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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Vision of Don Roderick</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Introduction.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">I.<br>Lives there a strain, whose sounds of mounting fire<br>May rise distinguished o'er the din of war;<br>Or died it with yon Master of the Lyre<br>Who sung beleaguered Ilion's evil star?<br>Such, WELLINGTON, might reach thee from afar,<br>Wafting its descant wide o'er Ocean's range;<br>Nor shouts, nor clashing arms, its mood could mar,<br>All, as it swelled 'twixt each loud trumpet-change,<br>That clangs to Britain victory, to Portugal revenge!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">II.<br>Yes! such a strain, with all o'er-pouring measure,<br>Might melodise with each tumultuous sound<br>Each voice of fear or triumph, woe or pleasure,<br>That rings Mondego's ravaged shores around;<br>The thundering cry of hosts with conquest crowned,<br>The female shriek, the ruined peasant's moan,<br>The shout of captives from their chains unbound,<br>The foiled oppressor's deep and sullen groan,<br>A Nation's choral hymn, for tyranny o'erthrown.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">III.<br>But we, weak minstrels of a laggard day<br>Skilled but to imitate an elder page,<br>Timid and raptureless, can we repay<br>The debt thou claim'st in this exhausted age?<br>Thou givest our lyres a theme, that might engage<br>Those that could send thy name o'er sea and land,<br>While sea and land shall last; for Homer's rage<br>A theme; a theme for Milton's mighty hand -<br>How much unmeet for us, a faint degenerate band!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">IV.<br>Ye mountains stern! within whose rugged breast<br>The friends of Scottish freedom found repose;<br>Ye torrents! whose hoarse sounds have soothed their rest,<br>Returning from the field of vanquished foes;<br>Say, have ye lost each wild majestic close<br>That erst the choir of Bards or Druids flung,<br>What time their hymn of victory arose,<br>And Cattraeth's glens with voice of triumph rung,<br>And mystic Merlin harped, and grey-haired Llywarch sung?</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">V.<br>Oh! if your wilds such minstrelsy retain,<br>As sure your changeful gales seem oft to say,<br>When sweeping wild and sinking soft again,<br>Like trumpet-jubilee, or harp's wild sway;<br>If ye can echo such triumphant lay,<br>Then lend the note to him has loved you long!<br>Who pious gathered each tradition grey<br>That floats your solitary wastes along,<br>And with affection vain gave them new voice in song.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">VI.<br>For not till now, how oft soe'er the task<br>Of truant verse hath lightened graver care,<br>From Muse or Sylvan was he wont to ask,<br>In phrase poetic, inspiration fair;<br>Careless he gave his numbers to the air,<br>They came unsought for, if applauses came:<br>Nor for himself prefers he now the prayer;<br>Let but his verse befit a hero's fame,<br>Immortal be the verse!-forgot the poet's name!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">VII.<br>Hark, from yon misty cairn their answer tost:<br>'Minstrel! the fame of whose romantic lyre,<br>Capricious-swelling now, may soon be lost,<br>Like the light flickering of a cottage fire;<br>If to such task presumptuous thou aspire,<br>Seek not from us the meed to warrior due:<br>Age after age has gathered son to sire<br>Since our grey cliffs the din of conflict knew,<br>Or, pealing through our vales, victorious bugles blew.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">VIII.<br>'Decayed our old traditionary lore,<br>Save where the lingering fays renew their ring,<br>By milkmaid seen beneath the hawthorn hoar,<br>Or round the marge of Minchmore's haunted spring;<br>Save where their legends grey-haired shepherds sing,<br>That now scarce win a listening ear but thine,<br>Of feuds obscure, and Border ravaging,<br>And rugged deeds recount in rugged line,<br>Of moonlight foray made on Teviot, Tweed, or Tyne.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">IX.<br>'No! search romantic lands, where the near Sun<br>Gives with unstinted boon ethereal flame,<br>Where the rude villager, his labour done,<br>In verse spontaneous chants some favoured name,<br>Whether Olalia's charms his tribute claim,<br>Her eye of diamond, and her locks of jet;<br>Or whether, kindling at the deeds of Graeme,<br>He sing, to wild Morisco measure set,<br>Old Albin's red claymore, green Erin's bayonet!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">X.<br>'Explore those regions, where the flinty crest<br>Of wild Nevada ever gleams with snows,<br>Where in the proud Alhambra's ruined breast<br>Barbaric monuments of pomp repose;<br>Or where the banners of more ruthless foes<br>Than the fierce Moor, float o'er Toledo's fane,<br>From whose tall towers even now the patriot throws<br>An anxious glance, to spy upon the plain<br>The blended ranks of England, Portugal, and Spain.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">XI.<br>'There, of Numantian fire a swarthy spark<br>Still lightens in the sunburnt native's eye;<br>The stately port, slow step, and visage dark,<br>Still mark enduring pride and constancy.<br>And, if the glow of feudal chivalry<br>Beam not, as once, thy nobles' dearest pride,<br>Iberia! oft thy crestless peasantry<br>Have seen the plumed Hidalgo quit their side,<br>Have seen, yet dauntless stood-'gainst fortune fought and died.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">XII.<br>'And cherished still by that unchanging race,<br>Are themes for minstrelsy more high than thine;<br>Of strange tradition many a mystic trace,<br>Legend and vision, prophecy and sign;<br>Where wonders wild of Arabesque combine<br>With Gothic imagery of darker shade,<br>Forming a model meet for minstrel line.