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Victorious still in bull-feast or in fight,
Since first his limbs with mail he did invest,
Stoop'd ever to that Anchoret's behest;
Nor reason'd 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. XXXI.

Oft his proud galleys sought some new-found world,

That latest sees the sun, or first the morn; Still at that Wizard's feet their spoils he hurl'd,— Ingots of ore from rich Potosi borne,

Crowns by Caciques, aigrettes by Omrahs worn, Wrought of rare gems, but broken, rent, and foul;

Idols of gold from heathen temples torn,

Bedabbled all with blood.-With grisly scowl The Hermit mark'd the stains, and smiled beneath his cowl.

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Gray Royalty, grown impotent of toil,

Let the grave sceptre slip his lazy hold; And, careless, saw his rule become the spoil Of a loose Female and her minion bold. But peace was on the cottage and the fold, From court intrigue, from bickering faction far; Beneath the chestnut-tree Love's tale was told, And to the tinkling of the light guitar, Sweet stoop'd the western sun, sweet rose the evening star.

*The bolero is a very light and active dance, much practised by the Spaniards, in which castanets are always used. Mozo and muchacha are equivalent to our phrase of lad and lass.

The third scene, a peaceful state of indolence and obscurity, where, though the court was degenerate, the peasant was merry and contented, is introduced with exquisite lightness and gayety."-Quarterly Review.

The three grand and comprehensive pictures in which Mr. Scott has delineated the state of Spain, during the three periods to which we have alluded, are conceived with much genius, and executed with very considerable, though unequal felicity. That of the Moorish dominion is drawn, we think, with the greatest spirit. The reign of Chivalry and Superstition we do not think so happily represented, by a long and laboured description of two allegorical personages called Bigotry and Valour. Nor is it very

easy to conceive how Don Roderick was to learn the fortunes of

his country, merely by inspecting the physiognomy and furnishing of these two figurantes. The truth seems to be, that Mr. Scott has been tempted on this occasion to extend a mere metaphor into an allegory; and to prolong a figure which might have given great grace and spirit to a single stanza, into the heavy subject of seven or eight. His representation of the recent state of Spain,

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No longer now she spurn'd at mean revenge,

Or staid her hand for conquer'd foeman's moan; we think, displays the talent and address of the author to the greatest advantage; for the subject was by no means inspiring nor was it easy, we should imagine, to make the picture of decay and inglorious indolence so engaging."-Edinburgh Review, which then quotes stanzas xxxiv, and xxxv.]

:["The opening of the third period of the Vision is, perhaps necessarily, more abrupt than that of the second. No circums stance, equally marked with the alteration in the whole system of ancient warfare, could be introduced in this compartment of the poem; yet when we have been told that Valour had relaxed his ardent look,' and that Bigotry' was softened,' we are rea sonably prepared for what follows."-Monthly Review.) $ (See 1. Kings, chap. xviii. v. 41-15.] We are as ready as any of our countrymen can be, to de signato Bonaparte's invasion of Spain by its proper epithets; but we must decline to join in the author's declamation against the low birth of the invader; and we cannot help reminding Mr. Scott that such a topic of censure is unworthy of him, both as a poet and as a Briton."-Monthly Review. "The picture of Bonaparte, considering the difficulty of all contemporary delineations, is not ill executed."-Edinburgh Review. J

As when, the fates of aged Rome to change,
By Cæsar's side she cross'd the Rubicon.
Nor joy'd she to bestow the spoils she won,
As when the banded powers of Greece were
task'd

To war beneath the Youth of Macedon:
No seemly veil her modern minion ask'd,
He saw her hideous face, and loved the fiend un-
mask'd.

XLII.

That Prelate mark'd his march-On banners blazed

With battles won in many a distant land, On eagle-standards and on arms he gazed; "And hopest thou, then," he said, "thy power shall stand?

O, thou hast builded on the shifting sand,

And thou hast temper'd it with slaughter's flood; And know, fell scourge in the Almighty's hand, Gore-moisten'd trees shall perish in the bud, And by a bloody death, shall die the Man of Blood!"*

XLIII.

