"O Alboazar!" then quoth she, "Weak of heart as weak can be! Full of revenge and wiles is he. Kill him, for thou hast him now, Hast thou not heard the history How he ravish'd thy sister, and wouldst thou for give him? And hast thou forgotten that I am his wife, 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 his way 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, 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, 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: 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 he Then his good sword Ramiro drew, 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, But glad would Queen Aldonza be, 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. |