<br>Go, seek such theme!'-the Mountain Spirit said.<br>With filial awe I heard-I heard, and I obeyed.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br>The Vision of Don Roderick</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">I.<br>Rearing their crests amid the cloudless skies,<br>And darkly clustering in the pale moonlight,<br>Toledo's holy towers and spires arise,<br>As from a trembling lake of silver white.<br>Their mingled shadows intercept the sight<br>Of the broad burial-ground outstretched below,<br>And nought disturbs the silence of the night;<br>All sleeps in sullen shade, or silver glow,<br>All save the heavy swell of Teio's ceaseless flow.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">II.<br>All save the rushing swell of Teio's tide,<br>Or, distant heard, a courser's neigh or tramp;<br>Their changing rounds as watchful horsemen ride,<br>To guard the limits of King Roderick's camp.<br>For through the river's night-fog rolling damp<br>Was many a proud pavilion dimly seen,<br>Which glimmered back, against the moon's fair lamp,<br>Tissues of silk and silver twisted sheen,<br>And standards proudly pitched, and warders armed between.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">III.<br>But of their Monarch's person keeping ward,<br>Since last the deep-mouthed bell of vespers tolled,<br>The chosen soldiers of the royal guard<br>The post beneath the proud Cathedral hold:<br>A band unlike their Gothic sires of old,<br>Who, for the cap of steel and iron mace,<br>Bear slender darts, and casques bedecked with gold,<br>While silver-studded belts their shoulders grace,<br>Where ivory quivers ring in the broad falchion's place.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">IV.<br>In the light language of an idle court,<br>They murmured at their master's long delay,<br>And held his lengthened orisons in sport:-<br>'What! will Don Roderick here till morning stay,<br>To wear in shrift and prayer the night away?<br>And are his hours in such dull penance past,<br>For fair Florinda's plundered charms to pay?'<br>Then to the east their weary eyes they cast,<br>And wished the lingering dawn would glimmer forth at last.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">V.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">But, far within, Toledo's Prelate lent<br>An ear of fearful wonder to the King;<br>The silver lamp a fitful lustre sent,<br>So long that sad confession witnessing:<br>For Roderick told of many a hidden thing,<br>Such as are lothly uttered to the air,<br>When Fear, Remorse, and Shame the bosom wring,<br>And Guilt his secret burden cannot bear,<br>And Conscience seeks in speech a respite from Despair.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">VI.<br>Full on the Prelate's face, and silver hair,<br>The stream of failing light was feebly rolled:<br>But Roderick's visage, though his head was bare,<br>Was shadowed by his hand and mantle's fold.<br>While of his hidden soul the sins he told,<br>Proud Alaric's descendant could not brook,<br>That mortal man his bearing should behold,<br>Or boast that he had seen, when Conscience shook,<br>Fear tame a monarch's brow, Remorse a warrior's look.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">VII.<br>The old man's faded cheek waxed yet more pale,<br>As many a secret sad the King bewrayed;<br>As sign and glance eked out the unfinished tale,<br>When in the midst his faltering whisper stayed.<br>'Thus royal Witiza was slain,'-he said;<br>'Yet, holy Father, deem not it was I.'<br>Thus still Ambition strives her crimes to shade. -<br>'Oh, rather deem 'twas stern necessity!<br>Self-preservation bade, and I must kill or die.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">VIII.<br>'And if Florinda's shrieks alarmed the air,<br>If she invoked her absent sire in vain,<br>And on her knees implored that I would spare,<br>Yet, reverend Priest, thy sentence rash refrain!<br>All is not as it seems-the female train<br>Know by their bearing to disguise their mood:'<br>But Conscience here, as if in high disdain,<br>Sent to the Monarch's cheek the burning blood -<br>He stayed his speech abrupt-and up the Prelate stood.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">IX.<br>'O hardened offspring of an iron race!<br>What of thy crimes, Don Roderick, shall I say?<br>What alms, or prayers, or penance can efface<br>Murder's dark spot, wash treason's stain away!<br>For the foul ravisher how shall I pray,<br>Who, scarce repentant, makes his crime his boast?<br>How hope Almighty vengeance shall delay,<br>Unless, in mercy to yon Christian host,<br>He spare the shepherd, lest the guiltless sheep be lost?'</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">X.<br>Then kindled the dark tyrant in his mood,<br>And to his brow returned its dauntless gloom;<br>'And welcome then,' he cried, 'be blood for blood,<br>For treason treachery, for dishonour doom!<br>Yet will I know whence come they, or by whom.<br>Show, for thou canst-give forth the fated key,<br>And guide me, Priest, to that mysterious room,<br>Where, if aught true in old tradition be,<br>His nation's future fates a Spanish King shall see.'</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">XI.<br>'Ill-fated Prince! recall the desperate word,<br>Or pause ere yet the omen thou obey!<br>Bethink, yon spell-bound portal would afford<br>Never to former Monarch entrance-way;<br>Nor shall it ever ope, old records say,<br>Save to a King, the last of all his line,<br>What time his empire totters to decay,<br>And treason digs, beneath, her fatal mine,<br>And, high above, impends avenging wrath divine.' -</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">XII.<br>'Prelate! a Monarch's fate brooks no delay;<br>Lead on!'