Mas, ay! aquellos pensiles No he pisado un solo dia Sin ver (sueños de mi mente!) La sombra de la Padilla, Lanzando un hondo gemido Cruzar leve ante mi vista, Como un vapor, como un humo Que entre los àrboles gira: Ni entrè en aquellos salones Sin figuràrseme erguida Del fundador la fantasma En helada sangre tinta; Ni en vestibulo oscuro El que tiene en la cornisa De los reyes los retratos, El que en colunas estriba, Al que adornan azulejos Abajo, y esmalte arriba El que muestra en cada muro Un rico balcon, y encima El hondo arteson dorado Que lo corona y atrista, Sin ver en tierra un cadaver. Aun en las losas se mira Una tenaz mancha oscura Ni las edades limpian! Sangre! sangre! oh, cielos, cuantos Sin saber que lo es, la pisan! This romance was originally printed with the ‘Moro Esposito,’ Paris 1834, vol. ii. p. 451. It was subsequently included among the ‘Romances Historicos,’ Madrid 1841, p. 19. The Alcazar of Seville has been described by so many travellers that it is unnecessary to add to their accounts of it, or to the graphic details of the romance. The stain on the floor may remind the reader of the legends of Holyrood and the Alhambra, as well as of other places. 40. Page 233. “Darting round fierce looks,” &c. This description of anger, as again at p. 241, seems a favourite one with the Duke, as well as other poets; thus Virgil-- Totoque ardentis ab ore Scintillæ absistunt, oculis micat acribus ignis. 41. Page 234. “The crackling of his arms and knees.” From the peculiarity of this formation, the king was recognized by an old woman who had witnessed his killing a man he had met in a night rencontre in the street opposite her house, and she having given evidence to that effect, he ordered his statue to be beheaded, and so placed in the street in memorial of the sentence against himself. 42. Page 236. “And more than Tello madly hates, And more than Henry too.” The two brothers of Fadrique, of whom Henry was his successor on the throne, after he had killed Don Pedro in fight by his own hand. In another romance, the Duke de Rivas describes this “fratricide,” and represents that Don Pedro had the advantage at first, but that the page of the other came to his master’s assistance, and attacking Don Pedro from behind, diverted his attention so as to enable him to give the King the death-wound. From the accounts handed down to us, it is clear that Don Pedro had sufficient grounds for suspecting treason from the brothers, which occasioned his animosity against them and their adherents, for which they afterwards blackened his memory. 43. Page 259. “Meagre soup bouillie.”