Then, aghast, he trembles—that knocking loud
Might awake the dead man in his shroud:
Thickens the blood in his veins through fear,
As unearthly voices smite his ear.—
"Ho! brethren, wake!—ho! dead, arise!—
Haste, gird the falchions on your thighs;
Hauberk and helm from red rust free;
And rush to battle for Spain with me!
"Hither—hither—and join our hosts,
A mighty legion of stalwart ghosts;
Cid Ruydiez is marching there, and here
Gonzalez couches in rest his spear!
"Pelayo is here—and who despairs
When his Oaken Cross in front he bears?—
And sure ye will list to my voice once more,
'Tis I, your Cid, the Campeador!
"Ho! hither, hither—through our land, in arms,
The host of the Miramamolin swarms;
Shall our Cross before their Crescent wane?
Shall Moormen breathe in the vales of Spain?
"Ho! burst your cerements—here we wait
For thee, Ferrando, once the Great;
Knock on your gaoler Death, and he
Will withdraw the bolts, and turn the key!
"Prone to the earth their might must yield,
When we the Dead Host sweep the field;
Our vultures, to gorge upon the slain,
Shall forsake the rocks, and seek the plain.
"Ho! hurry with us away—away,—
Night passes onwards, 'twill soon be day:
Ho! sound the trumpet; haste! strike the drum,
And tell the Moormen, we come, we come!"—
The Frere into the dark gazed forth—
The sounds went forwards towards the North;
The murmur of tongues, the tramp and tread
Of a mighty army to battle led.
At midnight slumbering Leon through,
To battle field throng'd that spectral crew;
By the morrow noon, red Tolosa show'd,
That more than men had fought for God!
Δ
This slight ballad is founded on a striking passage in the Chronicle of the Cid. The idea is certainly a beautiful one, of the patriotic retaining a regard for their country after death, and a zeal for its rescue from danger and oppression. At all events, it is sufficiently imaginative and romantic.
Ferrando the Great was buried in the Royal Monastery of St Isidro at Leon. The time of the occurrence is during the reign of King Alphonso, on the evening before the great battle of the Navas de Tolosa, wherein it is reported sixty thousand of the Mahometans were slain.
Cid Ruy Diaz is a name consecrated in Spanish chivalrous song.—Pelayo is said to have carried an Oaken Cross in the van of his army, when he led them on to battle.—The Gonzalez mentioned, is the Count Fernan Gonzalez, so renowned in the ancient Spanish Chronicles, and one of the many ballads concerning whom is given in the splendid Translations of Mr Lockhart.—On St Pelayo and the Campeador, see the admirable remarks of Dr Southey, passim.