The ruthless leader beckon'd from his train
A wan fraternal Shade, and bade him kneel,
And paled his temples with the crown of Spain,
While trumpets rang, and heralds cried, "Cas-
tile!"t

Not that he loved him-No!-In no man's weal, Scarce in his own, e'er joy'd that sullen heart; Yet round that throne he bade his warriors wheel, That the poor Puppet might perform his part, And be a sceptred slave, at his stern beck to start. XLIV.

But on the Natives of that Land misused,

Not long the silence of amazement hung, Nor brook'd they long their friendly faith abused; For, with a common shriek, the general tongue Exclaim'd, "To arins!"-and fast to arms they

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That Mimic Monarch now cast anxious eye Upon the Satraps that begirt him round, *["We are not altogether pleased with the lines which follow the description of Bonaparte's birth and country. In historical truth, we believe, his family was not plebeian; and, setting aside the old saying of genus et proavos,' the poet is here evidently becoming a chorus to his own scene, and explaining a fact which could by no means be inferred from the pageant that passes before the eyes of the King and Prelate. The Archbishop's observation on his appearance is free, however, from every objection of this kind."-Quarterly Review.]

The heralds, at the coronation of a Spanish monarch, proclaim his name three times, and repeat three times the word Castilla, Castilla, Castilla; which, with all other ceremonies, was carefully copied in the mock inauguration of Joseph Bona

parte.

![See Book of Judges, Chap. xv. v. 9-16.]

§ Those who were disposed to believe that mere virtue and energy are able of themselves to work forth the salvation of an oppressed people, surprised in a moment of confidence, deprived of their officers, armies, and fortresses, who had every means of resistance to seek in the very moment when they were to be made use of, and whom the numerous treasons among the higher orders deprived of confidence in their natural leaders,-those who entertained this enthusiastic but delusive opinion may be pardoned for expressing their disappointment at the protracted warfare in the Peninsula. There are, however, another class of persons, who, having themselves the highest dread or veneration, or something allied to both, for the power of the modern Attila, will nevertheless give the heroical Spaniards little or no credit for the long, stubborn, and unsubdued resistance of three years to a power before whom their former well-prepared, well-armed, and numerous adversaries fell in the course of as many mouths. While these gentlemen plead for deference to Bonaparte and crave.

"Respect for his great place and bid the devil
Be duly honoured for his burning throne,"

it may not be altogether unreasonable to claim some modification of censure upon those who have been long and to a great extent scessfully resisting this great enemy of mankind. That the energy of Spain has not uniformly been directed by conduct equal to its vigour, has been too obvious; that her armies, under their complicated disadvantages, have shared the fate of such as were defeated after taking the field with every possible advantage of arms and discipline, is surely not to be wondered at. But that a nation, under the circumstances of repeated discomfiture, internal treason, and the mismanagement incident to a temporary and