-The ponderous key the old man took,<br>And held the winking lamp, and led the way,<br>By winding stair, dark aisle, and secret nook,<br>Then on an ancient gateway bent his look;<br>And, as the key the desperate King essayed,<br>Low muttered thunders the Cathedral shook,<br>And twice he stopped, and twice new effort made,<br>Till the huge bolts rolled back, and the loud hinges brayed.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">XIII.<br>Long, large, and lofty was that vaulted hall;<br>Roof, walls, and floor were all of marble stone,<br>Of polished marble, black as funeral pall,<br>Carved o'er with signs and characters unknown.<br>A paly light, as of the dawning, shone<br>Through the sad bounds, but whence they could not spy;<br>For window to the upper air was none;<br>Yet, by that light, Don Roderick could descry<br>Wonders that ne'er till then were seen by mortal eye.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">XIV.<br>Grim sentinels, against the upper wall,<br>Of molten bronze, two Statues held their place;<br>Massive their naked limbs, their stature tall,<br>Their frowning foreheads golden circles grace.<br>Moulded they seemed for kings of giant race,<br>That lived and sinned before the avenging flood;<br>This grasped a scythe, that rested on a mace;<br>This spread his wings for flight, that pondering stood,<br>Each stubborn seemed and stern, immutable of mood.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">XV.<br>Fixed was the right-hand Giant's brazen look<br>Upon his brother's glass of shifting sand,<br>As if its ebb he measured by a book,<br>Whose iron volume loaded his huge hand;<br>In which was wrote of many a fallen land<br>Of empires lost, and kings to exile driven:<br>And o'er that pair their names in scroll expand -<br>'Lo, DESTINY and TIME! to whom by Heaven<br>The guidance of the earth is for a season given.' -</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">XVI.<br>Even while they read, the sand-glass wastes away;<br>And, as the last and lagging grains did creep,<br>That right-hand Giant 'gan his club upsway,<br>As one that startles from a heavy sleep.<br>Full on the upper wall the mace's sweep<br>At once descended with the force of thunder,<br>And hurtling down at once, in crumbled heap,<br>The marble boundary was rent asunder,<br>And gave to Roderick's view new sights of fear and wonder.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">XVII.<br>For they might spy, beyond that mighty breach,<br>Realms as of Spain in visioned prospect laid,<br>Castles and towers, in due proportion each,<br>As by some skilful artist's hand portrayed:<br>Here, crossed by many a wild Sierra's shade,<br>And boundless plains that tire the traveller's eye;<br>There, rich with vineyard and with olive glade,<br>Or deep-embrowned by forests huge and high,<br>Or washed by mighty streams, that slowly murmured by.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">XVIII.<br>And here, as erst upon the antique stage<br>Passed forth the band of masquers trimly led,<br>In various forms, and various equipage,<br>While fitting strains the hearer's fancy fed;<br>So, to sad Roderick's eye in order spread,<br>Successive pageants filled that mystic scene,<br>Showing the fate of battles ere they bled,<br>And issue of events that had not been;<br>And, ever and anon, strange sounds were heard between.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">XIX.<br>First shrilled an unrepeated female shriek! -<br>It seemed as if Don Roderick knew the call,<br>For the bold blood was blanching in his cheek. -<br>Then answered kettle-drum and attabal,<br>Gong-peal and cymbal-clank the ear appal,<br>The Tecbir war-cry, and the Lelie's yell,<br>Ring wildly dissonant along the hall.<br>Needs not to Roderick their dread import tell -<br>'The Moor!' he cried, 'the Moor!-ring out the Tocsin bell!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">XX.<br>'They come! they come! I see the groaning lands<br>White with the turbans of each Arab horde;<br>Swart Zaarah joins her misbelieving bands,<br>Alla and Mahomet their battle-word,<br>The choice they yield, the Koran or the Sword -<br>See how the Christians rush to arms amain! -<br>In yonder shout the voice of conflict roared,<br>The shadowy hosts are closing on the plain -<br>Now, God and Saint Iago strike, for the good cause of Spain!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">XXI.<br>'By Heaven, the Moors prevail! the Christians yield!<br>Their coward leader gives for flight the sign!<br>The sceptred craven mounts to quit the field -<br>Is not yon steed Orelio?-Yes, 'tis mine!<br>But never was she turned from battle-line:<br>Lo! where the recreant spurs o'er stock and stone! -<br>Curses pursue the slave, and wrath divine!<br>Rivers ingulph him!'-'Hush,' in shuddering tone,<br>The Prelate said; 'rash Prince, yon visioned form's thine own.'</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">XXII.<br>Just then, a torrent crossed the flier's course;<br>The dangerous ford the Kingly Likeness tried;<br>But the deep eddies whelmed both man and horse,<br>Swept like benighted peasant down the tide;<br>And the proud Moslemah spread far and wide,<br>As numerous as their native locust band;<br>Berber and Ismael's sons the spoils divide,<br>With naked scimitars mete out the land,<br>And for the bondsmen base the free-born natives brand.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">XXIII.<br>Then rose the grated Harem, to enclose<br>The loveliest maidens of the Christian line;<br>Then, menials, to their misbelieving foes,<br>Castile's young nobles held forbidden wine;<br>Then, too, the holy Cross, salvation's sign,<br>By impious hands was from the altar thrown,<br>And the deep aisles of the polluted shrine<br>Echoed, for holy hymn and organ-tone,<br>The Santon's frantic dance, the Fakir's gibbering moan.