II. All save the rushing swell of Teio's tide, Or, distant heard, a courser's neigh or tramp; Their changing rounds as watchful horsemen ride, To guard the limits of King Roderick's camp. For, through the river's night-fog rolling damp, Was many a proud pavilion dimly seen, Which glimmer'd back, against the moon's fair lamp, Tissues of silk and silver twisted sheen, And standards proudly pitch'd, and warders armed between. III. But of their Monarch's person keeping ward, Since last the deep-mouth'd bell of vespers toll❜d, The chosen soldiers of the royal guard Their post beneath the proud Cathedral hold : A band unlike their Gothic sires of old, Who, for the cap of steel and iron mace, Bear slender darts, and casques bedeck'd with gold, While silver-studded belts their shoulders grace, Where ivory quivers ring in the broad falchion's place. IV. In the light language of an idle court, They murmur'd at their master's long delay, And held his lengthen'd orisons in sport : What! will Don Roderick here till morning stay, To wear in shrift and prayer the night away? And wish'd the lingering dawn would glimmer forth at last. 9 V. But, far within, Toledo's Prelate lent An ear of fearful wonder to the King; The silver lamp a fitful lustre sent, So long that sad confession witnessing: For Roderick told of many a hidden thing, Such as are lothly uttered to the air, When Fear, Remorse, and Shame, the bosom wring, And Guilt his secret burthen cannot bear, And Conscience seeks in speech a respite from Despair. VI. Full on the Prelate's face, and silver hair, The stream of failing light was feebly roll'd; But Roderick's visage, though his head was bare, Was shadow'd by his hand and mantle's fold. While of his hidden soul the sins he told, Proud Alaric's descendant could not brook, That mortal man his bearing should behold, Or boast that he had seen, when conscience shook, Fear tame a monarch's brow, remorse a warrior's look. VII. The old man's faded cheek waxed yet more pale, As many a secret sad the king bewray'd; And sign and glance eked out the unfinished tale, When in the midst his faultering whisper staid.— was slain," he said; " Thus royal Witiza * * The predecessor of Roderick upon the Spanish throne, and slain by his connivance, as is affirmed by Rodriguez of Toledo, the father of Spanish history. C Yet, holy father, deem not it was I." Thus still Ambition strives her crimes to shade “O rather deem 'twas stern necessity! Self-preservation bade, and I must kill or die. VIII. And, if Florinda's shrieks alarmed the air, If she invoked her absent sire in vain, And on her knees implored that I would spare, Yet, reverend priest, thy sentence rash refrain !— All is not as it seems-the female train Know by their bearing to disguise their mood:"But Conscience here, as if in high disdain, Sent to the Monarch's cheek the burning blood— He stay❜d his speech abrupt―and up the Prelate stood. |