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hastily adopted government, should have wasted, by its stubborn, uniform, and prolonged resistance, myriads after myriads of those soldiers who had overrun the world-that some of its provinces should, like Galicia, after being abandoned by their allies, and overrun by their enemies, have recovered their freedom by their own unassisted exertions; that others, like Catalonia, undismayed by the treason which betrayed some fortresses, and the force which subdued others, should not only have continued their re sistance, but have attained over their victorious enemy a superiority, which is even now enabling them to besiege and retake the places of strength which had been wrested from them, is a tale hitherto untold in the revolutionary war. To say that such a people cannot be subdued, would be presumption similar to that of those who protested that Spain could not defend herself for a year, or Portugal for a month; but that a resistance which has been continued for so long a space, when the usurper, except during the short-lived Austrian campaign, had no other enemies on the continent, should be now less successful, when repeated defeats have broken the reputation of the French armies, and when they are likely (it would seem almost in desperation) to seek occupation elsewhere, is a prophecy as improbable as ungracious. And while we are in the humour of severely censuring our allies, gallant and devoted as they have shown themselves in the cause of national liberty, because they may not instantly adopt those measures which we in our wisdom may deem essential to success, it might be well if we endeavoured first to resolve the previous questions,-1st, Whether we do not at this moment know much less of the Spanish armies than those of Portugal, which were so promptly condemned as totally inadequate to assist in the preservation of their country? 2d, Whether, independently of any right we have to offer more than advice and assistance to our independent allies, we can expect that they should renounce entirely the national pride, which is inseparable from patriotism, and at once condescend not only to be saved by our assistance, but to be saved in our own way? 3d, Whether, if it be an object, (as undoubtedly it is a main one.) that the Spanish troops should be trained under British discipline, to the flexibility of movement, and power of rapid concert and combination, which is essential to modern war; such a consummation is likely to be produced by abusing them in newspapers and periodical publications? Lastly, Since the undoubted authority of British officers makes us now acquainted with part of the horrors that attend invasion, and which the providence of God, the valour of our navy, and perhaps the very efforts of these Spaniards, have hitherto diverted from us,

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Yet raise thy head, sad city! Though in chains, Enthrall'd thou canst not be! Arise, and claim Reverence from every heart where Freedom reigns, For what thou worshippest !-thy sainted Dame,

it may be modestly questioned whether we ought to be too for ward to estimate and condemn the feeling of temporary stupefaction which they create; lest in so doing, we should resemble the worthy clergyman, who, while he had himself never snuffed a candle with his fingers, was disposed severely to criticise the conduct of a martyr, who winced a little among his flames.

The interesting account of Mr. Vaughan has made most readers acquainted with the first siege of Zaragoza.* The last and fatal siege of that gallant and devoted city is detailed with great eloquence and precision in the Edinburgh Annual Register" for 1809,-a work in which the affairs of Spain have been treated of with attention corresponding to their deep interest, and to the peculiar sources of information open to the historian. The following are a few brief extracts from this splendid historical narrative

"A breach was soon made in the mud walls, and then, as in the former seige, the war was carried on in the streets and houses; but the French had been taught by experience, that in this species of warfare the Zaragozans derived a superiority from the feeling and principle which inspired them, and the cause for which they fought. The only means of conquering Zaragoza was to destroy it house by house, and street by street; and upon this system of destruction they proceeded. Three companies of miners, and eight companies of sappers, carried on this subterraneous war; the Spaniards, it is said, attempted to oppose them by countermines; these were operations to which they were wholly unused, and, according to the French statement, their miners were every day discovered and suffocated. Meantime, the bombardment was incessantly kept up. Within the last 48 hours,' said Palafox, in a letter to his friend General Doyle, 6000 shells have been thrown in. Two thirds of the town are in ruins, but we shall perish under the ruins of the remaining third, rather than surrender.' In the course of the siege, above 17,000 bombs were thrown at the town; the stock of powder with which Zaragoza had been stored was exhausted; they had none at last but what they manufactured day by day; and no other cannon-balls than those which were shot into the town, and which they collected and fired back upon the enemy.'

In the midst of these horrors and privations, the pestilence broke out in Zaragoza. To various causes, enumerated by the annalist, he adds, scantiness of food, crowded quarters, unusual exertion of body, anxiety of mind, and the impossibility of recruiting their exhausted strength by needful rest, in a city which was almost incessantly bombarded, and where every hour their sleep was broken by the tremendous explosion of mines. There was now no respite, either by day or night, for this devoted city; even the natural order of light and darkness was destroyed in Zarago za; by day it was involved in a red sulphureous atmosphere of smoke, which hid the face of heaven; by night, the fire of cannons and mortars, and the flames of burning houses, kept it in a state of terrific illumination.

"When once the pestilence had begun, it was impossible to check its progress, or confine it to one quarter of the city. Hos

[See Narrative of the Siege of Zaragoza, by Richard Charles Vaughan, Esq., 1809. The Right Honourable R. C. Vaughan is now British Minister At Washington, 1833.]

