THE 
 
 VISION OF DON RODERICK, 
 
 AND 
 
 OTHER POEMS.
 
 EDINBURGH : 
 Printed by James Ballantyne & Co.
 
 THE 
 
 VISION 
 
 OF 
 
 DON RODERICK, 
 
 AND 
 
 OTHER POEMS. 
 
 Moo 
 
 BY 
 
 WALTJR SCOTT, ESQ. 
 
 THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 EDINBURGH : 
 
 PRINTED FOR AND SOLD BY JOHN BALLANTYNE AND CO., 
 
 EDINBURGH : 
 
 ALSO BY LONGMAN AND CO., WILLIAM MILLER, 
 
 WHITE AND CO., AND GALE AND CO., 
 
 LONDON. 
 
 1811.
 
 Annex
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 THE Publishers have been enabled to add 
 to the present Edition of Don Roderick, 
 several of Mr Scott's smaller Poems, which, 
 though they have before been published se- 
 parately, are not to be found elsewhere in 
 a collected state. 
 
 2123803
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 THE VISION OF DON RODERICK. 
 
 PAGE. 
 Introduction 17 
 
 The Vision 27 
 
 Conclusion < 71 
 
 Notes .., 85 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. 
 
 The Palmer rt 135 
 
 The Maid of Niedpath 139 
 
 Wandering Willie 144 
 
 Hunting Song 14-8 
 
 The Violet 151 
 
 To a Lady, with Flowers from a Roman Wall... 153 
 
 The Bard's Incantation 154- 
 
 The Resolve 159 
 
 Epitaph 163
 
 TO 
 
 JOHN WHITMORE, ESQ. 
 
 AND TO THE 
 
 COMMITTEE OF SUBSCRIBERS FOR RELIEF OF THE FORTUGUEZE 
 SUFFERERS, IN WHICH HE PRESIDES, 
 
 THIS POEM, 
 
 COMPOSED FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE FUND 
 UNDER THEIR MANAGEMENT, 
 
 IS 
 
 RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED 
 BY 
 
 WALTER SCOTT.
 
 THE following Poem is founded upon a 
 Spanish Tradition, particularly detailed in 
 the Notes ; but bearing, in general, that 
 Don Roderick, the last Gothic King of 
 Spain, when the Invasion of the Moors was 
 impending, had the temerity to descend into 
 an ancient vault, near Toledo, the opening 
 of which had been denounced as fatal to the 
 Spanish monarchy. The legend adds, that 
 his rash curiosity was mortified by an em- 
 blematical representation of those Saracens, 
 who, in the year 714, defeated him in battle, 
 and reduced Spain under their dominion. I 
 have presumed to prolong the Vision of the 
 Revolutions of Spain down to the present 
 eventful crisis of the Peninsula ; and to di- 
 vide it, by a supposed change of scene, into 
 THREE PERIODS. The FIRST of these repre-
 
 [ 12 ] 
 
 sents the Invasion of the Moors, the Defeat 
 and Death of Roderick, and closes with the 
 peaceful occupation of the country by the 
 Victors. The SECOND PERIOD embraces the 
 state of the Peninsula, when the conquests 
 of the Spaniards and Portugueze in the East 
 and West Indies had raised to the highest 
 pitch the renown of their arms ; sullied, how- 
 ever, by superstition and cruelty. An allu- 
 sion to the inhumanities of the Inquisition 
 terminates this picture. The LAST PART of 
 the Poem opens with the state of Spain pre- 
 vious to the unparalleled treachery of BUONA- 
 PARTE ; gives a sketch of the usurpation at- 
 tempted upon that unsuspicious and friendly 
 kingdom, and terminates with the arrival of 
 the British succours. It may be farther pro- 
 per to mention, that the object of the Poem 
 is less to commemorate or detail particular 
 incidents, than to exhibit a general and im- 
 pressive picture of the several periods brought 
 upon the stage. 
 
 I am too sensible of the respect due to the 
 Public, especially by one who has already 
 experienced more than ordinary indulgence, 
 9
 
 [ 13 ] 
 
 to offer any apology for the inferiority of the 
 poetry to the subject it is chiefly designed 
 to commemorate. Yet I think it proper to 
 mention, that while I was hastily executing a 
 work, written for a temporary purpose, and 
 on passing events, the task was most cruelly 
 interrupted by the successive deaths of Lord 
 President BLAIR, and Lord Viscount MEL- 
 VILLE. In those distinguished characters, I 
 had not only to regret persons whose lives 
 were most important to Scotland, but also 
 whose notice and patronage honoured my en- 
 trance upon active life ; and I may add, with 
 melancholy pride, who permitted my more 
 advanced age to claim no common share in 
 their friendship. Under such interruptions, 
 the following verses, which my best and hap- 
 piest efforts must have left far unworthy of 
 their theme, have, I am myself sensible, an 
 appearance of negligence and incoherence, 
 which, in other circumstances, I might have 
 been able to remove. 
 
 EDINBURGH, June 24>, 1811.
 
 THE 
 
 VISION OF DON RODERICK, 
 
 Quid dignum mcmorare tuis, Hispania, terris, 
 Vox humana valet ! CLAUDIAN.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 i 
 
 LJIVES there a strain, whose sounds of mounting fire 
 May rise distinguished o'er the din of war, 
 
 Or died it with yon master of the Lyre, 
 Who sung beleaguered Ilion's evil star ? 
 
 Such, WELLINGTON, might reach thee from afar, 
 Wafting its descant wide o'er Ocean's range ; 
 
 Nor shouts, nor clashing arms, its mood could 
 
 mar, 
 
 All as it swell'd J twixt each loud trumpet- change, 
 That clangs to Britain victory, to Portugal revenge !
 
 18 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 II. 
 
 Yes ! such a strain, with all o'erpowering mea- 
 sure, 
 
 Might melodize with each tumultuous sound, 
 Each voice of fear or triumph, woe or pleasure, 
 
 That rings Mondego's ravaged shores around ; 
 The thundering cry of hosts with conquest crown'd, 
 
 The female shriek, the ruin'd peasant's moan, 
 The shout of captives from their chains unbound, 
 
 The foil'd oppressor's deep and sullen groan, 
 A Nation's choral hymn for tyranny o'erthrown. 
 
 III. 
 
 But we, weak minstrels of a laggard day, 
 Skill'd but to imitate an elder page, 
 
 Timid and raptureless, can we repay 
 The debt thou claim'st in this exhausted age ?
 
 INTRODUCTION. 19 
 
 Thou givcst our lyres a theme, that might engage 
 Those that could send thy name o'er sea and land, 
 
 While sea and land shall last ; for Homer's rage 
 A theme ; a theme for Milton's mighty hand- 
 How much unmeet for us, a faint degenerate band ! 
 
 IV. 
 
 Ye mountains stern ! within whose rugged breast, 
 
 The friends of Scottish freedom found repose ; 
 Ye torrents ! whose hoarse sounds have soothed 
 
 their rest, 
 
 Returning from the field of vanquish'd foes j 
 Say, have ye lost each wild majestic close, 
 
 That erst the choir of bards or druids flung, 
 What time their hymn of victory arose, 
 
 AndCattraeth's glens with voice of triumph rung, 
 And mystic Merlin harp'd, and grey-hair'd Llywarch 
 sung.
 
 20 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 V. 
 
 O ! if your wilds such minstrelsy retain, 
 
 * 
 
 As sure your changeful gales seem oft to say, 
 When sweeping wild and sinking soft again, 
 Like trumpet-jubilee, or harp's wild sway ; 
 If ye can echo such triumphant lay, 
 
 Then lend the note to him has loved you long ! 
 Who pious gather'd each tradition grey, 
 That floats your solitary wastes along, 
 And with affection vain gave them new voice in 
 song 
 
 VI. 
 
 For not till now, how oft so'er the task 
 Of truant verse hath lightened graver care, 
 
 From muse or sylvan was he wont to ask, 
 In phrase poetic, inspiration fair 5 
 
 9
 
 INTRODUCTION. 21 
 
 Careless he gave his numbers to the air, 
 
 They came unsought for, if applauses came ; 
 Nor for himself prefers he now the prayer ; 
 
 Let but his verse befit a hero's fame, 
 Immortal be the verse ! forgot the poet's name. 
 
 VII. 
 
 Hark, from yon misty cairn their answer tost : 
 
 " Minstrel ! the fame of whose romantic lyre, 
 Capricious swelling now, may soon be lost, 
 
 Like the light flickering of a cottage fire ; 
 If to such task presumptuous thou aspire, 
 
 Seek not from us the meed to warrior due : 
 Age after age has gather'd son to sire, 
 
 Since our grey cliffs the din of conflict knew, 
 Or, pealing through our vales, victorious bugles 
 blew.
 
 22 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 VIII. 
 '* Decayed our old traditionary lore, 
 
 Save where the lingering fays renew their ring, 
 By milk-maid seen beneath the hawthorn hoar, 
 Or round the marge of Minchmore's haunted 
 
 spring ; 
 Save where their legends grey-hair'd shepherds sing, 
 
 That now scarce win a listening ear but thine, 
 Of feuds obscure, and border ravaging, 
 
 And rugged deeds recount in rugged line, 
 Of moonlight foray made on Teviot, Tweed, or Tyne. 
 
 IX. 
 
 " No ! search romantic lands, where the near Sun 
 Gives with unstinted boon ethereal flame, 
 
 Where the rude villager, his labour done, 
 In verse spontaneous chaunts some favoured 
 name;
 
 INTRODUCTION. 23 
 
 Whether Olalia's charms his tribute claim, 
 
 Her eye of diamond, and her locks of jet ; 
 Or whether, kindling at the deeds of Graeme, 
 
 He sing, to wild Morisco measure set, 
 Old Albin's red claymore, green Erin's bayonet ! 
 
 X. 
 
 " Explore those regions, where the flinty crest 
 
 Of wild Nevada ever gleams with snows, 
 Where in the proud Alhambra's ruin'd breast 
 
 Barbaric monuments of pomp repose ; 
 Or where the banners of more rutliless foes 
 
 Than the fierce Moor, float o'er Toledo's fane, 
 From whose tall towers even now the patriot throws 
 
 An anxious glance, to spy upon the plain 
 The blended ranks of England, Portugal, and Spain.
 
 24 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XI. 
 
 " There, of Numantian fire a swarthy spark 
 
 Still lightens in the snn-burnt native's eye; 
 The stately port, slow step, and visage dark, 
 
 Still mark enduring pride and constancy. 
 And, if the glow of feudal chivalry 
 
 Beam not, as once, thy nobles' dearest pride, 
 Iberia ! oft thy crestless peasantry 
 
 Have seen the plumed Hidalgo quit their side, 
 Have seen, yet dauntless stood 'gainst fortune fought 
 and died. 
 
 XII. 
 
 " And cherished still by that unchanging race, 
 Are themes for minstrelsy more high than thine, 
 
 Of strange tradition many a mystic trace, 
 Legend and vision, prophecy and sign j
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Where wonders wild of Arabesque combine 
 
 With Gothic imagery of darker shade, 
 Forming a model meet for minstrel line. 
 
 Go, seek such theme !" the Mountain Spirit 
 
 said : 
 With filial awe I heard I heard, and I obeyed.

 
 THE 
 
 VISION OF DON RODERICK, 
 
 i. 
 
 XVEARING their crests amid the cloudless skies, 
 
 And darkly clustering in the pale moonlight, 
 Toledo's holy towers and spires arise, 
 
 As from a trembling lake of silver white. 
 Their mingled shadows intercept the sight 
 
 Of the broad burial-ground outstretched below, 
 And nought disturbs the silence of the night ; 
 
 All sleeps in sullen shade, or silver glow, 
 All save the heavy swell of Teio's ceaseless flow.
 
 28 THE VISION OF 
 
 II. 
 
 All save the rushing swell of Teio's tide, 
 
 Or, distant heard, a courser's neigh or tramp ; 
 Their changing rounds as watchful horsemen ride, 
 
 To guard the limits of King Roderick's camp. 
 For, through the river's night-fog rolling damp, 
 
 Was many a proud pavilion dimly seen, 
 Which glimmer'd back, against the moon's fair 
 
 lamp, 
 
 Tissues of silk and silver twisted sheen, 
 And standards proudly pitch'd, and warders armed 
 between. 
 
 III. 
 
 But of their Monarch's person keeping ward, 
 Since last the deep-mouth'd bell of vespers toll'd, 
 
 The chosen soldiers of the royal guard 
 Their post beneath the proud Cathedral hold :
 
 DON RODERICK. 29 
 
 A band unlike their Gothic sires of old, 
 
 Who, for the cap of steel and iron mace, 
 Bear slender darts, and casques bedeck'd with gold, 
 While silver-studded belts their shoulders grace, 
 Where ivory quivers ring in the broad falchion's place. 
 
 IV. 
 
 In the light language of an idle court, 
 
 They murmur'd at their master's long delay, 
 
 And held his lengthen 'd orisons in sport : 
 " What I will Don Roderick here till morning 
 
 stay, 
 To wear in shrift and prayer the night away ? 
 
 And are his hours in such dull penance past 
 For fair Florinda's plunder 'd charms to pay ?" 
 
 Then to the east their weary eyes they cast, 
 And wish'd the lingering dawn would glimmer forth 
 at last.
 
 30 THE VISION OF 
 
 V. 
 
 But, far within, Toledo's prelate lent 
 
 An ear of fearful wonder to the King j 
 The silver lamp a fitful lustre sent, 
 
 So long that sad confession witnessing : 
 For Roderick told of many a hidden thing, 
 
 Such as are lothly uttered to the air, 
 When Fear, Remorse, and Shame, the bosom 
 
 wring, 
 
 And Guilt his secret burthen cannot bear, 
 And Conscienceseeks in speech a respite from Despair. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Full on the Prelate's face, and silver hair, 
 The stream of failing light was feebly roll'd ; 
 
 But Roderick's visage, though his head was bare, 
 Was shadow'd by his hand and mantle's fold.
 
