Here the fad mother rends her hoary hair,
While hope's fond whispers struggle with despair:
The weeping spouse to heaven extends her hands:
And cold with dread the modest virgin ftands;
Her earnest eyes, fuffused with trembling dew,
Far o'er the plain the plighted youth pursue:
And prayers
and tears and all the female wail,
And holy vows the throne of heaven affail.

Now each ftern hoft full front to front appears,
And one joint fhout heaven's airy concave tears:
A dreadful paufe enfues, while confcious pride
Strives on each face the heart-felt doubt to hide :
Now wild and pale the boldest face is seen;
With mouth half open and disorder'd mien
Each warrior feels his creeping blood to freeze,
And languid weaknefs trembles in the knees.
And now the clangor of the trumpet founds,
And the rough rattling of the drum rebounds;
The fife fhrill whistling cuts the gale; on high
The flourish'd ensigns shine with many a dye

Of blazing fplendor: o'er the ground they wheel
And choose their footing, when the proud Cafteel
Bids found the horrid charge; loud burfts the found,

And loud Artabro's rocky cliffs rebound:

The thundering roar rolls round on every fide,
And trembling finks Guidana's rapid tide:

The flow-paced Durius rushes o'er the plain,

And fearful Tagus haftens to the main.

Such

Such was the tempeft of the dread alarms,

The babes that prattled in their nurses' arms
Shriek'd at the found: with fudden cold impreft,
The mothers ftrain'd their infants to the breast,
And shook with horror-now, far round, begin
The bow-strings whizzing, and the brazen i din
Of arms on armour rattling; either van
Are mingled now, and man opposed to man:
To guard his native fields the one inspires,
And one the raging luft of conquest fires :

Now with fixt teeth, their writhing lips of blue,
Their eye-balls glaring of the purple hue,
Each arm ftrains fwifteft to impel the blow;

Nor wounds they value now, nor fear they know,
Their only paffion to offend the foe.

In might and fury, like the warrior god,
Before his troops the glorious Nunio rode:

That land, the proud invaders claim'd, he fows

With their spilt blood, and with their corfes ftrews.
Their forceful volleys now the cross-bows pour,
The clouds are darken'd with the arrowy fhower;

}

The

i

the brazen din.-Homer and Virgil have, with great art, gradually heightened the fury of every battle, till the last efforts of their genius were lavished in defcribing the superior prowefs of the hero in the decisive engagement. Camoëns, in like manner, has bestowed his utmost attention on this his principal battle. The circumftances preparatory to the engagement are happily imagined, and folemnly conducted, and the fury of the combat is fupported with a poctical heat, and a variety of imagery, which, one need not hefitate to affirm, would have done honour to an ancient claffic.

The white foam reeking o'er their wavy mane,
The fnorting courfers rage and paw the plain;
Beat by their iron hoofs, the plain rebounds,
As diftant thunder through the mountains founds:
The ponderous spears crash, splintering far around;
The horse and horsemen flounder on the ground;
The ground groans with the fudden weight opprest,
And many a buckler rings on many a crest.
Where wide around the raging Nunio's sword
With furious fway the bravest squadrons gored,
The raging foes in closer ranks advance,

k

And his own brothers fhake the hoftile lance.

66

Oh!

k And his own brothers shake the boftile lance.-The just indignation with which Camoëns treats the kindred of the brave Nunio Alvaro de Pereyra, is condemned by the French translator. "Dans le fond, fays he, les Pereyras ne meritoient aucune fletriffure, &c.—The Pereyras deferve no stain on their "memory for joining the king of Caftile, whofe title to the crown of Por"tugal was infinitely more just and solid than that of Don John." Castera, however, is grofly mistaken. Don Alonzo Enriquez, the first king of Portugal, was elected by the people, who had recovered their liberties at the glorious battle of Ourique. At the election the conftitution of the kingdom was fettled in eighteen short statutes, wherein it is expressly provided, that none but a Portuguese can be king of Portugal; that if an Infanta marry a foreign prince, he shall not, in her right, become king of Portugal: and a new election of a king, in case of the failure of the male line, is by these statutes declared to be legal. By the treaty of marriage between the king of Castile and Donna Beatrix, the heiress of Fernando of Portugal, it was agreed, that only their children should fucceed to the Portuguese crown; and that, in cafe the throne became vacant ere fuch children were born, the queendowager Leonora should govern with the title of regent. Thus, neither by the original constitution, nor by the treaty of marriage, could the king of Caftile fucceed to the throne of Portugal. And any pretence he might found on the marriage-contract was already forfeited; for he caused himself and his queen to be proclaimed, added Portugal to his titles, coined Portuguese money with his bust, deposed the queen regent, and afterwards fent her

prifoner

Oh! horrid fight! yet not the ties of blood,

Nor yearning memory his rage withstood;

With proud difdain his honest eyes behold
Whoe'er the traitor, who his king has fold.
Nor want there others in the hoftile band
Who draw their fwords against their native land;
And headlong driven, by impious rage accurst,
In rank were foremost, and in fight the first.
So fons and fathers, by each other slain,
With horrid flaughter dyed Pharfalia's plain.
Ye dreary ghofts, who now for treasons foul,
Amidst the gloom of Stygian darkness howl;
Thou Cataline, and, ftern Sertorius, tell
Your brother fhades, and foothe the pains of hell;
With triumph tell them, fome of Lufian race
Like you have earn'd the traitor's foul difgrace.

As waves on waves, the foes' increasing weight
Bears down our foremost ranks and shakes the fight;
Yet firm and undismay'd great Nunio stands,
And braves the tumult of furrounding bands.

So, from high Ceuta's rocky mountains ftray'd,
The raging lion braves the shepherd's shade;

The

prifoner to Caftile. The lawful heir, Don Juan, the fon of Inez de Castro, was kept in prison by his rival the king of Caftile; and, as before obferved, a new election was, by the original statutes, declared legal in cafes of emergency. These facts, added to the confideration of the tyranny of the king of Caftile, and the great fervices which Don John had rendered his country, upon whom its existence as a kingdom depended, fully vindicate the indignation of Camoëns against the traiterous Pereyras.

The shepherds hastening o'er the Tetuan plain,
With shouts furround him, and with fpears restrain:
He ftops, with grinning teeth his breath he draws,
Nor is it fear, but rage, that makes him pause;
His threatening eye-balls burn with sparkling fire,
And his ftern heart forbids him to retire :
Amidst the thickness of the spears he flings,
So midst his foes the furious Nunio springs :
The Lufian grafs with foreign gore distain❜d,
Displays the carnage of the hero's hand.

"An ample shield the brave Giraldo bore,

"Which from the vanquifh'd Perez' arm he tore ;

"Pierced through that shield, cold death invades his eye, "And dying Perez saw his victor die. "Edward and Pedro, emulous of fame,

1

"The fame their friendship, and their youth the fame, "Through the fierce Brigians hew'd their bloody way, "Till in a cold embrace the striplings lay.

"Lopez and Vincent rush'd on glorious death,

"And midft their flaughter'd foes refign'd their breath. "Alonzo glorying in his youthful might

"Spurr'd his fierce courfer through the staggering fight: "Shower'd from the dashing hoofs the spatter'd gore "Flies round; but foon the rider vaunts no more: "Five Spanish swords the murmuring ghosts atone, "Of five Caftilians by his arms o'erthrown.

"Transfix't

1 Through the fierce Brigians.

The Caftilians, fo called from one of

their ancient kings, named Brix, or Brigus, whom the monkish fabulists call the grandfon of Noah,