PELAYO:

OR,

THE CAVERN OF COVADONGA.

CANTO FIFTH.

I.

Day dawn'd again, as brightly fair,
As if to none it beamed with care,
And glowing nature sweetly smiled on all,
As if no shadow on such morn could fall!
And list—a distant murmuring sound
Of tender music breathes around,
And lightly tripping o'er the green,
Behold yon merry damsel train,
Sporting so airy light,

Before the dazzled sight,

That you might deem a ring of elfin sprites, Such as dance the green-sward round on moonlight nights,

Just straying from Titania's fairy train,

Were gliding o'er the dew-bespangled plain!
Their white robes flutter on the wooing wind,
The earliest flowers of spring their temples bind;
The violet blooms beneath their feet,
Filling the gale with fragrance sweet :-
And, mingled with the rose's wild perfume,
The loving woodbine, dawning just in bloom,

Is breathing all its fragrance on the air,
As if 't were conscious that its queen was there!

Oh! who could think the brightest land on earth,
Where varied nature's fairest scenes have birth,
Romance, and beauty's queen! fair Spain!
Would ever know foul slavery's name ?
That, blood and bondage both would stain,
The glory of yon verdant plain !

And those fair maids, who danced so light
In the first dawn of sunshine bright,
Alas! that ever dreams of hot-breathed war
Their young, unconscious gaiety should mar!
Yet so it is—and they are doomed to roam,
Like forest deer, chased from their native home :
The lilies, blooming 'neath their feet,

With crimson blood will soon be wet;

The Moors will seek their lone secluded vale, And with them-comes destruction's blighting gale!

Hispania! once and thou wert spotless, fair"T is mournful task to tell what once you were! Thy harvest waved its golden head

O'er plains, which since have drunk of blood! Th' invader's foot hath trodden down thy flow'rets

gay,

The clash of arms frighted thy warbling birds away,

Their carrol'd songs no longer fill the air,
But dying groans, and suff'rers' moans,
And horrid curses, wrung by wild despair,

Mingling with the widow's and the orphan's wail,
Such are the sounds that sigh upon the gale!
From thousands driven from their homes,
Where'er the Moorish footstep comes !

II.

But yon fair maids, they nothing knew of strife;
How should they? in that hidden vale their life
Glides calmly, smoothly, on,

Unruffled by the storm!

Oh! rather let me share their youthful sport, Than mingle with such bliss one gloomy thought! Upon the green a little altar stands,

Round which the maidens kneel with joined hands;

Then rising from the ring,

Their simple off'rings bring,

Wreaths woven of the fairest buds that bloom in

spring,

And round the altar's base their rosy tributes fling. And then with verdant besoms-made

Of sweetest shrubs that scent the gladeThey sweep the dust that with the wind has stray'd

Around their holy shrine !
Joy finds her dwelling place
Upon each beauteous face---
A lovely throne !—and there
She sits, beaming as fair,

And with as bright a ray, as that which shone Round smiling Houries of the sunny eastern clime, Those far-famed fairy creatures---who alone Have charms that never fade, immortally divine!

III.

But who is she, that peerless maid, who towers 'bove

the rest?

The beauteous priestess of the scene? the planet

star!

Round which her satellites are shining?—though

afar

Their beauty beams from hers-'t is sure some bright and heavenly guest, Stooping to earth awhile,

To light it with her smile !

Her form is rounded beauty's perfect mould,
Her eyes, have never aught but gladness told!
One long, unmingled, sunny scene of bliss,
And joy, too bright to dwell in world like this!
Those dazzling eyes have never wept―
Those radiant smiles have never slept.-
Though changing oft their light-yet fading never:
And will they thus smile on-shine on---for ever?
The tale will tell-but look upon her now,
While, sporting playful in that rosy glow

Of dawning light---and ask, if paradise hath more to show!-

See, o'er her shoulder streams her sunny hair,
And many a waving curl floats in the air,
In long luxuriance-as though a veil was thrown
To shade that angel form,

Too bright at once to dawn
Upon the dazzled gazer's eye,

Lest it blind him with its radiancy!

And change him, (as Medusa did of old) to stone--