Ayala's verse, the conscious effort of deliberate artistry, contrasts with those popular _romances_ which can be divined through the varnish of the sixteenth century. Few, if any, of the existing ballads date from Ayala's time; and of the nineteen hundred printed in Durán's _Romancero General_ the merest handful is older than 1492, when Antonio de Nebrija examined their structure in his _Arte de la Lengua Castellana_. Yet the older _romances_ were numerous and long-lived enough to supplant the _cantares de gesta_, against which chronicles and annals made war by giving the same epical themes with more detail and accuracy. In turn these chronicles afforded subjects for _romances_ of a later day. An illustration suffices to prove the point. Every one knows the spirited close of the first in order of Lockhart's _Ancient Spanish Ballads_:— "_Last night I was the King of Spain—to-day no King am I. Last night fair castles held my train—to-night where shall I lie? Last night a hundred pages did serve me on the knee— To-night not one I call my own: not one pertains to me._" The original is founded on Pedro de Corral's _Crónica de Don Rodrigo_ (chapters 207, 208), which was not written till 1404, and from the same source (chapters 238-244) comes the substance of Lockhart's second ballad:— "_It was when the King Rodrigo had lost his realm of Spain._" The modernity of almost every piece in Lockhart's collection were as easily proved; but it is more important at this point to turn from the popular song-makers to the new school of writers which was forming itself upon foreign models.