XXXIV.
But ere the mingling bounds have far been passed,[1]
Dark Guadiana rolls his power along
In sullen billows, murmuring and vast,
So noted ancient roundelays among.[2]
Whilome upon his banks did legions throng
Of Moor and Knight, in mailéd splendour drest:
Here ceased the swift their race, here sunk the strong;
The Paynim turban and the Christian crest
Mixed on the bleeding stream, by floating hosts oppressed.[3]
XXXV.
Oh, lovely Spain! renowned, romantic Land!
Where is that standard[4] which Pelagio bore,[5]
When Cava's traitor-sire first called the band
That dyed thy mountain streams with Gothic gore?N7
Where are those bloody Banners which of yore
- ↑ But eer the bounds of Spain have far been passed.—[MS. D.]
- ↑ For ever famed—in many a native song.—[MS. erased.]
—— a noted song.—[MS. D.] - ↑ [Compare Virgil, Æneid, i. 100—
"Ubi tot Simois correpta sub undis
Scuta virûm galeasque et fortia corpora volvit."] - ↑ [The standard, a cross made of Asturian oak (La Cruz de la Victoria), which was said to have fallen from heaven before Pelayo gained the victory over the Moors at Cangas, in A.D. 718, is preserved at Oviedo. Compare Southey's Roderick, xxv.: Poetical Works, 1838, ix. 241, and note, pp. 370, 371.]
- ↑ —— which Pelagius bore.—[MS. D.]
