How then, exclaim’d the boy, shall I discharge The burthen of this happiness, ... how ease My overflowing soul!... Oh gracious God, Shall I behold my mother’s face again, ... My father’s hall, ... my native hills and vales, And hear the voices of their streams again, ... And free as I was born amid those scenes Beloved, maintain my country’s freedom there, ... Or, failing in the sacred enterprise, Die as becomes a Spaniard?... Saying thus, He lifted up his hands and eyes toward The image of the Crucified, and cried, O Thou who didst with thy most precious blood Redeem us, Jesu! help us while we seek Earthly redemption from this yoke of shame And misbelief and death. The noble boy Then rose, and would have knelt again to clasp Pelayo’s knees, and kiss his hand in act Of homage; but the Prince, preventing this, Bent over him in fatherly embrace, And breathed a fervent blessing on his head. IX. FLORINDA. There sate a woman like a supplicant, Muffled and cloak’d, before Pelayo’s gate, Awaiting when he should return that morn. She rose at his approach, and bow’d her head, And, with a low and trembling utterance, Besought him to vouchsafe her speech within In privacy. And when they were alone, And the doors closed, she knelt and claspt his knees, Saying, a boon! a boon! This night, O Prince, Hast thou kept vigil for thy mother’s soul: For her soul’s sake, and for the soul of him Whom once, in happier days, of all mankind Thou heldest for thy chosen bosom friend, Oh for the sake of his poor suffering soul, Refuse me not! How should I dare refuse, Being thus adjured? he answer’d. Thy request Is granted, woman, ... be it what it may, So it be lawful, and within the bounds Of possible atchievement: ... aught unfit Thou wouldst not with these adjurations seek. But who thou art, I marvel, that dost touch Upon that string, and ask in Roderick’s name!... She bared her face, and, looking up, replied, Florinda!... Shrinking then, with both her hands She hid herself, and bow’d her head abased Upon her knee, ... as one who, if the grave Had oped beneath her, would have thrown herself, Even like a lover, in the arms of Death.