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LV.

Don Roderick turn'd him as the shout grew loud-t

A varied scene the changeful vision show'd, For, where the ocean mingled with the cloud, A gallant navy stemm'd the billows broad. From mast and stern St. George's symbol flow'd, Blent with the silver cross to Scotland dear;

pitals were immediately established.--there were above thirty of them; as soon as one was destroyed by the bombardment, the pa tients were removed to another, and thus the infection was carried to every part of Zaragoza. Famine aggravated the evil; the city had probably not been sufficiently provided at the commencement of the siege, and of the provisions which it contained, much was destroyed in the daily ruin which the mines and bombs effected. Had the Zaragozans and their garrison proceeded according to military rules, they would have surrendered before the end of Ja nuary; their batteries had then been demolished, there were open breaches in many parts of their weak walls, and the enemy were already within the city. On the 30th, above sixty houses were blown up, and the French obtained possession of the monasteries of the Augustines and Las Monicas, which adjoined each other, two of the last defensible places left. The enemy forced their way into the church; every column, every chapel, every altar, became a point of defence, which was repeatedly attacked, taken, and retaken; the pavement was covered with blood, the aisles and body of the church strewed with the dead, who were trampled under foot by the combatants. In the midst of this conflict, the roof, shattered by repeated bombs, fell in; the few who were not crushed, after a short pause, which this tremendous shock, and their own unexpected escape, occasioned, renewed the fight with rekindling fury: fresh parties of the enemy poured in ; monks, and citizens, and soldiers came to the defence, and the contest was continued upon the ruins, and the bodies of the dead and the dying."

Yet, seventeen days after sustaining these extremities, did the heroic inhabitants of Zaragoza continue their defence: nor did they then surrender until their despair had extracted from the French generals a capitulation, more honourable than has been granted to fortresses of the first order.

Who shall venture to refuse the Zaragozans the eulogium conferred upon them by the eloquence of Wordsworth - Most glo riously have the citizens of Zaragoza proved that the true army of Spain, in a contest of this nature, is the whole people. The same city has also exemplified a melancholy, yea, a dismal truth,—yet consolatory and full of joy.--that when a people are called suddenly to fight for their liberty, and are sorely pressed upon, their best field of battle is the floors upon which their children have played; the chambers where the family of each man has slept, (his own or his neighbour's ;) upon or under the roofs by which they have been sheltered; in the gardens of their recreation; in the street, or in the market place; before the altars of their temples, and among their congregated dwellings, blazing or uprooted. "The government of Spain must never forget Zaragoza for a moment. Nothing is wanting to produce the same effects every where, but a leading mind, such as that city was blessed with. In the latter contest this has been proved; for Zaragoza contained, at that time, bodies of men from almost all parts of Spain. The narrative of those two sieges should be the manual of every Spaniard. He may add to it the uncient stories of Numantia and Saguntum; let him sleep upon the book as a pillow, and, if he be a devout adherent to the religion of his country, let him wear it in his bosom for his crucifix to rest upon."-WORDSWORTH on the Convention of Cintra.

[MS.--"Don Roderick turn'd him at the sudden cry."]

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And, O! loved warriors of the Minstrel's land! Yonder your bonnets nod, your tartans wave! The rugged form may mark the mountain band, And harsher features, and a mien more grave; But ne'er in battle-field throbb'd heart so brave, As that which beats beneath the Scottish plaid; And when the pibroch bids the battle rave,

And level for the charge your arms are laid, Where lives the desperate foe that for such onset staid!

* [MS.-" Right for the shore unnumbered barges row'd."] * [Compare with this passage, and the Valour, Bigotry, and Ambition of the previous stanzas, the celebrated personification of war, in the first canto of Childe Harold :

"Lo! where the giant on the mountain stands,
His blood-red tresses deep'ning in the sun,
With death-shot glowing in his fiery hands,
And eye that scorcheth all it glares upon :
Restless it rolls, now fix'd, and now anon
Flashing afar,-and at his iron feet
Destruction cowers, to mark what deeds are done;
For on this morn three potent nations meet

To shed before his shrine the blood he deems most sweet.

