of laughter shakes the pile —
A mocking voice exclaims the while: —
“By this covenant — by this sign,
False wife! false mother! thou art mine!
Weal or we, whate’er betide,
Thy doom is sealed, infanticide!
Shall nor sire’s nor brother’s wrath,
Nor husband’s vengeance cross thy path;
And on him, thy blight, thy bane,
Hell’s consuming fire shall reign!”
Round with whistle and with whoop,
Sweep the ever-whirling troop;
In the caldron bubbling fast,
The babe is by its mother cast!
“Eman hetan!” shout the crew,
And their frenzied dance renew.
IV.
The Fiend’s wild strains are heard no more —
Dabbled in her infant’s gore,
The new-made witch the caldron stirs —
Howl the demon-worshippers.
Now begin the Sabbath rites —
Sathan marks his proselytes;
And each wrinkled hag anoints
With unguents rank her withered joints.
Unimaginable creeds —
Unimaginable deeds —
Foul, idolatrous, malicious,
Baleful, black, and superstitious,
Every holy form profaning,
Every sacred symbol staining,
Each foul sorcerer observes,
At the feet of him he serves.
— Here a goat is canonized,
Here a bloated toad baptised;
Bells around its neck arc hung,
Velvet on its back is flung;
Mystic words are o’er it said,
Poison on its brow is shed.
Here a cock of snowy plume,
Flutters o’er the caldron’s fume;
By a Hebrew Moohel slain,
Muttering spells of power amain.
— There within the ground is laid
An image that a foe may fade,
Priest unholy, chanting faintly
Masses weird with visage saintly;
While respond the howling choir
Antiphons from dark grimoire.
Clouds from out the caldron rise,
Shrouding fast the star-lit skies.
Like ribs of mammoth through the gloom,
Hoar Montfaucon’s pillars loom;
Wave its dead — a grisly row —
In the night-breeze to and fro.
At a beck from Sathan’s hand,
Drop to earth that charnel baud, —
Clattering as they touch the ground
With a harsh and jarring sound.
Their fluttering rags, by vulture rent,
A ghastly spectacle present;
Flakes of flesh of livid hue,
With the white bones peeping through.
Blue phosphoric lights are seen
In the holes where eyes have been:
Shining through each hollow skull,
Like the gleam of lantern dull!
— Hark! they shake their manacles —
Hark! each hag responsive yells!
And her freely-yielded waist
Is by fleshless arms embraced,
Once again begins the dance —
How they foot it — how they prance!
Round the gibbet-cirque careering,
On their grinning partners fleering,
While, as first amid their ranks,
The new-made witch with Sathan pranks.
— Furious grows their revelry, —
But see! — within the eastern sky,
A bar of gold proclaims the sun —
Hark! the cock crows — all is done!
With a whistle and a whoop,
Vanish straight the wizard troop;
On the bare and blasted ground,
Homed hoofs no more resound:
Caldron, goat, and broom are flown,
And Montfaucon claims its own.
INCANTATION.
I.
LOVELY spirit, who dost dwell
In the bowers invisible,
By undying Hermes reared,
By Stagyric sage revered,
Where the silver fountains wander,
Where the golden streams meander,
Where the dragon vigil keeps
Over mighty treasure heaps; Where the mystery is known,
Of the wonder working Stone;
Where the quintessence is gained,
And immortal life attained —
Spirit by this spell of power,
I call thee from thy viewless bower.
II.
The charm is wrought — the word is spoken
And the sealed vial broken!
Element with element
Is incorporate and blent;
Fire with water — air with earth,
As before creation’s birth;
Matter gross is purified, Matter humid rarefied;
Matter volatile is fixed,
The spirit with the clay commixed.
Laton is by azoth purged,
And the argent-vif disgorged;
And the black crow’s head is ground,
And the magistery found;
And with broad empurpled wing
Springs to light the blood-red king,
By this fiery assation —
By this wondrous permutation
Spirit, from thy burning sphere
Float to earth — appear — appear!
THE WONDROUS STONE.