 DON RODERICK. 31 
 
 While of his hidden soul the sins he told, 
 
 Proud Alaric's descendant could not brook, 
 That mortal man his bearing should behold, 
 Or boast that he had seen, when conscience 
 
 shook, 
 Fear tame a monarch's brow, remorse a warrior's look, 
 
 VII. 
 
 The old man's faded cheek waxed yet more pale, 
 As many a secret sad the king bewray'd ; 
 
 And sign and glance eked out the unfinished tale, 
 When in the midst his faultering whisper staid. 
 
 " Thus royal Witiza* was slain," he said ; 
 
 * The predecessor of Roderick upon the Spanish throne, and 
 -lain by his connivance, as is affirmed by Rodriguez of Toledo, 
 the father of Spanish history.
 
 32 THE VISION OF 
 
 " Yet, holy father, deem not it was I." 
 Thus still Ambition strives her crimes to shade 
 
 " Oh rather deem 'twas stern necessity ! 
 Self-preservation bade, and I must kill or die. 
 
 VIII. 
 " And, if Florinda's shrieks alarmed the air, 
 
 If she invoked her absent sire in vain, 
 And on her knees implored that I would spare, 
 
 Yet, reverend priest, thy sentence rash refrain ! 
 All is not as it seems the female train 
 
 Know by their bearing to disguise their mood:" 
 But Conscience here, as if in high disdain, 
 
 Sent to the Monarch's cheek the burning blood 
 He stay'd his speech abrupt and up the Prelate 
 stood.
 
 DOX RODERICK. 33 
 
 IX. 
 
 " O hardened offspring of an iron race ! 
 
 What of thy crimes, Don Roderick, shall I say ? 
 What alms, or prayers, or penance can efface 
 
 Murder's dark spot, wash treason's stain away ! 
 For the foul ravisher how shall I pray, 
 
 W T ho, scarce repentant, makes his crime his 
 
 boast ? 
 
 How hope Almighty vengeance shall delay, 
 Unless, in mercy to yon Christian host, 
 He spare the shepherd, lest the guiltless sheep b<i 
 lost." 
 
 X. 
 
 Then kindled the dark Tyrant in his mood, 
 And to his brow returned its dauntless gloom j 
 
 " And welcome then," he cried, " be blood for blood, 
 For treason treachery, for dishonour doom !
 
 34 
 
 Yet will I know whence come they, or by whom. 
 Shew, for thou canst give forth the fated key, 
 And guide me, Priest, to that mysterious room, 
 
 Where, if aught true in old tradition be, 
 His nation's future fates a Spanish King shall see." 
 
 XL 
 
 " Ill-fated prince ! recall the desperate word, 
 
 Or pause ere yet the omen thou obey ! 
 Bethink, yon spell-bound portal would aiford 
 
 Never to former Monarch entrance-way ; 
 Nor shall it ever ope, old records say, 
 
 Save to a king, the last of all his line, 
 What time his empire totters to decay, 
 
 And treason digs, beneath, her fatal mine, 
 And, high above, impends avenging wrath divine."
 
 DON RODERICK. 85 
 
 XII. 
 
 " Prelate ! a Monarch's fate brooks no delay j 
 Lead on !" The ponderous key the old man 
 
 took, 
 And held the winking lamp, and led the way, 
 
 By winding stair, dark aisle, and secret nook, 
 Then on an ancient gate-way bent his look ; 
 
 And, as the key the desperate King essay'd, 
 Low-mutter* d thunders the Cathedral shook, 
 
 And twice lie stopped, and twice new effort made, 
 Till the huge bolts rolled back, and the loud hinges 
 bray'd. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 Long, large, and lofty, was that vaulted hall ; 
 
 Roof, walls, and floor, were all of marble stone, 
 Of polished marble, black as funeral pall, 
 
 Carved o'er with signs and characters unknown.
 
 36 THE VISION OF 
 
 A paly light, as of the dawning, shone 
 
 Through the sad bounds, but whence they could 
 
 not spy , 
 For window to the upper air was none : 
 
 Yet, by that light, Don Roderick could descry 
 Wonders that ne'er till then were seen by mortal eye. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 Grim centinels, against the upper wall, 
 
 Of molten bronze, two Statues held their place ; 
 Massive their naked limbs, their stature tall, 
 
 Their frowning foreheads golden circles grace. 
 Moulded they seemed for kings of giant race, 
 
 That lived and sinned before the avenging flood ; 
 This grasped a scythe, that rested on a mace j 
 
 This spread his wings for flight, that pondering 
 
 stood, 
 Each stubborn seemed and stern, immutable of mood.
 
 DON RODERICK. 37 
 
 XV. 
 
 Fixed was the right-hand Giant's brazen look 
 
 Upon his brother's glass of shifting sand, 
 As if its ebb he measured by a book, 
 
 Whose iron volume loaded his huge hand ; 
 In which was wrote of many a falling land, 
 
 Of empires lost, and kings to exile driven ; 
 And o'er that pair their names in scroll expand 
 " Lo, DESTINY and TIME ! to whom by Heaven 
 The guidance of the earth is for a season given." 
 
 XVI. 
 
 Even while they read, the sand-glass wastes away ; 
 
 And, as the last and lagging grains did creep, 
 That right-hand Giant 'gan his club upsway, 
 
 As one that startles from a heavy sleep. 
 12
 
 38 THE VISION OF 
 
 Full on the upper wall the mace's sweep 
 
 At once descended with the force of thunder, 
 And hurtling down at once, in crumbled heap, 
 
 The marble boundary was rent asunder, 
 And gave to Roderick's view new sights of fear and 
 wonder. 
 
 XVII. 
 
 For they might spy, beyond that mighty breach, 
 Realms as of Spain in visioned prospect laid, 
 
 Castles and towers, in due proportion each, 
 As by some skilful artist's hand pourtray'd : 
 
 Here, crossed by many a wild Sierra's shade, 
 And boundless plains that tire the traveller's eye : 
 
 There, rich with vineyard and with olive glade, 
 
 , Or deep-embrowned by forests huge and high, 
 Or washed by mighty streams, that slowly mur- 
 mured by.
 
 DON RODERICK. 39 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 And here, as erst upon the antique stage 
 
 Passed forth the bands of masquers trimly led, 
 In various forms, and various equipage, 
 
 While fitting strains the hearer's fancy fed j 
 So, to sad Roderick's eye in order spread, 
 
 Successive pageants filled that mystic scene, 
 Shewing the fate of battles ere they bled, 
 
 And issue of events that had not been ; 
 And ever and anon strange sounds were heard 
 between. 
 
 XIX. 
 
 First shrilled an unrepeated female shriek ! 
 It seemed as if Don Roderick knew the call, 
 
 For the bold blood was blanching in his cheek. 
 Then answered kettle-drum and atabal,
 
 40 THE VISION OF 
 
 Gong-peal and cymbal-clank the ear appal ; 
 The Tecbir war-cry, and the Lelies yell, 
 Ring wildly dissonant along the hall. 
 
 Needs not to Roderick their dread import tell 
 " The Moor !" he cried, " the Moor ! ring out the 
 Tocsin bell ! 
 
 XX. 
 
 " They come ! they come ! I see the groaning lands 
 
 White with the turbans of each Arab horde, 
 Swart Zaarah joins her misbelieving bands, 
 
 Alia and Mahomet their battle-word, 
 The choice they yield the Koran or the sword. 
 
 See how the Christians rush to arms amain ! 
 In yonder shout the voice of conflict roared ; 
 
 The shadowy hosts are closing on the plain 
 Now, God and Saint lago strike, for the good cause 
 of Spain '
 
 DON RODERICK. 41 
 
 XXL 
 
 " By heaven, the Moors prevail ! the Christians yield ! 
 
 Their coward leader gives for flight the sign ! 
 The sceptered craven mounts to quit the field 
 
 Is not yon steed Orelia ? Yes, 'tis mine ! 
 But never was she turned from battle-line : 
 
 Lo ! where the recreant spurs o'er stock and stone I- 
 Curses pursue the slave and wrath divine ! 
 Rivers ingulph him ! " Hush," in shuddering 
 
 tone, 
 
 The Prelate said ; (e rash Prince, yon visioned form's 
 thine own." 
 
 XXII. 
 
 Just then, a torrent crossed the flier's course ; 
 
 The dangerous ford the Kingly Likeness tried ; 
 But the deep eddies whelmed both man and horse, 
 
 Swept like benighted peasant down the tide ;
 
 42 THE VISION OF 
 
 And the proud Moslemah spread far and wide, 
 
 As numerous as their native locust band ; 
 Berber and Ismael's sons the spoils divide, 
 With naked scimitars mete out the land, 
 And for their bondsmen base the freeborn natives 
 brand. 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 Then rose the grated Harem, to inclose 
 
 The loveliest maidens of the Christian line ; 
 Then, menials to their misbelieving foes, 
 
 Castile's young nobles held forbidden wine ; 
 Then, too, the holy Cross, salvation's sign, 
 
 By impious hands was from the altar thrown, 
 And the deep aisles of the polluted shrine 
 
 Echoed, for holy hymn and organ tone, 
 The Santon's frantic dance, the Fakir's gibbering 
 moan.
 
 DON RODERICK. 43 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 How fares Don Roderick ? E'en as one who spies 
 
 Flames dart their glare o'er midnight's sable 
 
 woof, 
 And hears around his children's piercing cries, 
 
 And sees the pale assistants stand aloof; 
 While cruel conscience brings him bitter proof, 
 
 His folly, or his crime, have caused his grief; 
 And, while above him nods the crumbling roof, 
 
 He curses earth and Heaven himself in chief 
 Desperate of earthly aid, despairing Hea ven's relief ! 
 
 XXV. 
 
 That scythe-armed Giant turned his fatal glass, 
 And twilight on the landscape closed her wings ; 
 
 Far to Asturian hills the war-sounds pass, 
 And in their stead rebeck or timbrel rings ;
 
 THE VISION OF 
 
 And to the sound the bell-deck'd dancer springs, 
 
 Bazars resound as when their marts are met, 
 In tourney light the Moor his jerrid flings, 
 
 And on the land as evening seemed to set, 
 The Imaum's chaunt was heard from mosque or 
 minaret. 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 So passed that pageant. Ere another came, 
 
 The visionary scene was wrapped in smoke, 
 Whose sulph'rous wreaths were crossed by sheets 
 
 of flame ; 
 
 With every flash a bolt explosive broke, 
 Till Roderick deemed the fiends had burst their yoke, 
 And waved 'gainst heaven the infernal gonfalone ! 
 For War a new and dreadful language spoke, 
 Never by ancient warrior heard or known ; 
 Light'ning and smoke her breath, and thunder was 
 her tone.
 
 DON RODERICK. 45 
 
 XXVII. 
 
 From the dim landscape roll the clouds away 
 
 The Christians have regained their heritage ; 
 Before the Cross has waned the Crescent's ray, 
 
 And many a monastery decks the stage, 
 And lofty church, and low-brow'd hermitage. 
 
 The land obeys a IJermit and a Knight, 
 The Genii these of Spain for many an age ; 
 
 This clad in sackcloth, that in armour bright, 
 And that was VALOUR named, this BIGOTRY was 
 hight. 
 
 XXVIIL 
 
 VALOUR was harnessed like a Chief of old, 
 
 Armed at all points, and prompt for knightly 
 gest; 
 
 His sword was tempered in the Ebro cold, 
 Morena's eagle-plume adorned his crest,
 
 46 THE VISION OF 
 
 The spoils of Afric's lion bound his breast. 
 
 Fiercehesteppedforwardandflungdownhisgage, 
 As if of mortal kind to brave the best. 
 
 Him followed his Companion, dark and sage, 
 As he, my Master sung, the dangerous Archimage. 
 
 XXIX. 
 
 Haughty of heart and brow the Warrior came, 
 
 In look and language proud as proud might be, 
 Vaunting his lordship, lineage, fights and fame, 
 
 Yet was that bare-foot Monk more proud than 
 
 he ; 
 And as the ivy climbs the tallest tree, 
 
 So round the loftiest soul his toils he wound, 
 And with his spells subdued the fierce and free, 
 
 Till ermined Age, and Youth in arms renowned, 
 Honouring his scourge and hair-cloth, meekly 
 kissed the ground.
 
 DON RODERICK. 47 
 
 XXX. 
 
 And thus it chanced that VALOUR, peerless knight, 
 
 Who ne'er to King or Kaisar veiled his crest, 
 Victorious still in bull-feast or in fight, 
 
 Since first his limbs with mail he did invest, 
 Stooped ever to that Anchoret's behest ; 
 
 Nor reasoned of the right nor of the wrong, 
 But at his bidding laid the lance in rest, 
 
 And wrought fell deeds the troubled world 
 
 along, 
 For he was fierce as brave, and pitiless as strong. 
 
 XXXI. 
 
 Oft his proud gallies sought some new-found world, 
 That latest sees the sun or first the morn ; 
 
 Still at that Wizard's feet their spoils he hurl'd, 
 
 Ingots of ore from rich Potosi borne, 
 1
 
 48 . THE VISION OF 
 
 Crowns by Caciques, aigrettes by Omrahs worn, 
 
 Wrought of rare gems, but broken, rent, andfoul ; 
 Idols of gold from heathen temples torn, 
 
 Bedabbled all with blood. With grisly scowl 
 The Hermit marked the stains, and smiled beneath 
 his cowl. 
 
 XXXII. 
 
 Then did he bless the offering, and bade make 
 
 Tribute to heaven of gratitude and praise ; 
 And at his word the choral hymns awake, 
 
 And many a hand the silver censer sways. 
 But with the incense breath these censers raise, 
 
 Mix steams from corpses smouldering in the fire ; 
 The groans of prisoned victims mar the lays, 
 
 And shrieks of agony confound the quire, 
 While, mid the mingled sounds, the darkened scenes 
 expire.
 
 DON RODERICK. 49 
 
 XXXIII. 
 
