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THE ROSE OF JERICHO.

37

"Oh yes, 'twas then you promised, my bosom's only choice,
Love sparkled in your eyes, sweet, and trembled in your voice—
You promised I should see you, when others all were gone,
And I was left, an old man, forgotten and alone.

"Again, love, I shall see you—your own lips told me so,
When, though we loved so truly, we parted long ago:
This was to be the token, the true, undoubted sign—
The rose should once more open, in warm and glowing wine.

" And now I am an old man, oh shew yourself at last—
For thus the rose of Jericho into the cup I cast!
The wine shall glow more warmly, the rose once more be young!
Then hasten back, you dear one, whom I have miss'd so long!

His wither'd hands, that tremble with joy and yet with awe,
Still nearer and still nearer the goblet slowly draw;
The lamp aright he places—it will but dimly shine;
And then the rose he kisses, and drops it in the wine.

Behold! the wine is sparkling—the rose a perfume gives,
And more and more expanded are swelling forth its leaves.
Fix'd on the rose and goblet the old man's eye is gleaming—
It is hope's joyous lustre that in his eye is beaming.

And fuller, ever fuller, the fragrant rose-leaves blow;
And gladder, and still gladder, the old man's features glow.
The radiance is increasing, the light has fill'd the room,
—There stands the rose, unfolded, amid the goblet's fume!

Back in his chair the old man has slowly sunk at last.
He long is left unheeded'tis thought he slumbers fast;
But in the morn his servants have found him leaning,dead—
The rose is in the goblet, still blooming, fresh, and red.

A VISIT TO THE CITY OF THE KHALIFS.

BY W. FRANCIS AINSWORTH, ESQ.

The great plain of Babylon is terminated to the north by the Median wall, traces of which still exist; and by low rocky hills, the passes of which constituted the Pylæ of Xenophon, a few miles north of the ill-fated field of Cunaxa. Below these, on the banks of the great river is, in the present day, the Arab fort of Feluja, at or near the site of the Macepracta of Ammianus Marcellinus, and the Anbar of the Khalifate. Near the same point the largest of the existing canals in Babylonia takes its start, to pour its waters into the Khor, or lake of Akka Kuf, from whence they are led away by the Daoudiyeh canal to the Tigris. This canal has been navigated throughout its whole length by the Euphrates steamer.

I was one of a party who, on the arrival of the above-mentioned steamer at Feluja, were allowed to visit the city of the Khalifs, with orders to recross the plain to the south, and rejoin at Hillah, an Arab town on the site of ancient Babylon. We accordingly started at two in the morning of the 5th of June, a period of the year, when the cool