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Shone with a youthful ardour while he spake,
His gathering brow grew stern, and as he raised
His arm, a warrior's impulse charactered

The impassioned gesture. But the King was calm,
And heard him with unchanging countenance;
For he had taken his resolve, and felt
Once more the peace of God within his soul,
As in that hour when by his father's grave
He knelt before Pelayo.

Soon the old man
Pursued in calmer tones.-Thus much I dare
Believe, that Roderick fell not on that day
When treason brought about his overthrow.
If yet he live, for sure I think I know
Ilis noble mind, 't is in some wilderness,
Where, in some savage den inhumed, he drags
The weary load of life, and on his flesh
As on a mortal enemy, inflicts
Fierce vengeance with immitigable hand.
O that I knew but where to bend my way

In his dear search! my voice perhaps might reach
His heart, might reconcile him to himself,
Restore him to his mother ere she dies,
His people and his country; with the sword,
Them and his own good name should he redeem.

O might I but behold him once again
Leading to battle these intrepid bands,
Such as he was,-yea rising from his fall
More glorious, more beloved! Soon I believe
Joy would accomplish then what grief hath failed
To do with this old heart, and I should die
Clasping his knees with such intense delight,
That when I woke in Heaven, even Heaven itself
Could have no higher happiness in store.

eye

Thus fervently he spake, and copious tears
Ran down his cheeks. Full oft the Royal Goth,
Since he came forth again among mankind,
Had trembled lest some curious should read
His lineaments too closely; now he longed
To fall the neck of that old man,
And give his full heart utterance.
Of duty, by the pride of self-controul
Corroborate, made him steadily repress
His yearning nature. Whether Roderick live,
Paying in penitence the bitter price

upon

But the sense

Of sin, he answered, or if earth hath given
Rest to his earthly part, is only known

To him and Heaven. Dead is he to the world;
And let not these imaginations rob
His soul of thy continual prayers, whose aid
Too surely, in whatever world, he needs.
The faithful love that mitigates his fault,
Beavenward addrest, may mitigate his doom.
Living or dead, old man, be sure his soul,-
It were unworthy else,-doth hold with thine
Entire communion! Doubt not he relies
Firmly on thee, as on a father's love,
Counts on thy offices, and joins with thee
In sympathy and fervent act of faith,

Though regions, or though worlds, should intervene.
Lost as he is, to Roderick this must be
Thy first, best, dearest duty; next must be
To hold right onward in that noble path,

Which he would counsel, could his voice be heard.
Now therefore aid me, while I call upon

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Now when from Covadonga down the vale
Holding his way, the princely mountaineer
Came with that happy family in sight
Of Cangas and his native towers, far off
He saw before the gate, in fair array,
The assembled land. Broad banners were displayed,
And spears were sparkling to the sun,
shields shone,
And helmets glittered, and the blairing horn,
With frequent sally of impatient joy,
Provoked the echoes round. Well he areeds,
From yonder ensigns and augmented force,
That Odoar and the Primate from the west
Have brought their aid; but wherefore all were thus
Instructed, as for some great festival,

He found not, till Favila's quicker eye
Catching the ready buckler, the glad boy
Leapt up, and clapping his exultant hands,

Shouted, King! King! my father shall be King

This day! Pelayo started at the word,

And the first thought which smote him brought a sigh
For Roderick's fall; the second was of hope,
Deliverance for his country, for himself
Enduring fame, aud glory for his line.

That high prophetic forethought gathered strength,
As looking to his honoured mate, he read
Her soul's accordant augury; her eyes
Brightened; the quickened action of the blood
Tinged with a deeper hue her glowing cheek,
And on her lips there sate a smile which spake
The honourable pride of perfect love,
Rejoicing, for her husband's sake, to share
The lot he chose, the perils he defied,
The lofty fortune which their faith foresaw.

