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Take their last slumber there. The camp is still;
The fires have mouldered, and the breeze which stirs
The soft and snowy embers, just lays bare
At times a red and evanescent light,

Or for a moment wakes a feeble flame.

They by the fountain hear the stream below,
Whose murmurs, as the wind arose or fell,
Fuller or fainter reach the ear attuned.
And now the nightingale, not distant far,
Began her solitary song; and poured
To the cold moon a richer, stronger strain
Than that with which the lyric lark salutes
The new-born day. Her deep and thrilling song
Seemed with its piercing melody to reach
The soul, and in mysterious unison

Blend with all thoughts of gentleness and love.
Their hearts were open to the healing power
Of nature; and the splendour of the night,
The flow of waters, and that sweetest lay
Came to them like a copious evening dew
Falling on vernal herbs which thirst for rain.

XXII.

THUS they beside the fountain sate, of food
And rest forgetful, when a messenger

Summoned Count Julian to the Leader's tent.
In council there at that late hour he found
The assembled Chiefs, on sudden tidings called
Of unexpected weight from Cordoba.

Jealous that Abdalazis had assumed

A regal state, affecting in his court
The forms of Gothic sovereignty, the Moors,
Whom artful spirits of ambitious mould
Stirred up, had risen against him in revolt:
And he who late had in the Caliph's name
Ruled from the Ocean to the Pyrenees,
A mutilate and headless carcase now,
From pitying hands received beside the road
A hasty grave scarce hidden there from dogs

And ravens, nor from wintry rains secure.
She, too, who in the wreck of Spain preserved
Her queenly rank, the wife of Roderick first,
Of Abdalazis after, and to both

Alike unhappy, shared the ruin now

Her counsels had brought on; for she had led
The infatuate Moor, in dangerous vauntery,
To these aspiring forms, . . so should he gain.
Respect and honour from the Musselmen,
She said, and that the obedience of the Goths
Followed the sceptre. In an evil hour
She gave the counsel, and in evil hour
He lent a willing ear; the popular rage

Fell on them both; and they to whom her name
Had been a mark for mockery and reproach,
Shuddered with human horror at her fate.
Ayub was heading the wild anarchy;
But where the cement of authority

Is wanting, all things there are dislocate:
The mutinous soldiery, by every cry
Of rumour set in wild career, were driven
By every gust of passion, setting up

One hour, what in the impulse of the next,

Equally unreasoning, they destroyed: thus all
Was in misrule where uproar gave the law,
And ere from far Damascus they could learn
The Caliph's pleasure, many a moon must pass.
What should be done? should Abulcacem march
To Cordoba, and in the Caliph's name
Assume the power which to his rank in arms
Rightly devolved, restoring thus the reign
Of order? or pursue with quickened speed
The end of this great armament, and crush
Rebellion first, then to domestic ills
Apply his undivided mind and force
Victorious? What in this emergency
Was Julian's counsel, Abulcacem asked,
Should they accomplish soon their enterprize?
Or would the insurgent infidels prolong
The contest, seeking by protracted war
To weary them, and trusting in the strength
Of these wild hills?

Julian replied, The Chief

Of this revolt is wary, resolute,

Of approved worth in war: a desperate part

He for himself deliberately hath chosen,

Confiding in the hereditary love

Borne to him by these hardy mountaineers,
A love which his own noble qualities

Have strengthened so that every heart is his.
When ye can bring them to the open proof
Of battle, ye will find them in his cause
Lavish of life; but well they know the strength
Of their own fastnesses, the mountain paths
Impervious to pursuit, the vantages

Of rock, and pass, and woodland, and ravine;
And hardly will ye tempt them to forego
These natural aids wherein they put their trust
As in their stubborn spirit, each alike

Deemed by themselves invincible, and so

By Roman found and Goth,.. beneath whose sway Slowly persuaded rather than subdued

They came, and still through every change retained
Their manners obstinate and barbarous speech.

My counsel, therefore, is, that we secure
With strong increase of force the adjacent posts,
And chiefly Gegio, leaving them so manned
As may abate the hope of enterprize

Their strength being told. Time in a strife like this

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