In commune with a priest of age mature, Whose thoughtful visage and majestic mien Bespake authority and weight of care, Odoar, the venerable Abbot, sate, When ushering Roderick in, the Porter said, A stranger came from Auria, and required His private ear. From Auria? said the old man, Comest thou from Auria, brother? I can spare Thy painful errand then, ... we know the worst. Nay, answer’d Roderick, but thou hast not heard My tale. Where that devoted city lies In ashes, mid the ruins and the dead I found a woman, whom the Moors had borne Captive away; but she, by Heaven inspired And her good heart, with her own arm had wrought Her own deliverance, smiting in his tent A lustful Moorish miscreant, as of yore By Judith’s holy deed the Assyrian fell. And that same spirit which had strengthen’d her Work’d in her still. Four walls with patient toil She rear’d, wherein, as in a sepulchre, With her own hands she laid her murder’d babe, Her husband and her parents, side by side; And when we cover’d in this shapeless tomb, There on the grave of all her family, Did this courageous mourner dedicate All thoughts and actions of her future life To her poor country. For she said, that Heaven Supporting her, in mercy had vouchsafed A foretaste of revenge; that, like the grace Of God, revenge had saved her; that in it Spain must have her salvation; and henceforth That passion, thus sublimed and sanctified, Must be to all the loyal sons of Spain The pole-star of their faith, their rule and rite, Observances and worthiest sacrifice. I took the vow, unworthy as I am, Her first sworn follower in the appointed rule; And then we parted; she among the hills To rouse the vassals of her father’s house: I at her bidding hitherward, to ask Thy counsel, who of our old Baronage Shall place upon his brow the Spanish crown. The Lady Adosinda? Odoar cried. Roderick made answer, So she call’d herself.