"By heaven! it is a splendid sight to see
(For one who hath no friend, no brother there)
Their rival scarfs of mix'd embroidery,
Their various arms, that glitter in the air!

What gallant war-hounds rouse them from their lair
And gnash their fangs, loud yelling for the prey!
All join the chase, but few the triumph share,
The grave shall bear the chiefest prize away,
And Havoc scarce for joy can number their array.
"Three hosts combine to offer sacrifice;
Three tongues prefer strange orisons on high;
Three gaudy standards flout the pale blue skies;
The shouts are France, Spain, Albion, victory!
The foe, the victim, and the fond ally
That fights for all, but ever fights in vain,

Are met as if at home they could not die

To feed the crow on Talavera's plain,

And fertilize the field that each pretends to gain."] ! [MS. -"the dusty mead."]

$!" The landing of the English is admirably described; nor is there any thing finer in the whole poem than the following pas Sage, Istanzas Iv., lvi., lvii..) with the exception always of the three concluding lines, which appear to us to be very nearly as bd as possible."-JEFFREY.]

["The three succeeding stanzas (lviii., lix., lx.,) are elabo

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O vain, though anxious, is the glance I cast,
Since Fate has mark'd futurity her own:
Yet fate resigns to worth the glorious past,
The deeds recorded, and the laurels won.
Then, though the Vault of Destiny‡‡ be gone,
King, Prelate, all the phantasms of my brain,
Melted away like mist-wreaths in the sun,

Yet grant for faith, for valour, and for Spain, One note of pride and fire, a Patriot's parting strain !§§

rate; but we think, on the whole, successful. They will pro bably be oftener quoted than any other passage in the poem.”— JEFFREY.]

TMS." His jest each careless comrade round him flings."] **[For details of the battle of Vimeira, fought 21st Aug. 1808 -of Corunna, 16th Jan. 1809-of Talavera, 28th July 1809and of Busaco, 27th Sept. 1810-See Sir Walter Scott's Life of Napoleon, under these dates.]

The nation will arise regenerate;
Strong in her second youth and beautiful,
And like a spirit that hath shaken off
The clog of dull mortality, shall Spain
Arise in glory."-SOUTHEY's Roderick.]

II Before finally dismissing the enchanted cavern of Don Roderick, it may be noticed, that the legend occurs in one of Calderon's plays, entitled, La Virgin del Sagrario. The scene opens with the noise of the chase, and Recisundo, a predecessor of Roderick upon the Gothic throne, enters pursuing a stag. The animal assumes the form of a man, and defies the king to enter the cave, which forms the bottom of the scene, and engage with him in single combat. The king accepts the challenge, and they engage accordingly, but without advantage on either side, which induces the Genie to inform Recisundo, that he is not the monarch for whom the adventure of the enchanted cavern is reserved, and he proceeds to predict the downfall of the Gothic monarchy, and of the Christian religion, which shall attend the discovery of its mysteries. Recisundo, appalled by these prophecies, orders the cavern to be secured by a gate and bolts of iron. In the second part of the same play, we are informed that Don Roderick had removed the barrier, and transgressed the prohibition of his ancestor, and had been apprized by the prodigies which he discovered, of the approaching ruin of his kingdom. $$ [" For a mere introduction to the exploits of our English commanders, the story of Don Roderick's sins and confessions, the minute description of his army and attendants, and the whole interest and machinery of the enchanted vault, with the greater part of the Vision itself, are far too long and elaborate. They withdraw our curiosity and attention from the objects for