 Preluding light, were strains of music heard, 
 
 As once again revolved that measured sand ; 
 Such sounds as when, for sylvan dance prepared, 
 
 Gay Xeres summons forth her vintage band ; 
 When for the light Bolero ready stand 
 
 The Mozo blithe, with gay Muchacha met, 
 He conscious of his broidered cap and band, 
 
 She of her netted locks and light corsette, 
 Each tiptoe perched to spring, and shake the castanet. 
 
 XXXIV. 
 
 And well such strains the opening scene became ; 
 
 For VALOUR had relaxed his ardent look, 
 And at a lady's feet, like lion tame, 
 
 Lay stretched, full loth the weight of arms to 
 brook ;
 
 50 THE VISION OF 
 
 And softened BIGOTRY, upon his book, 
 
 Pattered a task of little good or ill : 
 But the blithe peasant plied his pruning hook, 
 
 Whistled the muleteer o'er vale and hill, 
 And rung from village-green the merry Seguidille. 
 
 XXXV. 
 
 Grey Royalty, grown impotent of toil, 
 
 Let the grave sceptre slip his lazy hold, 
 And careless saw his rule become the spoil 
 
 Of a loose Female and her Minion bold. 
 But peace was on the cottage and the fold, 
 
 From court intrigue, from bickering faction far ; 
 Beneath the chesnut tree Love's tale was told, 
 
 And to the tinkling of the light guitar, 
 Sweet stooped the western sun, sweet rose the evening 
 star.
 
 DON RODERICK. 51 
 
 XXXVI. 
 
 As that sea-cloud, in size like human hand 
 
 When first from Carmel by the Tishbite seen, 
 Came slowly over- shadowing Israel's land, 
 
 Awhile, perchance, bedecked with colours sheen, 
 While yet the sunbeams on its skirts had been, 
 
 Limning with purple and with gold its shroud, 
 Till darker folds obscured the blue serene, 
 
 And blotted heaven with one broad sable cloud- 
 Then sheeted rain burst down, and whirlwinds howled 
 aloud j 
 
 XXXVII. 
 
 Even so upon that peaceful scene was poured, 
 Like gathering clouds, full many a foreign band, 
 
 And HE, their Leader, wore in sheath his sword, 
 And oifered peaceful front and open hand j 
 2
 
 52 THE VISION OF 
 
 Veiling the perjured treachery he planned, 
 
 By friendship's zeal and honour's specious guise, 
 Until he won the passes of the land j 
 
 Then, burst were honour's oath, and friend- 
 ship's ties ! 
 
 He clutched his vulture-grasp, and called fair Spain 
 his prize. 
 
 XXXVIII. 
 
 An iron Crown his anxious forehead bore ; 
 
 And well such diadem his heart became, 
 Who ne'er his purpose for remorse gave o'er, 
 
 Or check'd his course for piety or shame j 
 Who, train'd a soldier, deemed a soldier's fame 
 
 Might flourish in the wreath of battles won, 
 Though neither truth nor honour deckM his name j 
 
 Who, placed by fortune on a Monarch's throne, 
 Recked not of Monarch's faith, or Mercy's kingly tone.
 
 DON RODERICK. 53 
 
 XXXIX. 
 
 From a rude isle his ruder lineage came : 
 
 The spark, that, from a suburb hovel's hearth 
 Ascending, wraps some capital in flame, 
 
 Hath not a meaner or more sordid birth. 
 And for the soul that bade him waste the earth 
 
 The sable land-flood from some swamp obscure, 
 That poisons the glad husband-field with dearth, 
 
 And by destruction bids its fame endure, 
 Hath not a source more sullen, stagnant, and impure. 
 
 XL. 
 
 Before that Leader strode a shadowy Form : 
 Her limbs like mist, hertorch like meteor shew'd, 
 
 With which she beckoned him 'through fight and 
 
 storm, 
 And all he crushed that crossed his desperate road,
 
 54 THE VISION OF 
 
 Northought,norfeared,nor looked onwhathetrode; 
 Realms could not glut his pride, blood could not 
 
 slake, 
 
 So oft as e'er she shook her torch abroad 
 It was AMBITION bade his terrors wake, 
 Nor deigned she, as of yore, a milder form to take. 
 
 XLI. 
 
 No longer now she spurned at mean revenge, 
 
 Or staid her hand for conquered foeman's moan, 
 As when, the fates of aged Rome to change, 
 
 By Caesar's side she crossed the Rubicon ; 
 Nor joyed she to bestow the spoils she won, 
 
 As when the banded powers of Greece were tasked 
 To war beneath the Youth of Macedon : 
 
 No seemly veil her modern minion asked, 
 He saw her hideous face, and loved the fiend un- 
 masqued.
 
 DON RODERICK. 55 
 
 XLII. 
 
 That Prelate marked his march On banners blazed 
 
 With battles won in many a distant land, 
 On eagle-standards and on arms he gazed ; 
 
 " And hopest thou, then," he said, " thy power 
 
 shall stand ? 
 O thou hast J?uilded on the shifting sand, 
 
 And thou hast temper' d it with slaughter's flood ; 
 And know, fell scourge in the Almighty's hand ! 
 
 Gore-moistened trees shall perish in the bud, 
 And,byabloodydeath, shalldiethe Man of Blood!" 
 
 XLIII. 
 
 The ruthless Leader beckoned from his train 
 A wan fraternal Shade, and bade him kneel, 
 
 And paled his temples with the crown of Spain, 
 While trumpets rung, and heralds cried, " Cas- 
 tile !"
 
 56 THE VISION OF 
 
 Not that he loved him No ! in no man's weal, 
 Scarce in his own, e'er joyed that sullen heart ; 
 
 Yet round that throne he bade his warriors wheel, 
 That the poor puppet might perform his part, 
 
 And be a sceptred slave, at his stern beck to start. 
 
 XLIV. 
 
 But on the Natives of that land misused, 
 
 Not long the silence of amazement hung, 
 Nor brooked they long their friendly faith abused ; 
 For, with a common shriek, the general tongue 
 Exclaim'd, " To arms !" and fast to arms they 
 
 sprung. 
 
 And VALOUR woke, that Genius of the Land ! 
 Pleasure, and ease, and sloth, aside he flung, 
 As burst the awakening Nazarite his band, 
 When 'gainst his treacherous foes he clenched his 
 dreadful hand.
 
 DON RODERICK. i7 
 
 XLV. 
 
 That mimic Monarch now cast anxious eye 
 
 Upon the Satraps that begirt him round, 
 Now doffed his royal robe in act to fly, 
 
 And from his brow the diadem unbound. 
 So oft, so near, the Patriot bugle wound, 
 
 From Tarik's walls to Bilboa's mountains blown, 
 These martial satellites hard labour found, 
 
 To guard awhile his substituted throne 
 Light recking of his cause, but battling for their 
 own. 
 
 XL VI. 
 
 From Alpuhara's peak that bugle rung, 
 And it was echoed from Corunna's wall ; 
 
 Stately Seville responsive war-shout flung, 
 Grenada caught it in her Moorish hall j
 
 58 THE VISION OF 
 
 Galicia bade her children fight or fall, 
 Wild Biscay shook his mountain-coronet, 
 
 Valencia roused her at the battle-call, 
 
 And, foremost still where Valour's sons are met, 
 Fast started to his gun each fiery Miquelet. 
 
 XLVII. 
 
 But unappalled, and burning for the fight-, 
 The Invaders march, of victory secure ; 
 Skilful their force to sever or unite, 
 
 And trained alike to vanquish or endure. 
 Nor skilful less, cheap conquest to insure, 
 
 Discord to breathe, and jealousy to sow, 
 To quell by boasting, and by bribes to lure ; 
 While nought against them bring tho unpractised 
 
 foe, 
 
 Save hearts for freedom's cause, and hands for free- 
 dom's blow.
 
 DON RODERICK. 59 
 
 XLVIII. 
 
 Proudly they march but O ! they march not forth, 
 
 By one hot field to crown a brief campaign, 
 As when their eagles, sweeping through the North, 
 
 Destroyed at every stoop an ancient reign ! 
 Far other fate had Heaven decreed for Spain ; 
 
 In vain the steel, in vain the torch was plied, 
 New Patriot armies started from the slain, 
 
 High blazed the war, and long, and far, and wide, 
 And oft the God of Battles blessed the righteous side. 
 
 XLIX. 
 
 Nor unatoned, where Freedom's foes prevail, 
 Remained their savage waste. With blade and 
 brand, 
 
 By day the Invaders ravaged hill and dale, 
 But, with the darkness, the Guerilla band
 
 60 THE VISION OF 
 
 Came like night's tempest, and avenged the land, 
 
 And claimed for blood the retribution due, 
 Probed the hard heart, and lopp'd the murderous hand, 
 And Dawn, when o'er the scene her beams she threw, 
 Midst ruins they had made the spoilers' corpses knew. 
 
 L. 
 
 What Minstrel verse may sing, or tongue may tell, 
 
 Amid the visioned strife from sea to sea, 
 How oft the Patriot banners rose or fell, 
 
 Still honoured in defeat as victory ! 
 For that sad pageant of events to be, 
 
 Shewed every form of fight by field and flood ; 
 Slaughter and Ruin, shouting forth their glee, 
 
 Beheld, while riding on the tempest-scud, 
 The waters choaked with slain, the earth bedrenched with 
 blood!
 
 DON RODERICK. 61 
 
 LI. 
 
 Then Zaragoza blighted be the tongue 
 
 That names thy name without the honour due ! 
 For never hath the harp of minstrel rung, 
 Of faith so felly proved, so firmly true ! 
 Mine, sap, and bomb, thy shattered ruins knew, 
 
 Each art of war's extremity had room, 
 Twice from thy half-sacked streets the foe withdrew, 
 And when at length stern Fate decreed thy doom, 
 They won not Zaragoza, but her children's bloody 
 tomb. 
 
 LII. 
 
 Yet, raise thy head, sad City ! Though in chains, 
 Enthrall'd thou canst not be ! Arise and claim 
 Reverence from every heart where Freedom reigns, 
 
 For what thou worshippest ! thy sainted Dame, 
 9
 
 62 THE VISION OF 
 
 She of the Column, honoured be her name, 
 By all, whatever their creed, who honour love ! 
 
 And like the sacred reliques of the flame, 
 
 That gave some martyr to the blessed above, 
 To every loyal heart may thy sad embers prove ! 
 
 LIII. 
 
 Nor thine alone such wreck. Gerona fair ! 
 
 Faithful to death thy heroes should be sung, 
 Manning the towers while o'er their heads the air 
 
 Swart as the smoke from raging furnace hung j 
 Now thicker darkening where the mine was 
 sprung, 
 
 Now briefly lightened by the cannon's flare, 
 Now arched with fire-sparks as the bomb was flung, 
 
 And reddening now with conflagration's glare, 
 While by the fatal light the foes for storm prepare.
 
 DON RODERICK. 63 
 
 LIV. 
 
 While all around was danger, strife, and fear, 
 
 "While the earth shook, and darkened was the sky, 
 And wide Destruction stunned the listening ear, 
 
 Appalled the heart, and stupified the eye, 
 Afar was heard that thrice-repeated cry, 
 
 In which old Albion's heart and tongue unite, 
 Whene'er her soul is up and pulse beats high, 
 
 Whether it hail the wine-cup or the fight, 
 And bid each arm be strong, or bid each heart be 
 light. 
 
 LV. 
 
 Don Roderick turn'd him as the shout grew loud 
 A varied scene the changeful vision show'd, 
 
 For, where the ocean mingled with the cloud, 
 A gallant navy stemm'd the billows broad.
 
 61 THE VISION O1 
 
 From mast and stern St George's symbol flow'd, 
 Blent with the silver cross to Scotland dear ; 
 
 Mottling the sea their landward barges row'd, 
 
 Andflashedthe sun on bayonet, brand, and spear, 
 And the wild beach returned the seaman's jovial cheer. 
 
 LVI. 
 
 It was a dread, yet spirit-stirring sight ! 
 
 The billows foamed beneath a thousand oars, 
 Fast as they land the red-cross ranks unite, 
 
 Legions on legions brightening all the shores. 
 Then banners rise, and cannon-signal roars, 
 
 Then peals the warlike thunder of the drum, 
 Thrills the loutl fife, the trumpet-flourish pours, 
 
 And patriot hopes awake, and doubts are dumb, 
 For, bold in Freedom's cause, the bands of Ocean 
 come !
 
 DON RODERICK. $5 
 
 LVII. 
 
 A various host they came whose ranks display 
 
 Each mode in which the warrior meets the fight, 
 The deep battalion locks its firm array, 
 
 And meditates his aim the marksman light ; 
 Far glance the lines of sabres flashing bright, 
 
 \Vhere mounted squadrons shake the echoing 
 
 mead, 
 Lacks not artillery breathing flame and night, 
 
 Nor the fleet ordnance whirl'd by rapid steed, 
 That rivals lightning's flash in ruin and in speed. 
 
 LVIII. 
 
 A various host from kindred realms they came, 
 Brethren in arms, but rivals in renown 
 
 For yon fair bands shall merry England claim, 
 And with their deeds of valour deck her crown. 
 

 
 69 THE VISION OF 
 
 Her's their bold port, and her's their martial frown, 
 And her's their scorn of death in freedom's cause, 
 Their eyes of azure, and their locks of brown, 
 
 And the blunt speech that bursts without a pause, 
 And freeborn thoughts, which league the Soldier with 
 the Laws. 
 
 LIX. 
 
 And O ! loved warriors of the Minstrel's land ! 
 
 Yonder your bonnets nod, your tartans wave I 
 The rugged form may mark the mountain band, 
 
 And harsher features, and a mien more grave, 
 But ne'er in battle-field throbb'd heart so brave 
 
 As that which beats beneath the Scottish plaid; 
 And when the pibroch bids the battle rave, 
 
 And l^vel for the charge your arms are laid, 
 Where lives the desperate foe, that for such onset 
 staid !
 
