Impervious to pursuit, the vantages Of rock, and pass, and woodland, and ravine; And hardly will ye tempt them to forego These natural aids wherein they put their trust As in their stubborn spirit, each alike Deem’d by themselves invincible, and so By Roman found and Goth ... beneath whose sway Slowly persuaded rather than subdued They came, and still through every change retain’d Their manners obstinate and barbarous speech. My counsel, therefore, is, that we secure With strong increase of force the adjacent posts, And chiefly Gegio, leaving them so mann’d As may abate the hope of enterprize Their strength being told. Time in a strife like this Becomes the ally of those who trust in him: Make then with Time your covenant. Old feuds May disunite the chiefs: some may be gain’d By fair entreaty, others by the stroke Of nature, or of policy, cut off. This was the counsel which in Cordoba I offer’d Abdalazis: in ill hour Rejecting it, he sent upon this war His father’s faithful friend! Dark are the ways Of destiny! had I been at his side Old Muza would not now have mourn’d his age Left childless, nor had Ayub dared defy The Caliph’s represented power. The case Calls for thine instant presence, with the weight Of thy legitimate authority. Julian said Orpas, turning from beneath His turban to the Count a crafty eye, Thy daughter is return’d; doth she not bring Some tidings of the movements of the foe? The Count replied, When child and parent meet First reconciled from discontents which wrung The hearts of both, ill should their converse be Of warlike matters! There hath been no time For such enquiries, neither should I think To ask her touching that for which I know She hath neither eye nor thought. There was a time Orpas with smile malignant thus replied, When in the progress of the Caliph’s arms Count Julian’s daughter had an interest Which touch’d her nearly! But her turn is served, And hatred of Prince Orpas may beget Indifference to the cause. Yet Destiny Still guideth to the service of the faith The wayward heart of woman; for as one Delivered Roderick to the avenging sword, So hath another at this hour betray’d Pelayo to his fall. His sister came At nightfall to my tent a fugitive. She tells me that on learning our approach The rebel to a cavern in the hills Had sent his wife and children, and with them Those of his followers, thinking there conceal’d They might be safe. She, moved, by injuries Which stung her spirit, on the way escaped, And for revenge will guide us. In reward She asks her brother’s forfeiture of lands In marriage with Numacian: something too Touching his life, that for her services It might be spared, she said; ... an after-thought To salve decorum, and if conscience wake Serve as a sop: but when the sword shall smite Pelayo and his dangerous race, I ween