RODERICK,

THE LAST OF THE GOTHS.

BY

ROBERT SOUTHEY, Esq.

POET LAUREATE,

AND

MEMBER OF THE ROYAL SPANISH ACADEMY,

OF THE ROYAL SPANISH ACADEMY OF HISTORY, AND OF
THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF THE NETHERLANDS.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. II.

FIFTH EDITION.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN,

PATERNOSTER-ROW.

Tanto acrior apud majores, sicut virtutibus gloria, ita flagitiis pœnitentia, fuit. Sed hæc aliaque, ex veteri memoriâ petita, quotiens res locusque exempla recti, aut solatia mali, poscet, haud absurdè memorabimus.

TACITI Hist. lib. 3. c. 51.

Printed by A. Strahan, Printers-Street, London,

CONTENTS

OF

VOLUME SECOND.

14. The Rescue ................

15. Roderick at Cangas

16. Covadonga.........

17. Roderick and Siverian.......

18. The Acclamation..........

19. Roderick and Rusilla.

20. The Moorish Camp.

21. The Fountain in the Forest .........

22. The Moorish Council...........

23. The Vale of Covadonga..........

24. Roderick and Count Julian..................................................

133

25. Roderick in Battle..........

148

NOTES

.... 175

As the ample Moon,
In the deep stillness of a summer even
Rising behind a thick and lofty Grove,
Burns like an unconsuming fire of light
In the green trees; and kindling on all sides
Their leafy umbrage, turns the dusky veil
Into a substance glorious as her own,
Yea, with her own incorporated, by power
Capacious and serene: Like power abides
In Man's celestial Spirit; Virtue thus
Sets forth and magnifies herself; thus feeds
A calm, a beautiful and silent fire,
From the incumbrances of mortal life,

From error, disappointment, . . nay from guilt;
And sometimes, so relenting Justice wills,
From palpable oppressions of Despair.

WORDSWORTH.

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.