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">XXIV.<br>How fares Don Roderick?-E'en as one who spies<br>Flames dart their glare o'er midnight's sable woof,<br>And hears around his children's piercing cries,<br>And sees the pale assistants stand aloof;<br>While cruel Conscience brings him bitter proof,<br>His folly, or his crime, have caused his grief;<br>And while above him nods the crumbling roof,<br>He curses earth and Heaven-himself in chief -<br>Desperate of earthly aid, despairing Heaven's relief!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">XXV.<br>That scythe-armed Giant turned his fatal glass<br>And twilight on the landscape closed her wings;<br>Far to Asturian hills the war-sounds pass,<br>And in their stead rebeck or timbrel rings;<br>And to the sound the bell-decked dancer springs,<br>Bazars resound as when their marts are met,<br>In tourney light the Moor his jerrid flings,<br>And on the land as evening seemed to set,<br>The Imaum's chant was heard from mosque or minaret.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">XXVI.<br>So passed that pageant. Ere another came,<br>The visionary scene was wrapped in smoke<br>Whose sulph'rous wreaths were crossed by sheets of flame;<br>With every flash a bolt explosive broke,<br>Till Roderick deemed the fiends had burst their yoke,<br>And waved 'gainst heaven the infernal gonfalone!<br>For War a new and dreadful language spoke,<br>Never by ancient warrior heard or known;<br>Lightning and smoke her breath, and thunder was her tone.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">XXVII.<br>From the dim landscape rolled the clouds away -<br>The Christians have regained their heritage;<br>Before the Cross has waned the Crescent's ray,<br>And many a monastery decks the stage,<br>And lofty church, and low-browed hermitage.<br>The land obeys a Hermit and a Knight, -<br>The Genii those of Spain for many an age;<br>This clad in sackcloth, that in armour bright,<br>And that was VALOUR named, this BIGOTRY was hight.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">XXVIII.<br>VALOUR was harnessed like a chief of old,<br>Armed at all points, and prompt for knightly gest;<br>His sword was tempered in the Ebro cold,<br>Morena's eagle plume adorned his crest,<br>The spoils of Afric's lion bound his breast.<br>Fierce he stepped forward and flung down his gage;<br>As if of mortal kind to brave the best.<br>Him followed his Companion, dark and sage,<br>As he, my Master, sung the dangerous Archimage.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">XXIX.<br>Haughty of heart and brow the Warrior came,<br>In look and language proud as proud might be,<br>Vaunting his lordship, lineage, fights, and fame:<br>Yet was that barefoot Monk more proud than he:<br>And as the ivy climbs the tallest tree,<br>So round the loftiest soul his toils he wound,<br>And with his spells subdued the fierce and free,<br>Till ermined Age and Youth in arms renowned,<br>Honouring his scourge and haircloth, meekly kissed the ground.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">XXX.<br>And thus it chanced that VALOUR, peerless knight,<br>Who ne'er to King or Kaiser vailed his crest,<br>Victorious still in bull-feast or in fight,<br>Since first his limbs with mail he did invest,<br>Stooped ever to that Anchoret's behest;<br>Nor reasoned of the right, nor of the wrong,<br>But at his bidding laid the lance in rest,<br>And wrought fell deeds the troubled world along,<br>For he was fierce as brave, and pitiless as strong.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">XXXI.<br>Oft his proud galleys sought some new-found world,<br>That latest sees the sun, or first the morn;<br>Still at that Wizard's feet their spoils he hurled, -<br>Ingots of ore from rich Potosi borne,<br>Crowns by Caciques, aigrettes by Omrahs worn,<br>Wrought of rare gems, but broken, rent, and foul;<br>Idols of gold from heathen temples torn,<br>Bedabbled all with blood.-With grisly scowl<br>The Hermit marked the stains, and smiled beneath his cowl.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">XXXII.<br>Then did he bless the offering, and bade make<br>Tribute to Heaven of gratitude and praise;<br>And at his word the choral hymns awake,<br>And many a hand the silver censer sways,<br>But with the incense-breath these censers raise,<br>Mix steams from corpses smouldering in the fire;<br>The groans of prisoned victims mar the lays,<br>And shrieks of agony confound the quire;<br>While, 'mid the mingled sounds, the darkened scenes expire.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">XXXIII.<br>Preluding light, were strains of music heard,<br>As once again revolved that measured sand;<br>Such sounds as when, for silvan dance prepared,<br>Gay Xeres summons forth her vintage band;<br>When for the light bolero ready stand<br>The mozo blithe, with gay muchacha met,<br>He conscious of his broidered cap and band,<br>She of her netted locks and light corsette,<br>Each tiptoe perched to spring, and shake the castanet.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">XXXIV.<br>And well such strains the opening scene became;<br>For VALOUR had relaxed his ardent look,<br>And at a lady's feet, like lion tame,<br>Lay stretched, full loath the weight of arms to brook;<br>And softened BIGOTRY, upon his book,<br>Pattered a task of little good or ill:<br>But the blithe peasant plied his pruning-hook,<br>Whistled the muleteer o'er vale and hill,<br>And rung from village-green the merry seguidille.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">XXXV.<br>Grey Royalty, grown impotent of toil,<br>Let the grave sceptre slip his lazy hold;<br>And, careless, saw his rule become the spoil<br>Of a loose Female and her minion bold.<br>But peace was on the cottage and the fold,<br>From Court intrigue, from bickering faction far;<br>Beneath the chestnut-tree Love's tale was told,<br>And to the tinkling of the light guitar,<br>Sweet stooped the western sun, sweet rose the evening star.