whose orphan’d lot the Mother filled with dread,
unto their cruel grandsire thus she said—
126
“ ‘If the brute-creatures, which from natal day
on cruel ways by Nature’s will were bent;
or feral birds whose only thought is prey,
upon aerial rapine all intent;
if men such salvage be’ings have seen display
to little children loving sentiment,
e’en as to Ninus’ mother did befall,
and to the twain who rear’d the Roman wall:
127
“ ‘O thou, who bear’st of man the gest and breast,
(an it be manlike thus to draw the sword
on a weak girl, because her love imprest
his heart, who took her heart and love in ward);
respect for these her babes preserve, at least!
since it may not her òbscure death retard:
Moved be thy pitying soul for them and me,
although my faultless fault unmoved thou see!
128
“ ‘And if thou know’est to deal in direful fight
the doom of brand and blade to Moorish host,
know also thou to deal of life the light
to one who ne’er deserved her life be lost:
But an thou wouldst mine inn’ocence thus requite,
place me for aye on sad exilèd coast,
in Scythian sleet, on seething Libyan shore,
with life-long tears to linger evermore.
129
“ ‘Place me where beasts with fiercest rage abound—
Lyons and Tygers—there, ah! let me find
if in their hearts of flint be pity found,
denied to me by heart of humankind.
There with intrinsic love and will so fond
for him whose love is death, there will I tend
these tender pledges whom thou see’st; and so
shall the sad mother cool her burning woe.’
130
“Inclin’ed to pardon her the King benign,
moved by this sad lament to melting mood;
but the rude People and Fate’s dure design
(that willed it thus) refused the pardon sued:
They draw their swords of steely temper fine,
they who proclaim as just such deed of blood:
Against a ladye, caitiff, felon wights!
how showed ye here, brute beasts or noble knights?
131
“Thus on Polyxena, that beauteous maid,
last solace of her mother’s age and care,
when doom’d to die by fierce Achilles’ shade,
the cruel Pyrrhus hasted brand to bare:
But she (a patient lamb by death waylaid),
with the calm glances which serene the air,
casts on her mother, mad with grief, her eyes
and silent waits that awesome sacrifice.
132
“Thus dealt with fair Ignèz the murth’erous crew,
in th’ alabastrine neck that did sustain
the charms whereby could Love the love subdue
of him, who crown’d her after death his Queen;
bathing their blades; the flow’ers of snowy hue,
which often water’ed by her eyne had been,
are blood-dyed; and they burn with blinding hate,
reckless of tortures stor’d for them by Fate.
133
“Well mightest shorn of rays, O Sun! appear
to fiends like these on day so dark and dire;
as when Thyestes ate the meats that were
his seed, whom Atreus slew to spite their sire.
And you, O hollow Valleys! doomed to hear
her latest cry from stiffening lips expire—
her Pedro’s name—did catch that mournful sound,
whose echoes bore it far and far around!
134
“E’en as a Daisy sheen, that hath been shorn
in time untimely, floret fresh and fair,
and by untender hand of maiden torn
to deck the chaplet for her wreathèd hair;
gone is its odour and its colours mourn;
so pale and faded lay that Ladye there;
dried are the roses of her check, and fled
the white live colour, with her dear life dead.
135
“Mondego’s daughter-Nymphs the death obscure
wept many a year, with wails of woe exceeding;
and for long mem’ry changed to fountain pure,
the floods of grief their eyes were ever feeding:
The name they gave it, which doth still endure,
revived Ignèz, whose murthered love lies bleeding,
see yon fresh fountain flowing ’mid the flowers,
tears are its waters, and its name “Amores!”83
136
“Time ran not long, ere Pedro saw the day
of vengeance dawn for wounds that ever bled;
who, when he took in hand the kingly sway,
eke took the murth’erers who his rage had fled:
Them a most cruel Pedro did betray;
for both, if human life the foemen dread,
made concert savage and dure pact, unjust as
Lepidus made with Anth’ony and Augustus.
137
“This in his judgments rig’orous and severe,
plunder, advoutries, murtherers supprest:
To stay with cruel grasp Crime’s dark career,
bred sole assurèd solace in his breast:
A Justiciary, not by love but fear,
he guarded Cities from haught tyrant-pest;
their doom more robbers dree’d by his decrees
than Theseus slew, or vagueing Hercules.
138
“Pedro, the harshly just, begets the bland,
(see what exceptions lurk in Nature’s laws!)
remiss, and all-regardless prince, Fernand,
who ran his realm in danger’s open jaws:
For soon against the weak, defenceless land
came the Castilian, who came nigh to cause
the very ruin of the Lusian reign;
for feeble Kings enfeeble strongest strain.
139
“Or ’twas the wages Sin deserves of Heaven,
that filchèd Léonor from marriage bed,
by false, misunderstood opinions driven
another’s wife, a leman-bride to wed;
Or ’twas because his easy bosom given
to vice and vileness, and by both misled,
waxèd effeminate weak; which may be true,84
for low-placed loves the highest hearts subdue.
140
“Of such offences ever paid the pain
many, whom God allowed or willèd He;
those who fared forth to force the fair Helèn;
Appius and Tarquin, eke, such end did see:
Say, why should David of the saintly strain
so blame himself? What felled th’ illustrious tree
of Benjamin? Full well the truth design a
Pharaoh for Sara, Sichem for a Dinah.
141
“But if so weakeneth forceful human breast
illicit Love, which spurns the golden mean,
well in Alcmené’s son we find the test
as Omphalé disguis’ed to hero-quean.
Anthony’s fame a shade of shame confest,
to Cleopatra bound by love too keen;
nor less thou, Punick victor! wast betray’d
by low allegiance to some Puglian maid.
142
“Yet say who, peradventure, shall secure
his soul from Cupid armed with artful snare
’mid the live roses, human snow so pure,
the gold and alabaster crystal-clare?
who ’scapeth
