He spake in fury wood, like wight insane,
And straight alighted on the Theban way,
Where mortal gest and human vesture tane,
He bore where new-born Phoebus bears the Day.
Now spans his flight the Med’iterranean Main,
Now spurns the bounds of Cleopatra’s sway;
Now leaves to right the Garamántes-land,
And circumjacent sheets of Libyan sand.

Now leaves he Mer’oe ’mid the fiery downs,
Fed by the waters of the Sev’en-flood River,
Realms which the high and holy President273 owns,
Of Christ His doctrine old and true Believer:
He passes drouthy land whose people wones
Lacking the Lakes that roll their waters ever;
The very birthplace of the secret Nyle
Who breeds the monstrous brood of crocodile.

Hence to the Prasum Headland fast he flies;
And, making Mozambíque, in briefest space
Becomes the Counterfeit, in Moorman guise,
Of one that held high honourable place.
And, as the Regent much this Moor did prize,
Entering with somewhat sad and chargèd face,
Began the Theban thus his plaint to make,
Removing others who sat near the Shaykh.

“The meed of valour Bastards aye have claimèd
By Arts or Arms, or haply both conjoinèd;
Such were of fabled Gods the most enfamèd
To whom rude Ancients highest rank assignèd.
Hermes, and doct Apollo still are namèd
For varied Science with long Art combinèd;
Others by Arms alone prevail; so reign
Bacchus and Hercules, that Theban Twain.

“Homer and Orpheus, eke, of birth were base,
The pair by Po’etry raised to such degree;
And they, the Sires of that Imperial race,
Who founded Troy and Rome for Italy.
Nay, an in written legend trust we place,
Though many Philip made the father be
Of Macedonia’s Youth, not few would prove
Great Nectanébus274filcht his mother’s love.

“Thus Justiciary Pedro’s bastard son,
Being exalted o’er the realm to sway,
By Gestes of arms such goods of Fortune won
That equalled ev’ery Great of bygone day.
He, when his kingdom feared to be undone
And prostrate lie, the proud Castilian’s prey,
Bateth the terror his own lieges tries;
And in all others Esp’erance falsifies.”

“Piercèd275 Giraldo’s vitals through and through
And eke the huge thick targe he snatcht away
From Perez whom he killed; his own with hew
And strangest hack of cutlass useless lay.
Dies Pedro, and Duarte dies (in lieu
Of death amid the Brigians): Born were they
Both in Braganza, brave in youthful pride
Together lived they, fought they, fell they, died.

“Lopo and Vincent de Lisbóa bleed;
Sworn in the common cause to meet their fate;
Or both the crown to gain and Victory’s meed
To snatch from all whom most enfamed this bate.
Afonso flieth from his battle-steed;
For five Castilians (who in ambush wait
to ’venge five comrades slain in earli’er strife)
Packing around him pluck his precious life.

“Down falls Hilario drilled by spear-heads three;
But first he took the vengeance of his spear;
He mourneth not because his Sprite goes free,
But for-that comes in it Antonia fair:
Flitteth the fug’itive Spirit fast, and flee
With it the thoughts sustaining all to dare;
And as life fled the service of his dame,
Fell from his clay-cold lips her broken name.”

“Velasquez dies with Sanches de Toledo,
A mighty hunter this, and that a clerke:
Galbes eke perisheth surnamed ‘Sem Medo,’276
For thus his comrades called for countermark:
Montánchez, Oropésa, Mondonhedo
(Albeit skilled in arms, in sinews stark),
Fell by Antonio’s hand, stout youth and brave
Whose lance more dext’erous drave them to the grave.

“Braggart Guevára, who his front had dyed,
And hands and beard with blood that tinged the plain;
That he might bluster how the gory tide
Had spurted painting him with honour’d stain:
Him, bell’owing such bravados in his pride,
Pedro who heard the vauntings loud and vain,
Felled with such side stroke, that his empty head
Flew from his body and his base life fled.

“Flew high in airy space his feckless pate
While still a-boasting of some blatant Geste:
Pedro, besprinkled by the squirt and jet,
Feels black blood trickling down his beard and breast;
Wherewith the mal’apert pays his vengeance debt.
Carrilho’s sun eke setteth in its west,
Joam de Lorca and Robledo follow;
While th’ other braves in flight their boasts must swallow.