Roderick, in front of all the assembled troops,
Held the broad buckler, following to the end
That steady purpose to the which his zeal
Had this day wrought the Chiefs. Tall as himself,
Erect it stood beside him, and his hands
Hung resting on the rim. This was an hour
That sweetened life, repaid and recompensed
All losses; and although it could not heal
All griefs, yet laid them for awhile to rest.
The active agitating joy that filled

The vale, that with contagious influence spread
Through all the exulting mountaineers, that gave
New ardour to all spirits, to all breasts
Inspired fresh impulse of excited hope,
Moved every tongue, and strengthened every limb,-
That joy which every man reflected saw

every

From every face of all the multitude,
And heard in every voice, in
sound,
Reached not the King. Aloof from sympathy,
He from the solitude of his own soul

Beheld the busy scene. None shared or knew
His deep and incommunicable joy;
None but that Heavenly Father, who alone

Beholds the struggles of the heart, alone
Knows and rewards the secret sacrifice. 43

Among the chiefs conspicuous Urban stood,

He whom, with well-weighed choice, in arduous time,
To arduous office the consenting Church
Had called when Sindered 44 fear-smitten fled;
Unfaithful shepherd, who for life alone
Solicitous, forsook his flock, when most
In peril and in suffering they required

A pastor's care. Far off at Rome he dwells
In ignominious safety, while the Church
Keeps in her annals the deserter's name;
But from the service which with daily zeal
Devout her ancient prelacy recalls,

Blots it, unworthy to partake her prayers.45
Urban, to that high station thus being called,
From whence disanimating fear had driven
The former primate, for the general weal
Consulting first, removed with timely care
The relics and the written works of saints,
Toledo's choicest treasure, prized beyond
All wealth, their living and their dead remains;
These to the mountain fastnesses he bore
Of unsubdued Cantabria, there deposed,
One day to be the boast of yet unbuilt
Oviedo, and the dear idolatry

Of multitudes unborn. 46 To things of state

Then giving thought mature, he held advice
With Odoar, whom of counsel competent

Of Grecian or Italian artist, trained
In the eastern capital, or sacred Rome,
Still o'er the West predominant, though fallen.
Better the spear befits the shepherd's hand
When robbers break the fold. Now he had laid
The weapon by, and held a natural cross
Of rudest form, unpeeled, even as it grew
On the near oak that morn.

Mutilate alike

Of royal rites was this solemnity.
Where was the rubied crown, the sceptre where,
And where the golden pome, the proud array
Of ermines, aureate vests, and jewelry,
With all which Leuvigild for after kings
Left, ostentatious of his power? 50 The Moor
Had made his spoil of these, and on the field
Of Xercs, where contending multitudes
Had trampled it beneath their bloody feet,
The standard of the Goths forgotten lay
Defiled, and rotting there in sun and rain.
Utterly is it lost; nor ever more
Herald or antiquary's patient search
Shall from forgetfulness avail to save
Those blazoned arms, so fatally of old
Renowned through all the affrighted Occident.
That banner, before which imperial Rome
First to a conqueror bowed her head abased;
Which when the dreadful Hun with all his powers
Came like a deluge rolling o'er the world,
Made head, and in the front of battle broke

And firm of heart he knew. What then they planned, His force, till then resistless; which so oft

Time and the course of over-ruled events

To earlier act had ripened, than their hope
Had ever in its gladdest dream proposed;
And here by agents unforeseen, and means
Beyond the scope of foresight brought about,
This day they saw their dearest heart's desire
Accorded them: All-able Providence

Thus having ordered all, that Spain this hour
With happiest omens, and on surest base,
Should from its ruins rear again her throne.