I.
WITHIN the golden portal
Of the garden of the wise,
Watching by the seven-spray’d fountain,
The Hesperian Dragon lies.
Like the ever-burning branches
In the dream of holy seer;
Like the types of Asia’s churches
Those glorious jets appear.
Three times the magic waters
Must the Winged Dragon drain;
Then his scales shall burst asund
er,
And his heart be reft in twain.
Forth shall flow an emanation,
Forth shall spring a shape divine,
And if Sol and Cynthia aid thee,
Shall the charmed Key be thine.
II.
In the solemn groves of Wisdom,
Where black pines their shadows fling
Near the haunted cell of Hermes,
Three lovely flow’rets spring:
The violet damask-tinted,
In scent all flowers above;
The milk-white vestal lily,
And the purple flower of love.
Red Sol a sign shall give thee
Where the sapphire violets gleam,
Watered by the rills that wander
From the viewless golden stream,
One violet shalt thou gather —
But ah! — beware, beware! —
The lily and the amaranth
Demand thy chiefest care.
III.
Within the lake of crystal,
Roseate as the sun’s first ray,
With eyes of diamond lustre,
A thousand fishes play.
A net within that water,
A net with web of gold;
If cast where air-bells glitter,
One shining fish shall hold.
IV.
Amid the oldest mountains, Whose tops are next the sun,
The everlasting rivers
Through glowing channels run.
Those mountains are of silver,
Those channels are of gold;
And thence the countless treasures
Of the kings of earth are rolled;
But far — far must he wander
O’er realms and seas unknown,
Who seeks the ancient mountains,
Where shines the WONDROUS STONE!
THE CRYSTAL VASE.
IN that mystic vase doth lie
Life and immortality.
Life to him who droops in death,
To the gasping bosom breath.
Immortality alone
To him to whom the “ Word” is known.
Take it— ’tis a precious boon
Vouchsafed by Hermes to his son.
THE NAMELESS WITCH.
ON the smouldering fire is thrown
Tooth of fox and weasel bone.
Eye of cat, and skull of rat.
And the hooked wing of bat,
Mandrake root and murderer’s gore,
Henbane, hemlock, hellebore,
Stibium, storax, bdellium, borax,
Ink of cuttle-fish and feather
Of the screech-owl, smoke together,
II.
On the ground is a circle traced;
On that circle a seal is placed;
On that seal is a symbol graven;
On that symbol an orb of heaven;
By that orb is a figure shown;
By that figure a name is known:
Wandering witch it is thine own! —
But thy name must not be named,
Nor to mortal ears proclaimed.
Shut are the leaves of the Grimoire dread;
The spell is muttered — the word is said,
And that word, in a whisper drowned,
Shall to thee like a whirlwind sound.
Swift through the shivering air it flies —
Swiftly it traverses earth and skies;
Wherever thou art — above — below —
Thither that terrible word shall go
Art thou on the waste alone,
To the white moon making moan?
Art thou, human eye eschewing,
In some cavern philters brewing?
By familiar swart attended —
By a triple charm defended —
Gatherest thou the grass that waves
O’er dank pestilential graves? —
Or on broom or goat astride,
To thy Sabbath dost thou ride?
Or with sooty imp doth match thee?
From his arms my spell shall snatch thee.
Shall it seek thee — and find thee,
And with a chain bind thee;
And through the air whirl thee,
And at my feet hurl thee!
By the word thou dreadst to hear!
Nameless witch! — appear — appear!
THE TEMPTATION OF SAINT ANTHONY.
SAINT ANTHONY weary
Of hermit-cell dreary,
Of penance, and praying,
Of orison saying,
Of mortification,
And fleshly vexation,
By good sprites forsaken,
By sin overtaken,
On flinty couch lying,
For death, like Job, crying,
Was suddenly shrouded
By thick mists, that clouded
All objects with vapour,
And through them, like taper,
A single star shimmered,
And with blue flame glimmered.
II.