“Salazar, famous par’asite, and the head
Pander who made Sevilha town infame;
Whom his false leman had at night-tide fled
Though to the ’campment she had brought her shame;
Lief would with other friend this fair friend bed,
For-that the ducats wherewithal he came,
Were lost upon a cast; nor were they lost
Had but a hand of spades came uppermost.

“His she-friend’s treason gars him wits to tyne;
And threaten un’iverse, earth and vagueing skies
Blaspheming; and resolve with rage indign
All who dare cross his valour to chastise:
Encount’ering Gaspar (who his Catherine
Loves as his life) the broadsword fast he plies,
Till air fire-smitten makes him fain believe
Such stroke of mighty blade a hill could cleave.

“Fondly he hopes the foe to hew in twain;
But Gaspar, sighting overhead the blade,
Runs in, and catcheth him with gripping strain:
’Twas a fair feat of skill and hardihead:
The Spaniard clippeth, yet doth not restrain
His boastful threat’ening, although conquerèd;
The forceful Portingall with short delay
Unarms his hands and leaps from out his way.

“Then, lest his foeman use such crafty mode
Himself had used, he deals stoccado-thrust:
In fine the broadsword in his bosom-blood
He bathes that naught to vengeance mote he trust.
Flieth the furious ghost and in the wood
Tartarean still blasphemes; relates his lust
For vengeance, who no more can scourge his quean,
While him Alecto scourgeth long and keen.

“The Spatha’s277 metal to the damnèd host
Ill-names he calleth heaping curses dread;
Which, when it entered not, his ducats lost,
And lost his life when it had enterèd.
Pluto to gar him pay Sin’s scot and cost,
Shows him the trait’orous ladye-friend who fled
’Joyed by his rival raining greedy kisses:⁠—
He starts to strike them but the Shades he misses.”

“Oh vain reflections’ guiling human sense!
How could this darkling error seal your sight?
How have ye hugged this gay and glad pretence
That lures to ’sanguined hate and baneful fight?
And now of bloodshed dour experience,
A sore dread trial of the deadly blight
Is shown to thee. And now when known thy lot
Thou shalt give counsel which thou tookest not.

“The corpses of the Cavaliers, our fone,
Fed the foul creatures of the field and wood:
The nearest fountains till some days were gone
Distilled their crystal black with human blood.
The meadow-shepherds, and the swains who wone
Upon the mountain, loathed the fulsome food,
The feral bird⁠—which for a year and more,
Smackt of the gorgèd flesh and human gore.”

Pond’ering such mighty deeds of derring-do
Prophetick Proteus thus to Neptune cried:⁠—
“I fear shall spring such Braves from Braves like these
Who the great sceptre of thy Reigns shall seize!”

“He gaineth now the Porte inexpugnable
Whereof the Traitor-Count278 first oped the gate,
In blood to wash the love inevitable
Fired in Rodrigo’s279 heart by hand of Fate.
Yet this was not the cause abominable
That wasted populous Hispanian State:
God for some hidden judgment gave command
The house be opened by Rodrigo’s hand.

“But now thou livest safe, O noble Spain!
(If knightly force can save its land a fall)
From other loss like this, from shame and stain,
Who for a Porter hast the Portingall.
This happy Fortune waited on the reign
Of King Joanné,280 who the bounding wall
Of Spanish-lond molested many years;
And conquerèd a higher crest uprears.”

“There did we promise, if His mercy deign
To bear us safe where Phoebus bursts the womb,
Or to blind worlds we would His faith ordain,
Or headstrong Heathenesse to death would doom.
All for our Souls’ eternal health were fain
With pure, veracious shrift our Sprites t’ illume,
Whereby, though Her’eticks may its power decry,
Souls like the ren’ovate Phoenix heav’enward fly.

“Then to partake of Ghostly Meat we went,
By whose most gracious boon so many days,
Sans taste of other earthly nutriment,
Erst were sustained Elias and Moysès:
Bread, whose deep secrets ne thought eminent
Ne subtle lore, ne soaring fantasies
Shall ever fathom, ever plumb its might,
An to dark Reason Faith deny her light.”

