[88] Southey, in the notes to his “Madoc,” Part I. Canto xi., speaks justly of the “sweet flow of language and metre in Lorenzo.” At the end of the Alexandro are two prose letters supposed to have been written by Alexander to his mother; but I prefer to cite, as a specimen of Lorenzo’s style, the following stanzas on the music which the Macedonians heard in Babylon:-- Alli era la musica · cantada per razon, Las dobles que refieren · coitas del corazon, Las dolces de las baylas, · el plorant semiton, Bien podrien toller precio · à quantos no mundo son. Non es en el mundo · ome tan sabedor, Que decir podiesse · qual era el dolzor, Mientre ome viviesse · en aquella sabor Non avrie sede · nen fame nen dolor. St. 1976, 1977. _Las dobles_ in modern Spanish means the tolling for the dead;--here, I suppose, it means some sort of sad chanting. A poem called “Los Votos del Pavon,” The Vows of the Peacock, which was a continuation of the “Alexandro,” is lost. If we may judge from an old French poem on the vows made over a peacock that had been a favorite bird of Alexander, and was served accidentally at table after that hero’s death, we have no reason to complain of our loss as a misfortune.[89] Nor have we probably great occasion to regret that we possess only extracts from a prose book of advice, prepared for his heir and successor by Sancho, the son of Alfonso the Tenth; for though, from the chapter warning the young prince against fools, we see that it wanted neither sense nor spirit, still it is not to be compared to the “Partidas” for precision, grace, or dignity of style.[90] We come, therefore, at once to a remarkable writer, who flourished a little later,--the Prince Don Juan Manuel. [89] Los Votos del Pavon is first mentioned by the Marquis of Santillana (Sanchez, Tom. I. p. lvii.); and Fauchet says, (Recueil de l’Origine de la Langue et Poésie Française, Paris, 1581, fol., p. 88,) “Le Roman du Pavon est une continuation des faits d’Alexandre.” There is an account of a French poem on this subject, in the “Notices et Extraits des Manuscrits de la Bibliothèque Nationale,” etc., (Paris, an VII. 4to,) Tom. V. p. 118. Vows were frequently made in ancient times over favorite birds (Barante, Ducs de Bourgogne, ad an. 1454, Paris, 1837, 8vo, Tom. VII. pp. 159-164); and the vows in the Spanish poem seem to have involved a prophetic account of the achievements and troubles of Alexander’s successors.