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Uncovered to his grave: 'tis closed,—her loss The Mother then mourns, as she needs must

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FEELINGS OF A NOBLE BISCAYAN AT ONE OF
THOSE FUNERALS.

1810.

YET, yet, Biscayans! we must meet our Foes With firmer soul, yet labour to regain

Our ancient freedom; else 'twere worse than

vain

To gather round the bier these festal shows.
A garland fashioned of the pure white rose
Becomes not one whose father is a slave:
Oh, bear the infant covered to his grave!
These venerable mountains now enclose

A people sunk in apathy and fear.

5

IO

If this endure, farewell, for us, all good!
The awful light of heavenly innocence
Will fail to illuminate the infant's bier;
And guilt and shame, from which is no defence,
Descend on all that issues from our blood.

XXVI.

THE OAK OF GUERNICA.

The ancient oak of Guernica, says Laborde in his account of Biscay, is a most venerable natural monument. Ferdinand and Isabella, in the year 1476, after hearing Mass in the church of Santa Maria de la Antigua, repaired to this tree, under

which they swore to the Biscayans to maintain their fueros (privileges). What other interest belongs to it in the minds of this people will appear from the following

SUPPOSED ADDRESS TO THE SAME. 1810.

OAK of Guernica! Tree of holier power
Than that which in Dodona did enshrine
(So faith too fondly deemed) a voice divine
Heard from the depths of its aërial bower- 4
How canst thou flourish at this blighting hour?
What hope, what joy can sunshine bring to thee,
Or the soft breezes from the Atlantic sea,

The dews of morn, or April's tender shower?
Stroke merciful and welcome would that be
Which should extend thy branches on the
ground,

If never more within their shady round
Those lofty-minded Lawgivers shall meet,
Peasant and lord, in their appointed seat,
Guardians of Biscay's ancient liberty.

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XXVII.

INDIGNATION OF A HIGH-MINDED SPANIARD.

1810.

WE can endure that He should waste our lands,
Despoil our temples, and by sword and flame
Return us to the dust from which we came;
Such food a Tyrant's appetite demands;
And we can brook the thought that by his
hands

Spain may be overpowered, and he possess,
For his delight, a solemn wilderness

5

Where all the brave lie dead. But, when of

bands

Which he will break for us he dares to speak, Of benefits, and of a future day

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When our enlightened minds shall bless his

sway;

Then the strained heart of fortitude proves weak;

Our groans, our blushes, our pale cheeks declare That he has power to inflict what we lack strength to bear.

XXVIII.

AVAUNT all specious pliancy of mind
In men of low degree, all smooth pretence!
I better like a blunt indifference,

And self-respecting slowness, disinclined
To win me at first sight: and be there joined 5
Patience and temperance with this high reserve,
Honour that knows the path and will not

swerve;

Affections which, if put to proof, are kind; And piety towards God. Such men of old Were England's native growth; and through

out Spain

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(Thanks to high God) forests of such remain: Then for that Country let our hopes be bold; For matched with these shall policy prove vain, Her arts, her strength, her iron, and her gold.

1810.

XXIX.
1810.

O'ERWEENING Statesmen have full long relied
On fleets and armies, and external wealth:
But from within proceeds a Nation's health;
Which shall not fail, though poor men cleave
with pride

To the paternal floor; or turn aside,

In the thronged city, from the walks of gain, As being all unworthy to detain

A Soul by contemplation sanctified.

There are who cannot languish in this strife,
Spaniards of every rank, by whom the good_10
Of such high course was felt and understood;
Who to their Country's cause have bound a life
Erewhile, by solemn consecration, given
To labour, and to prayer, to nature, and to
heaven.1

XXX.

THE FRENCH AND THE SPANISH GUERILLAS.

HUNGER, and sultry heat, and nipping blast From bleak hill-top, and length of march by

night

Through heavy swamp, or over snow-clad height

These hardships ill-sustained, these dangers

past,

The roving Spanish Bands are reached at last, Charged, and dispersed like foam: but as a

flight

Of scattered quails by signs do reunite,

6

So these, and, heard of once again, are chased With combinations of long-practised art

And newly-kindled hope; but they are fled— 10 Gone are they, viewless as the buried dead: Where now?-Their sword is at the Foeman's heart!

And thus from year to year his walk they thwart,

And hang like dreams around his guilty bed.

1810.

'See Laborde's character of the Spanish people; from him the sentiment of these last two lines is taken.

XXXI.

SPANISH GUERILLAS.

1811.

THEY seek, are sought; to daily battle led,
Shrink not, though far outnumbered by their
Foes,

For they have learnt to open and to close
The ridges of grim war; and at their head
Are captains such as erst their country bred 5
Or fostered, self-supported chiefs,-like those
Whom hardy Rome was fearful to oppose;
Whose desperate shock the Carthaginian fled.
In One who lived unknown a shepherd's life
Redoubted Viriathus breathes again;

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And Mina, nourished in the studious shade, With that great Leader1 vies, who, sick of strife

And bloodshed, longed in quiet to be laid
In some green island of the western main.

XXXII.

1811.

THE power of Armies is a visible thing,
Formal, and circumscribed in time and space;
But who the limits of that power shall trace
Which a brave People into light can bring
Or hide, at will,-for freedom combating
By just revenge inflamed? No foot may chase,
No eye can follow, to a fatal place

5

That power, that spirit, whether on the wing Like the strong wind, or sleeping like the wind Within its awful caves.-From year to year 10

1 Sertorius.

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