The sad death of Alonzo de Aguilar and his brave companions, as related in the foregoing lesson, fell mournfully upon the national heart of Spain, and was kept in fresh remembrance by the many expressions of sympathy and admiration which it called forth from the popular literature of the country. The following poem is a translation by the Rev. Thomas Percy, Bishop of Dromore, in Ireland, (born 1728, died 1811,) of one of the ballads in which the fate of the hero is commemorated. The translation is found in the Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, a work edited by Bishop Percy with great taste and judgment, and originally published in 1765. It has since been frequently reprinted, and has exerted a most favorable influence upon English poetical literature of a date subsequent to its publication.] GENTLE river,* gentle river, Lo, thy streams are stained with gore; Many a brave and noble captain Floats along thy willowed shore. All beside thy limpid waters, All beside thy sands so bright, Lords, and dukes, and noble princes There the hero, brave Alonzo, Full of wounds and glory, died; Fell a victim by his side. *The original is Rio Verde, that is, River Verde. But verde in Spanish also means green; and the translator, not being aware that it was a proper name, substituted gentle;- -an epithet not well suited to a mountain stream. Lo, where yonder Don Saavedra* Through their squadrons slow retires; Proud Seville, his native city, Proud Seville his worth admires. Close behind, a renegado Loudly shouts, with taunting cry, "Well I know thee, haughty Christian ; Seen thee win the prize of proof. "Well I know thy aged parents, "May our prophet grant my wishes, Like a lion turns the warrior, Back he sends an angry glare; Back the hero, full of fury, Sent a deep and mortal wound; Instant sank the renegado, Mute and lifeless, on the ground. • Don Saavedra is an imaginary personage, no nobleman of that name Baving really been engaged in the battle. With a thousand Moors surrounded, Near him fighting, great Alonzo Furious press the hostile squadron, Where yon rock the plain o'ershadows, LXXXVI.-BALLAD.* MRS. HEMANS. "THOU hast not been with a festal throng, A mien so dark as thine. There's blood upon thy shield, There's dust upon thy plume; Thou hast brought from some disastrous field That brow of wrath and gloom!" This ballad is in the form of a dialogue between a young maiden and a knight who has returned from a field of battle in which her lover has been slain. "And is there blood upon my shield? Maiden, it well may be ; We have sent the streams from our battle field All darkened to the sea; We have given the founts a stain, 'Midst their woods of ancient pine; And the ground is wet but not with rain, Deep-dyed but not with wine. "The ground is wet- but not with rain; I have seen the strong man die, And the stripling meet his fate, Where the mountain winds go sounding by, "In the gloomy Roncesvalles strait Which the war steed has gone o'er ; "Alas, for love, for woman's breast, Hast thou seen a youth with an eagle crest • Roncesvalles (pronounced Ronceval'yes) is a pass in the Pyrenees, between France and Spain. In the year 778, the rear guard of Charlemagne's army was defeated here by the Saracens, in conjunction with the mountaineers of Gascony and Navarre. With his proud, quick-flashing eye, Doth he come from where the swords flashed high, "In the gloomy Roncesvalles Strait I saw and marked him well; "Thou canst not say that he lies low, O, none could look on his joyous brow "There is dust upon his joyous brow, And the war horse will not wake him now, |