L. And whomsoe'er along the path you meet Which tells you whom to shun and whom to greet: 9 Woe to the man that walks in public view Sharp is the knife, and sudden is the stroke; LI. At every turn Morena's dusky height The holstered steed beneath the shed of thatch, The ball-piled pyramid, the ever-blazing match,20 LII. Portend the deeds to come: but he whose nod Has tumbled feebler despots from their sway A little moment deigneth to delay: Soon will his legions sweep through these their way; The West must own the Scourger of the world. Ah! Spain! how sad will be thy reckoning - day, When soars Gaul's Vulture, with his wings unfurled, And thou shalt view thy sons in crowds to Hades hurled. LIII. And must they fall? the young, the proud, the brave, To swell one bloated Chief's unwholesome reign? And doth the Power that man adores ordain The Veteran's skill, Youth's fire, and Manhood's heart of steel? LIV. Is it for this the Spanish maid, aroused, Hangs on the willow her unstrung guitar, And, all unsexed, the Anlace hath espoused, Sung the loud song, and dared the deed of war? And she, whom once the semblance of a scar Appalled, an owlet's larum chilled 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, veil, Heard her light, lively tones in Lady's bower, Seen her long locks that foil the painter's power, Her fairy form, with more than female grace, Scarce would you deem that Saragoza's tower Beheld her smile in Danger's Gorgon face, Thin the closed ranks, and lead in Glory's fearful chase. LVI. Her lover sinks she sheds no ill-timed tear; Her chief is slain-she fills his fatal post; What maid retrieve when man's flushed hope is lost? Who hang so fiercely on the flying Gaul, Foiled by a woman's hand, before a battered wall? 11 LVII. Yet are Spain's maids no race of Amazons, Remoter females, famed for sickening prate; Her mind is nobler sure, her charms perchance as great. LVIII. The seal Love's dimpling finger hath impressed Denotes how soft that chin which bears his touch: 12 Her lips, whose kisses pout to leave their nest, Bid man be valiant ere he merit such: Her glance how wildly beautiful! how much Hath Phoebus wooed in vain to spoil her cheek, Which glows yet smoother from his amorous clutch! Who round the North for paler dames would seek? How poor their forms appear! how languid, wan, and weak! LIX. Match me, ye climes! which poets love to laud; Match me, ye harams of the land! where now I strike my strain, far distant, to applaud Beauties that ev'n a cynic must avow; Match me those Houries, whom ye scarce allow To taste the gale lest Love should ride the wind, With Spain's dark-glancing daughters - deign to know, There your wise Prophet's paradise we find, His black-eyed maids of Heaven, angelically kind. |