’Tis foully done to wrong the Basque; No nobler man than he. A desert-child, a Tartar wild, He once was more than free. 2. He ne’er to Tyrants bowed the neck, Nor stooped to slavish task. The King of Spain, if he would reign, Must doff before the Basque. 3. His lordly Fuéros prove his worth, Bequeathed from sire to son. Hidalgos proud, the Vascon crowd Are noble every one. 4. No other land the heir-loom grand Of Vascongada claims. Each earthly shore must vail before The nobler Vascon names. 5. No blood of Christ-beslaughtering Jew, No Moorish taint we own; But God’s own gold--the Christians Old, ’Tis we be they alone! 6. O’er stately Kings our triumph rings-- ’Tis thus we spoke to them, Low kneeling down, or ere the crown Possest this sparkling gem: 7. Our bonnets worn, in lordly scorn, The Monarch kneeling bare:-- “We great as you, more powerful too, “Our King we you declare. 8. “Our rights and liberties to guard, “We make thee King and Lord, “To be allowed our Fuéros proud; “If not--then No’s the word!” 9. And still when San Sebastian ran To take the King to task, Or treat with him for life or limb, He doffed him to the Basque! HISTORICAL AND ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES TO CANTO VII. For the incidents connected with Napoléon’s invasion of Portugal and Spain, and for the state of both monarchies at that period, the reader is referred to Napier’s and Southey’s Histories of the Peninsular War, and (with the necessary caution in the perusal) to Thiers’s _Histoire du Consulat et de l’Empire_. I have endeavoured to adhere as closely to historical truth as the nature of poetical composition would permit. My residence in both Peninsular countries, since they were visited either by Southey or Napier, has enabled me to add some additional particulars, derived from sources exhibited of late years, which tend to throw fresh light upon these transactions. The Emperor commenced with the invasion of Portugal, for various reasons, of which the chief was probably that, as there was no family alliance between France and Portugal, as between France and Spain, an injustice done to the former country would be less shocking and startling to the common feelings of mankind. That Napoléon himself regarded an invasion of Spain in that light is evident from a remarkable expression which he used in conversation with his aide-de-camp, Savary:--“I am always afraid of a change of which I do not see the scope: the best plan of all would be to avoid a war with Spain, it would be a kind of _Sacrilege_ (he used the expression); but I shall not shrink from making it.”--Thiers, _Histoire du Consulat et de l’Empire_.