Then answered kettle-drum and atabal, Gong-peal and cymbal-clank the ear appall,

The Tecbir war-cry and the Lelie's yell Ring wildly dissonant along the hall.

1

Needs not to Roderick their dread import tell

T

'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,

Alla 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 Iago strike for the good cause of Spain!

XXI

'By Heaven, the Moors prevail! the Christians yield!?

Their coward leader gives for flight the sign!

The sceptred craven mounts to quit the field

Is not yon steed Orelia? Yes, 't is mine!

But never was she turned from battle line:

Lo! where the recreant spurs o'er stock and stone!

1 See Note 112.

See Note.113.

Curses pursue the slave, and wrath divine!

Rivers ingulf him!'-'Hush,' in shuddering tone, The prelate said; '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;
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 the bondsmen base the free-born natives brand.

XXIII

Then rose the grated Harem, to enclose

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.

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 Heaven'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;
And to the sound the bell-decked 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 chant was heard from mosque or minaret.

XXVI

So passed that pageant. Ere another came,

The visionary scene was wrapped in smoke,

Whose sulphurous 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; Lightning and smoke her breath, and thunder was her

tone.

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-browed hermitage. C
The land obeys a Hermit 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.

XXVIII

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, The spoils of Afric's lion bound his breast.

Fierce he stepped forward and flung down his gage; As if of mortal kind to brave the best.

b: 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 barefoot 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 haircloth, meekly kissed the ground.

XXX

And thus it chanced that VALOUR, peerless knight, Who ne'er to King or Kaiser 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.