More and more brilliant grows the scene, though ever with the dominant grave figure.  With sudden stroke as of fatal blast returns the earlier fierce burst of revolt, rising to agitation of the former lament, blending both moods and motives, and ending with a broader stress of the first tragic motto.

Now, Allegro con brio, with herald calls of the brass and fanfare of running strings (drawn from the personal theme), in bright major the whole song bursts forth in brilliant gladness.  At the height the exaltation finds vent in a peal of simple melody.  The “triumph” follows in broadest, royal pace of the main song in the wind, while the strings are madly coursing and the basses reiterate the transformed motive of the cadence.  The end is a revel of jubilation.

MAZEPPA

The Mazeppa music is based upon Victor Hugo’s poem, in turn founded upon
Byron’s verse, with an added stirring touch of allegory.

The verses of Hugo first tell how the victim is tied to the fiery steed, how—­

“He turns in the toils like a serpent in madness,
And ... his tormentors have feasted in gladness
Upon his despair.

* * * * *

“They fly.—­Empty space is behind and before them

* * * * *

“The horse, neither bridle nor bit on him feeling,
Flies ever; red drops o’er the victim are stealing: 
His whole body bleeds. 
Alas! to the wild horses foaming and champing
That followed with mane erect, neighing and stamping,
A crow-flight succeeds. 
The raven, the horn’d owl with eyes round and hollow,
The osprey and eagle from battle-field follow,
Though daylight alarm.

* * * * *

“Then after three days of this course wild and frantic,
Through rivers of ice, plains and forests gigantic,
The horse sinks and dies;

* * * * *

“Yet mark!  That poor sufferer, gasping and moaning,
To-morrow the Cossacks of Ukraine atoning,
Will hail as their King;

* * * * *

“To royal Mazeppa the hordes Asiatic
Will show their devotion in fervor ecstatic,
And low to earth bow.”

In his splendid epilogue the poet likens the hero to the mortal on whom the god has set his mark.  He sees himself bound living to the fatal course of genius, the fiery steed.

“Away from the world—­from all real existence
He is borne upwards, despite his resistance
On feet of steel. 
He is taken o’er deserts, o’er mountains in legions,
Grey-hoary, thro’ oceans, and into the regions
Far over the clouds;
A thousand base spirits his progress unshaken
Arouses, press round him and stare as they waken,
In insolent crowds

* * * * *

“He cries out with terror, in agony grasping,
Yet ever the mane of his Pegasus clasping,
They heavenward spring;
Each leap that he takes with fresh woe is attended;
He totters—­falls lifeless—­the struggle is ended—­
And rises as King!"[A]