XXVIII. To horse! to horse! he quits, for ever quits But seeks not now the harlot and the bowl. Or he shall calm his breast, or learn experience sage. XXIX. 2 Yet Mafra shall one moment claim delay, Where dwelt of yore the Lusians' luckless queen; 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 s 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. ["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.] 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.] 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, in a letter to XXX. O'er vales that teem with fruits, romantic hills, Though sluggards deem it but a foolish chase, And life, that bloated Ease can never hope to share. XXXI. More bleak to view the hills at length recede, 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. his mother," is the palace of Mafra, the boast of Portugal, as it might be of any country, in point of magnificence, without ele. gance. 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."] XXXII. Where Lusitania and her Sister meet, Deem ye Or fence of art, like China's vasty wall? -1 Ne horrid crags, nor mountains dark and tall, 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.2 [Or art's vain fence, like China's vasty wall?— MS.] 2 As I found the Portuguese, so I have characterised them. That they 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, Whilome upon his banks did legions throng strong; The Paynim turban and the Christian crest Mix'd on the bleeding stream, by floating hosts oppress'd. XXXV. Oh, lovely Spain! renown'd, romantic land! That dyed thy mountain streams with Gothic gore? 3 Red gleam'd the cross, and waned the crescent pale, While Afric's echoes thrill'd with Moorish matrons' wail. 1 ["But ere the bounds of Spain have far been pass'd, For ever famed in many a noted song."-MS.] 2 [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. See his beautiful version of one of the best of the ballads of the Grenada war- the " Romance muy doloroso del sitio y toma de Alhama," Works, vol. x. p. 299.] 3 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 violation by Roderick of XXXVI. Teems not each ditty with the glorious tale? Can Volume, Pillar, Pile, preserve thee great? XXXVII. Awake, ye sons of Spain! awake! advance! Lo! Chivalry, your ancient goddess, cries; But wields not, as of old, her thirsty lance, Nor shakes her crimson plumage in the skies : Now on the smoke of blazing bolts she flies, And speaks in thunder through yon engine's roar: In every peal she calls 166 Awake! arise!" Say, is her voice more feeble than of yore, When her war-song was heard on Andalusia's shore? Florinda, called by the Moors Caba, or Cava. She was the daughter of Count Julian, one of the Gothic monarch's principal lieutenants, who, when the crime was perpetrated, was engaged in the defence of Ceuta against the Moors. In his indignation at the ingratitude of his sovereign, and the dishonour of his daughter, Count Julian forgot the duties of a Christian and a patriot, and, forming an alliance with Musa, then the Caliph's lieutenant in Africa, he countenanced the invasion of Spain by a body of Saracens and Africans, commanded by the celebrated Tarik; the issue of which was the defeat and death of Roderick, and the occupation of almost the whole peninsula by the Moors. The Spaniards, in detestation of Florinda's memory, are said, by Cervantes, never to bestow that name upon any human female, reserving it for their dogs."-SIR WALTER SCOTT, Poetical Works, vol. ix. p. 375.] |