For acclamation and for sacring now

One form must serve, more solemn for the breach
Of old observances, whose absence here
Deeplier imprest the heart, than all display
Of regal pomp and wealth pontifical,
Of vestments radiant with their gems, and stiff
With ornature of gold; the glittering train,
The long procession, and the full-voiced choir.
This day the forms of piety and war,
In strange but fitting union must combine.
Not in his alb and cope and orary 47
Came Urban now, nor wore he mitre here,
Precious or auriphrygiate; 48 bare of head
He stood, all else in arms complete, and o'er
His gorget's iron rings the pall was thrown
Of wool undyed, which on the Apostle's tomb
Gregory had laid, 49 and sanctified with prayer;
That from the living Pontiff and the dead
Replete with holiness, it might impart
Doubly derived its grace. One Page beside
Bore his broad-shadowed helm; another's hand
Held the long spear, more suited in these times
For Urban, than the crosier richly wrought
With silver foliature, the elaborate work

Had with alternate fortune braved the Frank;
Driven the Byzantine from the farthest shores
Of Spain, long lingering there, to final flight;
And of their kingdoms and their name despoiled
The Vandal, and the Alan, and the Sueve; 51
Blotted from human records is it now

As it had never been. So let it rest
With things forgotten! But Oblivion ne'er
Shall cancel from the historic roll, nor Time,

Who changeth all obscure that fated sign,
Which brighter now than mountain snows at noon
To the bright sun displays its argent field.

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Refulgent, and recalled that thrilling shout
Which he had heard when on Romano's grave
The joy of victory woke him from his dream,
And sent him with prophetic hope to work
Fulfilment of the great events ordained,
There in imagination's inner world
Prefigured to his soul.

Alone advanced Before the ranks, the Goth in silence stood, While from all voices round, loquacious joy Mingled its buzz continuous with the blast Of horn, shrill pipe, and tinkling cymbals' clash, And sound of deafening drum. But when the Prince Drew nigh, and Urban with the cross upheld Stept forth to meet him, all at once were stilled With instantaneous hush; as when the wind, Before whose violent gusts the forest oaks, Tossing like billows their tempestuous heads, Roar like a raging sea, suspends its force, And leaves so dead a calm that not a leaf Moves on the silent spray. The passing air Bore with it from the woodland undisturbed The ringdove's wooing, and the quiet voice Of waters warbling near.

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Now and for ever, O my countrymen!
Replied Pelayo; and so deal with me

Here and hereafter, thou, Almighty God,
In whom I put my trust!

Lord God of Hosts, 51
Urban pursued, of Angels and of Men
Creator and Disposer, King of Kings,
Ruler of Earth and Heaven,-look down this day,
And multiply thy blessings on the head
Of this thy servant, chosen in thy sight!
Be thou his counsellor, his comforter,

His hope, his joy, his refuge, and his strength!
Crown him with justice, and with fortitude!
Defend him with thy all-sufficient shield!
Surround him every where with the right hand
Of thine all-present power! and with the might
Of thine omnipotence, send in his aid
Thy unseen angels forth, that potently
And royally against all enemies

He may endure and triumph! Bless the land
O'er which he is appointed; bless it with
The waters of the firmament, the springs
Of the low-lying deep, the fruits which sun
And moon mature for man, the precious stores
Of the eternal hills, and all the gifts
Of earth, its wealth and fulness!

Then he took
Pelayo's hand, and on his finger placed

The mystic circlet.-With this ring, O Prince,
To our dear Spain, who like a widow now
Mourneth in desolation, I thee wed:
For weal or woe thou takest her, till death
Dispart the union: Be it blest to her,
To thee, and to thy seed!

Thus when he ceased,

He gave the awaited signal. Roderick brought
The buckler: 53 Eight for strength and stature chosen
Came to their honoured office: Round the shield
Standing, they lower it for the Chieftain's feet,
Then slowly raised upon their shoulders lift
The steady weight. Erect Pelayo stands,
And thrice he brandishes the shining sword,
While Urban to the assembled people cries,
Spaniards, behold your King! The multitude
Then sent forth all their voice with glad acclaim,
Raising the loud Real; thrice did the word
Ring through the air, and echo from the walls
Of Cangas. Far and wide the thundering shout,
Rolling among reduplicating rocks,

Pealed o'er the hills, and up the mountain vales.
The wild ass starting in the forest glade
Rau to the covert; the affrighted wolf
Skulked through the thicket, to a closer brake;
The sluggish bear, awakened in his den,
Roused up, and answered with a sullen growl,
Low-breathed and long; and at the uproar scared,
The brooding eagle from her nest took wing.

