The fleecey vapour hung, and in its veil With all their dreadful preparations wrapt The Mountaineers; ... in breathless hope they lay, Some blessing God in silence for the power This day vouchsafed; others with fervency Of prayer and vow invoked the Mother-Maid, Beseeching her that in this favouring hour She would be strongly with them. From below Meantime distinct they heard the passing tramp Of horse and foot, continuous as the sound Of Deva’s stream, and barbarous tongues commixt With laughter, and with frequent shouts, ... for all Exultant came, expecting sure success; Blind wretches, over whom the ruin hung! They say, quoth one, that though the Prophet’s soul Doth with the black-eyed Houris bathe in bliss, Life hath not left his body, which bears up By its miraculous power the holy tomb, And holds it at Medina in the air Buoyant between the temple’s floor and roof: And there the Angels fly to him with news From East, West, North, and South, of what befalls His faithful people. If when he shall hear The tale of this day’s work, he should for joy Forget that he is dead, and walk abroad, ... It were as good a miracle as when He sliced the moon! Sir Angel hear me now, Whoe’er thou be’st who art about to speed From Spain to Araby! when thou hast got The Prophet’s ear, be sure thou tellest him How bravely Ghauleb did his part to-day, And with what special reverence he alone Desired thee to commend him to his grace!... Fie on thee, scoffer that thou art! replied His comrade; thou wilt never leave these gibes Till some commission’d arrow through the teeth Shall nail the offending tongue. Hast thou not heard How when our clay is leaven’d first with life, The ministering Angel brings it from that spot Whereon ’tis written in the eternal book That soul and body must their parting take, And earth to earth return? How knowest thou But that the Spirit who compounded thee, To distant Syria from this very vale Bore thy component dust, and Azrael here Awaits thee at this hour?... Little thought he Who spake, that in that valley at that hour One death awaited both! Thus they pursued Toward the cave their inauspicious way. Weak childhood there and ineffective age In the chambers of the rock were placed secure; But of the women, all whom with the babes Maternal care detain’d not, were aloft To aid in the destruction; by the side Of fathers, brethren, husbands, station’d there They watch and pray. Pelayo in the cave With the venerable primate took his post. Ranged on the rising cliffs on either hand, Vigilant sentinels with eye intent Observe his movements, when to take the word And pass it forward. He in arms complete Stands in the portal: a stern majesty Reign’d in his countenance severe that hour, And in his eye a deep and dreadful joy Shone, as advancing up the vale he saw The Moorish banners.