With human hearts to what? -a dream alone. Can despots compass aught that hails their sway? Or call with truth one span of earth their own, Save that wherein at last they crumble bone by bone? XLIII. Oh, Albuera! glorious field of grief! As o'er thy plain the Pilgrim prick'd his steed, A scene where mingling foes should boast and bleed! Till others fall where other chieftains lead Thy name shall circle round the gaping throng, And shine in worthless lays, the theme of transient song! XLIV. Enough of Battle's minions! let them play Or in a narrower sphere wild Rapine's path pursued. XLV. Full swiftly Harold wends his lonely way Where Desolation plants her famish'd brood XLVI. But all unconscious of the coming doom, Here Folly still his votaries inthralls; And young-eyed Lewdness walks her midnight rounds: Girt with the silent crimes of Capitals, Still to the last kind Vice clings to the tott'ring walls. Not so the rustic XVLII. with his trembling mate Ah, monarchs! could ye taste the mirth ye mar, The hoarse dull drum would sleep, and Man be happy yet! XLVIII. How carols now the lusty muleteer? Of love, romance, devotion is his lay, As whilome he was wont the leagues to cheer, XLIX. On yon long, level plain, at distance crown'd Here was the camp, the watch-flame, and the host, And points to yonder cliffs, which oft were won and lost. L. And whomsoe'er along the path you meet Bears in his cap the badge of crimson hue, Which tells you whom to shun and whom to greet: (1) (1) The red cockade, with "Fernando Septimo" in the centre. Wo to the man that walks in public view Sharp is the knife, and sudden is the stroke; If subtle poniards, wrapt beneath the cloke, Could blunt the sabre's edge, or clear the cannon's smoke. LI. At every turn Morena's dusky height: The holster'd steed beneath the shed of thatch, LII. Portend the deeds to come : - but he whose nod A little moment deigneth to delay: Soon will his legions sweep through these their way; LIII. And must they fall? the young, the proud, the brave, The Veteran's skill, Youth's fire, and Manhood's heart of steel? (1) All who have seen a battery will recollect the pyramidal form in which shot and shells are piled. The Sierra Morena was fortified in every defile through which I passed in my way to Seville. LIV. Is it for this the Spanish maid, aroused, Hangs on the willow her unstrung guitar And, all unsex'd, the anlace hath espoused Sung the loud song, and dared the deed of war? And she, whom once the semblance of a scar Appall'd, an owlet's larum chill'd with dread, Now views the column-scattering bay'net jar, The falchion flash, and o'er the yet warm dead Stalks with Minerva's step where Mars might quake to tread. LV. Ye who shall marvel when you hear her tale, Mark'd her black eye that mocks her coal-black veil, Thin the closed ranks, and lead in Glory's fearful chase. Her lover sinks Her chief is slain Her fellows flee LVI. she sheds no ill-timed tear; she fills his fatal post; she checks their base career; The foe retires she heads the sallying host: Who can appease like her a lover's ghost? Who can avenge so well a leader's fall? What maid retrieve when man's flush'd hope is lost? Who hang so fiercely on the flying Gaul, Foil'd by a woman's hand, before a batter'd wall? (1) LVII. Yet are Spain's maids no race of Amazons, 'Tis but the tender fierceness of the dove, (1) Such were the exploits of the Maid of Saragoza. When the author was at Seville rne walked daily on the Prado, decorated with medals and orders, by command of the Junta. CANTO I. Pecking the hand that hovers o'er her mate : Remoter females, famed for sickening prate; Her mind is nobler sure, her charms perchance as great. LVIII. The seal Love's dimpling finger hath impress'd Her glance how wildly beautiful! how much Which glows yet smoother from his amorous clutch! LIX. Match me, ye climes! which poets love to laud; Match me those Houries, whom ye scarce allow His black-eyed maids of Heaven, angelically kind. LX. Oh, thou Parnassus! (2) whom I now survey, But soaring snow-clad through thy native sky The humblest of thy pilgrims passing by wing. (1) "Sigilla in mento impressa Amoris digitulo Vestigio demonstrant mollitudinem." AUL. GEL. (2) These stanzas were written in Castri, (Delphos,) at the foot of Parnassus, now called Διακυρα-Liakura. |