yon

heaven

Heroes and Chiefs of old! and ye who bore
Firm to the last your part in that dread strife,
When Julian and Witiza's viler race
Betrayed their country, hear ye from
The joyful acclamation which proclaims
That Spain is born again! O ye who died
In that disastrous field, and ye who fell
Embracing with a martyr's love your death
Amid the flames of Auria; and all ye
Victims innumerable, whose cries unheard
On earth, but heard in heaven, from all the land

Went up for vengeance; not in vain ye cry

Before the eternal throne!-Rest, innocent blood!
Vengeance is due, and vengeance will be given!
Rest, innocent blood! The appointed age is come!
The star that harbingers a glorious day
Hath risen! Lo there the avenger stands! Lo there
Ble brandishes the avenging sword! Lo there
The avenging banner spreads its argent field
Refulgent with auspicious light!-Rejoice,
O Leon, for thy banner is displayed, 54
Rejoice with all thy mountains, and thy vales
And streams! And thou, O Spain, through all thy realms,
For thy deliverance cometh! Even now,

As from all sides the miscreant hosts move on;-
From southern Betis; from the western lands
Where through redundant vales smooth Minho flows,
And Douro pours through vine-clad hills the wealth
Of Leon's gathered waters; from the plains
Burgensian, in old time Vardulia called,
But in their castellated strength ere long
To be designed Castille, a deathless name;
From midland regions where Toledo reigns
Proud city on her royal eminence,
And Tagus bends his sickle round the scene
Of Roderick's fall;55 from rich Rioja's fields;

Dark Ebro's shores; the walls of Salduba,
Seat of the Sedetanians old, by Rome
Cæsarian and August denominate,
Now Zaragoza, in his later time

Above all cities of the earth renowned
For duty perfectly performed;-East, West,
And South, where'er their gathered multitudes
Urged by the speed of vigorous tyranny,
With more than with commeasurable strength
Haste to prevent the danger, crush the hopes
Of rising Spain, and rivet round her neck
The eternal yoke,—the ravenous fowls of heaven
Flock there presentient of their food obscene,
Following the accursed armies, whom too well
They know their purveyors long. Pursue their march,
Ominous attendants! Ere the moon hath filled
Her horns, these purveyors shall become the prey,
And ye on Moorish not on Christian flesh
Wearying your beaks, shall clog your scaly feet
With foreign gore. Soon will ye learn to know,
Followers and harbingers of blood, the flag
Of Leon where it bids you to your feast!
Terror and flight shall with that flag go forth,
And Havoc and the Dogs of War and Death.
Thou Covadonga with the tainted stream
Of Deva, and this now rejoicing vale,
Soon its primitial triumphs wilt behold!
Nor shall the glories of the noon be less
Than such miraculous promise of the dawn:
Witness Calvijo, where the dreadful cry
Of Santiago, then first heard, o'erpowered
The Akbar, and that holier name blasphemed
By misbelieving lips! Simancas, thou
Be witness! And do ye your record bear,
Tolosan mountains, where the Almohade
Beheld his myriads scattered and destroyed,
Like locusts swept before the stormy North!
Thou too, Salado, on that later day

When Africa received her final foil,

And thy swoln stream incarnadined, rolled back
The invaders to the deep,-there shall they toss
Till on their native Mauritanian shore
The waves shall cast their bones to whiten there.

XIX.

RODERICK AND RUSILLA.

WHEN all had been performed, the royal Goth
Looked up toward the chamber in the tower,
Where, gazing on the multitude below,
Alone Rusilla stood. He met her eve,
For it was singling him amid the crowd;
Obeying then the hand which beckoned him,
He went with heart prepared, nor shriuking now,
But arm'd with self-approving thoughts that hour.
Entering in tremulous baste, he closed the door,
And turned to clasp her knees; but lo, she spread
Her arms, and catching him in close embrace,
Fell on his neck, and cried, My Son, my Son!-
Ere long, controlling that first agony,
With effort of strong will, backward she bent,
And gazing on his head now shorn and grey,
And on his furrowed countenance, exclaimed,
Still, still, my Roderick! the same noble mind!

