'Tis Ayesha herself, who induced by a dream,
Came to bury the talisman deep in this well:
Down she cast the lov'd ring: by the morning's bright beam
In the eyes of Anglama it flash'd as it fell.
Alert as affection, more rapid than speech,
He darts unperceived, the dear treasure to seek;
Ere the stone in it's fall the deep water can reach,
He o'ertakes; he has caught the lost gem in his beak!
Beware O Anglama! thy foes are abroad,
Thou yet may'st be cross'd in thy faithful intent;
If once thou art spied by the sharp eyes of fraud,
Both her jewel, and thee, thy fair queen must lament.
As conscious of peril the provident bird
Takes refuge unseen in a cleft of the well;
Deposits his prize, and perceiving he's heard,
Flies back in the shelter of silence to dwell.
There repose, thou best vassal to beauty endear'd!
While my song to thy mistress most anxiously turns,
To recount in thy absence what perils she fear'd;
Now she freezes in dread, now her terror she spurns.
By her own noble soul she resolves to subdue
The worst of all fears, that her fancy had crost;
The life of Hermossan in danger she knew,
Supposing she told how his ruby was lost.
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