 DON RODERICK. 07 
 
 J.X. 
 
 Hark ! from yon stately ranks what laughter rings, 
 
 Mingling wild mirth with war's stern minstrelsy, 
 His jest while each blithe comrade round him flings, 
 
 And moves to death with military glee : 
 Boast, Erin, boast them ! tameless, frank, and free, 
 
 In kindness warm, and fierce in danger known, 
 Rough Nature's children, humorous as she : 
 
 And HE, yon Chieftain strike the proudest tone 
 Of thy bold harp, green Isle ! the Hero is thine 
 own- 
 
 LXI. 
 
 Now on the scene Vimeira should be shown, 
 On Talavera's fight should Roderick gaze, 
 
 And hear Corunna wail her battle won, 
 
 And see Busaco's crest with lightening blaze :
 
 68 THE VISION OF 
 
 But shall fond fable mix with heroes' praise ? 
 Hath Fiction's stage for Truth's long triumphs 
 
 room ? 
 And dare her wild-flowers mingle with the bays, 
 
 That claim a long eternity to bloom 
 Around the warrior's crest, and o'er the warrior's 
 tomb ! 
 
 LXII. 
 
 Or may I give adventurous Fancy scope, 
 
 And stretch a bold hand to the awful veil 
 That hides futurity from anxious hope, 
 
 Bidding beyond it scenes of glory hail, 
 And painting Europe rousing at the tale 
 
 Of Spain's invaders from her confines hurl'd, 
 While kindling nations buckle on their mail, 
 
 And Fame, with clarion-blast and wings unfurl'd, 
 To freedom and revenge awakes an injured World !
 
 DON RODERICK. 68 
 
 LXIII. 
 
 O vain, though anxious, is the glance I cast, 
 
 Since Fate has marked futurity her own : 
 Yet fate resigns to Worth the glorious past, 
 
 The deeds recorded and the laurels won. 
 Then, though the Vault of Destiny be gone, 
 
 King, Prelate, all the Phantasms of my brain, 
 Melted away like mist-wreaths in the sun, 
 
 Yet grant for faith, for valour, and for Spain, 
 One note of pride and fire,, a Patriot's parting strain !
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 I. 
 
 t WHO shall command Estrella's mountain-tide 
 Back to the source, when tempest-chafed, to hie? 
 Who, when Gascogne's vexed gulph is raging wide, 
 
 Shall hush it as a nurse her infant's cry ? 
 His magic power let such vain boaster try, 
 
 And when the torrent shall his voice obey, 
 And Biscay's whirlwinds list his lullaby, 
 
 Let him stand forth and bar mine eagles' way, 
 And they shall heed his voice, and at his bidding stay.
 
 72 CONCLUSION. 
 
 II. 
 
 " Else, ne'er to stoop, till high on Lisbon's towers 
 They close their wings, the symbol of our yoke, 
 And their own sea hath whelm'd yon red cross Pow- 
 ers !" 
 
 Thus, on the summit of Alverca's rock, 
 To Marshal, Duke, and Peer, Gaul's Leader spoke. 
 
 While downward on the land his legions press, 
 Before them it was rich with vine and flock, 
 
 And smiled like Eden in her summer dress j 
 Behind their wasteful march, a reeking wilderness. 
 
 III. 
 
 And shall the boastful Chief maintain his word, 
 Though Heaven hath heard the wailings of the land, 
 
 Though Lusitania whet her vengeful sword, 
 Though Britons arm, and WELLINGTON command !
 
 CONCLUSION. 73 
 
 No ! grim Busaco's iron ridge shall stand 
 
 An adamantine barrier to his force ! 
 A.nd from its base shall wheel his shattered band, 
 As from the unshaken rock the torrent hoarse 
 Bears off its broken waves, and seeks a devious course. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Yet not because Alcoba's mountain-hawk 
 
 Hath on his best and bravest made her food, 
 In numbers confident, yon Chief shall baulk 
 
 His Lord's imperial thirst for spoil and blood : 
 For full hi view the promised conquest stood, 
 And Lisbon's matrons, from their walls, might 
 
 sum 
 
 The myriads that had half the world subdued, 
 And hear the distant thunders of the drum, 
 That bids the bands of France to storm and havoc 
 come.
 
 74 CONCLUSION. 
 
 V. 
 
 Four moons have heard these thunders idly roll'd, 
 
 Have seen these wistful myriads eye their prey, 
 As famish' d wolves survey a guarded fold 
 
 But in the middle path, a Lion lay ! 
 At length they move but not to battle-fray, 
 
 Nor blaze yon fires where *ieets the manly 
 
 fight; 
 Beacons of infamy they light the way, 
 
 Where cowardice and cruelty unite, 
 To damn with double shame their ignominious flight t 
 
 VI. 
 
 O triumph for the fiends of Lust and Wrath ! 
 
 Ne'er to be told, yet ne'er to be forgot, 
 What wanton horrors marked their wrackful path ! 
 
 The peasant butchered in his r uined cot, 
 
 3
 
 CONCLUSION". 70 
 
 The hoary priest even at the altar shot, 
 
 Childhood and age given o'er to sword and flame, 
 Woman to infamy ; no crime forgot, 
 
 By which inventive daemons might proclaim 
 Immortal hate to Man, and scorn of God's great 
 name ! 
 
 VII. 
 
 The rudest centinel, in Britain born, 
 
 With horror paused to view the havoc done, 
 Gave his poor crust to feed some wretch forlorn, 
 
 Wiped his stern eye, then fiercer grasped his gun. 
 Nor with less zeal shall Britain's peaceful son 
 
 Exult the debt of sympathy to pay ; 
 Riches nor poverty the tax shall shun, 
 
 Nor prince nor peer, the wealthy nor the gay, 
 Nor the poor peasant's mite, nor bard's more worth- 
 less lay.
 
 76 CONCLUSION. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 But thou unfoughten wilt thou yield to Fate, 
 
 Minion of Fortune, now miscalled in vain ! 
 Can vantage-ground no confidence create, 
 
 Marcella's pass, nor Guarda's mountain chain ? 
 Vain-glorious Fugitive ! yet turn again ! 
 
 Behold, where, named by some prophetic Seer, 
 Flows Honour's Fountain,* as fore-doomed the stain 
 
 From thy dishonoured name and arms to clear 
 Fallen Child of Fortune, turn, redeem her favour here ! 
 
 IX. 
 
 Yet, ere thou turn'st, collect each distant aid j 
 Those chief that never heard the lion roar ! 
 
 Within whose souls lives not a trace pourtray'd, 
 Of Talavera, or Mondego's shore ! 
 
 * The literal translation of Fuentes d'Honort.
 
 CONCLUSION. 77 
 
 Marshal each band thou hast, and summon more ; 
 
 Of war's fell stratagems exhaust the whole ; 
 Rank upon rank, squadron on squadron pour, 
 
 Legion on legion on thy foeman roll, 
 And weary out his arm thou canst not quell his soul. 
 
 X. 
 
 O vainly gleams with steel Agueda's shore, 
 
 Vainly thy squadrons hide Assuava's plain, 
 And front the flying thunders as they roar, 
 
 With frantic charge and tenfold odds, in vain ! 
 And what avails thce that, for Cameron slain, 
 
 Wild from his plaided ranks the yell was given 
 Vengeance and grief gave mountain-rage the rein, 
 
 And, at the bloody spear-point headlong driven, 
 Thy Despot's giant guards fled like the rack of 
 heaven.
 
 78 CONCLUSION. 
 
 XI. 
 
 Go, baffled Boaster ! teach thy haughty mood 
 
 To plead at thine imperious master's throne, 
 Say, thou hast left his legions in their blood, 
 
 Deceived his hopes, and frustrated thine own ; 
 Say, that thine utmost skill and valour shown 
 
 By British skill and valour were outvied ; 
 Last say, thy conqueror was WELLINGTON ! 
 
 And if he chafe, be his own fortune tried 
 God and our cause to friend, the venture we'll 
 abide* 
 
 XII. 
 
 But ye, the heroes of that well-fought day, 
 How shall a bard, unknowing and unknown, 
 
 His meed to each victorious leader pay, 
 Or bind on every brow the laurels won ?
 
 CONCLUSION". 79 
 
 Yet fain my harp would wake its boldest tone, 
 O'er the wide sea to hail GADOGAN brave ; 
 
 And he, perchance, the minstrel note might own, 
 
 Mindful of meeting brief that Fortune gave 
 Mid yon far western isles that hear the Atlantic rave, 
 
 XIII. 
 
 Yes ! hard the task, when Britons wield the sword, 
 
 To give each Chief and every field its fame : 
 Hark ! Albuera thunders BERESFORD, 
 
 And red Barosa shouts for dauntless GRJEME ! 
 O for a verse of tumult and of flame, 
 
 Bold as the bursting of their cannon sound, 
 To bid the world re-echo to their fame ! 
 
 For never, upon gory battle-ground, 
 With conquest's well-bought wreath were braver 
 victors crown'd !
 
 80 CONCLUSION. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 O who shall grudge him Albuera's bays, 
 
 Who brought a race regenerate to the field, 
 Roused them to emulate their fathers' praise, 
 
 Temper'd their headlong rage, their courage 
 
 steel' d, 
 And raised fair Lusitania's fallen shield, 
 
 And gave new edge to Lusitania's sword, 
 And taught their sons forgotten arms to wield 
 
 Shivered my harp, and burst its every chord, 
 If it forget thy worth, victorious BERESFORD ! 
 
 XV. 
 
 Not on that bloody field of battle won, 
 
 Though Gaul's proud legions rolled like mist 
 away, 
 
 Was half his self-devoted valour shown, 
 He gaged but life on that illustrious day ;
 
 CONCLUSION. 81 
 
 But when he toiled those squadrons to array, ^ 
 Who fought like Britons in the bloody game, 
 Sharper than Polish pike or assagay, 
 
 He braved the shafts of censure and of shame, 
 And, dearer far than life, he pledged a soldier's fame. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 Nor be his praise o'erpast who strove to hide 
 
 Beneath the warrior's vest affection's wound, 
 Whose wish, Heaven for his country's weal de- 
 nied 
 
 Danger and fate he sought, but glory found. 
 From clime to clime, where'er war's trumpets sound, 
 
 The wanderer went ; yet, Caledonia ! still 
 Thine was his thought in march and tented ground ; 
 
 He dreamed mid Alpine cliffs of Athole's hill, 
 And heard in Ebro's roar his Lyndoch's lovely rill. 
 
 F
 
 82 CONCLUSION. 
 
 XVII. 
 
 O hero of a race renowned of old, 
 
 Whose war-cry oft has waked the battle-swell, 
 Since first distinguished in the onset bold, 
 
 Wild sounding when the Roman rampart fell I 
 By Wallace* side it rung the Southron's knell, 
 
 Alderne, Kilsythe, and Tibber owned its fame, 
 Tummell's rude pass can of its terrors tell, 
 
 But ne'er from prouder field arose the name, 
 Than when wild Ronda learned the conquering shout 
 of GRJEME ! 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 But all too long, through seas unknown and dark, 
 
 (With Spenser's parable I close my tale) 
 ' By shoal and rock hath steered my venturous bark ; 
 
 And land-ward now I drive before the gale, 
 8
 
 CONCLUSION. 83 
 
 And now the blue and distant shore I hail, 
 And nearer now I see the port expand, 
 
 And now I gladly furl my weary sail, 
 
 And, as the prow light touches on the strand, 
 I strike my red-cross flag, and bind my skiff to land. 
 
 THE END.
 
 NOTES.
 
 NOTES ON THE INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Note I. 
 
 And Cattraeth's vales ivith voice of triumph rung, 
 And mystic Merlin harped, and grey-hair 3 dLlywarch sung, 
 
 St. IV. p. 19. 
 
 THIS locality may startle those readers who do not re- 
 collect, that much of the ancient poetry, preserved in 
 Wales, refers less to the history of the principality to which 
 that name is now limited, than to events which happened 
 in the North-west of England and South-west of Scotland, 
 where the Britons for a long time made a stand against the 
 Saxons. The battle of Cattraeth, lamented by the cele-
 
 88 NOTES. 
 
 brated Aneurin, is supposed by the learned Dr Ley den 
 to have been fought on the skirts of Ettrick forest. It is 
 known to the English reader by the paraphrase of Gray, 
 beginning, 
 
 JIad I but the torrent's might, 
 
 VVitli headlong rage and wild affright, &c. 
 
 But it is not so generally known that the champions, 
 mourned in this beautiful dirge, were the British inhabit- 
 ants of Edinburgh, who were cut off by the Saxons of 
 Deiria, or Northumberland, about the latter part of the 
 sixth century. TURNER'S History of the Anglo-Saxons, 
 edition 1799, vol. 1. p. 222. Llywarch, the celebrated bard 
 and monarch, was Prince of Argood, in Cumberland ; and 
 his youthful exploits were performed upon the Border, al- 
 though in his age he was driven into Powys by the suc- 
 cesses of the Anglo-Saxons. As for Merlin Wyllt, or the 
 Savage, his name of Caledonian, and his retreat into the 
 
 Caledonian wood, appropriates him to Scotland. Fordun 
 
 3
 
 NOTES. M 
 
 dedicates the thirty-first chapter of the third book of his 
 Scoto-Chronicon, to a narration of the death of this cele- 
 brated bard and prophet near Drumelziar, a village upon 
 Tweed, which is supposed to have derived its name, (quad 
 Tumulus Merlini,} from the event. The particular spot 
 in which he is buried is still shewn, and appears, from the 
 following quotation, to have partaken of his prophetic qua- 
 lities : " There is one thing remarkable here, which is, 
 that the burn, called Pausayl, runs by the east side of this 
 church-yard into the Tweed ; at the side of which burn, a 
 
 * 
 
 little below the church-yard, the famous prophet Merlin is 
 said to be buried. The particular place of his grave, at 
 the root of a thorn-tree, was shewn me many years ago, 
 by the old and reverend minister of the place, Mr Richard 
 Brown ; and here was the old prophecy fulfilled, delivered 
 in Scots rhyme, to this purpose: 
 
 "When Tweed and Pausayl meet at Merlin's grave, 
 Scotland and England shall one Monarch have. 
 
