“O Alboazar !" then quoth she,
“ Weak of heart as weak can be !

Full of revenge and wiles is he.
Look at those eyes beneath that brow,

I know Ramiro better than thou !
Kill him, for thou hast him now,
He must die, be sure, or thou.

Hast thou not heard the history
How, to the throne that he might rise,
He pluck'd out his brother Ordono's eyes ?
And dost not remember his prowess in fight,
How often he met thee and put thee to flight,

And plunder’d thy country for many a day; . And how many Moors he has slain in the strife,

And how many more he has carried away ? How he came to show friendship .. and thou didst

And that now by thy side I lie like a bride, The worst shame that can ever a Christian betide?

And cruel it were when you see his despair,

If vainly you thought in compassion to spare, And refused him the boon he comes hither to crave;

For no other way his poor soul can he save, Than by doing the penance his confessor gave.”

As Queen Aldonza thus replies,

The Moor upon her fixed his eyes,
And he said in his heart, unhappy is he

Who putteth his trust in a woman !

Thou art King Ramiro's wedded wife, And thus wouldst thou take away his life! What cause have I to confide in thee?.

I will put this woman away from me. These were the thoughts that past in his breast,

But he call’d to mind Ramiro's might: And he fear'd to meet him hereafter in fight,

And he granted the k ng's request.

So he gave him a roasted capon first, And a skinful of wine to quench his thirst;

And he call’d for his sons and daughters all, And assembled the people both great and small;

And to the bull-ring he led the king;

And he set him there upon a stone, That by all the multitude he might be known, And he bade him blow through his horn a blast,

As long as his breath and his life should last.

Oh then his horn Ramiro wound:
The walls rebound the pealing sound,
That far and wide rings echoing round;

Louder and louder Ramiro blows,
And farther the blast and farther goes ;
Till it reaches the gallies where they lie close

Under the alders, by St. Joam da Foz.
It roused his knights from their repose,

And they and their merry men arose. Away to Gaya they speed them straight; Like a torrent they burst through the city.gate;

And they rush among the Moorish throng,

And slaughter their infidel foes.

Then his good sword Ramiro drew,

Upon the Moorish king he flew, And he gave him one blow which cleft him through. They killed his sons and his daughters too;

Every Moorish soul they slew; Not one escaped of the infidel crew; Neither old nor young, nor babe nor mother ;

And they left not one stone upon another.

They carried the wicked Queen aboard,
And they took counsel what to do to her ;

They tied a mill-stone round her neck,
And overboard in the sea they threw her.
She had water enow in the sea I trow!

But glad would Queen Aldonza be,
Of one drop of water from that salt sea,
To cool her where she is now.

1802.

THE INCHCAPE ROCK.

An old * writer mentions a curious tradition which may be worth quoting. “ By east the Isle of May," says he, “twelve miles from all land in the German seas, lyes a great hidden rock, called Inchcape, very dangerous for navigators, because it is overflowed everie tide. It is reported in old times, upon the saide rocke there was a bell, fixed upon a tree or timber, which rang continually, being moved by the sea, giving notice to the saylers of the danger. This bell or clocke was put there and maintained by the Abbot of Aberbrothok, and being taken down by a sea pirate, a yeare thereafter he perished upon the same rocke, with ship and gcodes, in the righteous judgement of God.”

Stoddart's Remarks on Scotland.

No stir in the air, no stir in the sea ;
The ship was still as she could be ;
Her sails from heaven received no motion,
Her keel was steady in the ocean.

.

* See a Brief Description of Scotland, &c. by J.M., 1633.