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">XXXVI.<br>As that sea-cloud, in size like human hand,<br>When first from Carmel by the Tishbite seen,<br>Came slowly overshadowing Israel's land,<br>A while, perchance, bedecked with colours sheen,<br>While yet the sunbeams on its skirts had been,<br>Limning with purple and with gold its shroud,<br>Till darker folds obscured the blue serene<br>And blotted heaven with one broad sable cloud,<br>Then sheeted rain burst down, and whirlwinds howled aloud:-</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">XXXVII.<br>Even so, upon that peaceful scene was poured,<br>Like gathering clouds, full many a foreign band,<br>And HE, their Leader, wore in sheath his sword,<br>And offered peaceful front and open hand,<br>Veiling the perjured treachery he planned,<br>By friendship's zeal and honour's specious guise,<br>Until he won the passes of the land;<br>Then burst were honour's oath and friendship's ties!<br>He clutched his vulture grasp, and called fair Spain his prize.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">XXXVIII.<br>An iron crown his anxious forehead bore;<br>And well such diadem his heart became,<br>Who ne'er his purpose for remorse gave o'er,<br>Or checked his course for piety or shame;<br>Who, trained a soldier, deemed a soldier's fame<br>Might flourish in the wreath of battles won,<br>Though neither truth nor honour decked his name;<br>Who, placed by fortune on a Monarch's throne,<br>Recked not of Monarch's faith, or Mercy's kingly tone.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">XXXIX.<br>From a rude isle his ruder lineage came,<br>The spark, that, from a suburb-hovel's hearth<br>Ascending, wraps some capital in flame,<br>Hath not a meaner or more sordid birth.<br>And for the soul that bade him waste the earth -<br>The sable land-flood from some swamp obscure<br>That poisons the glad husband-field with dearth,<br>And by destruction bids its fame endure,<br>Hath not a source more sullen, stagnant, and impure.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">XL.<br>Before that Leader strode a shadowy Form;<br>Her limbs like mist, her torch like meteor showed,<br>With which she beckoned him through fight and storm,<br>And all he crushed that crossed his desperate road,<br>Nor thought, nor feared, nor looked on what he trode.<br>Realms could not glut his pride, blood could not slake,<br>So oft as e'er she shook her torch abroad -<br>It was AMBITION bade her terrors wake,<br>Nor deigned she, as of yore, a milder form to take.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">XLI.<br>No longer now she spurned at mean revenge,<br>Or stayed her hand for conquered foeman's moan;<br>As when, the fates of aged Rome to change,<br>By Caesar's side she crossed the Rubicon.<br>Nor joyed she to bestow the spoils she won,<br>As when the banded powers of Greece were tasked<br>To war beneath the Youth of Macedon:<br>No seemly veil her modern minion asked,<br>He saw her hideous face, and loved the fiend unmasked.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">XLII.<br>That Prelate marked his march-On banners blazed<br>With battles won in many a distant land,<br>On eagle-standards and on arms he gazed;<br>'And hopest thou, then,' he said, 'thy power shall stand?<br>Oh! thou hast builded on the shifting sand,<br>And thou hast tempered it with slaughter's flood;<br>And know, fell scourge in the Almighty's hand,<br>Gore-moistened trees shall perish in the bud,<br>And by a bloody death shall die the Man of Blood!'</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">XLIII.<br>The ruthless Leader beckoned from his train<br>A wan fraternal Shade, and bade him kneel,<br>And paled his temples with the crown of Spain,<br>While trumpets rang, and heralds cried 'Castile!'<br>Not that he loved him-No!-In no man's weal,<br>Scarce in his own, e'er joyed that sullen heart;<br>Yet round that throne he bade his warriors wheel,<br>That the poor puppet might perform his part,<br>And be a sceptred slave, at his stern beck to start.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">XLIV.<br>But on the Natives of that Land misused,<br>Not long the silence of amazement hung,<br>Nor brooked they long their friendly faith abused;<br>For, with a common shriek, the general tongue<br>Exclaimed, 'To arms!'-and fast to arms they sprung.<br>And VALOUR woke, that Genius of the Land!<br>Pleasure, and ease, and sloth aside he flung,<br>As burst the awakening Nazarite his band,<br>When 'gainst his treacherous foes he clenched his dreadful hand.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">XLV.<br>That Mimic Monarch now cast anxious eye<br>Upon the Satraps that begirt him round,<br>Now doffed his royal robe in act to fly,<br>And from his brow the diadem unbound.<br>So oft, so near, the Patriot bugle wound,<br>From Tarik's walls to Bilboa's mountains blown,<br>These martial satellites hard labour found<br>To guard awhile his substituted throne -<br>Light recking of his cause, but battling for their own.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">XLVI.<br>From Alpuhara's peak that bugle rung,<br>And it was echoed from Corunna's wall;<br>Stately Seville responsive war-shot flung,<br>Grenada caught it in her Moorish hall;<br>Galicia bade her children fight or fall,<br>Wild Biscay shook his mountain-coronet,<br>Valencia roused her at the battle-call,<br>And, foremost still where Valour's sons are met,<br>First started to his gun each fiery Miquelet.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">XLVII.<br>But unappalled, and burning for the fight,<br>The Invaders march, of victory secure;<br>Skilful their force to sever or unite,<br>And trained alike to vanquish or endure.