Thus they beside the fountain sate, of food And rest forgetful, when a messenger Summon’d Count Julian to the Leader’s tent. In council there at that late hour he found The assembled Chiefs, on sudden tidings call’d Of unexpected weight from Cordoba. Jealous that Abdalazis had assumed A regal state, affecting in his court The forms of Gothic sovereignty, the Moors, Whom artful spirits of ambitious mould Stirr’d up, had risen against him in revolt: And he who late had in the Caliph’s name Ruled from the Ocean to the Pyrenees, A mutilate and headless carcase now, From pitying hands received beside the road A hasty grave, scarce hidden there from dogs And ravens, nor from wintry rains secure. She, too, who in the wreck of Spain preserved Her queenly rank, the wife of Roderick first, Of Abdalazis after, and to both Alike unhappy, shared the ruin now Her counsels had brought on; for she had led The infatuate Moor, in dangerous vauntery, To these aspiring forms, ... so should he gain Respect and honour from the Musselmen, She said, and that the obedience of the Goths Follow’d the sceptre. In an evil hour She gave the counsel, and in evil hour He lent a willing ear; the popular rage Fell on them both; and they to whom her name Had been a mark for mockery and reproach, Shudder’d with human horror at her fate. Ayub was heading the wild anarchy; But where the cement of authority Is wanting, all things there are dislocate: The mutinous soldiery, by every cry Of rumour set in wild career, were driven By every gust of passion, setting up One hour, what in the impulse of the next, Equally unreasoning, they destroy’d: thus all Was in misrule where uproar gave the law, And ere from far Damascus they could learn The Caliph’s pleasure, many a moon must pass. What should be done? should Abulcacem march To Cordoba, and in the Caliph’s name Assume the power which to his rank in arms Rightly devolved, restoring thus the reign Of order? or pursue with quicken’d speed The end of this great armament, and crush Rebellion first, then to domestic ills Apply his undivided mind and force Victorious? What in this emergency Was Julian’s counsel, Abulcacem ask’d, Should they accomplish soon their enterprize? Or would the insurgent infidels prolong The contest, seeking by protracted war To weary them, and trusting in the strength Of these wild hills? Julian replied, The Chief Of this revolt is wary, resolute, Of approved worth in war: a desperate part He for himself deliberately hath chosen, Confiding in the hereditary love Borne to him by these hardy mountaineers, A love which his own noble qualities Have strengthen’d so that every heart is his. When ye can bring them to the open proof Of battle, ye will find them in his cause Lavish of life; but well they know the strength Of their own fastnesses, the mountain paths