“What boots recounting feats and gestes notorious
Of cel’ebrate Capitaynes and grand campaigns,
Where vaunting Death boasts asp’erous might victorious
O’er alien will he bendeth as he fain ’is?
Let others sing and say the deeds memorious
Achieved by Conq’uerors on their battle-plains:
Let it be mine (if worlds will hear) to tell
How by a pair of eyes’ mere force I fell.”

No little pleasure to Velloso gave
So fair a subject watch and ward to ’guile,
For as dure warfare made him dour and brave,
So gentled Love his breast by soft’ening wile.
Such is the cunning of this Cupid-knave,
So Art with Nature can he reconcile,
While mortal hearts with blandness it endowereth,
Lovers with double pow’er his will empowereth.

“Recount” (quoth he), “recount of Love, fair Sir!
And of the wondrous chances Love befell,
Still his sharp arrows this sad bosom stir
That may not hurt of open wound dispel.”
With him agreed each watchful mariner,
That all and ev’ery, then and there, should tell
Their tales of Love, and how the ventures farèd:⁠—
Thiswise its watch to keep the crew preparèd.

Then quoth Le’onardo: “Here let no man wot
From me to gather fables known of yore:
Whoso would quote the tears of alien lot
Himself exempted hath no tears in store.
Sith Love with magick eye-glance mortals smote
Those dearest en’emies mine smote none so sore
’Mid men as me; nor Pyramus nor him
Who from Abydos Helle’s stream did swim.

“Fortune, who vaunteth o’er the world her might
Already drave me far from Fatherland,
Where I long time had lived, sufficient quite
To lose a blessing which I held in hand.
Yes, free I lived; yet nought astounds my sprite
Save that my freedom I could not command,
But changed for prison, since mine every thought,
Would I or nould I, boon of Love besought.”

Look ye, how following fast on fierce despair
We win the weal that seemed beyond our range;
Thus ever dogging happy days sans care
Comes hateful Sorrow with her certain change.
Whoso would win such lore, such secret bare,
How Chance shall aye Security estrange,
I wot, his wisdom would no blessing gain,
But breed a madness in his brooding brain.

I have short answer for the wights who say
That fickle Fortune deals in living lies;
That God hath made for pillar of His sway
A goddess ranging aye ’twixt fall and rise.
Importunate opinion men obey
That Man, whose nature with the Angels vies,
For whom his God such goodness wrought, is rulèd
By blindfold chances, and by luck befoolèd.

Who saith that Good or Ill be reason why,
The lowly up, the lofty downward, go;
What shall he say me se’eing the low rise high?
What shall he say me se’eing the high fall low?
If some should say “we’re born predestined,” I
Find it an asp’erous reason so to trow;
If darkly bound by bond of Destiny,
What boots a Sinner or a Saint I be?

Such dreadful storm the Portingalls tormented,
All were assurèd life was surely lost;
Sudden it passèd and to them presented
Venus the guerdon which they yearned for most.
Meanwhile Cabral whose wreck and wrack distented
The list of losses on that portless coast,
Saves his life gladly, and at once he loses ’t
Because what men call Chance or Dest’iny choses ’t.

An he must lose his life in one short hour,
To save the span before what could avail?
We ask why Fortune’s all prevailing pow’er
Upon the heels of ill sent nought of weal?
Well said the Sage, so famed for el’egant lore,
Simonides, who from his safe portail
Beheld his rev’elling friends within the hall
Crusht by the fragments of the fallen wall:⁠—

“Oh, force of Fortune grievous, sore to dree,
That hast so many in one moment slain!
Say for what greater bane hast savèd me
Whom thou hast savèd from this present bane?
Certès, the wrath of Heav’en right well I see:
No harm sufficeth for his rage insane:
Nor ill he workèd but the will he had
Eftsoons of working something worse than bad.”

Right well I wot that many shall be found
With subtle reasons Faith to re-assure;
Many by Second Causes shall expound
High matters sound sure judgment doth depure.
To all I pledge myself, I could respond
Did art of scribe such mighty theme endure:
I but respond that long Experience
Oft shows your Science lacking common Sense.

“This the foundation-stone sublimely laid
Of the Braganza House, illustrious strain,
Which in estate and grandeur all outweigh’d
Whatever vaunts the high Hispanian reign.
Seest thou him, who with the stout Armade
Cutteth th’ Hesperian sea, forthwith to gain
His brave objective; wends this stout pretender
Azamor town to fight and gar surrender?

“ ’Tis ducal Gemes, ’heriting from his sires
Of old nobility a name memorious,
Who does this mighty deed; and ’s high desires
Fulfilled, to Portugale returns victorious.
This time a valour which the world admires
Leaveth the Moorman in such fear inglorious,
Who to the Present is nowise relievèd
Of the cold burden in the Past conceivèd.

“And, if the famous Duke forbore as wont
Catholick conquests farther still to bear,
Unto Marocco’s mures and Terudant,
And other thousand thorpes the Haven near;
Deem not his constant soul of spirit scant,
Or wanting energy or slow to dare;
’Twas that his loyalty to cross declinèd
The certain limits which his King assignèd.”

“Shalt see, in fine, conspire all India, ’drest
To bellick apparatus; peoples rush
Cháúl, Maláca, Goa-town t’ invest,
At once such different sites to seize and crush.
But see, now Cháúl City sorely prest,
The seas with em’inent billows flies to brush
Castro, in haste his Portingalls to save
When only God in Mercy’s aid they crave.

“Se’est thou yon Paynim King so fain of fight
Burn, overrun, beleaguer, firm persist
In throwing forces which the land affright
Against a little squad that loveth Christ?
But bear that gen’erous Pundonor in sight,
Ne siege ne battle e’er before hath wist;
See how the sold’iery flying posts secure,
Pass to the post of peril dire and dure.

“In such unfairest odds and chance of fray
One of our soldiers was begirt by foes;
But he, by valour more than mail, makes way
And of true warrior-heart fair ’surance shows;
Slain the near charger with his sabre-sway
Its rider’s head upon the plain he throws;⁠—
Brave sworder-feat!⁠—and, pace by pace, he leaveth
Arear the foeman whom such exploit grieveth.”

“There shall Ataide, most for prudence known,
Strong in the ghostly comfort of the Lord,
Where Time and Need demand such force be shown,
With more than human valour aid afford.
Until its salvage object shall disown
With grievous losses yon vile Pagan horde,
Who crusht in thousand cruel fights shall rue
The war, and hurry for a truce to sue.

“While here so happeth on the coast that glows
Of Asia and Am’erica sombre cold,
There not the less in Europe bellicose,
And Barb’ary’s wild uncultivated wold,
Shall show thy Race, Elysian, valorous
Its worth and with a freezing fear enfold
The seething Zone, that sees one conquest won
Pass to three other and ne’er pause till done.

“Barriga, brave of braves, they here shall sight,
Guide of Zafim,281 in war of prime account,
Who finds no man-at-arms to foil his might,
O’errun the Mauritanian plain and mount.
But see how th’ Infidels, by luck of fight
And doom disastrous, in the very brunt
Make him and his Bellona’s battle-prize
For in such chances Valour hopeless lies.

“But past the perils of this imm’inent chance,
See how he snatcheth while to durance led
From grasp of Moorish foe the beamy lance,
And lays with single lunge its lancer dead.
Then with strong arm the weapon swung askance,
He saves his friends the while his foes have fled:
Thus all triumphant wend his men their way
Whither their lot was sad captivity.

“Lo! here is he by snare once more beset,
And in the darkness of vile stable lain,
Loaded with iron fetters of such weight,
From off the floor he mote not rise again.
But see the heart with gen’erous fire irate,
Tear up the stake that showed a bloody stain,
And brain the haughty Moor who had not fear’d
Foul hand to fasten on his honoured beard?

“Yet further see yon faithless Hagarene,
By the commandment of his Inf’idel King,
Visit the daring deed with scourge so keen
That strips from ribs his robes with stripes that sting.
Yet the brave Baron scorns one word, nor e’en
An ‘Ah!’ a murmur, may his tortures wring:
To Portugale the ragged vesture goes
Wherewith to raise a ransom for the foes.

“Behold yon Aguer Headland tane, and lost
By fault of tardy succouring soldiery:
And see’st thou great Carvalho ’mid the host
Hostile, like baited bull the ring o’erfly?
Hear him ’mid thirty Moorish corpses boast
Whirling his broadsword, crying:⁠—‘Since I die
Let dead atone for this mine òbscure doom,
These carrion deadlings form my fittest tomb!’

