Roderick, the last of the Goths

Tanto acrior apud majores, sicut virtutibus gloria, ita flagitiis pœnitentia, fuit. Sed hæc aliaque, ex veteri memorià petita, quotiens res locusque exempla recti, aut solatia m...

Then fell the kingdom of the Goths; their hour Was come, and Vengeance, long withheld, went loose. Famine and Pestilence had wasted them, And Treason, like an old and eating sor...

’Twas now the earliest morning; soon the Sun, Rising above Albardos, pour’d his light Amid the forest, and with ray aslant Entering its depth, illumed the branchless pines, Brig...

In commune with a priest of age mature, Whose thoughtful visage and majestic mien Bespake authority and weight of care, Odoar, the venerable Abbot, sate, When ushering Roderick...

Thou judgest well, the old man replied. I too Seek the Cantabrian Prince, the hope of Spain, With other tidings charged, for other end Design’d, yet such as well may work with t...

Fain would Pelayo have that hour obey’d The call, commencing his adventurous flight, As one whose soul impatiently endured His country’s thraldom, and in daily prayer Imploring...

Thus as she spake she falter’d at the close, And in that dying fall her voice sent forth Somewhat of its original sweetness. Thou!... Thou self-abased! exclaim’d the astonish’d...

Then looking to his men, he cried, Bring forth The armour which in Wamba’s wars I wore... Alphonso’s heart leapt at the auspicious words. Count Pedro mark’d the rising glow of j...

Thus while he spake, lights were descried far off Moving among the trees, and coming sounds Were heard as of a distant multitude. Anon a company of horse and foot, Advancing in...

Meantime Pelayo up the vale pursued Eastward his way, before the sun had climb’d Auseva’s brow, or shed his silvering beams Upon Europa’s summit, where the snows Through all rev...

While thus he spake, the fall’n King felt his face Burn, and his blood flow fast. Down, guilty thoughts! Firmly he said within his soul; lie still, Thou heart of flesh! I though...

When all had been perform’d, the royal Goth Look’d up towards the chamber in the tower, Where gazing on the multitude below, Alone Rusilla stood. He met her eye, For it was sing...

Whom hast thou there? cried Julian, and drew back, Seeing that near them stood a meagre man In humble garb, who rested with raised hands On a long staff, bending his head like o...

Julian said Orpas, turning from beneath His turban to the Count a crafty eye, Thy daughter is return’d; doth she not bring Some tidings of the movements of the foe? The Count re...

Two stately oaks stood nigh, in the full growth Of many a century. They had flourish’d there Before the Gothic sword was felt in Spain, And when the ancient sceptre of the Goths...

As Pedro would have answer’d, a loud cry Of menacing imprecation from the troops Arose; for Orpas, by the Moorish Chief Sent to allay the storm his villainy Had stirr’d, came ha...

Days, months, and years, and generations pass’d, And centuries held their course, before, far off Within a hermitage near Viseu’s walls A humble tomb was found, which bore inscr...

“_El qual regocijo hacian desta manera. Tomaban yeguas en pelo, quanto mas corredoras y ligeras podian haber, y puestos ellos encima desnudos sin alguna ropa, ataban en las quix...

“The monk did not venture to leave him alone in that disconsolate state, and taking him apart, besought him by the passion of Jesus Christ to consent that they twain should go t...

“_Sub nomine Patris, nec non et ejus prolis, in unius potentia Deitatis, incipit carta donationis, necnon et devotionis, quam ego Fuas Ropinho tenens Porto de Mos, et terram de...

“The Spaniards,” says that late worthy Jo. Sandford, some time fellow of Magdalane college, in Oxford, (in his Spanish Grammar, 1632) “do with a kind of wantonness so confound t...

There is a fabulous tale of Pelayo’s birth, which, like many other tales of no better authority, has legends and relics to support it. The story, according to Dr. D. Christoval...

_De los nobilissimos Godos que en Castilla avian reynado Rodrigo rey no el postrero de los reyes que han passado: en cuyo tiempo los Moros todo Espana avian ganado, sino fuera l...

“When the vigil is over, as soon as it is day, he ought first to hear mass, and pray God to direct all his feats to his service. And afterwards he who is to knight him shall com...

“_Je ne serois pas en grande peine_,” says Pierre de Marca, “_de rechercher les noms des Evesques des Bearn, si la saincte et louable pratique des anciens Peres d’inserer dans l...

“This inscription, with its bad Latin and other defects, and by reason of the parts that are lost, can ill be translated. Nevertheless I shall render it, in order that it may be...

The common notion that the impostor’s tomb is suspended by means of a loadstone is well known. Labat, in his Afrique Occidentale (T. ii. p. 143.) mentions the lie of a Marabout,...

“Now when the King had made a grave in which to bury the Hermit, the Devil was troubled at the good course which the King had taken, and he cast about for means how he might dec...

“The King was in his oratory one Sunday toward nightfall, just as the sun was setting, when he saw a man coming toward him, clad in such guise as is fitting for one who follows...

“The King arose from the oratory and followed the cloud; and so great was the pleasure which he had, that he cared not for food, neither remembered it, but went after that his h...