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As blazing glorious o'er the shades of night,
Bright in his east breaks forth the lord of light,
So valiant John with dazzling blaze appears,
And from the duft his drooping nation rears.
Though sprung from youthful paffion's wanton loves,
Great Pedro's fon in noble foul he proves;

And heaven announced him king by right divine,
A cradled infant gave the wondrous fign:
Her tongue had never lifp'd the mother's name,
No word, no mimic found her lips could frame,
When heaven the miracle of fpeech infpired;
She raised her little hands, with rapture fired,
Let Portugal, fhe cried, with joy proclaim

The brave Don John, and own her monarch's name.

The burning fever of domestic rage

Now wildly raved, and mark'd the barbarous age;

Through

A cradled infant gave the wondrous fign.n.No circumftance has ever been more ridiculed by the ancient and modern pedants than Alexander's pretenfions to divinity. Some of his courtiers expoftulating with him one day on the abfurdity of fuch claim, he replied, "I know the truth of what you say, "but thefe," (pointing to a crowd of Perfians) "these know no better." The report that the Grecian army was commanded by a son of Jupiter spread terror through the east, and greatly facilitated the operations of the conqueror. The miraculous fpeech of the infant, attested by a few monks, was adapted to the fuperftition of the age of John I. and as he was a bastard, was of infinite fervice to his caufe. The pretended fact, however, is differently related. By fome, thus: When Don John, then regent of Portugal, was going to Coimbra, to affift at an affembly of the ftates, at a little diftance from the city he was met by a great number of children riding upon sticks, who no fooner saw him than they cried out, "Bleffed be Don John "king of Portugal; the king is coming, Don John shall be king." Whether this was owing to art or accident, it had a great effect. At the affembly the regent was elected king.

Through every rank the headlong fury ran,
And first red flaughter in the court began.
Of spoufal vows, and widow'd bed defiled,
Loud fame the beauteous Leanore reviled.
The adulterous noble in her presence bled,

And torn with wounds his numerous friends lay dead.
No more those ghastly deathful nights amaze,

When Rome wept tears of blood in Scylla's days;

b

More horrid deeds ↳ Ulyffes' towers beheld:

Each cruel breaft where rankling envy fwell'd,
Accufed his foe as minion of the queen;
Accufed, and murder closed the dreary scene.
All holy ties the frantic transport braved,
Nor facred priesthood nor the altar faved.
Thrown from a tower, like Hector's fon of yore,
The mitred head was dafhed with brains and gore.
Ghaftly with scenes of death, and mangled limbs,
And black with clotted blood each pavement swims.

With all the fiercenefs of the female ire, When rage and grief to tear the breast conspire, beheld her power, her honours & lost,

The queen
And ever when she slept th' adulterer's ghost,

b

Ulyffes' towers.

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See the note, p. 109. vol. i. c The mitred head.· -Don Martin, bishop of Lisbon, a man of an exemplary life. He was by birth a Caftilian, which was esteemed a fufficient reason to murder him, as of the queen's party. He was thrown from the tower of his own cathedral, whither he had fled to avoid the popular fury. d The queen beheld her power, ber bonours loft.Poffeffed of great beauty and great abilities, this bad woman was a difgrace to her fex, and a curfe to the

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age

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All pale, and pointing at his bloody shroud,

Seem'd ever for revenge to scream aloud.

Cafteel's

age and country which gave her birth. Her fifter, Donna Maria, a lady of unblemished virtue, had been fecretly married to the infant Don Juan, the king's brother, who was paffionately attached to her. Donna Maria had formerly endeavoured to diffuade her fifter from the adulterous marriage with the king. In revenge of this, the queen Leonora perfuaded Don Juan that her fifter was unfaithful to his bed. The enraged husband hafted to his wife, and without enquiry or expoftulation, fays Mariana, dispatched her with two strokes of his dagger. He was afterwards convinced of her innocence, and was completely wretched. Having facrificed her honour and her first husband to a king, fays Faria, Leonora foon facrificed that king to a wicked gallant, a Castilian nobleman, named Don Juan Fernandez de Andeyro. An unjuft war with Caftile, wherein the Portuguese were defeated by fea and land, was the first fruits of the policy of the new favourite. Andeyro one day having heated himself by some military exercife, the queen tore her veil, and publickly gave it him to wipe his face. The grand mafter of Avis, the king's bastard brother, afterwards John I. and fome others, expoftulated with her on the indecency of this behaviour. She diffembled her refentment, but foon after they were seized and committed to the castle of Evora, where a forged order for their execution was fent; but the governor fufpecting fome fraud, fhewed it to the king, and their lives were faved. Yet fuch was her ascendency over the weak Fernando, that, though convinced of her guilt, he ordered his brother to kiss the queen's hand, and thank her for his life. Soon after Fernando died, but not till he was fully convinced of the queen's conjugal infidelity, and had given an order for the affaffination of the gallant. Not long after the death of the king, the favourite Andeyro was stabbed in the palace by the grand master of Avis, and Don Ruy de Pereyra. The queen expreffed all the tranfport of grief and rage, and declared she would undergo the trial ordeal in vindication of his and her innocence. But this she never performed: in her vows of revenge, however, the was more punctual. Don Juan, king of Castile, who had married her only daughter and heiress, at her earnest intreaties invaded Portugal, and was proclaimed king. Don John, grand mafter of Avis, was proclaimed by the people protector and regent. A defperate war enfued. Queen Leonora, treated with indifference by her daughter and fon-in-law, refolved on the murder of the latter; but the plot was difcovered, and fhe was fent prifoner to Caftile. The regent was befieged in Lisbon, and the city reduced to the utmost extremities, when an epidemical distemper broke out in the Caftilian army, and made fuch devastation, that the king fuddenly raised the siege, and abandoned his views in Portugal. The happy inhabitants afcribed their de