 " For the same day that our King James the Sixth was
 
 90 NOTES. 
 
 / 
 
 crowned King of England, the river Tweed, by an extra- 
 ordinary flood, so far overflowed its banks, that it met and 
 joined with the Pausayl at the said grave, which was never 
 before observed to fall out." PENNYCUICK'S Description 
 of Tweeddale. Edin. 1715. 4. p. 26. 
 
 Note II. 
 
 ' inhere the lingering fays renew their ring, 
 By milk-maid seen beneath the hawthorn hoar, 
 Or round the marge ofMinchmore's haunted spring. 
 
 St. VIII. p. 22. 
 
 A belief in the existence and nocturnal revels of the 
 fairies still lingers among the vulgar in Selkirkshire. A 
 copious fountain upon the ridge of Minchmore, called the 
 Cheesewell, is supposed to be sacred to these fanciful 
 spirits, and it was customary to propitiate them by throw- 
 ing in something upon passing it. A pin was the usual 
 oblation, and the ceremony is still sometimes practised, 
 though rather in jest than earnest.
 
 NOTES. 91 
 
 Note III. 
 
 . verse spontaneous. St. IX. p. 22. 
 
 The flexibility of the Italian and Spanish languages, and 
 perhaps the liveliness of their genius, renders these coun- 
 tries distinguished for the talent of improvisation, which is 
 found even among the lowest of the people. It is men* 
 tioned by Baretti and other travellers. 
 
 Note IV. 
 
 , the deeds of Graeme St. IX. p. 23. 
 
 Over a name sacred for ages to heroic verse, a poet may 
 be allowed to exercise some power. I have used the free- 
 dom, here and elsewhere, to alter the orthography of the 
 name of my gallant countryman, in order to apprise the 
 Southern reader of its legitimate sound ; Grahame being, 
 on the other side of the Tweed, usually pronounced as a 
 dissyllable.
 
 NOTES ON THE VISION. 
 
 For fair Florinda's plundered charms to pay. 
 
 St. IV. p. 29. 
 
 Almost all the Spanish historians, as well as the voice of 
 tradition, ascribe the invasion of the Moors to the forcible 
 violation committed by Roderick upon Florinda, called by 
 the Moors Caba, or Cava. She was the daughter of Count 
 Julian, one of the Gothic monarch's principal lieutenants, 
 who, when the crime was perpetrated, was engaged in the 
 defence of Ceuta against the Moors. In his indignation 
 at the ingratitude of his sovereign, and the dishonour of 
 his daughter, Count Julian forgot the duties of a Chris-
 
 NOTES. 98 
 
 tian and a patriot, and, forming an alliance with Musa, 
 then the caliph's lieutenant in Africa, he countenanced the 
 invasion of Spain by a body of Saracens and Africans, 
 commanded by the celebrated Tarik ; the issue of which 
 was the defeat and death of Roderick, and the occupation 
 of almost the whole peninsula by the Moors. Voltaire, in 
 his General History, expresses his doubts of this popular 
 story, and Gibbon gives him some countenance. But the 
 universal tradition is quite sufficient for the purposes of 
 poetry. The Spaniards, in detestation of Florinda's me- 
 mory, are said, by Cervantes, never to bestow that name 
 upon any human female, reserving it for their dogs. Nor 
 is the tradition less inveterate among the Moors, since the 
 same author mentions a promontory on the coast of Bar- 
 bary, called " The Cape of the Caba Rumia, which, in 
 our tongue, is the Cape of the Wicked Christian Woman; 
 and it is a tradition among the Moors, that Caba, the 
 daughter of Count Julian, who was the cause of the loss 
 of Spain, lies buried there, and they think it ominous to be
 
 94 NOTES. 
 
 forced into that bay ; for they never go in otherwise than 
 
 by necessity." 
 i 
 
 Note II. 
 
 And guide me, Priest, to that mysterious room, 
 
 Where, if aught true in old tradition be, 
 His nation* s future jate a Spanish King shall see. 
 
 St. X. p. 34. 
 
 The transition of an incident from history to tradition, 
 and from tradition to fable and romance, becoming more 
 marvellous at each step from its original simplicity, is not 
 ill exemplified in the account of the " Fated Chamber" of 
 Don Roderick, as given by his namesake, the historian of 
 Toledo, contrasted with subsequent and more romantic 
 accounts of the same subterranean discovery. I give the 
 Archbishop of Toledo's tale in the words of Nonius, who 
 seems to intimate, (though very modestly,) that ihefatak 
 palatium, of which so much had been said, was only the 
 ruins of a Roman amphitheatre.
 
 NOTES. 95 
 
 " Extra muros, septentrionem versus, vestigia magni 
 olim theatri sparsa visuntur. Auctor est Rodericus Tole- 
 tanus Archiepiscopus, ante Arabum in Hispanias irrup- 
 tionem, hie fatale palatium fuisse ; quod invicti vectes, 
 aeterna ferri robora claudebant, ne reseratum Hispaniae 
 excidium adferret ; quod in fatis non vulgus solum, sed et 
 prudentissirai quique credebant. Sed Roderici ultimi Go- 
 thorum Regis aniraum infelix curiositas subiit, sciendi quid 
 sub tot vetitis claustris observaretur ; ingentes ibi superio- 
 rum regum opes et arcanos thesauros servari ratus. Seras 
 et pessulos perfringi curat, invitis omnibus, nihil praeter 
 arculam repertum, et in ea linteum, quo explicato novae 
 et insolentes hominum facies habitusque apparuere, cum 
 inscriptione Latina Hispanice excidium ab ilia gente immi' 
 nere ; Vultus habitusque Maurorum erant. Quamobrem 
 ex Africa tantam cladem instate regi caeterisque persua- 
 sum ; nee falso ut Hispaniae annales etiamnum querun- 
 tur." Hispania Ludovic Nonij, cap. lix. 
 
 But about tlie term of the expulsion of the Moors from
 
 NOTES. 
 
 Grenada, we find, in the " Historia Verdadera del Rey 
 Don Koderigo," a (pretended) translation from the Arabic 
 of the sage Alcayde Albucacim Tarif Abentarique, a le- 
 gend which puts to shame the modesty of the historian 
 Roderick, with his chest and prophetic picture. The cus- 
 tom of ascribing a pretended Moorish original to these 
 legendary histories, is ridiculed by Cervantes, who affects 
 to translate the history of the Knight of the Woeful Figure, 
 from the Arabic of the sage Cid Hamet Benengeli. As 
 I have been indebted to the Historia Verdadera for some 
 of the imagery employed in the text, the following literal 
 translation from the work itself may gratify the inquisitive 
 reader : 
 
 " One mile on the east side of the city of Toledo, among 
 some rocks, was situated an ancient tower, of a magnificent 
 structure, though much dilapidated by time, which con- 
 sumes all : four estadoes, (i. e. four times a man's height,) 
 below it, there was a cave with a very narrow entrance, 
 and a gate cut out of the solid rock, lined with a strong
 
 NOTES. ?7 
 
 covering of iron, and fastened with many locks; above the 
 gate some Greek letters are engraved, which, although 
 abbreviated, and of doubtful meaning, were thus inter- 
 preted, according to the exposition of learned men : 
 * The king who opens this cave, and can discover the 
 wonders, will discover both good and evil things.' Many 
 kings desired to know the mystery of this tower, and sought 
 to find out the manner with much care : but when they 
 opened the gate, such a tremendous noise arose in the 
 cave, that it appeared as if the earth was bursting ; many 
 of those present sickened with fear, and others lost their 
 lives. In order to prevent such great perils, (as they sup- 
 posed a dangerous enchantment was contained within,) 
 they secured the gate with new locks, concluding, that 
 though a king was destined to open it, the fated time was 
 not yet arrived. At last King Don Rodrigo, led on by his 
 evil fortune and unlucky destiny, opened the tower ; and 
 some bold attendants whom he had brought with him 
 entered, although agitated with fear. Having proceeded
 
 98 NOTES. 
 
 a good way, they fled back to the entrance, terrified with 
 a frightful vision which they had beheld. The king was 
 greatly moved, and ordered many torches, so contrived 
 that the tempest in the cave could not extinguish them, to 
 be lighted. Then the king entered, not without fear, be- 
 fore all the others. They discovered, by degrees, a splen- 
 did hall, apparently built in a very sumptuous manner ; in 
 the middle stood a Bronze Statue of very ferocious appear- 
 ance, which held a battle-axe in its hands. With this he 
 struck the floor violently, giving it such heavy blows, that 
 the noise in the cave was occasioned by the motion of the 
 air. The king, greatly affrighted and astonished, began 
 to conjure this terrible vision, promising that he would re- 
 turn without doing any injury in the cave, after he had 
 obtained sight of what was contained in it. The statue 
 ceased to strike the floor, and the king, with his followers, 
 somewhat assured, and recovering their courage, proceed- 
 ed into the hall ; and on the left of the statue they found 
 this inscription on the wall ; ' Unfortunate king, thou hast
 
 NOTES. 99 
 
 entered here in evil hour.* On the right side of the wall 
 these words were inscribed, ' By strange nations thou shalt 
 be dispossessed, and thy subjects foully degraded.' On 
 the shoulders of the statue other words were written, which 
 said, ' I call upon the Arabs.' And upon his breast was 
 written, * I do my office.' At the entrance of the hall 
 there was placed a round bowl, from which a great noise, 
 like the fall of waters, proceeded. They found no other 
 thing in the hall ; and when the king, sorrowful and greatly 
 affected, had scarcely turned about to leave the cavern, 
 the statue again commenced its accustomed blows upon 
 the floor. After they had mutually promised to conceal 
 what they had seen, they again closed the [tower, and 
 blocked up the gate of the cavern with earth, that no me- 
 mory might remain in the world of such a portentous and 
 evil-boding prodigy. The ensuing midnight they heard 
 great cries and clamour from the cave, resounding like the 
 noise of battle, and the ground shaking with a tremendous 
 roar ; the whole edifice of the old tower fell to the ground,
 
 100 NOTES. 
 
 by which they were greatly affrighted, the vision which 
 they had beheld appearing to them as a dream. 
 
 " The king having left the tower, ordered wise men to 
 explain what the inscriptions signified ; and having con- 
 sulted upon and studied their meaning, they declared that 
 the statue of bronze, with the motion which it made with 
 its battle-axe, signified Time ; and that its office, alluded 
 to in the inscription on his breast, was, that he never rests 
 a single moment. The words on the shoulders, * I call 
 upon the Arabs,' they expounded, that in time Spain 
 would be conquered by the Arabs. The words upon the 
 left wall signified the destruction of King Rodrigo ; those 
 on the right, the dreadful calamities which were to fall 
 upon the Spaniards and Goths, and that the unfortunate 
 king would be dispossessed of all his states. Finally, the 
 letters on the portal indicated, that good would betide to 
 the conquerors, and evil to the conquered, of which expe- 
 rience proved the truth." Historia Verdadeym del Rey 
 Don Rodrigo. Quinta impression. Madrid, 1654>. 4. p. 23.
 
 NOTES. 101 
 
 Note III. 
 
 ... the Teclir war-cry and the Lelies yell. 
 
 St. XIX. p. 40. 
 
 The tecbir, (derived from the words Alia acbar, God is 
 most mighty, ) was the original war-cry of the Saracens. 
 It is celebrated by Hughes in the Siege of Damascus : 
 
 We heard the Tecbir; so these Arabs call 
 Their shout of onset, when with loud appeal 
 They challenge heaven, as if demanding conquest. 
 
 The Lelie, well known to the Christians during the cru- 
 sades, is the shout of Alia ilia Alia, the Mahomedan con- 
 fession of faith. It is twice used in poetry by my friend, 
 Mr W. Stuart Rose, in the Romance of Partenopex, and 
 in the Crusade of St Lewis.
 
 102 NOTE S. 
 
 Note IV. 
 By Heaven, the Moors prevail ! the Christians yield ! 
 
 Their coward leader gives for flight the sign ! 
 The sceptered craven mounts to quit thejield 
 Is not yon steed Orelia ? Yes, 'tis mine ! 
 
 St. XXI. p. 41. 
 
 Count Julian, the father of the injured Florinda, with 
 the connivance and assistance of Oppas, Archbishop of 
 Toledo, invited, in 1713, the Saracens into Spain. A con- 
 siderable army arrived under the command of Tarik, or 
 Tarif, who bequeathed the well-known name of Gibraltar 
 (Gibel al Tarik, or the mountain of Tarik) to the place of 
 his landing. He was joined by Count Julian, ravaged 
 Andalusia, and took Seville. In 714 they returned with 
 a still greater force, and Roderick marched into Andalu- 
 sia at the head of a great army to give them battle. The 
 field was chosen near Xeres, and Mariana gives the follow- 
 ing account of the action : 
 " Both armies being drawn up, the king, according to
 
 NOTES. 103 
 
 the custom of the Gothic kings, when they went to battle, 
 appeared in an ivory chariot, clothed in cloth of gold, en- 
 couraging his men ; Tarif, on the other side, did the same. 
 The armies thus prepared, waited only for the signal to 
 fall on ; the Goths gave the charge, their drums and trum- 
 pets sounding, and the Moors received it with the noise of 
 kettle-drums. Such were the shouts and cries on both 
 sides, that the mountains and valleys seemed to meet. 
 First they began with slings, darts, javelins, and lances, then 
 came to the swords ; a long time the battle was dubious ; 
 but the Moors seemed to have the worst, till D. Oppas, the 
 Archbishop, having to that time concealed his treachery, 
 in the heat of the fight, with a great body of his followers, 
 went over to the infidels. He joined Count Julian, with 
 whom was a great number of Goths, and both together 
 fell upon the flank of our army. Our men, terrified with 
 that unparalleled treachery, and tired with fighting, could 
 no longer sustain that charge, but were easily put to flight. 
 The k ing performed the part not only of a wise general
 
 104 NOTE S. 
 
 but of a resolute soldier, relieving the weakest, bringing 
 on fresh men in place of those that were tired, and stop- 
 ping those that turned their backs. At length, seeing no 
 hopes left, he alighted out of his chariot for fear of being 
 taken, and mounting on ahorse, called Orelia, he withdrew 
 out of the battle. The Goths, who still stood, missing him , 
 were most part put to the sword, the rest betook them- 
 selves to flight. The camp was immediately entered, and 
 the baggage taken. What number was killed is not known : 
 I suppose they were so many it was hard to count them ; 
 for this single battle robbed Spain of all its glory, and in 
 it perished the renowned name of the Goths. The king's 
 horse, upper garment, and buskins, covered with pearls and 
 precious stones, were found on the bank of the river Gua- 
 delite, and there being no news of him afterwards, it was 
 supposed he was drowned passing the river." MARIANA'S 
 History of Spain, book vi. chap. 9. 
 
