Page images
PDF
EPUB

RODERICK,

THE LAST OF THE GOTHS.

XIV.

COUNT, said Pelayo, Nature hath assigned
Two sovereign remedies for human grief;
Religion, surest, firmest, first and best,
Strength to the weak and to the wounded balm;
And strenuous action next. Think not I came
With unprovided heart. My noble wife,

In the last solemn words, the last farewell
With which she charged her secret messenger,
Told me that whatsoe'er was my resolve,
She bore a mind prepared. And well I know
The evil, be it what it may, hath found
In her a courage equal to the hour.

[blocks in formation]

Captivity, or death, or what worse pangs,
She in her children may be doomed to feel,
Will never make that steady soul repent
Its virtuous purpose. I too did not cast
My single life into the lot, but knew

These dearer pledges on the die were set;
And if the worst have fall'n, I shall but bear
That in my breast, which, with transfiguring power
Of piety, makes chastening sorrow take

The form of hope, and sees, in Death, the friend
And the restoring Angel. We must rest
Perforce, and wait what tidings night may bring,
Haply of comfort. Ho there! kindle fires,
And see if aught of hospitality.

Can yet within these mournful walls be found!

Thus while he spake, lights were descried far off Moving among the trees, and coming sounds Were heard as of a distant multitude.

Anon a company

of horse and foot,

Advancing in disorderly array,

Came up the vale: before them and beside

Their torches flashed on Sella's rippling stream;

Now gleamed through chesnut groves, emerging now, O'er their huge boughs and radiated leaves

Cast broad and bright a transitory glare.

That sight inspired with strength the mountaineers ;
All sense of weariness; all wish for rest

At once were gone : impatient in desire
Of second victory alert they stood;

And when the hostile symbols, which from far
Imagination to their wish had shaped,
Vanished in nearer vision, high-wrought hope
Departing, left the spirit palled and blank.
No turban'd race, no sons of Africa
Were they who now came winding up the vale,
As waving wide before their horses' feet
The torch-light floated, with its hovering glare
Blackening the incumbent and surrounding night.
Helmet and breast-plate glittered as they came,
And
spears erect; and nearer as they drew
Were the loose folds of female garments seen
On those who led the company. Who then
Had stood beside Pelayo, might have heard
The beating of his heart.

But vainly there

Sought he with wistful eye the well-known forms

Beloved; and plainly might it now be seen
That from some bloody conflict they returned
Victorious,... for at every saddle-bow

A gory head was hung. Anon they stopt,
Levelling in quick alarm their ready spears.
Hold! who goes there? cried one. A hundred tongues
Sent forth with one accord the glad reply,

Friends and Asturians. Onward moved the lights,..
The people knew their Lord.

Then what a shout

Rung through the valley! From their clay-built nests,
Beneath the overbrowing battlements,

Now first disturbed, the affrighted martins flew,
And uttering notes of terror short and shrill,
Amid the yellow glare and lurid smoke

Wheeled giddily. Then plainly was it shown
How well the vassals loved their generous Lord,
How like a father the Asturian Prince

Was dear. They crowded round; they claspt his knees;
They snatched his hand; they fell upon his neck,..
They wept;.. they blest Almighty Providence,
Which had restored him thus from bondage free:
God was with them and their good cause, they said;
His hand was here,.. His shield was over them, . .

His spirit was abroad,.. His power displayed:
And pointing to their bloody trophies then,
They told Pelayo there he might behold

The first-fruits of the harvest they should soon
Reap in the field of war! Benignantly,
With voice and look and gesture, did the Prince
To these warm greetings of tumultuous joy

Respond; and sure if at that moment aught
Could for awhile have overpowered those fears
Which from the inmost heart o'er all his frame
Diffused their chilling influence, worthy pride,
And sympathy of love and joy and hope,
Had then possessed him wholly. Even now
His spirit rose; the sense of power, the sight
Of his brave people, ready where he led
To fight their country's battles, and the thought
Of instant action, and deliverance,..

If Heaven, which thus far had protected him,
Should favour still, . . revived his heart, and gave

Fresh impulse to its spring. In vain he sought
Amid that turbulent greeting to enquire

Where Gaudiosa was, his children where,

Who called them to the field, who captained them;

« PreviousContinue »