liverance

Casteel's proud monarch to the nuptial bed

In happier days her royal daughter led :

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fiverance to the valour and vigilance of the regent. The regent reproved their ardour, exhorted them to repair to their churches, and to return thanks to God, to whofe interpofition he folely afcribed their fafety. This beha viour increased the admiration of the people; the nobility of the first rank joined the regent's party; and many garrifons in the intereft of the king of Caftile opened their gates to him. An affembly of the ftates met at Coimbra, where it was propofed to invest the regent with the regal dignity. This he pretended to decline. Don John, fon of Pedro the Juft, and the beautiful Inez de Caftro, was by the people efteemed their lawful fovereign, but was, and had been long detained a prisoner by the king of Caftile. If the ftates would declare the infant Don John their king, the regent professed his willingness to swear allegiance to him; that he would continue to expofe himself to every danger, and act as regent, till Providence restored to Portugal her lawful fovereign. The ftates however faw the neceffity that the nation fhould have an head. The regent was unanimously elected king, and fome articles in favour of liberty were added to thofe agreed upon at the coronation of Don Alonzo Enriquez, the first king of Portugal.

Don John I. one of the greatest of the Portuguese monarchs, was the natural fon of Pedro the Juft, by Donna Teresa Lorenza, a Galician lady, and born fome years after the death of Inez. At feven years of age he was made grand master of Avis, and by his father's particular care he received an excellent education; which, joined to his great parts, produced him early on the political theatre. He was a brave commander, and a deep politician, yet never forfeited the character of candour and honour. To be humble to his friends, and haughty to his enemies, was his leading maxim. His prudence gained him the confidence of the wife, his fteadiness and gratitude the friendship of the brave; his liberality the bulk of the people. He was in the twenty-feventh year of his age when declared protector, and in the twentyeighth when proclaimed king.

The following anecdote is much to the honour of this prince when regent. A Caftilian officer having fix Portuguese gentlemen his prifoners, cut off their noses and hands, and fent them to Don John. Highly incensed, he commanded fix Caftilian gentlemen to be treated in the fame manner. But before the officer, to whom he gave the orders, had quitted the room, he relented. "I have given enough to refentment, faid he, in giving fuch a "command. It were infamous to put it in execution. See that the "Caftilian prifoners receive no harm."

To him the furious queen for vengeance cries,
Implores to vindicate his lawful prize,

The Lufian fceptre, his by spousal right:
The proud Caftilian arms and dares the fight.
To join his standard as it waves along,

The warlike troops from various regions throng:

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Those who poffefs the lands by Rodrick © given,
What time the Moor from Turia's banks was driven;
That race who joyful smile at war's alarms,
And scorn each danger that attends on arms;
Whofe crooked ploughshares Leon's uplands tear,
Now cased in steel in glittering arms appear,
Those arms erewhile fo dreadful to the Moor:
The Vandals glorying in their might of yore
March on; their helms and moving lances gleam
Along the flowery vales of Betis' stream:

Nor ftaid the Tyrian f islanders behind,

On whofe proud enfigns floating on the wind
Alcides' pillars tower'd; nor wonted fear
Withheld the bafe Galician's fordid spear;
Though ftill his crimson seamy scars reveal
The fure-aim'd vengeance of the Lufian steel,
Where tumbling down Cuenca's mountain fide
The murmuring Tagus rolls his foamy tide,

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Cid.

f

colony.

Along

by Rodrick given-.The celebrated hero of Corneille's tragedy of the

the Tyrian iflanders.-The inhabitants of Cadiz ; of old a Phoenician

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