 Orelia, the courser of Don Roderick, mentioned in the 
 text, and in the above quotation, was celebrated for her
 
 NOTES. 105 
 
 speed and form. She is mentioned repeatedly in Spanish 
 
 romance, and also by Cervantes. 
 
 - 
 
 Note V. 
 
 When for the light Bolero ready stand 
 The Mozo blithe with gay Muchacha met. 
 
 St. XXXIII. p. 49. 
 
 The Bolero is a very light and active dance, much prac- 
 tised by the Spaniards, in which castanets are always used. 
 Mozo and Muchacha are equivalent to our phrase of lad 
 and lass. 
 
 Note VI. 
 While trumpets rang, and heralds cried, " Castile." 
 
 St. XLIII. p. 55. 
 
 The heralds at the coronation of a Spanish monarch 
 proclaim his name three times, and repeat three times the 
 word Castillo, Castillo, Castilla ; which, with all other ce-
 
 106 NOTES. 
 
 remonies, was carefully copied in the mock inauguration 
 of Joseph Buonaparte. 
 
 Note VII. 
 
 High blazed the luar, and long, and jar, and imde. 
 
 St. XL VIII. p. 59. 
 
 Those who were disposed to believe that mere virtue 
 and energy are able of themselves to work forth the salva- 
 tion of an oppressed people, surprised in a moment of con- 
 fidence, deprived of their officers, armies, and fortresses, 
 who had every means of resistance to seek in the very mo- 
 ment when they were to be made use of, and whom the nu- 
 merous treasons among the higher orders deprived of confi- 
 dence in their natural leaders, those who entertained this 
 enthusiastic but delusive opinion, may be pardoned for ex- 
 pressing their disappointment at the protracted warfare in 
 the peninsula. There are, however, another class of per- 
 sons, who, having themselves the highest dread or ve- 
 neration, or something allied to both, for the power of
 
 NOTES. 107 
 
 the modem Attila, will nevertheless give the heroica] 
 Spaniards little or no credit for the long, stubborn, and 
 unsubdued resistance of three years to a power before 
 whom their former well-prepared, well-armed, and nume- 
 rous adversaries fell in the course of as many months. 
 While these gentlemen plead for deference to Buonaparte, 
 and crave 
 
 Respect for hfc great place and bid the devil 
 Be duly honoured for his burning throne, 
 
 it may not be altogether unreasonable to claim some mo- 
 dification of censure upon those, who have been long and 
 to a great extent successfully resisting this great enemy of 
 mankind. That the energy of Spain has not uniformly 
 been directed by conduct equal to its vigour, has been too 
 obvious ; that her armies, under their complicated disad- 
 vantages, have shared the fate of such as were defeated 
 after taking the field with every possible advantage of 
 arms and discipline, is surely not to be wondered at. But 
 that a nation, under the circumstances of repeated discom-
 
 JOff NOTES. 
 
 fiture, internal treason, and the mismanagement incident 
 to a temporary and hastily-adopted government, should 
 have wasted, by its stubborn, uniform, and prolonged re- 
 sistance, myriads after myriads of those soldiers who had 
 overrun the world that some of its provinces should, like 
 Galicia, after being abandoned by their allies, and overrun 
 by their enemies, have recovered their freedom by their own 
 unassisted exertions ; that others, like Catalonia, undismay- 
 ed by the treason which betrayed some fortresses, and the 
 force which subdued others, should not only have conti- 
 nued their resistance, but have attained over their victorious 
 enemy a superiority, which is even now enabling them to 
 besiege and retake the places of strength which had been 
 wrested from them, is a tale hitherto untold in the revolu- 
 tionary war. To say that such a people cannot be subdued, 
 would be presumption similar to that of those who pro- 
 tested that Spain could not defend herself for a year, or 
 Portugal for a month ; but that a resistance which lias 
 been continued for so long a space, when the usurper, ex-
 
 NOTES. 109 
 
 rept during the short-lived Austrian campaign, had no other 
 enemies on the continent, should be now less successful, 
 when repeated defeats have broken the reputation of the 
 French armies, and when they are likely (it would seem 
 almost in desperation) to seek occupation elsewhere, is a 
 prophecy as improbable as ungracious. And while we are 
 in the humour of severely censuring our allies, gallant and 
 devoted as they have shewn themselves in the cause of na- 
 tional liberty, because they may not instantly adopt those 
 measures which we in our wisdom may deem essential to 
 success, it might be well, if we endeavoured first to resolve 
 the previous questions, 1st, Whether we do not at this 
 moment know much less of the Spanish armies than of 
 those of Portugal, which were so promptly condemned as 
 totally inadequate to assist in the preservation of their 
 country ? 2d, Whether, independently of any right we 
 have to offer more than advice and assistance to our inde- 
 pendent allies, we can expect that they should renounce 
 entirely the national pride, which is inseparable from pa-
 
 110 NOTES. 
 
 triotism, and at once condescend not only to be saved by 
 our assistance, but to be saved in our own way ? 3d, Whe- 
 ther, if it be an object, (as undoubtedly it is a main one,) 
 that the Spanish troops should be trained under British 
 discipline, to the flexibility of movement, and power of 
 rapid concert and combination, which is essential to mo- 
 dern war ; such a consummation is likely to be produced 
 by abusing them in newspapers and periodical publications ? 
 Lastly, Since the undoubted authority of British officers 
 makes us now acquainted with part of the horrors that at- 
 tend invasion, and which the Providence of God, the va- 
 lour of our navy, and perhaps the very efforts of these 
 Spaniards, have hitherto diverted from us, it may be mo- 
 destly questioned whether we ought to be too forward to 
 estimate and condemn the feeling of temporary stupefac- 
 tion which they create ; lest, in so doing, we should re- 
 semble the worthy clergyman, who, while he had himself 
 
 never snuffed a candle with his fingers, was disposed se- 
 
 6
 
 NOTES. Ill 
 
 verely to criticise the conduct of a martyr who winced a 
 little among his flames. 
 
 Note VIII. 
 
 They IKOH not Zaragoza, but her children's Uoody tomb. 
 
 St. LI. p. 61. 
 
 The interesting account of Mr Vaughan has made most 
 readers acquainted with the first siege of Zaragoza. The 
 last and fatal siege of that gallant and devoted city is de- 
 tailed with great eloquence and precision in the " Edin- 
 burgh Annual Register" for 1809, a work in which the 
 affairs of Spain have been treated of with attention corre- 
 sponding to their deep interest, and to the peculiar sources 
 of information open to the historian. The following are a 
 few brief extracts from this splendid historical narrative : 
 
 " A breach was soon made in the mud walls, and then, 
 as in the former siege, the war-was carried on in the streets 
 and houses ; but the French had been taught by experience 
 that in this species of warfare the Zaragozans derived a
 
 112 NOTES. 
 
 superiority from the feeling and principle which inspired 
 them, and the cause for which they fought. The only 
 means of conquering Zaragoza was to destroy it house by 
 house, and street by street, and upon this system of de- 
 struction they proceeded. Three companies of miners 
 and eight companies of sappers , carried on this subterra- 
 neous war ; the Spaniards, it is said, attempted to oppose 
 them by countermines : these were operations to which 
 they were wholly unused, and, according to the French 
 statement, their miners were every day discovered and 
 suffocated. Meantime the bombardment was incessantly 
 kept up. * Within the last 4-8 hours,' said Palafox, in a 
 letter to his friend General Doyle, ' 6000 shells have been 
 thrown in, two-thirds of the town are in ruins, but we 
 shall perish under the ruins of the remaining third rather 
 than surrender.' In the course of the siege above 17,000 
 bombs were thrown at the tflwn ; the stock of powder with 
 which Zaragoza had been stored was exhausted ; they had 
 
 none at last, but what they manufactured day by day ; and 
 
 7
 
 NOTES. 118 
 
 no other cannon-balls than those which were shot into the 
 town, and which they collected and fired back upon the 
 enemy." 
 
 In the midst of these horrors and privations, the pesti- 
 lence broke out in Zaragoza. To various causes, enume- 
 rated by the annalist, he adds, "scantiness of food, crowded 
 quarters, unusual exertion of body, anxiety of mind, and 
 the impossibility of recruiting their exhausted strength 
 by needful rest in a city which was almost incessantly 
 bombarded, and where every hour their sleep was broken 
 by the tremendous explosion of mines. There was now 
 no respite, either by day or night, for this devoted city ; 
 even the natural order of light and darkness was destroyed 
 in Zaragoza ; by day it was involved in a red sulphureous 
 atmosphere of smoke, which hid the face of heaven ; by 
 night the fire of cannons and mortars, and the flames of 
 burning houses, kept it in a state of terrific illumination." 
 " When once the pestilence had begun it was impossible
 
 114 NOTES. 
 
 to check its progress, or confine it to one quarter of the 
 city. Hospitals were immediately established, there were 
 above thirty of them ; as soon as one was destroyed by the 
 bombardment, the patients were removed to another, and 
 thus the infection was carried to every part of Zaragoza. 
 Famine aggravated the evil; the city had probably not 
 been sufficiently provided at the commencement of the 
 siege, and of the provisions which it contained, much was 
 destroyed in the daily ruin which the mines and bombs 
 effected. Had the Zaragozans and their garrison pro- 
 ceeded according to military rules, they would have sur- 
 rendered before the end of January ; their batteries had 
 then been demolished, there were open breaches in many 
 parts of their weak walls, and the enemy were already 
 within the city. On the 30th above sixty houses were 
 blown up, and the French obtained possession of the mo- 
 nasteries of the Augustines and Las Monicas, which ad- 
 joined each other, two of the last defensible places left. 
 The enemy forced their way into the church ; every co-
 
 NOTES. 115 
 
 lumn, every chapel, every altar, became a point of defence, 
 which was repeatedly attacked, taken, and retaken; the 
 pavement was covered with blood, the aisles and body of 
 the church strewed with the dead, who were trampled 
 under foot by the combatants. In the midst of this con- 
 flict, the roof, shattered by repeated bombs, fell in ; the 
 few who were not crushed, after a short pause, which this 
 tremendous shock and their own unexpected escape occa- 
 sioned, renewed the fight with rekindling fury : fresh par- 
 ties of the enemy poured in ; monks, and citizens, and sol- 
 diers came to the defence, and the contest was continued 
 upon the ruins, and the bodies of the dead and the dy- 
 ing." 
 
 Yet, seventeen days after sustaining these extremities, 
 did the heroic inhabitants of Zaragoza continue their de- 
 fence ; nor did they then surrender until their despair had 
 extracted from the French generals a capitulation, more 
 honourable than has been granted to fortresses of the first 
 order.
 
 116 NOTES. 
 
 Who shall venture to refuse the Zaragozans the eulo- 
 gium conferred upon them by the eloquence of Words- 
 worth ! " Most gloriously have the citizens of Zaragoza 
 proved that the true army of Spain, in a contest of this 
 nature, is the whole people. The same city has also ex- 
 emplified a melancholy, yea, a dismal truth, yet consola- 
 tory and full of joy, that, when a people are called sud- 
 denly to fight for their liberty, and are sorely pressed upon, 
 their best field of battle is the floors upon which their chil- 
 dren have played ; the chambers where the family of each 
 man has slept (his own or his neighbours' ;) upon or under 
 the roofs by which they have been sheltered ; in the gar- 
 dens of their recreation ; in the street, or in the market- 
 place ; before the altars of their temples, and among their 
 congregated dwellings, blazing, or up-rooted. 
 
 " The government of Spain must never forget Zaragoza 
 for a moment. Nothing is wanting to produce the same 
 effects every where, but a leading mind, such as that city 
 was blessed with. In the latter contest this has been pro-
 
 NOTES. .117 
 
 ved ; for Zaragoza contained, at that time, bodies of men 
 from almost all parts of Spain. The narrative of those two 
 sieges should be the manual of every Spaniard. He may 
 add to ft the ancient stories of Numantia and Saguntum : 
 let him sleep upon the book as a pillow, and, if he be a 
 devout adherent to the religion of his country, let him 
 wear it in his bosom for his crucifix to rest upon." 
 
 Note IX. 
 
 the Vault of Destiny St. LXIII. p. 69. 
 
 Before finally dismissing the enchanted cavern of Don 
 Roderick, it may be noticed, that the legend occurs in one 
 of Calderon's plays, entitled, La Virgin del Sagrario. The 
 scene opens with the noise of the chace, and Recisundo, a 
 predecessor of Roderick upon the Gothic throne, enters 
 pursuing a stag. The animal assumes the form of a man, 
 and defies the king to enter the cave, which forms the 
 bottom of the scene, and engage with him in single combat. 
 The king accepts the challenge, and they engage accord-
 
 118 NOTES. 
 
 ingly, but without advantage on either side, which induces 
 the Genie to inform Recisundo, that he is not the monarch 
 for whom the adventure of the enchanted cavern is reser- 
 ved, and he proceeds to predict the downfall of the Gothic 
 monarchy, and of the Christian religion, which shall attend 
 the discovery of its mysteries. Recisundo, appalled by these 
 prophecies, orders the cavern to be secured by a gate and 
 bolts of iron. In the second part of the same play we are 
 informed, that Don Roderick had removed the barrier and 
 transgressed the prohibition of his ancestor, and had been 
 apprized by the prodigies which he discovered of the ap- 
 proaching ruin of his kingdom.
 