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which they had been bespoken, and gradually engage them upon a new and independent series of romantic adventures, in which it is not easy to see how Lord Wellington and Bonaparte can have any concern. But, on the other hand, no sooner is this new interest excited,-no sooner have we surrendered our imaginations into the hands of this dark enchanter, and heated our fancies to the proper pitch for sympathizing in the fortunes of Gothie kings and Moorish invaders, with their imposing accompaniments of harnessed knights, ravished damsels, and enchanted statues, than the whole romantic group vanishes at once from our sight; and we are hurried, with minds yet disturbed with those powerful apparitions, to the comparatively sober and cold narration of Bonaparte's villanies, and to drawn battles between mere mortal combatants in English and French uniforms. The vast and elaborate vestibule, in short, in which we had been so long detained,

Where wonders wild of Arabesque combine With Gothic imagery of darker shade,' has no corresponding palace attached to it; and the long noviti ate we are made to serve to the mysterious powers of romance is not repaid, after all, by an introduction to their awful presence."-JEFFREY.]

* (MS.-" Who shall command the torrent's headlong tide."] ↑ I have ventured to apply to the movements of the French army that sublime passage in the prophecies of Joel, which seems applicable to them in more respects than that I have adopted in the text. One would think their ravages, their military appoint ments, the terror which they spread among invaded nations, their military discipline, their arts of political intrigue and deceit, were distinctly pointed out in the following verses of Scripture:

2. A day of darknesse and gloominesse, a day of clouds and of thick darknesse, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong, there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the yeares of many generations. 3. A fire devoureth before them, and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behinde them a desolate wilderness, yea, and nothing shall escape them. 4. The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses and as horsemen, so shall they runne. 5. Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains, shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battel array. 6. Before their face shall the people be much pained; all faces shall gather blacknesse. 7. They shall run like mighty men, they shall climb the wall like men of warre, and they shall march every one in his wayes, and they shall not break their ranks. 8. Neither shall one thrust another, they shall walk every one in his path: and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded. 9. They shall run to and

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fro in the citie; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climbe up upon the houses: they shall enter in at the windows like a thief. 10. The earth shall quake before them, the heavens shall tremble, the sunne and the moon shall be dark, and the starres shall withdraw their shining."

In verse 20th also, which announces the retreat of the northern army, described in such dreadful colours, into a "land barren and desolate," and the dishonour with which God afflicted them for having "magnified themselves to do great things," there are par ticulars not mapplicable to the retreat of Massena; Divine Providence, having, in all ages, attached disgrace as the natural pu nishment of cruelty and presumption.

Even the unexampled gallantry of the British army in the campaign of 1810-11, although they never fought but to conquer, will do them less honour in history than their humanity, attentive to soften to the utmost of their power the horrors which war, in its mildest aspect, must always inflict upon the defenceless inhabitants of the country in which it is waged, and which, on this occasion, were tenfold augmented by the barbarous cruelties of the French. Soup-kitchens were established by subscription among the officers, wherever the troops were quartered for any length of time. The commissaries contributed the heads, feet. &c. of the cattle slaughtered for the soldiery: rice, vegetables, and bread, where it could be had, were purchased by the others. Fifty or sixty starving peasants were daily fed at one of these regimental establishments, and carried home the relics to their famished households. The emaciated wretches, who could not crawl from weakness, were speedily employed in pruning their vines. While pursuing Massena, the soldiers evinced the same spirit of humanity, and in many instances, when reduced themselves to short allowance, from having out marched their sup plies, they shared their pittance with the starving inhabitants, who had ventured back to view the ruins of their habitatious, burnt by the retreating enemy, and to bury the bodies of their rela tions whom they had butchered. Is it possible to know such facts without feeling a sort of confidence, that those who so well deserve victory are most likely to attain it?--It is not the least of Lord Wellington's military merits, that the slightest disposition towards marauding meets immediate punishment. Independ ently of all moral obligation, the army which is most orderly in a friendly country, has always proved most formidable to an armed enemy. The MS. has, for the preceding five lines"And in pursuit vindictive hurried on. And O, survivors sad! to you belong Tributes from each that Briton calls her son, From all her nobles, all her wealthier throng,

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To her poor peasant's mite, and minstrel's poorer song."

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