The same heroic heart! Still, still, my Son!-
Changed,—yet not wholly fall'n,- -not wholly lost,
He cried, not wholly in the sight of Heaven
Unworthy, O my Mother, nor iu thine!
She locked her arms again around his neck,
Saying, Lord let me now depart in peace!
And bowed her head again, and silently
Gave way to tears.

When that first force was past,
And passion in exhaustment found relief,—
I knew thee, said Rusilla, when the dog
Rose from my feet, and licked his master's hand.
All flashed upon me then; the instinctive sense
That goes unerringly where reason fails,—
The voice, the eye,-a mother's thoughts are quick;-
Miraculous as it seemed,-Siverian's tale,-
Florinda's,-every action,-every word,—
Each strengthening each, and all confirming all,
Revealed thee, O my son! but I restrained
My heart, and yielded to thy holier will
The thoughts which rose to tempt a soul not yet
Weaned wholly from the world.

What thoughts? replied
Roderick. That I might see thee yet again
Such as thou wert, she answered; not alone
To Heaven and me restored, but to thyself,—
Thy Crown,-thy Country,-all within thy reach;
Heaven so disposing all things, that the means
Which wrought the ill, might work the remedy.
Methought I saw thee once again the hope,-
The strength,—the pride of Spain! The miracle
Which I beheld made all things possible.

I know the inconstant people, how their mind,
With every breath of good or ill report,
Fluctuates, like summer corn before the breeze:
Quick in their hatred, quicker in their love,
Generous and hasty, soon would they redress
All wrongs of former obloquy.—I thought
Of happiness restored,-the broken beart

Healed, and Count Julian, for his daughter's sake,
Turning in thy behalf against the Moors
His powerful sword:-all possibilities
That could be found or fancied, built a dream
Before me; such as easiest might illude
A lofty spirit trained in palaces,

And not alone amid the flatteries

Of youth with thoughts of high ambition fed
When all is sunshine, but through years of woe,
When sorrow sanctified their use, upheld
By honourable pride and earthly hopes.

I thought I yet might nurse upon my knee
Some young Theodofred, and see in him
Thy father's image and thine own renewed,
And love to think the little hand which there
Played with the bauble, should in after days
Wield the transmitted sceptre;-that through him
The ancient seed should be perpetuate,
That precious seed revered so long, desired
So dearly, and so wonderously preserved.

Nay, he replied, Heaven hath not with its bolts
Scathed the proud summit of the tree, and left
The trunk unflawed; ne'er shall it clothe its boughs
Again, nor push again its scyons forth,
Head, root, and branch, all mortified alike!-
Long ere these locks were shorn had I cut off

The thoughts of royalty! Time might renew
Their length, as for Manoah's captive son,
And I too on the miscreant race, like him,
Might prove my strength regenerate; but the hour
When in its second best nativity,

My soul was born again through grace, this heart
Died to the world. Dreams such as thine pass now
Like evening clouds before me; if I think
flow beautiful they seem, 't is but to feel
How soon they fade, how fast the night shuts in.
But in that World to which my hopes look on,
Time enters not, nor Mutability:

Beauty and Goodness are unfading there;
Whatever there is given us to enjoy,

That we enjoy for ever, still the same—

Much might Count Julian's sword achieve for Spain
And me; but more will his dear daughter's soul
Effect in Heaven; and soon will she be there
An Angel at the Throne of Grace, to plead
In his behalf and mine.

I knew thy heart,
She answered, and subdued the vain desire.

It was the World's last effort. Thou hast chosen
The better part. Yea, Roderick, even on earth
There is a praise above the monarch's fame,
A higher, holier, more enduring praise,
And this will yet be thine!