 NOTES ON THE CONCLUSION. 
 
 Note I. 
 While downward on the land his legions press. 
 
 Before them it taas rich "with vine andjlock, 
 And smiled like Eden in her summer dress ; 
 
 Behind their "wasteful march, a reeking "wilderness. 
 
 St. II. p. 72. 
 
 I have ventured to apply to the movements of the French 
 army that sublime passage in the prophecies of Joel, which 
 seems applicable to them in more respects than that I have 
 adopted in the text. One would think their ravages, their 
 military appointments, the terror which they spread among 
 invaded nations, their military discipline, their arts of po-
 
 120 NOTES. 
 
 litical intrigue and deceit, were distinctly pointed out in 
 the following verses of Scripture : 
 
 2. " A day of darknesse and of gloominesse, a day of 
 clouds and of thick darknesse, as the morning spread upon 
 the mountains : a great people and a strong, there hath 
 not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, 
 even to the yeares of many generations. 
 
 3- " A fire devoureth before them, and behind them a 
 flame burneth : the land is as the garden of Eden before 
 them, and behinde them a desolate wildernesse, yea, and 
 nothing shall escape them. 
 
 4. " The appearance of them is as the appearance of 
 horses and as horsemen, so shall they runne. 
 
 5. " Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains, 
 shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that de- 
 voureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battel array. 
 
 6. " Before their face the people shall be much pained : 
 all faces shall gather blacknesse. 
 
 7. " They shall run like mighty men, they shall clinabe
 
 NOTES. 121 
 
 the wall like men of warre, and they shall march every one 
 in his wayes, and they shall not break their ranks. 
 
 8. " Neither shall one thrust another, they shall walk 
 every one in his path : and when they fall upon the sword 
 they shall not be wounded. 
 
 9. " They shall run to and fro in the citie : they shall 
 run upon the wall, they shall climbe up upon the houses : 
 they shall enter in at the windows like a thief. 
 
 10. " The earth shall quake before them, the heavens 
 shall tremble, the sunne and the moon shall be dark, and 
 the starres shall withdraw their shining." 
 
 In verse 20th also, which announces the retreat of the 
 northern army, described in such dreadful colours, into * 
 " land barren and desolate," and the dishonour with which 
 God afflicted them for having " magnified themselves to 
 do great things," there are particulars not inapplicable to 
 the retreat of Massena : Divine Providence having, in all 
 ages, attached disgrace as the natural punishment of cru- 
 elty and presumption.
 
 122 NOTES. 
 
 Note II. 
 
 The rudest centinel in Britain lorn, 
 Gave his poor crust to feed some wretch forlorn. 
 
 St. VII. p. 75. 
 
 Even the unexampled gallantry of the British array in 
 the campaign of 1810-11, although they never fought but 
 to conquer, will do them less honour in history than their 
 humanity, attentive to soften to the utmost of their power 
 the horrors which war, in its mildest aspect, must always 
 inflict upon the defenceless inhabitants of the country in 
 which it is waged, and which, on this occasion, were ten- 
 fold augmented by the barbarous cruelties of the French. 
 Soup-kitchens were established by subscription among the 
 officers, wherever the troops were quartered for any length 
 of time. The commissaries contributed the heads, feet, 
 &c. of the cattle slaughtered for the soldiery : rice, vege- 
 tables, and bread where it could be had, were purchased 
 by the officers. Fifty or sixty starving peasants were 
 daily fed at one of these regimental establishments, and
 
 X O T E S. 123 
 
 carried home the reliques to their famished households. 
 The emaciated wretches, who could not crawl from weak- 
 ness, were speedily employed in pruning their vines. 
 While pursuing Massena, the soldiers evinced the same 
 spirit of humanity, and, in many instances, when reduced 
 themselves to short allowance, from having out-marched 
 their supplies, they shared their pittance with the starving 
 inhabitants who had ventured back to view the ruins of 
 their habitations, burned by the retreating enemy, and to 
 bury the bodies of their relations whom they had butchered. 
 Is it possible to know such facts without feeling a sort of 
 confidence, that those who so well deserve victory are most 
 likely to attain it ? It is not the least of Lord Welling- 
 ton's military merits, that the slightest disposition towards 
 marauding meets immediate punishment. Independently 
 of all moral obligation, the army which is most orderly in 
 a friendly country, has always proved most formidable to 
 an armed enemy.
 
 124 NOTES. 
 
 Note III. 
 
 . vain-glorious Fugitive ! St. VIII. p. 76. 
 
 The French conducted this memorable retreat with 
 much of the fanfarronade proper to their country, by 
 which they attempt to impose upon others, and perhaps 
 on themselves, a belief that they are triumphing in the 
 very moment of their discomfiture. On the 30th March > 
 1811, their rear guard was overtaken near Pega by the 
 British cavalry. Being well posted, and conceiving them- 
 selves safe from infantry, (w ho were indeed many miles in 
 the rear,) and from artillery, they indulged themselves in 
 parading their bands of music, and actually performed 
 " God save the King." Their minstrelsy was however 
 deranged by the undesired accompaniment of the British 
 horse-artillery, on whose part in the concert they had not 
 calculated. The surprise was sudden, and the rout com- 
 plete; for the artillery and cavalry did execution upon 
 them for about four miles, pursuing at the gallop as often 
 as they got beyond the range of the guns.
 
 NOTES. 125 
 
 Note IV. 
 Vainly thy squadrons hide Assuava's plain, 
 
 And front thefljing thunders as they roar, 
 With frantic charge and tenfold odds, in vain ! 
 
 St. X. p. 77. 
 
 In the severe action of Fuentes d'Honoro, upon 5t 
 May, 1811, the grand mass of the French cavalry attack- 
 ed the right of the British position, covered by two guns 
 of the horse-artillery and two squadrons of cavalry. After 
 suffering considerably from the fire of the guns, which an- 
 noyed them in every attempt to formation, the enemy 
 turned their wrath entirely towards them, distributed 
 brandy among their troopers, and advanced to carry the 
 field-pieces with the desperation of drunken fury. They 
 were in no ways checked by the heavy loss which they 
 sustained in this daring attempt, but closed, and fairly 
 mingled with the British cavalry, to whom they bore the 
 proportion of ten to one. Captain Ramsay, ( let me be 
 permitted to name a gallant countryman,) who command-
 
 126 NOTES. 
 
 ed the two guns, dismissed them at the gallop, and, put- 
 ting himself at the head of the mounted artillerymen, or- 
 dered them to fall upon the French, sabre- in-hand. This 
 very unexpected conversion of artillerymen into dragoons 
 contributed greatly to the defeat of the enemy, already 
 disconcerted by the reception they had met from the two 
 British squadrons ; and the appearance of some small rein- 
 forcements, notwithstanding the immense disproportion of 
 force, put them to absolute rout. A colonel or major of 
 their cavalry, and many prisoners, (almost all intoxicated) 
 remained in our possession. Those who consider for a 
 moment the difference of the services, and how much an 
 artilleryman is necessarily and naturally led to identify 
 his own safety and utility with abiding by the tremendous 
 implement of war, to the exercise of which he is chiefly, 
 if not exclusively, trained, will know how to estimate the 
 presence of mind which commanded so bold a manreuvre, 
 and the steadiness and confidence with which it was exe- 
 cuted. 5
 
 NOTES. 127 
 
 Note V. 
 
 And tvhat avails thee that,Jbr Cameron slain. 
 Wild from his plaided ranks the yell was given 
 
 St. X. p. 77- 
 
 The gallant Colonel Cameron was wounded mortally 
 during the desperate contest in the streets of the village 
 called Fuentes d'Honoro. He fell at the head of his na- 
 tive Highlanders, the 71st and 79th, who raised a dreadful 
 shriek of grief and rage. They charged, with irresistible 
 fury, the finest body of French grenadiers ever seen, being 
 a part of Buonaparte's selected guard. The officer who 
 led the French, a man remarkable for stature and symme- 
 try, was killed on the spot. The Frenchman who stepped 
 out of his rank to take aim at Colonel Cameron, was also 
 bayonetted, pierced with a thousand wounds, and almost 
 torn to pieces by the furious Highlanders, who, under the 
 command of Colonel Cadogan, bore the enemy out of the 
 contested ground at the point of the bayonet. Massena 
 
 pays my countrymen a singular compliment in his account
 
 128 NOTES. 
 
 of the attack and defence of this village, in which, he says, 
 the British lost many officers, and Scotch. 
 
 Note VI. 
 
 O tu/io shall grudge him Albuera's bays. 
 
 Who brought a race regenerate to the fold, 
 Roused them to emulate their fathers? praise, 
 Tempered their headlong rage, their courage steel'd. 
 
 St. XIV. p. 80. 
 
 Nothing during the war of Portugal seems, to a distinct 
 observer, more deserving of praise, than the self-devotion 
 of Field-Marshal Beresford, who was contented to under- 
 take all the hazard of obloquy which might have been 
 founded upon any miscarriage in the highly-important ex- 
 periment of training the Portugueze troops to an improved 
 state of discipline. In exposing his military reputation to 
 the censure of imprudence from the most moderate, and 
 all manner of unutterable calumnies from the ignorant and 
 
 malignant, he placed at stake the dearest pledge which a 
 
 8
 
 NOTES. 129 
 
 military man had to offer, and nothing but the deepest 
 conviction of the high and essential importance attached 
 to success can be supposed an adequate motive. How 
 great the chance of miscarriage was supposed, may be es- 
 timated from the general opinion of officers of unquestioned 
 talents and experience, possessed of every opportunity of 
 information ; how completely the experiment has succeed- 
 ed, and how much the spirit and patriotism of our ancient 
 allies had been under-rated, is evident, not only from those 
 victories in which they have borne a distinguished share, 
 but from the liberal and highly honourable manner in which 
 these opinions have been retracted. The success of this 
 plan, with all its important consequences, we owe to the 
 indefatigable exertions of Field-Marshal Beresford.
 
 130 NOTES. 
 
 Note VII. 
 
 i a race renowned of old, 
 Whose txiar-cry oft has 'waked the battle-stuett. 
 
 St. XVII. p. 82. 
 
 This stanza alludes to the various achievements of the 
 warlike family of Graeme, or Grahame. They are said, 
 by tradition, to have descended from the Scottish chief, 
 under whose command his countrymen stormed the wall 
 built by the Emperor Severus between the firths of Forth 
 and Clyde, the fragments of which are still popularly call- 
 ed Graeme's Dyke. Sir John the Graeme, " the hardy, 
 wight, and wise,'* is well known as the friend of Sir Wil- 
 liam Wallace. Alderne, Kilsyth, and Tibbermuir, were 
 scenes of the victories of the heroic Marquis of M.optrose. 
 The pass of Killy-crankie is famous for the action betweea 
 King William's forces and the Highlanders in 1689, 
 
 " Where glad Dundee in faint huzzas expired." 
 
 It is seldom that one line can number so many heroes,
 
 NOTES. 131 
 
 and yet more rare when it can appeal to the glory of a 
 living descendant in support of its ancient renown. 
 
 The allusions to the private history and character of 
 General Grahame may be illustrated by referring to the 
 eloquent and affecting speech of Mr Sheridan, upon the 
 vote ef thanks to the Victor of Barosa. 
 
 THE END OF DON RODERICK.
 
 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS.
 
 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. 
 
 THE PALMER. 
 
 " \J OPEN the door, some pity to shew, 
 '* Keen blows the northern wind ; 
 
 " The glen is white with the drifted snow, 
 " And the path is hard to find. 
 
 " No Outlaw seeks your castle gate, 
 " From chasing the king's deer, 
 
 " Though even an Outlaw's wretched state 
 " Might claim compassion here.
 
 136 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. 
 
 " A weary Palmer, worn and weak, 
 
 " I wander for my sin ; 
 " O open for Our Lady's sake, 
 
 ' A pilgrim's blessing win ! 
 
 " I'll give you pardons from the pope, 
 ' And reliques from o'er the sea, 
 
 " Or if for these you will not ope, 
 " Yet open for charity. 
 
 " The hare is crouching in her form, 
 '* The hart beside the hind ; 
 
 " An aged man, amid the storm, 
 " No shelter can I find. 
 
 " You hear the Ettrick's sullen roar, 
 " Dark, deep, and strong is he,
 
 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. 137 , 
 
 " And I must ford the Ettrick o'er, 
 " Unless you pity me. 
 
 * 
 
 " The iron gate is bolted hard, 
 
 " At which I knock in vain ; 
 " The owner's heart is closer barr'd, 
 
 " Who hears me thus complain. 
 
 " Farewell, farewell ! and Mary grant, 
 
 " When old and frail you be, 
 " You never may the shelter want, 
 
 " That's now denied to me." 
 
 The Ranger on his couch lay warm, 
 
 And heard him plead in vain j 
 But oft amid December's storm, 
 
 He'll hear that voice again :
 
 133 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. 
 
 For lo, when through the vapours dank, 
 Morn shone on Ettrick fair, 
 
 A corpse amid the alders rank, 
 The Palmer welter'd there.
 
 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. 13> 
 
 THE 
 
 MAID OF NEIDPATH. 
 
