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XX

ALL not the royal Swede unfortunate,

Who never did to Fortune bend the knee;
Who slighted fear; rejected steadfastly
Temptation; and whose kingly name and state
Have 'perished by his choice, and not his fate!'
Hence lives He, to his inner self endeared;
And hence, wherever virtue is revered,

He sits a more exalted Potentate,
Throned in the hearts of men.

Should Heaven ordain

That this great Servant of a righteous cause
Must still have sad or vexing thoughts to endure,
Yet may a sympathising spirit pause,

Admonished by these truths, and quench all pain
In thankful joy and gratulation pure.1

1809

10

LOOK

XXI

OOK now on that Adventurer who hath paid
His vows to Fortune; who, in cruel slight

Of virtuous hope, of liberty, and right,

Hath followed wheresoe'er a way was made
By the blind Goddess,-ruthless, undismayed;
And so hath gained at length a prosperous height,
Round which the elements of worldly might
Beneath his haughty feet, like clouds, are laid.
O joyless power that stands by lawless force!
Curses are his dire portion, scorn, and hate,
Internal darkness and unquiet breath;
And, if old judgments keep their sacred course,
Him from that height shall Heaven precipitate
By violent and ignominious death.

1809

I

XXII

S there a power that can sustain and cheer
The captive chieftain, by a tyrant's doom,
Forced to descend into his destined tomb-

A dungeon dark! where he must waste the year,
And lie cut off from all his heart holds dear;
What time his injured country is a stage
Whereon deliberate Valour and the rage
Of righteous Vengeance side by side appear,

1 See Note to Sonnet vII., page 42.

ΤΟ

Filling from morn to night the heroic scene
With deeds of hope and everlasting praise :—
Say can he think of this with mind serene
And silent fetters? Yes, if visions bright
Shine on his soul, reflected from the days
When he himself was tried in open light.

Probably 1809

ΤΟ

AH

XXIII

1810

H! where is Palafox? Nor tongue nor pen
Reports of him, his dwelling or his grave!
Does yet the unheard-of vessel ride the wave?
Or is she swallowed up, remote from ken
Of pitying human-nature? Once again

Methinks that we shall hail thee, Champion brave,
Redeemed to baffle that imperial Slave,

And through all Europe cheer desponding men
With new-born hope. Unbounded is the might
Of martyrdom, and fortitude, and right.
Hark, how thy Country triumphs!-Smilingly
The Eternal looks upon her sword that gleams,
Like his own lightning, over mountains high,
On rampart, and the banks of all her streams.

1810

10

XXIV

N due observance of an ancient rite,

IN

The rude Biscayans, when their children lie
Dead in the sinless time of infancy,

Attire the peaceful corse in vestments white;
And, in like sign of cloudless triumph bright,
They bind the unoffending creature's brows
With happy garlands of the pure white rose:
Then do a festal company unite

In choral song; and, while the uplifted cross
Of Jesus goes before, the child is borne
Uncovered to his grave: 'tis closed, her loss
The Mother then mourns, as she needs must mourn;
But soon, through Christian faith, is grief subdued :
And joy returns, to brighten fortitude.

1810

ΙΟ

XXV

FEELINGS OF A NOBLE BISCAYAN AT ONE OF THOSE FUNERALS

1810

ET, yet, Biscayans! we must meet our Foes

YET

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.
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.

1810

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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

O

SUPPOSED ADDRESS TO THE SAME. 1810

AK 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-
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.

10

XXVII

INDIGNATION OF A HIGH-MINDED SPANIARD. 1810

WE

E 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

Where all the brave lie dead.

But, when of bands Which he will break for us he dares to speak,

10

Of benefits, and of a future day
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

1810

VAUNT all specious pliancy of mind

AVA

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

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

II

Were England's native growth; and, throughout Spain,
(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.
Probably 1810

Ο

XXIX

'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
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

1810

H

XXX

THE FRENCH AND THE SPANISH GUERILLAS

UNGER, 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,

So these, and, heard of once again, are chased
With combinations of long-practised art
And newly-kindled hope; but they are fled-
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 or 1811

ΙΟ

ΙΟ

TH

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HEY 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
Or fostered, self-supported chiefs,—like those
Whom hardy Rome was fearful to oppose;
Whose desperate shock the Carthaginian fled.

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

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