O tempt me not,
Mother! he cried, nor let ambition take
That specious form to cheat us! What but this,
Fallen as I am, have I to offer Heaven?
The ancestral sceptre, public fame, content
Of private life, the general good report,
Power, reputation, happiness,-whate'er
The heart of man desires to constitute
His earthly weal,--unerring Justice claimed
In forfeiture. I with submitted soul
Bow to the righteous law and kiss the rod.
Only while thus submitted, suffering thus,-
Only while offering up that name on earth,
Perhaps in trial offered to my choice,
Could I present myself before thy sight;
Thus only could endure myself, or fix
My thoughts upon that fearful pass, where Death
Stands in the Gate of Heaven!-Time passes on,
The healing work of sorrow is complete;
All vain desires have long been weeded out,
All vain regrets subdued; the heart is dead,
The soul is ripe and eager for her birth.
Bless me, my Mother! and come when it will
The inevitable hour, we die in
peace.

So saying, on her knees he bowed his head;
She raised her hands to Heaven and blest her child;
Then bending forward, as he rose, embraced
And claspt him to her heart, and cried, Once more,
Theodofred, with pride behold thy son!

XX.

THE MOORISH CAMP.

Taɛ times are big with tidings; every hour
From east and west and south the breathless scouts
Bring swift alarums in; the gathering foe,

Advancing from all quarters to one point,
Close their wide crescent. Nor was aid of fear
To magnify their numbers needed now:
They came in myriads. Africa had poured
Fresh shoals upon the coast of wretched Spain;
Lured from their hungry deserts to the scene
Of spoil, like vultures to the battle-field,
Fierce, unrelenting, habited in crimes,
Like bidden guests the mirthful ruffians flock
To that free feast which in their Prophet's name
Rapine and Lust proclaimed. Nor were the chiefs
Of victory less assured, by long success
Elate, and proud of that o'erwhelming strength,
Which, surely they believed, as it had rolled
Thus far uncheck'd, would roll victorious on,
Till, like the Orient, the subjected West
Should bow in reverence at Mahommed's name;
And pilgrims, from remotest Arctic shores,
Tread with religious feet the burning sands
Of Araby and Mecca's stony soil.
Proud of his part in Roderick's overthrow,
Their leader Abulcacem came, a man
Immitigable, long in war renowned.

Here Magued comes, who on the conquered walls
Of Cordoba by treacherous fear betrayed,
Planted the moony standard: Ibrahim here,
He, who by Genil and in Darro's vales,

Had for the Moors the fairest portion won
Of all their spoils, fairest and best maintained,
And to the Alpuxarras given in trust
His other name, through them preserved in song.
Here too Alcahman, vaunting his late deeds
At Auria, all her children by the sword
Cut off, her bulwarks rased, her towers laid low,
Her dwellings by devouring flames consumed.
Bloody and hard of heart, he little weened,
Vain boastful chief! that from those fatal flames
The fire of retribution had gone forth
Which soon should wrap him round.

The renegades

Here too were seen, Elba and Sisibert;
A spurious brood, but of their parents' crimes
True heirs in guilt begotten, and in ill
Trained up. The same unnatural rage that turned
Their swords against their country, made them seek,
Unmindful of their wretched mother's end,
Pelayo's life. No enmity is like
Domestic hatred! For his blood they thirst,
As if that sacrifice might satisfy
Witiza's guilty ghost, efface the shame

Of their adulterous birth, and, one crime more
Crowning a hideous course, emancipate
Thenceforth their spirits from all earthly fear.
This was their only care; but other thoughts
Were rankling in that elder villain's mind,
Their kinsman Orpas, he of all the crew,
Who in this fatal visitation fell,

The foulest and the falsest wretch that e'er
Renounced his baptism. From his cherished views
Of royalty cut off, he coveted

Count Julian's wide domains, and hopeless now
To gain them through the daughter, laid his toils
Against the father's life,-the instrument
Of his ambition first, and now designed
Its victim. To this end with cautious hints,

At favouring season ventured, he possessed

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