<br>Nor skilful less, cheap conquest to ensure,<br>Discord to breathe, and jealousy to sow,<br>To quell by boasting, and by bribes to lure;<br>While nought against them bring the unpractised foe,<br>Save hearts for Freedom's cause, and hands for Freedom's blow.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">XLVIII.<br>Proudly they march-but, oh! they march not forth<br>By one hot field to crown a brief campaign,<br>As when their Eagles, sweeping through the North,<br>Destroyed at every stoop an ancient reign!<br>Far other fate had Heaven decreed for Spain;<br>In vain the steel, in vain the torch was plied,<br>New Patriot armies started from the slain,<br>High blazed the war, and long, and far, and wide,<br>And oft the God of Battles blest the righteous side.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">XLIX.<br>Nor unatoned, where Freedom's foes prevail,<br>Remained their savage waste. With blade and brand<br>By day the Invaders ravaged hill and dale,<br>But, with the darkness, the Guerilla band<br>Came like night's tempest, and avenged the land,<br>And claimed for blood the retribution due,<br>Probed the hard heart, and lopped the murd'rous hand;<br>And Dawn, when o'er the scene her beams she threw<br>'Midst ruins they had made, the spoilers' corpses knew.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">L.<br>What minstrel verse may sing, or tongue may tell,<br>Amid the visioned strife from sea to sea,<br>How oft the Patriot banners rose or fell,<br>Still honoured in defeat as victory!<br>For that sad pageant of events to be<br>Showed every form of fight by field and flood;<br>Slaughter and Ruin, shouting forth their glee,<br>Beheld, while riding on the tempest scud,<br>The waters choked with slain, the earth bedrenched with blood!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">LI.<br>Then Zaragoza-blighted be the tongue<br>That names thy name without the honour due!<br>For never hath the harp of Minstrel rung,<br>Of faith so felly proved, so firmly true!<br>Mine, sap, and bomb thy shattered ruins knew,<br>Each art of war's extremity had room,<br>Twice from thy half-sacked streets the foe withdrew,<br>And when at length stern fate decreed thy doom,<br>They won not Zaragoza, but her children's bloody tomb.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">LII.<br>Yet raise thy head, sad city! Though in chains,<br>Enthralled thou canst not be! Arise, and claim<br>Reverence from every heart where Freedom reigns,<br>For what thou worshippest!-thy sainted dame,<br>She of the Column, honoured be her name<br>By all, whate'er their creed, who honour love!<br>And like the sacred relics of the flame,<br>That gave some martyr to the blessed above,<br>To every loyal heart may thy sad embers prove!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">LIII.<br>Nor thine alone such wreck. Gerona fair!<br>Faithful to death thy heroes shall be sung,<br>Manning the towers, while o'er their heads the air<br>Swart as the smoke from raging furnace hung;<br>Now thicker darkening where the mine was sprung,<br>Now briefly lightened by the cannon's flare,<br>Now arched with fire-sparks as the bomb was flung,<br>And reddening now with conflagration's glare,<br>While by the fatal light the foes for storm prepare.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">LIV.<br>While all around was danger, strife, and fear,<br>While the earth shook, and darkened was the sky,<br>And wide Destruction stunned the listening ear,<br>Appalled the heart, and stupefied the eye, -<br>Afar was heard that thrice-repeated cry,<br>In which old Albion's heart and tongue unite,<br>Whene'er her soul is up, and pulse beats high,<br>Whether it hail the wine-cup or the fight,<br>And bid each arm be strong, or bid each heart be light.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">LV.<br>Don Roderick turned him as the shout grew loud -<br>A varied scene the changeful vision showed,<br>For, where the ocean mingled with the cloud,<br>A gallant navy stemmed the billows broad.<br>From mast and stern St. George's symbol flowed,<br>Blent with the silver cross to Scotland dear;<br>Mottling the sea their landward barges rowed,<br>And flashed the sun on bayonet, brand, and spear,<br>And the wild beach returned the seamen's jovial cheer.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">LVI.<br>It was a dread, yet spirit-stirring sight!<br>The billows foamed beneath a thousand oars,<br>Fast as they land the red-cross ranks unite,<br>Legions on legions bright'ning all the shores.<br>Then banners rise, and cannon-signal roars,<br>Then peals the warlike thunder of the drum,<br>Thrills the loud fife, the trumpet-flourish pours,<br>And patriot hopes awake, and doubts are dumb,<br>For, bold in Freedom's cause, the bands of Ocean come!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">LVII.<br>A various host they came-whose ranks display<br>Each mode in which the warrior meets the fight,<br>The deep battalion locks its firm array,<br>And meditates his aim the marksman light;<br>Far glance the light of sabres flashing bright<br>Where mounted squadrons shake the echoing mead,<br>Lacks not artillery breathing flame and night,<br>Nor the fleet ordnance whirled by rapid steed,<br>That rivals lightning's flash in ruin and in speed.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">LVIII.<br>A various host-from kindred realms they came,<br>Brethren in arms, but rivals in renown -<br>For yon fair bands shall merry England claim,<br>And with their deeds of valour deck her crown.<br>Hers their bold port, and hers their martial frown,<br>And hers their scorn of death in freedom's cause,<br>Their eyes of azure, and their locks of brown,<br>And the blunt speech that bursts without a pause,<br>And free-born thoughts which league the Soldier with the Laws.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">LIX.