 | The vision of Cortes, Cain, and other poems |  |
I.
Once, and the gallant sword of Spain,Oppos'd the fierce invader,
Ere, in the Gothic
Roderick, by Historians, termed the last of the Goths; see Dr. Southey's Poem on the subject. The fate of Roderick has never been positively known. He is supposed to have been drowned in his flight from the field of Xeres de la Frontera, when the Moors made the conquest of his highly romantic country.
Her own base son
Julian, the father of the Spanish Helena, Cava, or as she is sometimes called by the Moorish Historians, Florinda. There is no country so rich in material for Poetry and the Drama, as old Spain, at the period to which we refer, and after. No country, in the details of whose history, so much of genuine romance may be said to mingle—we wonder the field should be so little explored.
When freemen stood on hill and glade,
And blood gush'd forth from fountains,
Where, gallant hearts, her ramparts made,
As firm as her own mountains!
And, conquerors of the tawny Moor,
They seek new countries to explore;
Led by the luckless Genoese,
To lands, beyond undreampt-of-seas,
Lords of the soil at home, the brave,
With idle weapons, cross'd the wave,
Sanguine to reap in foreign lands,
Full guerdon for their steel-clad bands;
While high, to lead the way, they rear'd
The blessed cross, nor danger fear'd,
A beacon light to death and flame.
There is something even ludicrous in the strange union, which the Spanish adventurers in Mexico, contrived to make of religious devotion and enthusiasm, and their own blood thirsty and ambitious projects. The banner of Cortes, according to Robertson, whose work, by the way, has all the merit of the romance, added to the correctness and general truth of the history, had upon it a large cross, with this inscription, “Let us follow the cross, for under this sign shall we conquer.” The “In hoc signo vinces” of Constantine, may be forgiven, when we learn the character of the Christian Pagan; but truly, it would be difficult to find, in the whole annals of audacity, a similar instance of impudence. The finger of devotion guiding to blood shed and murder.
| The vision of Cortes, Cain, and other poems | |