Here the fad mother rends her hoary hair,

While hope's fond whispers struggle with despair:
The weeping spouse to heaven extends her hands:
And cold with dread the modeft virgin stands;
Her earnest eyes, fuffused with trembling dew,
Far o'er the plain the plighted youth pursue:
And prayers and tears and all the female wail,
And holy vows the throne of heaven affail.

Now each ftern hoft full front to front appears,
And one joint fhout heaven's airy concave tears:
A dreadful pause enfues, while conscious pride
Strives on each face the heart-felt doubt to hide :
Now wild and pale the boldest face is feen;
With mouth half open and difordered mien
Each warrior feels his creeping blood to freeze,
And languid weakness trembles in the knees.
And now the clangor of the trumpet founds,
And the rough rattling of the drum rebounds:
The fife shrill whiftling cuts the gale; on high
The flourish'd enfigns shine with many a dye
Of blazing fplendor: o'er the ground they wheel
And chuse their footing, when the proud Castile
Bids found the horrid charge; loud bursts the found,
And loud Artabro's rocky cliffs rebound:

The thundering roar rolls round on every fide,

And trembling finks Guidana's rapid tide:
The flow paced Durius rushes o'er the plain,

And fearful Tagus haftens to the main.

Such

Such was the tempeft of the dread alarms,

The babes that prattled in their nurses' arms
Shriek'd at the found: with fudden cold imprest,
The mothers ftrained their infants to the breast,
And fhook with horror-now, far round, begin
The bow ftrings whizzing, and the brazen i din
Of arms on armour rattling; either van
Are mingled now, and man opposed to man:
To guard his native fields the one inspires,
And one the raging luft of conquest fires:
Now with fixt teeth, their writhing lips of blue,
Their eye-balls glaring of the purple hue,
Each arm strains swifteft to impel the blow;

Nor wounds they value now, nor fear they know,
Their only paffion to offend the foe.

In might and fury, like the warrior god,
Before his troops the glorious Nunio rode :

That land, the proud invaders claim'd, he fows
With their fpilt blood, and with their corfes ftrews.
Their forceful volleys now the cross-bows pour,
The clouds are darken'd with the arrowy fhower;

}

The

i the brazen dinHomer and Virgil have, with great art, gradually heightened the fury of every battle, till the last efforts of their genius were lavished in defcribing the fuperior prowefs of the hero in the decifive engagement. Camöens, in like manner, has bestowed his utmost attention on this his principal battle. The circumstances preparatory to the engagement are happily imagined, and folemnly conducted, and the fury of the combat is fupported with a poetical heat, and a variety of imagery, which, one need not hesitate to affirm, would have done honour to an ancient claffic.

The white foam reeking o'er their wavy mane,
The fnorting courfers rage and paw the plain;
Beat by their iron hoofs, the plain rebounds,
As diftant thunder through the mountains founds:
The ponderous spears crash, splintering far around;
The horse and horfemen flounder on the ground;
The ground groans with the fudden weight oppreft,
And many a buckler rings on many a creft.
Where wide around the raging Nunio's fword
With furious fway the braveft fquadrons gored,
The raging foes in clofer ranks advance,

And his own brothers fhake the hoftile k lance.

tr

Oh !

* And his own brothers fbake the hoftile lance.-The just indignation with which Camöens treats the kindred of the brave Nunio Alvaro de Pereyra, is condemned by the French translator. "Dans le fond, fays he, les Pereyras ne meritoient aucune fletriffure, &c.-The Pereyras deserve no ftain on their memory for joining the king of Caftile, whofe title to the crown of Portugal, was infinitely more just and solid than that of Don John.” Castera, however, is grofly mistaken. Don Alonzo Enriquez, the first king of Portugal, was elected by the people, who had recovered their liberties at the glorious battle of Ourique. At the election, the conftitution of the kingdom was settled in eighteen short statutes, wherein it is expressly provided, that none but a Portuguese can be king of Portugal; that if an Infanta marry a foreign prince, he shall not, in her right, become king of Portugal: and a new election of a king, in case of the failure of the male line, is by these statutes declared to be legal. By the treaty of marriage between the king of Caftile and Donna Beatrix, the heirefs of Fernando of Portugal, it was agreed, that only their children fhould fucceed to the Portuguese crown; and that, in cafe the throne became vacant ere fuch children were born, the queendowager Leonora should govern with the title of regent. Thus, neither by the original constitution, nor by the treaty of marriage, could the king of Caftile fucceed to the throne of Portugal. And any pretence he might found on the marriage-contract was already forfeited; for he caufed himself and his queen to be proclaimed, added Portugal to his titles, coined Portuguese money with his bust, depofed the queen regent, and afterwards fent

her

Oh! horrid fight! yet not the ties of blood,
Nor yearning memory his rage withstood;
With proud difdain his honest eyes behold
Whoe'er the traitor, who his king has fold.
Nor want there others in the hoftile band
Who draw their swords against their native land;
And headlong driven, by impious rage accurft,
In rank were foremost, and in fight the first.
So fons and fathers, by each other flain,
With horrid flaughter dyed Pharfalia's plain.
Ye dreary ghofts, who now for treafons foul,
Amidft the gloom of Stygian darkness howl;
Thou Catiline, and, ftern Sertorius, tell
Your brother shades, and footh the pains of hell;
With triumph tell them, fome of Lufian race

Like

you have earn'd the traitor's foul disgrace.

As waves on waves, the foes increasing weight
Bears down our foremost ranks and fhakes the fight;
Yet firm and undifmay'd great Nunio ftands,
And braves the tumult of furrounding bands.
So, from high Ceuta's rocky mountains ftray'd,
The raging lion braves the fhepherd's fhade;

The

her prifoner to Caftile. The lawful heir, Don Juan, the fon of Inez de Castro, was kept in prison by his rival the king of Caftile; and, as before observed, a new election was, by the original statutes, declared legal in cafes of emergency. These facts, added to the confideration of the tyranny of the king of Caftile, and the great fervices which Don John had rendered his country, upon whom its existence as a kingdom depended, fully vindicate the indignation of Camöens against the traiterous Pereyras.

The shepherds hastening o'er the Tetuan plain,

With fhouts furround him, and with spears restrain :
He stops, with grinning teeth his breath he draws,
Nor is it fear, but rage, that makes him pause;
His threatening eye-balls burn with sparkling fire,
And his ftern heart forbids him to retire :
Amidft the thickness of the spears he flings,
So midft his foes the furious Nunio springs:
The Lufian grafs with foreign gore diftain'd,
Displays the carnage of the hero's hand.

"An ample shield the brave Giraldo bore, "Which from the vanquifh'd Perez' arm he tore ; "Pierced through that fhield, cold death invades his eye, "And dying Perez faw his victor die.

"Edward and Pedro, emulous of fame,

"The fame their friendship, and their youth the fame, "Through the fierce Brigians hew'd their bloody I way, "Till in a cold embrace the ftriplings lay.

"Lopez and Vincent rufh'd on glorious death,

"And midft their flaughter'd foes refign'd their breath. "Alonzo glorying in his youthful might

66

Spurr'd his fierce courfer through the ftaggering fight: "Shower'd from the dafhing hoofs the fpatter'd gore "Flies round; but foon the rider vaunts no more: "Five Spanish fwords the murmuring ghofts atone, "Of five Castilians by his arms o'erthrown,

1 Through the fierce Brigians

"Transfix'd

-The Caftilians, fo called from one of their ancient kings, named Brix, or Brigus, whom the monkish fabulists call the grandson of Noah.