What spell then was muttered
May never be uttered;
Saint Anthony prayed not —
Saint Anthony stayed not —
But down — down descending
Through caverns unending,
Whose labyrinths travel
May never unravel,
By thundering torrent,
By toppling crag horrent,
All perils unheeding,
As levin swift speeding,
Habakkuk out-vying
On seraph-wing flying,
Was borne on fiend’s pinion
To Hell’s dark dominion.
III.
Oh! rare is the revelry
Of Tartarus’ devilry!
Above him — around him —
On all sides surround him —
With wildest grimaces
Fantastical faces!
Here huge bats are twittering,
Strange winged mice flittering,
Great homed owls hooting,
Pale hissing stars shooting,
Red fire-drakes careering
With harpies are fleering.
Shapes whizzing and whirling,
Weird Sabbath-dance twirling,
Round bearded goat scowling,
Their wild refrain howling —
“Alegremonos Alegremos
Quegente nue va tenemos.”
IV.
Here Lemures, Lares,
Trolls, foliots, fairies,
Nymph, gnome, salamander,
In frolic groups wander.
Tearful shapes there are rising,
Of aspect surprising,
Phantasmata Stygia,
Spectra prodigia!
Of aspect horrific,
Of gesture terrific.
Where caldrons are seething,
Lithe serpents are wreathing,
And wizards are gloating
On pois’nous scum floating,
While skull and bone placed out
In circle are traced out.
Here witches air-gliding
On broomsticks are riding,
A hag a faun chases,
A nun Pan embraces.
Here mimic fights waging,
Hell’s warriors are raging;
Each legion commanding
A chief is seen standing.
Beelzebub gleaming,
Like Gentile god seeming —
Proud Belial advancing,
With awful ire glancing;
Asmodeus the cunning,
Abaddon, light shunning,
Dark Moloch deceiving,
His subtle webs weaving;
Meressin air-dwelling,
Red Mammon gold-telling.
V.
The Fiend, then dissembling,
Addressed the saint trembling:
“These are thine if down bowing,
Unto me thy soul vowing,
Thy worship
thoult offer.”
“Back, Tempter, thy proffer
With scorn is rejected.”
“Unto me thou’rt subjected,
For thy doubts, by the Eternal!”
Laughed the Spirit Infernal.
At his word then compelling,
Forth rushed from her dwelling
A shape so inviting,
Enticing, delighting,
With lips of such witchery,
Tongue of such treachery,
(That sin-luring smile is
The torment of Lilis,)
Like Eve in her Eden,
Our father misleading.
With locks so wide flowing
Limbs so bright-glowing; —
That Hell hath bewrayed him
If Heaven do not aid him.
“Her charms are surrendered
If worship is rendered.”
“Sathan, get thee behind me
My sins no more blind me —
By Jesu’s temptation!
By lost man’s salvation!
Be this vision banished!”
And straight Hell evanished.
INSCRIPTION ON A GOLDEN KEY.
Gold! who wert a father’s bane,
Gold! who wert a mother’s stain,
Gold! be thou a daughter’s chain
Of purity.
Shield her breast from sword and fire,
From intemperate desire;
From a heaven-abandon’d sire,
In charity!”
A MIDNIGHT MEETING OF THE LANCASHIRE WITCHES.
[SCENE — The Ruined Conventual Church of Whalley Abbey
MOTHER MOULD-HEELS.
Head of monkey, brain of cat,
Eye of weasel, tail of rat,
Juice of mugwort, mastic, myrrh —
All within the pot I stir.
OLD WIZARD.
Here is foam from a mad dog’s lips,
Gather’d beneath the moon’s eclipse,
Ashes of a shroud consumed,
And with deadly vapour fumed.
These within the mess I cast —
Stir the caldron — stir it fast!
A RED-HAIRED WITCH.
Here are snakes from out the river,
Bones of toad and sea-calf’s liver;
Swine’s flesh fatten’d on her brood,
Wolfs tooth, hare’s foot, weasel’s blood.
Skull of ape and fierce baboon,
And panther spotted like the moon;