, from his o'erfraught soul
'Twas such relief his burning thoughts to pour
In other ears, that oft the strong control
Of pride he felt them burst, and could restrain no more.
Zophiel was soft, but yet all flame; by turns
Love, grief, remorse, shame, pity, jealousy,
Each boundless in his breast, impels or burns:
His joy was bliss, his pain was agony.

Such are the principal preter-human characters in the poem. Egla, the
heroine, is a Hebress of perfect beauty, who lives with her parents
not far from the city of Ecbatana, and has been saved, by stratagem,
from a general massacre of captives, under a former king of Medea.
Being brought before the reigning monarch to answer for the supposed
murder of Meles, she exclaims,

Sad from my birth, nay, born upon that day
When perished all my race, my infant ears
Were opened first with groans; and the first ray
I saw, came dimly through my mother's tears.

Zophiel is described throughout the poem as burning with the
admiration of virtue, yet frequently betrayed into crime by the
pursuit of pleasure. Straying accidentally to the grove of Egla, he is
struck with her beauty, and finds consolation in her presence. He
appears, however, at an unfortunate moment, for the fair Judean has
just yielded to the entreaties of her mother and assented to proposals
offered by Meles, a noble of the country; but Zophiel causes his rival
to expire suddenly on entering the bridal apartment, and his previous
life at Babylon, as revealed in the fifth canto, shows that he was not
undeserving of his doom. Despite her extreme sensibility, Egla is
highly endowed with "conscience and caution;" and she regards the
advances of Zophiel with distrust and apprehension. Meles being
missed, she is brought to court to answer for his murder. Her sole
fear is for her parents, who are the only Hebrews in the kingdom, and
are suffered to live but through the clemency of Sardius, a young
prince who has lately come to the throne, and who, like many oriental
monarchs, reserves to himself the privilege of decreeing death. The
king is convinced of her innocence, and, struck with her extraordinary
beauty and character, resolves suddenly to make her his queen. We know
of nothing in its way finer than the description which follows, of her
introduction, in the simple costume of her country, to a gorgeous
banqueting hall in which he sits with his assembled chiefs: