The gate he opens; fwift from ambush rise
His ready bands, the city falls his prize :
Evora ftill the grateful honour pays,

Her banner'd flag the mighty deed displays :
There frowns the hero; in his left he bears

The two cold heads, his right the faulchion rears.
Wrong'd by his king, and burning for revenge,
Behold his arms that proud Caftilian change;
The Moorish buckler on his breast he bears,
And leads the fierceft of the pagan fpears.
Abrantes falls beneath his raging force,
And now to Tago bends his furious course.
Another fate he met on Tago's shore,

Brave Lopez from his brows the laurels tore;
His bleeding army ftrew'd the thirsty ground,
And captive chains the rageful leader bound.
Refplendent far that holy chief behold!
Afide he throws the facred staff of gold,

And

himself at the head of a party of freebooters. Tiring, however, of that life, he refolved to reconcile himself to his fovereign by some noble action. Full of this idea, one evening he entered Evora, which then belonged to the Moors. In the night he killed the centinels of one of the gates, which he opened to his companions, who foon became masters of the place. This exploit had its defired effect. The king pardoned Gerrald, and made him governor of Evora. A knight with a sword in one hand, and two heads in the other, from that time became the armorial bearing of the city." Caftera.

s Wrong'd by his king.Don Pedro Fernando de Caftro, injured by the family of Lara, and denied redress by the king of Caftile, took the infamous revenge of bearing arms against his native country. At the head of a Moorish army he committed feveral outrages in Spain; but was totally defeated in Portugal.

And wields the fpear of fteel. How bold advance
The numerous Moors, and with the refted lance
Hem round the trembling Lufians! Calm and bold
Still towers the priest, and lo, the skiest unfold:
Cheer'd by the vision brighter than the day
The Lufians trample down the dread array

Of Hagar's legions: on the reeking plain
Low with their flaves four haughty kings lie flain.
In vain Alcazar rears her brazen walls,
Before his rufhing host Alcazar falls.
There, by his altar, now the hero fhines,

And with the warrior's palm his mitre twines.
That chief behold: though proud Caftilia's hoft
He leads, his birth shall Tagus ever boast.
As a pent flood bursts headlong o'er the ftrand
So pours his fury o'er Algarbia's land:
Nor rampired town, nor caftled rock afford
The refuge of defence from Payo's sword.
By night-veil'd art proud Sylves falls his prey,
And Tavila's high walls at middle day

Fearless

t and lo, the fkies unfold." According to fome ancient Portuguese hif"tories, Don Matthew, bishop of Lisbon, in the reign of Alonzo I. attempted "to reduce Alcazar, then in poffeffion of the Moors. His troops being fud"denly furrounded by a numerous party of the enemy, were ready to fly, ❝ when, at the prayers of the bishop, a venerable old man, cloathed in "white, with a red cross on his breast, appeared in the air. The miracle "difpelled the fears of the Portuguese; the Moors were defeated, and the "conqueft of Alcazar crowned the victory." Caffera.

Fearless he scales: her streets in blood deplore

The seven brave hunters murder'd by the Moor.
Thefe three bold knights how dread! Thro'Spain and France

At just and tournay with the tilted lance

Victors they rode: Caftilia's court beheld

Her peers

o'erthrown; the peers with rancour swell'd :

The bravest of the three their fwords furround;

Brave Ribeir ftrews them vanquish'd o'er the ground,
Now let thy thoughts, all wonder and on fire,
That darling son of warlike fame admire !
Proftrate at proud Caftilia's monarch's feet
His land lies trembling: lo, the nobles meet:
Softly they seem to breathe, and forward bend
The fervile neck; each eye diftrufts his friend;.

"During a truce with the Moors, fix cavaliers of the order of St. "James were, while on a hunting party, furrounded and killed by a "numerous body of the Moors. During the fight, in which the gentlemen "fold their lives dear, a common carter, named Garcias Rodrigo, who "chanced to pass that way, came generously to their affiftance, and lost "his life along with them. The poet, in giving all feven the fame title, "fhews us that virtue conftitutes true nobility. Don Payo de Correa, "grand mafter of the order of St. James, revenged the death of these brave "unfortunates, by the fack of Tavila, where his just rage put the garrifon to the fword." Caftera.

These three bold knights bow dread!-Nothing can give us a ftronger picture of the romantic character of their age, than the manners of these champions, who were gentlemen of birth; and who, in the true spirit of knight-errantry, went about from court to court in quest of adventures. Their names were, Gonçalo Ribeiro; Fernando Martinez de Santarene; and Vasco Anez, fofter-brother to Mary, queen of Caftile, daughter of Alonzo IV. of Portugal.

Fearful each tongue to fpeak; each bofom cold;
When colour'd with ftern rage, erect and bold
The hero rifes; Here no foreign throne
Shall fix its base; my native king alone
Shall reign-Then rushing to the fight he leads;
Low vanquish'd in the duft Caftilia bleeds.
Where proudest hope might deem it vain to dare,
God led him on, and crown'd the glorious war.
Though fierce as numerous are the hosts that dwell
By Betis' ftream, thefe hofts before him fell.
The fight behold: while abfent from his bands,
Preft on the step of flight his army stands,
To call the chief an herald speeds away:
Low on his knees the gallant chief survey!
He pours his foul, with lifted hands implores,
And heaven's affifting arm, inspired, adores.
Panting and pale the herald urges speed:
With holy truft of victory decreed,
Careless he answers, Nothing urgent calls;
And foon the bleeding foe before him falls.
To Numa thus the pale patricians fled;
The hoftile fquadrons o'er the kingdom spread,
They cry; unmoved the holy king replies,
And I, behold, am offering facrifice!

Earnest

Y And I, behold, am offering facrifice.—This line, the simplicify of which,

I think, contains great dignity, is adopted from Fanshaw,

And I, ye fee, am offering facrifice.

who

Earneft I fee thy wondering eyes inquire

Who this illustrious chief, his country's fire?
The Lufian Scipio well might speak his 2 fame,
But nobler Nunio fhines a greater name:
On earth's green bofom, or on ocean grey,
A greater never shall the sun survey.

Known by the filver crofs and fable a fhield,
Two knights of Malta there command the field;
From Tago's banks they drive the fleecy prey,
And the tired ox lows on his weary way:
When, as the falcon through the forest glade
Darts on the leveret, from the brown-wood fhade

Darts

who has here catched the spirit of the original:

A

quem lhe a dura nova efstava dandɔ,

Pois eu, refponde, eftou facrificando.

i. e. To whom when they told the dreadful tidings. "And I, he replies, am facrificing." The piety of Numa was crowned with victory. Vid. Plut. in vit. Num.

The Lufian Scipio well might speak his fame,

But nobler Nunio fbines a greater name.—

Caftera juftly obferves the happiness with which Camoëns introduces the name of this truly great man. Il va, fays he, le nommer tout à l'heure avec une addresse et une magnificence digne d'un fi beau fujet.

a Two knights of Malta. These knights were first named knights Hofpitallars of St. John of Jerufalem, afterwards knights of Rhodes, from whence they were driven to Meffina, ere Malta was affigned to them, where they now remain. By their oath of knighthood they are bound to protect the Holy Sepulchre from the profanation of infidels; and immediately on taking this oath, they retire to their colleges, where they live on their revenues in all the idleness of monkish luxury. Their original habit was black with a white crofs; their arms gules, a crofs argent.

2