For in such chances Valour hopeless lies.
6
“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.
7
“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?
8
“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.
9
“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!’
10
“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.”
Canto X (after Stanza 73)
“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.
2
“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.
3
“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.
4
“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.
5
“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.
6
“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.
7
“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.
8
“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.
9
“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.
10
“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
11
“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.”
Canto X (after Stanza 141)
“Hence shall he wend285 his way, and end the light
Of Life, when landed on that fatal Isle:
Nor less his vent’urous Fleet shall wing her flight
Returning homeward from such miracle;
The far-famed ship ‘Victória’ men shall sight
Anchored in safest waters by Sevile,
When she had girdled Ocean-plain profound
And circled Earth in one continuous round.”