“See how when both his legs a passing ball
In pieces dasht and shanks from trunk had mown;
On arms and knees he doth his best to crawl
And fight with force and valour never known:
Round and about the field evanish all
Hagar’s hard children who no pity own;
And with their shafts and javelins far they deal,
The death they dare not by a nearer steel.”

“With sim’ilar labours, Gestes so great, so new
Of valour never viewed, nor reached by thought,
To Honour shall ye rise so high, so true,
To excellences Heaven’s will hath wrought
’Mid worlds of men for you and only you,
While Phoebus warms what salty billows moat:
Rare boons be these which rarely doled we find
To man, and only in you men conjoin’d.

“Religion first, the Truths sublime reveal’d
In earthly garb of pious holy Zeal;
Fain to Divine Obedience self to yield
And all imbibèd with its works of weal.
Thus men fare swimming to th’ Elysian field;
And thus in Life and Death shall ever deal
Mortals, who strain to win the princely prize
Which high religious Monarchy affies.

“Loyalty second, that makes great and grand
Above all others, hearts of noble strain;
Whereby a certain likeness mortals fand
To Choirs immortal in the Heav’enly Reign.
For this be known o’er farthest sea and land
The passing merits of the Lusitan;
Ne’er to his Maker nor sworn King forsworn,
Nor holds such public Faith to public scorn.

“Valour next cometh, which of yore did greet,
In olden Lusus, men who sang and wrote;
And which your Portingalls with greater feat
Certify veridic withouten doubt:
Affording novel theme to modern writ,
With their high exploits of memorious note;
And, vanquishing o’er the world the most renown’d,
By fewer vanquisht they shall ne’er be found.

“Conquest shall prove the fourth, which in the power
Of only Portugale full-forced resideth;
Since in the higher Hemisphere and lower
O’er Earth’s four quarters she alone abideth:
The four great Nations only serve to show her
What high mysterious Hope her conquests guideth;
That Christian, Moorman, Turk, and Gentile all,
Joinèd in single law shall feel her thrall.

“Discov’ery comes the fifth, which of a truth
To none save Lusus’ children doth belong;
Who have explorèd all from North to South
Where suns be short-lived and where days be long.
Now by uncertain ways, unused, uncouth,
From Ponent Lèvantward, in daring strong,
She wends to circle Earth by shortest tract:282
A feat which never was till now a fact.

“I pass in silence o’er the Piety
And courteous ways that mark the Lusian breast;
Temperance, Holy Faith, Zeal, Charity,
With other gifts as easy to attest.
For ’tis a not’able point of verity,
Moral Philosophy’s own rule and hest,
No single virtue e’er hath Man array’d
When all the others do not arm and aid.

“But these, the first foundation and the base
Of those renownèd five transcendencies,
Whereon they rest and rise by Nature’s grace,
And whence they borrow fair dependencies.
Here I neglect; for stoop I not to trace
That meaner matter which the tendence is
Of human nature in the gen’eral view:⁠—
Only I tell what dwells in only you.

“Natheless expect not to run clear and pure,
The course uneven of your Race’s story:
Such the condition of our state obscure,
Of human life-tide fragile, transitory:
Death and Destruction, travail sore and dure
Shall mingle water in your wine of glory;
Yet ne’er shall force of Fortune, nor of Fate
Degrade your gifts, debase your high estate.

“Shall dawn the Day o’er either Hemisphere
By you explored, and conquerèd in fight,
Where battle, slaughter, prison-doom strike fear
In all the peoples subject to your might:
The twain of mightiest empires which is peer
In Spain beneath one sceptre shall unite;
Owning for cap’ital, Ladye of the Land,
The goodly City hither sends your band.283

“And now, o’er earth establisht, Race renown’d
Whom God in Cath’olick bosom hath conservèd,
Redeemed from horrid pains of Hell profound,
For hosts of damnèd Heathenry reservèd;
Dower’d with the losses of Lusbel284 immund,
Lusbel, by vile and vulgar spirits servèd;
Since all Earth’s glories ye have learnt to gain,
’Ware lest ye lose the glory sovereign.”