<br>And, oh! loved warriors of the Minstrel's land!<br>Yonder your bonnets nod, your tartans wave!<br>The rugged form may mark the mountain band,<br>And harsher features, and a mien more grave;<br>But ne'er in battlefield throbbed heart so brave<br>As that which beats beneath the Scottish plaid;<br>And when the pibroch bids the battle rave,<br>And level for the charge your arms are laid,<br>Where lives the desperate foe that for such onset stayed!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">LX.<br>Hark! from yon stately ranks what laughter rings,<br>Mingling wild mirth with war's stern minstrelsy,<br>His jest while each blithe comrade round him flings,<br>And moves to death with military glee:<br>Boast, Erin, boast them! tameless, frank, and free,<br>In kindness warm, and fierce in danger known,<br>Rough Nature's children, humorous as she:<br>And HE, yon Chieftain-strike the proudest tone<br>Of thy bold harp, green Isle!-the Hero is thine own.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">LXI.<br>Now on the scene Vimeira should be shown,<br>On Talavera's fight should Roderick gaze,<br>And hear Corunna wail her battle won,<br>And see Busaco's crest with lightning blaze:-<br>But shall fond fable mix with heroes' praise?<br>Hath Fiction's stage for Truth's long triumphs room?<br>And dare her wild flowers mingle with the bays<br>That claim a long eternity to bloom<br>Around the warrior's crest, and o'er the warrior's tomb!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">LXII.<br>Or may I give adventurous Fancy scope,<br>And stretch a bold hand to the awful veil<br>That hides futurity from anxious hope,<br>Bidding beyond it scenes of glory hail,<br>And painting Europe rousing at the tale<br>Of Spain's invaders from her confines hurled,<br>While kindling nations buckle on their mail,<br>And Fame, with clarion-blast and wings unfurled,<br>To Freedom and Revenge awakes an injured World!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">LXIII.<br>O vain, though anxious, is the glance I cast,<br>Since Fate has marked futurity her own:<br>Yet Fate resigns to worth the glorious past,<br>The deeds recorded, and the laurels won.<br>Then, though the Vault of Destiny be gone,<br>King, Prelate, all the phantasms of my brain,<br>Melted away like mist-wreaths in the sun,<br>Yet grant for faith, for valour, and for Spain,<br>One note of pride and fire, a Patriot's parting strain!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br>CONCLUSION.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br>I.<br>' Who shall command Estrella's mountain-tide<br>Back to the source, when tempest-chafed, to hie?<br>Who, when Gascogne's vexed gulf is raging wide,<br>Shall hush it as a nurse her infant's cry?<br>His magic power let such vain boaster try,<br>And when the torrent shall his voice obey,<br>And Biscay's whirlwinds list his lullaby,<br>Let him stand forth and bar mine eagles' way,<br>And they shall heed his voice, and at his bidding stay.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">II.<br>'Else ne'er to stoop, till high on Lisbon's towers<br>They close their wings, the symbol of our yoke,<br>And their own sea hath whelmed yon red-cross powers!'<br>Thus, on the summit of Alverca's rock<br>To Marshal, Duke, and Peer, Gaul's Leader spoke.<br>While downward on the land his legions press,<br>Before them it was rich with vine and flock,<br>And smiled like Eden in her summer dress; -<br>Behind their wasteful march a reeking wilderness.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">III.<br>And shall the boastful Chief maintain his word,<br>Though Heaven hath heard the wailings of the land,<br>Though Lusitania whet her vengeful sword,<br>Though Britons arm and WELLINGTON command!<br>No! grim Busaco's iron ridge shall stand<br>An adamantine barrier to his force;<br>And from its base shall wheel his shattered band,<br>As from the unshaken rock the torrent hoarse<br>Bears off its broken waves, and seeks a devious course.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">IV.<br>Yet not because Alcoba's mountain-hawk<br>Hath on his best and bravest made her food,<br>In numbers confident, yon Chief shall baulk<br>His Lord's imperial thirst for spoil and blood:<br>For full in view the promised conquest stood,<br>And Lisbon's matrons from their walls might sum<br>The myriads that had half the world subdued,<br>And hear the distant thunders of the drum,<br>That bids the bands of France to storm and havoc come.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">V.<br>Four moons have heard these thunders idly rolled,<br>Have seen these wistful myriads eye their prey,<br>As famished wolves survey a guarded fold -<br>But in the middle path a Lion lay!<br>At length they move-but not to battle-fray,<br>Nor blaze yon fires where meets the manly fight;<br>Beacons of infamy, they light the way<br>Where cowardice and cruelty unite<br>To damn with double shame their ignominious flight.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">VI.<br>O triumph for the Fiends of Lust and Wrath!<br>Ne'er to be told, yet ne'er to be forgot,<br>What wanton horrors marked their wreckful path!<br>The peasant butchered in his ruined cot,<br>The hoary priest even at the altar shot,<br>Childhood and age given o'er to sword and flame,<br>Woman to infamy;-no crime forgot,<br>By which inventive demons might proclaim<br>Immortal hate to man, and scorn of God's great name!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">VII.<br>The rudest sentinel, in Britain born,<br>With horror paused to view the havoc done,<br>Gave his poor crust to feed some wretch forlorn,<br>Wiped his stern eye, then fiercer grasped his gun.<br>Nor with less zeal shall Britain's peaceful son<br>Exult the debt of sympathy to pay;<br>Riches nor poverty the tax shall shun,<br>Nor prince nor peer, the wealthy nor the gay,<br>Nor the poor peasant's mite, nor bard's more worthless lay.