Thus long had Roderick heard her powerful words In silence, awed before her; but his heart Was fill’d the while with swelling sympathy, And now with impulse not to be restrain’d The feeling overpower’d him. Hear me too, Auria, and Spain, and Heaven! he cried; and thou Who risest thus above mortality, Sufferer and patriot, saint and heroine, The servant and the chosen of the Lord, For surely such thou art, ... receive in me The first-fruits of thy calling. Kneeling then, And placing as he spake his hand in her’s, As thou hast sworn, the royal Goth pursued, Even so I swear; my soul hath found at length Her rest and refuge; in the invader’s blood She must efface her stains of mortal sin, And in redeeming this lost land, work out Redemption for herself. Herein I place My penance for the past, my hope to come, My faith and my good works; here offer up All thoughts and passions of mine inmost heart, My days and night, ... this flesh, this blood, this life, Yea, this whole being, do I here devote For Spain. Receive the vow, all Saints in Heaven, And prosper its good end!... Clap now your wings, The Goth with louder utterance as he rose Exclaim’d, ... clap now your wings exultingly Ye ravenous fowl of Heaven; and in your dens Set up, ye wolves of Spain, a yell of joy; For, lo! a nation hath this day been sworn To furnish forth your banquet; for a strife Hath been commenced, the which from this day forth Permits no breathing-time, and knows no end Till in this land the last invader bow His neck beneath the exterminating sword.