XXVI.

And ever since that martial synod met,
Britannia sickens, Cintra! at thy name;
And folks in office at the mention fret,

And fain would blush, if blush they could, for shame.
How will posterity the deed proclaim!

Will not our own and fellow-nations sneer,

To view these champions cheated of their fame, By foes in fight o'erthrown, yet victors here, Where Scorn her finger points through many a coming

year?

XXVII.

So deem'd the Childe, as o'er the mountains he Did take his way in solitary guise :

Sweet was the scene, yet soon he thought to flee,
More restless than the swallow in the skies:
Though here awhile he learn'd to moralize,
For Meditation fix'd at times on him ;
And conscious Reason whisper'd to despise
His early youth, misspent in maddest whim;
But as he gazed on truth his aching eyes grew dim.

Thus unto Heaven appeal'd the people: Heaven,
Which loves the lieges of our gracious King,
Decreed, that, ere our generals were forgiven,
Inquiry should be held about the thing.
But Mercy cloak'd the babes beneath her wing;
And as they spared our foes, so spared we them;
(Where was the pity of our sires for Byng ?*)
Yet knaves, not idiots, should the law condemn ;

Then live, ye gallant knights! and bless your Judges' phlegm!

* By this query it is not meant that our foolish generals should have been shot, but that Byng might have been spared, though the one suffered and the others escaped, probably for Candide's reason, “ pour encourager les autres." [See Croker's "Boswell," vol. i. p. 298; and the Quarterly Review, vol. xxvii. p. 207., where the question, whether the admiral was or was not a political martyr, is treated at large. — E.]

XXVIII.

To horse! to horse! (1) he quits, for ever quits A scene of peace, though soothing to his soul: Again he rouses from his moping fits,

But seeks not now the harlot and the bowl. Onward he flies, nor fix'd as yet the goal Where he shall rest him on his pilgrimage; And o'er him many changing scenes must roll Ere toil his thirst for travel can assuage, Or he shall calm his breast, or learn experience sage.

XXIX.

Yet Mafra shall one moment claim delay, Where dwelt of yore the Lusians' luckless queen; (2) And church and court did mingle their array, And mass and revel were alternate seen; Lordlings and freres-ill-sorted fry I ween! But here the Babylonian whore hath built (3) A dome, where flaunts she in such glorious sheen, That men forget the blood which she hath spilt, And bow the knee to Pomp that loves to varnish guilt.

(1) [" After remaining ten days in Lisbon, we sent our baggage and part of our servants by sea to Gibraltar, and travelled on horseback to Seville; a distance of nearly four hundred miles. The horses are excellent: we rode seventy miles a-day. Eggs and wine, and hard beds, are all the accommodation we found, and, in such torrid weather, quite enough." B. Letters, 1809.-E.]

(2) "Her luckless Majesty went subsequently mad; and Dr. Willis, who so dexterously cudgelled kingly pericraniums, could make nothing of hers."- Byron MS. [The Queen laboured under a melancholy kind of derangement, from which she never recovered. She died at the Brazils, in 1816.-E.]

(3) The extent of Mafra is prodigious: it contains a palace, convent, and most superb church. The six organs are the most beautiful I ever beheld, in point of decoration : we did not hear them, but were told that their tones were correspondent to their splendour. Mafra is termed the Escurial of Portugal [" About ten miles to the right of Cintra," says Lord Byron,

XXX.

O'er vales that teem with fruits, romantic hills, (Oh, that such hills upheld a freeborn race!) Whereon to gaze the eye with joyaunce fills, Childe Harold wends through many a pleasant place. (Though sluggards deem it but a foolish chase, And marvel men should quit their easy chair, The toilsome way, and long, long league to trace, Oh! there is sweetness in the mountain air, And life, that bloated Ease can never hope to share.

XXXI.

More bleak to view the hills at length recede,
And, less luxuriant, smoother vales extend;
Immense horizon-bounded plains succeed!
Far as the eye discerns, withouten end,

Spain's realms appear whereon her shepherds tend Flocks, whose rich fleece right well the trader knows

Now must the pastor's arm his lambs defend: For Spain is compass'd by unyielding foes, And all must shield their all, or share Subjection's

woes.

in a letter to his mother," is the palace of Mafra, the boast of Portugal, as it might be of any country, in point of magnificence, without elegance. There is a convent annexed: the monks, who possess large revenues, are courteous enough, and understand Latin; so that we had a long conversation. They have a large library, and asked me if the English had any books in their country.”—Mafra was erected by John V., in pursuance of a vow, made in a dangerous fit of illness, to found a convent for the use of the poorest friary in the kingdom. Upon inquiry, this poorest was found at Mafra; where twelve Franciscans lived together in a hut. There is a magnificent view of the existing edifice in "Finden's Illustrations." E.]

XXXII.

Where Lusitania and her Sister meet,

Deem
ye
what bounds the rival realms divide?
Or ere the jealous queens of nations greet,
Doth Tayo interpose his mighty tide?
Or dark Sierras rise in craggy pride?
Or fence of art, like China's vasty wall?-
Ne barrier wall, ne river deep and wide,

Ne horrid crags, nor mountains dark and tall, Rise like the rocks that part Hispania's land from Gaul:

XXXIII.

But these between a silver streamlet glides, And scarce a name distinguisheth the brook, Though rival kingdoms press its verdant sides. Here leans the idle shepherd on his crook, And vacant on the rippling waves doth look, That peaceful still 'twixt bitterest foemen flow; For proud each peasant as the noblest duke: Well doth the Spanish hind the difference know 'Twixt him and Lusian slave, the lowest of the low.(1)

That they

(1) "Well doth the Spanish hind the difference know 'Twixt him and Lusian slave, the lowest of the low." As I found the Portuguese, so I have characterised them. are since improved, at least in courage, is evident. The late exploits of Lord Wellington have effaced the follies of Cintra. He has, indeed, done wonders: he has, perhaps, changed the character of a nation, reconciled rival superstitions, and baffled an enemy who never retreated before his predecessors. — 1812.

XXXIV.

But ere the mingling bounds have far been pass'd,
Dark Guadiana rolls his power along

In sullen billows, murmuring and vast,
So noted ancient roundelays among. (1)
Whilome upon his banks did legions throng

Of Moor and Knight, in mailed splendour drest:
Here ceased the swift their race, here sunk the

strong;

The Paynim turban and the Christian crest Mix'd on the bleeding stream, by floating hosts op

press'd.

XXXV.

Oh, lovely Spain! renown'd, romantic land!
Where is that standard which Pelagio bore,
When Cava's traitor-sire first call'd the band
That dyed thy mountain streams with Gothic
gore? (2)

Where are those bloody banners which of yore
Waved o'er thy sons, victorious to the gale,

And drove at last the spoilers to their shore?

Red gleam'd the cross, and waned the crescent pale, While Afric's echoes thrill'd with Moorish matrons'

wail.

(1) [Lord Byron seems to have thus early acquired enough of Spanish to understand and appreciate the grand body of ancient popular poetry, — unequalled in Europe, which must ever form the pride of that magnificent language. His beautiful version of one of the best of the ballads of the Granada war- the "Romance muy doloroso del sitio y toma de Alhama " - will be found in a subsequent volume. - - E.]

(2) Count Julian's daughter, the Helen of Spain. Pelagius preserved his independence in the fastnesses of the Asturias, and the descendants of his followers, after some centuries, completed their struggle by the conquest of Grenada. -[" Almost all the Spanish historians, as well as the voice of tradition, ascribe the invasion of the Moors to the forcible viola