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">VIII.<br>But thou-unfoughten wilt thou yield to Fate,<br>Minion of Fortune, now miscalled in vain!<br>Can vantage-ground no confidence create,<br>Marcella's pass, nor Guarda's mountain-chain?<br>Vainglorious fugitive! yet turn again!<br>Behold, where, named by some prophetic Seer,<br>Flows Honour's Fountain, {2} as foredoomed the stain<br>From thy dishonoured name and arms to clear -<br>Fallen Child of Fortune, turn, redeem her favour here!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">IX.<br>Yet, ere thou turn'st, collect each distant aid;<br>Those chief that never heard the lion roar!<br>Within whose souls lives not a trace portrayed<br>Of Talavera or Mondego's shore!<br>Marshal each band thou hast, and summon more;<br>Of war's fell stratagems exhaust the whole;<br>Rank upon rank, squadron on squadron pour,<br>Legion on legion on thy foeman roll,<br>And weary out his arm-thou canst not quell his soul.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">X.<br>O vainly gleams with steel Agueda's shore,<br>Vainly thy squadrons hide Assuava's plain,<br>And front the flying thunders as they roar,<br>With frantic charge and tenfold odds, in vain!<br>And what avails thee that, for CAMERON slain,<br>Wild from his plaided ranks the yell was given -<br>Vengeance and grief gave mountain-range the rein,<br>And, at the bloody spear-point headlong driven,<br>Thy Despot's giant guards fled like the rack of heaven.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">XI.<br>Go, baffled boaster! teach thy haughty mood<br>To plead at thine imperious master's throne,<br>Say, thou hast left his legions in their blood,<br>Deceived his hopes, and frustrated thine own;<br>Say, that thine utmost skill and valour shown,<br>By British skill and valour were outvied;<br>Last say, thy conqueror was WELLINGTON!<br>And if he chafe, be his own fortune tried -<br>God and our cause to friend, the venture we'll abide.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">XII.<br>But you, ye heroes of that well-fought day,<br>How shall a bard, unknowing and unknown,<br>His meed to each victorious leader pay,<br>Or bind on every brow the laurels won?<br>Yet fain my harp would wake its boldest tone,<br>O'er the wide sea to hail CADOGAN brave;<br>And he, perchance, the minstrel-note might own,<br>Mindful of meeting brief that Fortune gave<br>'Mid yon far western isles that hear the Atlantic rave.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">XIII.<br>Yes! hard the task, when Britons wield the sword,<br>To give each Chief and every field its fame:<br>Hark! Albuera thunders BERESFORD,<br>And Red Barosa shouts for dauntless GRAEME!<br>O for a verse of tumult and of flame,<br>Bold as the bursting of their cannon sound,<br>To bid the world re-echo to their fame!<br>For never, upon gory battle-ground,<br>With conquest's well-bought wreath were braver victors crowned!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">XIV.<br>O who shall grudge him Albuera's bays,<br>Who brought a race regenerate to the field,<br>Roused them to emulate their fathers' praise,<br>Tempered their headlong rage, their courage steeled,<br>And raised fair Lusitania's fallen shield,<br>And gave new edge to Lusitania's sword,<br>And taught her sons forgotten arms to wield -<br>Shivered my harp, and burst its every chord,<br>If it forget thy worth, victorious BERESFORD!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">XV.<br>Not on that bloody field of battle won,<br>Though Gaul's proud legions rolled like mist away,<br>Was half his self-devoted valour shown, -<br>He gaged but life on that illustrious day;<br>But when he toiled those squadrons to array,<br>Who fought like Britons in the bloody game,<br>Sharper than Polish pike or assagay,<br>He braved the shafts of censure and of shame,<br>And, dearer far than life, he pledged a soldier's fame.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">XVI.<br>Nor be his praise o'erpast who strove to hide<br>Beneath the warrior's vest affection's wound,<br>Whose wish Heaven for his country's weal denied;<br>Danger and fate he sought, but glory found.<br>From clime to clime, where'er war's trumpets sound,<br>The wanderer went; yet Caledonia! still<br>Thine was his thought in march and tented ground;<br>He dreamed 'mid Alpine cliffs of Athole's hill,<br>And heard in Ebro's roar his Lyndoch's lovely rill.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">XVII.<br>O hero of a race renowned of old,<br>Whose war-cry oft has waked the battle-swell,<br>Since first distinguished in the onset bold,<br>Wild sounding when the Roman rampart fell!<br>By Wallace' side it rung the Southron's knell,<br>Alderne, Kilsythe, and Tibber owned its fame,<br>Tummell's rude pass can of its terrors tell,<br>But ne'er from prouder field arose the name<br>Than when wild Ronda learned the conquering shout of GRAEME!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=519729" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">XVIII.<br>But all too long, through seas unknown and dark,<br>(With Spenser's parable I close my tale,)<br>By shoal and rock hath steered my venturous bark,<br>And landward now I drive before the gale.<br>And now the blue and distant shore I hail,<br>And nearer now I see the port expand,<br>And now I gladly furl my weary sail,<br>And, as the prow light touches on the strand,<br>I strike my red-cross flag and bind my skiff to land.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><a href="http://poems.citatepedia.com/">poem</a> by <strong><a rel="author" href="http://authors.citatepedia.com/by.php?a=Sir+Walter+Scott">Sir Walter Scott</a></strong></div>

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