 1 HERE is a tradition in Tweeddale, that, when Neidpath 
 Castle, near Peebles, was inhabited by the Earls of March, 
 a mutual passion subsisted between a daughter of that no- 
 ble family, and a son of the laird of Tushielaw, in Ettricke 
 Forest. As the alliance was thought unsuitable by her 
 parents, the young man went abroad. During his absence, 
 the lady fell into a consumption ; and at length, as the only 
 means of saving her life, her father consented that her 
 lover should be recalled. On the day when he was ex- 
 pected to pass through Peebles, on the road to Tushielaw, 
 the young lady, though much exhausted, caused herself to 
 
 be carried to the balcony of a house in Peebles, belonging 
 12
 
 140 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. 
 
 to the family, that she might see him as he rode past. Her 
 anxiety and eagerness gave such force to her organs, that 
 she is said to have distinguished his horse's footsteps at an 
 incredible distance. But Tushielaw, unprepared for the 
 change in her appearance, and not expecting to see her 
 in that place, rode on without recognising her, or even 
 slackening his pace. The lady was unable to support the 
 shock, and, after a short struggle, died in the arms of her 
 attendants. There is an incident similar to this traditional 
 tale in Count Hamilton's " Fleur d'Epine."
 
 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. 141 
 
 THE 
 
 MAID OF NEIDPATH. 
 
 O LOVERS' eyes are sharp to see, 
 
 And lovers' ears in hearing ; 
 And love, in life's extremity, 
 
 Can lend an hour of cheering, 
 Disease had been in Mary's bower, 
 
 And slow decay from mourning, 
 Though now she sks on Neidpath's tower, 
 
 To watch her love's returning. 
 
 All sunk and dim her eyes so bright, 
 
 Her form decayed by pining, 
 1
 
 H2 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. 
 
 Till through her wasted hand, at night, 
 You saw the taper shining ; 
 
 By fits, a sultry hectic hue 
 Across her cheek was flying ; 
 
 By fits, so ashy pale she grew, 
 Her maidens thought her dying. 
 
 Yet keenest powers, to see and hear, 
 
 Seemed in her frame residing ; 
 Before the watch-dog pricked his ear, 
 
 She heard her lover's riding ; 
 Ere scarce a distant form was ken'd, 
 
 She knew, and waved to greet him ; 
 And o'er the battlement did bend, 
 
 As on the wing to meet him. 
 
 He came he passed an heedless gaze, 
 As o'er some stranger glancing ;
 
 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. 1*8 
 
 Her welcome, spoke in faultering phrase, 
 
 Lost in his courser's prancing 
 The castle arch, whose hollow tone 
 
 Returns each whisper spoken, 
 Could scarcely catch the feeble moan, 
 
 Which told her heart was broken,
 
 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. 
 
 WANDERING WILLIE. 
 
 ALL joy was bereft me the day that you left me, 
 And climbed the tall vessel to sail yon wide sea ; 
 
 O weary betide it ! I wandered beside it, 
 
 And banned it for parting my Willie and me. 
 
 Far o'er the wave hast thou followed thy fortune, 
 Oft fought the squadrons of France and of Spain ; 
 
 Ac kiss of welcome's worth twenty at parting, 
 Now I hae gotten my Willie again.
 
 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. l *H 
 
 When the sky it was mirk, and the winds they were 
 wailing, 
 
 I sat on the beach wi' the tear in my e'e, 
 And thought o' the bark where my Willie was sailing, 
 
 And wished that the tempest could a* blaw on me. 
 
 Now that thy gallant ship rides at her mooring, 
 Now that my wanderer's in safety at hame, 
 
 Music to me were the wildest winds roaring, 
 
 That e'er o'er Inch Keith drove the dark ocean 
 faem. 
 
 When the lights they did blaze, and the guns they 
 did rattle, 
 
 And blithe was each heart for the great victory, 
 In secret I wept for the dangers of battle, 
 
 And thy glory itself was scarce comfort to me. 
 
 K
 
 146 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. 
 
 But now shalt thou tell, while I eagerly listen, 
 Of each bold adventure, and every brave scar ; 
 
 And, trust me, I'll smile, though my een they may 
 
 glisten ; 
 For sweet after danger's the tale of the war. 
 
 And oh, how we doubt when there's distance 'tween 
 
 lovers, 
 When there's naething to speak to the heart thro* 
 
 the e'e ; 
 
 How often the kindest, and warmest, prove rovers, 
 And the love of the faithfullest ebbs like the sea. 
 
 Till, at times, could I help it ? I pined and I pon- 
 dered, 
 
 If love could change notes like the bird on the 
 tree
 
 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. 147 
 
 Now I'll ne'er ask if thine eyes may hae wandered, 
 Enough, thy leal heart has been constant to me. 
 
 Welcome, from sweeping o'er sea and through 
 channel, 
 
 Hardships and danger despising for fame, 
 Furnishing story for glory's bright annal, 
 
 Welcome, my wanderer, to Jeanie and liaine ! 
 
 Enough now thy story in annals of glory 
 
 Has humbled the pride of France, Holland, and 
 
 Spain ; 
 No more shalt thou grieve me, no more shalt thou 
 
 leave me, 
 I never will part with my Willie again.
 
 148 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. 
 
 HUNTING SONG. 
 
 W AKEN lords and ladies gay, 
 
 On the mountain dawns the day, 
 
 All the jolly chace is here, 
 
 With hawk, and horse, and hunting spear ; 
 
 Hounds are in their couples yelling, 
 
 Hawks are whistling, horns are knelling, 
 
 Merrily, merrily, mingle they, 
 
 " Waken lords and ladies gay." 
 
 Waken lords and ladies gay, 
 
 The mist has left the mountain gray,
 
 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. 
 
 Springlets in the dawn are steaming, 
 Diamonds on the brake are gleaming : 
 And foresters have busy been, 
 To track the buck in thicket green ; 
 Now we come to chaunt our lay, 
 " Waken lords and ladies gay." 
 
 Waken lords and ladies gay, 
 To the green wood haste away ; 
 We can shew you where he lies, 
 Fleet of foot, and tall of size ; 
 We can shew the marks he made, 
 When 'gainst the oak his antlers frayed ; 
 You shall see him brought to bay, 
 " Waken lords and ladies gay." 
 
 Louder, louder chaunt the lay, 
 Waken lords and ladies gay !
 
 150 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. 
 
 Tell them youth, and mirth, and glee, 
 Run a course as well as we ; 
 Time, stern huntsman ! who can baulk, 
 Staunch as hound, and fleet as hawk ; 
 Think of this, and rise with day, 
 Gentle lords and ladies gay.
 
 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. 161 
 
 THE VIOLET. 
 
 JL HE violet in her green-wood bower, 
 Where birchen boughs with hazles mingle, 
 
 May boast itself the fairest flower 
 In glen, or copse, or forest dingle. 
 
 Though fair her gems of azure hue, 
 
 Beneath the dew-drop's weight reclining j 
 
 I've seen an eye of lovelier blue, 
 
 More sweet through wat'ry lustre shining.
 
 152 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. 
 
 The summer sun that dew shall dry, 
 Ere yet the day be past its morrow ; 
 
 Nor longer in my false love's eye 
 Remained the tear of parting sorrow.
 
 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. 158 
 
 TO A LADY, 
 
 WITH FLOWERS FROM A ROMAN WALL. 
 
 1 AKE these flowers which, purple waving, 
 
 On the ruined rampart grew, 
 Where, the sons of freedom braving, 
 
 Rome's imperial standards flew. 
 
 Warriors from the breach of danger 
 Pluck no longer laurels there : 
 
 They but yield the passing stranger 
 Wild-flower wreaths for Beauty's hair.
 
 154 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. 
 
 THE 
 
 BARD'S INCANTATION. 
 
 WRITTEN UNDER THE THREAT OF INVASION, IN THE 
 AUTUMN OF 1804. 
 
 1 HE Forest of Glenmore is drear, 
 
 It is all of black pine, and the dark oak-tree 
 And the midnight wind, to the mountain deer, 
 
 Is whistling the forest lullaby : 
 The moon looks through the drifting storm, 
 But the troubled lake reflects not her form, 
 For the waves roll whitening to the land, 
 And dash against the shelvy strand.
 
 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. 15.1 
 
 There is a voice among the trees 
 
 That mingles with the groaning oak 
 
 That mingles with the stormy breeze, 
 
 And the lake- waves dashing against the rock ; 
 
 There is a voice within the wood, 
 
 The voice of the Bard in fitful mood ; 
 
 His song was louder than the blast, 
 
 As the Bard of Glenmore through the forest past. 
 
 " Wake ye from your sleep of death, 
 " Minstrels an.d Bards of other days ! 
 
 " For the midnight wind is on the heath, 
 " And the midnight meteors dimly blaze : 
 
 " The Spectre with his Bloody Hand,* 
 
 " Is wandering through the wild woodland ; 
 
 * The forest of Glenmore is haunted by a spirit called Lham- 
 dearg, or Red-hand.
 
 156 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. 
 
 " The owl and the raven are mute for dread, 
 " And the time is meet to awake the dead ! 
 
 " Souls of the mighty ! wake and say, 
 
 " To what high strain your harps were strung, 
 
 " When Lochlin ploughed her billowy way, 
 " And on your shores her Norsemen flung ? 
 
 " Her Norsemen trained to spoil and blood, 
 
 " Skill'd to prepare the raven's food, 
 
 " All by your harpings doom'd to die 
 
 " On bloody Largs and Loncarty. * 
 
 " Mute are ye all ? No murmurs strange 
 " Upon the midnight breeze sail by; 
 
 * Where the Norwegian invader of Scotland received two 
 bloody defeats.
 
 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. 157 
 
 " Nor through the pines with whistling change, 
 
 '* Mimic the harp's wild harmony ! 
 " Mute are ye now ? Ye ne'er were mute, 
 " When Murder with his bloody foot, 
 " And Rapine with his iron hand, 
 " Were hovering near yon mountain strand. 
 
 " O yet awake the strain to tell, 
 
 " By every deed in song enroll'd, 
 " By every chief who fought or fell, 
 
 " Tor Albion's weal in battle bold j 
 " From Coilgach,* first who roll'd his car, 
 " Through the deep ranks of Roman war, 
 " To him, of veteran memory dear, 
 " Who victor died on Aboukir. 
 
 * The Galgacus of Tacitus.
 
 158 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. 
 
 " By all their swords, by all their scars^ 
 
 " By all their names, a mighty spell ! 
 
 " By all their wounds, by all their wars, 
 
 " Arise, the mighty strain to tell ! 
 '-* For fiercer than fierce Hengist's strain, 
 " More impious than the heathen Dane, 
 " More grasping than all-grasping Rome, 
 " Gaul's ravening legions hither come !" 
 
 The wind is hush'd, and still the lake- 
 Strange murmurs fill my tingling ears, 
 Bristles my hair, my sinews quake, 
 
 At the dread voice of other years 
 " When targets clash'd, and bugles rung, 
 " And blades round warriors' heads were flung, 
 *' The foremost of the band were we, 
 " And hymn'd the joys of Liberty !"
 
 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. 
 
 THE RESOLVE. 
 
 IN IMITATION OF AN OLD ENGLISH POEM. 1809. 
 
 MY wayward fate I needs must plain, 
 Though bootless be the theme ; 
 
 I loved, and was beloved again, 
 Yet all was but a dream : 
 
 For, as her love was quickly got, 
 So it was quickly gone ; 
 
 No more I'll bask in flame so hot, 
 But coldly dwell alone.
 
 1.60 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. 
 
 Not maid more bright than maid was e'er 
 
 My fancy shall beguile, 
 By flattering word, or feigned tear, 
 
 By gesture, look, or smile : 
 No more I'll call the shaft fair shot, 
 
 Till it has fairly flown, 
 Nor scorch me at a flame so hot ; 
 
 I'll rather freeze alone. 
 
 | 
 
 Each ambush'd Cupid I'll defy, 
 
 In cheek, or chin, or brow, 
 And deem the glance of woman's eye 
 
 As weak as woman's vow : 
 I'll lightly hold the lady's heart, 
 
 That is but lightly won j 
 I'll steel my breast to beauty's art, 
 
 And learn to live alone. 
 12
 
 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. 1C1 
 
 The flaunting torch soon blazes out, 
 
 The diamond's ray abides, 
 The flame its glory hurls about, 
 
 The gem its lustre hides ; 
 Such gem I fondly deem'd was mine, 
 
 And glow'd a diamond stone ; 
 But, since each eye may see it shine, 
 
 I'll darkling dwell alone. 
 
 No waking dream shall tinge my thought 
 
 With dyes so bright and vain, 
 No silken net, so slightly wrought, 
 
 Shall tangle me again : 
 No more I'll pay so dear for wit, 
 
 I'll live upon mine own j 
 Nor shall wild passion trouble it,- 
 
 I'll rather dwell alone.
 
 162 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. 
 
 And thus I'll hush my heart to rest, 
 
 " Thy loving labour's lost j 
 Thou shalt no more be wildly blest, 
 
 To be so strangely crost : 
 The widow'd turtles mateless die, 
 
 The phoenix is but one j 
 They seek no loves no more will I 
 
 I'll rather dwell alone."
 
 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. 163 
 
 EPITAPH, 
 
 DESIGNED FOR A MONUMENT IN LICHFIELD CATHE- 
 DRAL, AT THE BURIAL PLACE OF THE FAMILY OF 
 MISS SEWARD. 
 
 AMID these Aisles, where once his precepts show*d 
 The Heavenward path-way which in life he trod, 
 This simple tablet marks a Father's bier, 
 And those he loved in life, in death are near j 
 For him, for them, a Daughter bade it rise, 
 Memorial of domestic charities. 
 
 Still would'st thou know why o'er the marble 
 
 spread, 
 In female grace the willow droops her head ;
 
 164 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. 
 
 Why on her branches, silent and unstrungi 
 The minstrel harp is emblematic hung ; 
 What Poet's voice is smother'd here in dust 
 
 Till waked to join the chorus of the just, 
 
 Lo ! one brief line an answer sad supplies, 
 Honoured, beloved, and mourned, here SEWARD lies ! 
 Her worth, her warmth of heart, let friendship say, 
 Go seek her genius in her living lay. 
 
 END.
 
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