Ancient Spanish Ballads, Tr. by J.G. Lockhart (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1854. Excerpt: ... The Moorish maidens while she spake, around her silence kept, But her master dragged the dame away--then loud and long they wept; They washed the blood, with many a tear, from dint of dart and arrow, And buried him near the waters clear of the brook of Alpuxarra. THE DEPARTURE OF KING SEBASTIAN. The reader is acquainted with the melancholy story of Sebastian, King of Portugal. It was in 1578, that his unfortunate expedition and death took place. The following is a version of one of the Spanish ballads founded on the history of Sebastian. There is another, which describes his death, almost in the words of a ballad already translated, concerning King Juan I. of Castile. It was a Lusitanian lady, and she was lofty in degree, Was fairer none nor nobler in all the realm than she; I saw her that her eyes were red, as, from her balcony, They wandered o'er the crowded shore and the resplendent sea. Gorgeous and gay, in Lisbon's Bay, with streamers flaunting wide, Upon the gleaming waters Sebastian's galleys ride; His valorous armada (was never nobler sight ) Hath young Sebastian marshalled against the Moorish might. The breeze comes forth from the clear north, a gallant breeze there blows; Their sails they lift, then out they drift, and first Sebastian goes. 'May none withstand Sebastian's hand--God shield my King ' she said; Yet pale was that fair lady's cheek--her weeping eyes were red. She looks on all the parting host, in all its pomp arrayed--Each pennon on the wind is tost, each cognizance displayed; Each lordly galley flings abroad, above its armed prow, The banner of the cross of God upon the breeze to flow. But one there is, whose banner, above the Cross divine, A scarf upholds, with azure folds, of love and faith the sign; Upon that galley's stern ye se...