Of warlike matters! There hath been no time
For such enquiries, neither should I think
To ask her touching that for which I know
She hath neither eye nor thought.

There was a time,

Orpas with smile malignant thus replied,

When in the progress of the Caliph's arms

Count Julian's daughter had an interest

Which touched her nearly! But her turn is served,
And hatred of Prince Orpas may beget
Indifference to the cause. Yet Destiny
Still guideth to the service of the faith
The wayward heart of woman; for as one
Delivered Roderick to the avenging sword,
So hath another at this hour betrayed
Pelayo to his fall. His sister came
At nightfall to my tent, a fugitive.

She tells me that on learning our approach,
The rebel to a cavern in the hills

Had sent his wife and children, and with them
Those of his followers, thinking there concealed
They might be safe. She, moved by injuries
Which stung her spirit, on the way escaped,

And for revenge will guide us. In reward
She asks her brother's forfeiture of lands
In marriage with Numacian: something too
Touching his life, that for her services

It might be spared, she said: .. an after-thought
To salve decorum, and if conscience wake
Serve as a sop: but when the sword shall smite
Pelayo and his dangerous race, I ween

That a thin kerchief will dry all the tears
The Lady Guisla sheds!

'Tis the old taint!

Said Julian mournfully: from her mother's womb
She brought the inbred wickedness which now
In ripe infection blossoms. Woman, woman,
Still to the Goths art thou the instrument
Of overthrow; thy virtue and thy vice
Fatal alike to them!

Say rather, cried

The insidious renegade, that Allah thus

By woman punisheth the idolatry

Of those who raise a woman to the rank

Of godhead, calling on their Mary's name

With senseless prayers. In vain shall they invoke

Her trusted succour now! like silly birds
By fear betrayed, they fly into the toils!
And this Pelayo, who in lengthened war,
Baffling our force, has thought perhaps to reign
Prince of the Mountains, when we hold his wife
And offspring at our mercy, must himself

Come to the lure.

Enough, the Leader cried :

This unexpected work of favouring Fate
Opens an easy way to our desires,

And renders farther counsel needless now.
Great is the Prophet whose protecting power
Goes with the faithful forth! the rebel's days
Are numbered; Allah hath delivered them
Into our hands!

So saying he arose;

The Chiefs withdrew: Orpas alone remained
Obedient to his indicated will.

The event, said Abulcacem, hath approved
Thy judgement in all points; his daughter comes
At the first summons even as thou saidst;

Her errand with the insurgents done, she brings
Their well-concerted project back, a safe

And unsuspected messenger;.. the Moor,..
The shallow Moor,.. must see and not perceive;
Must hear and understand not; yea must bear,
Poor easy fool, to serve their after mirth,
A part in his own undoing! But just Heaven
With this unlooked-for incident hath marred
Their complots, and the sword shall cut their web
Of treason.

Well, the renegade replied,

Thou knowest Count Julian's spirit, quick in wiles,
In act audacious. Baffled now, he thinks
Either by instant warning to apprize

The rebels of their danger, or preserve
The hostages when fallen into our power,
Till secret craft contrive, or open force
Win their enlargement. Haply too he dreams
Of Cordoba, the avenger and the friend
Of Abdalazis, in that cause to arm
Moor against Moor, preparing for himself
The victory o'er the enfeebled conquerors.
Success in treason hath emboldened him,

And

power but serves him for fresh treachery, false To Roderick first, and to the Caliph now.

The guilt, said Abulcacem, is confirmed,

The sentence past; all that is now required
Is to strike sure and safely. He hath with him
A veteran force devoted to his will,

Whom to provoke were perilous; nor less
Of peril lies there in delay: what course
Between these equal dangers should we steer?

They have been trained beneath him in the wars
Of Africa, the renegade replied;

Men are they who, from their youth up, have found
Their occupation and their joy in arms;
Indifferent to the cause for which they fight,

But faithful to their leader, who hath won

By licence largely given, yet tempered still
With exercise of firm authority,

Their whole devotion. Vainly should we seek
By proof of Julian's guilt to pacify

Such martial spirits, unto whom all creeds
And countries are alike; but take away
Their head, and forthwith their fidelity
Goes at the market price. The act must be
Sudden and secret; poison is too slow,