Flush’d with success, and in auspicious hour, The Mountaineers set forth. Blessings and prayers Pursued them at their parting, and the tears Which fell were tears of fervour, not of grief. The sun was verging to the western slope Of Heaven, but they till midnight travell’d on; Renewing then at early dawn their way, They held their unremitting course from morn Till latest eve, such urgent cause impell’d; And night had closed around, when to the vale Where Sella in her ampler bed receives Pionia’s stream they came. Massive and black Pelayo’s castle there was seen; its lines And battlements against the deep blue sky Distinct in solid darkness visible. No light is in the tower. Eager to know The worst, and with that fatal certainty To terminate intolerable dread, He spurr’d his courser forward. All his fears Too surely are fulfill’d, ... for open stand The doors, and mournfully at times a dog Fills with his howling the deserted hall. A moment overcome with wretchedness, Silent Pelayo stood! recovering then, Lord God, resign’d he cried, thy will be done! XIV. THE RESCUE. Count, said Pelayo, Nature hath assign’d Two sovereign remedies for human grief; Religion, surest, firmest, first and best, Strength to the weak and to the wounded balm; And strenuous action next. Think not I came With unprovided heart. My noble wife, In the last solemn words, the last farewell With which she charged her secret messenger, Told me that whatsoe’er was my resolve, She bore a mind prepared. And well I know The evil, be it what it may, hath found In her a courage equal to the hour. Captivity, or death, or what worse pangs, She in her children may be doom’d to feel, Will never make that steady soul repent Its virtuous purpose. I too did not cast My single life into the lot, but knew These dearer pledges on the die were set; And if the worst have fallen, I shall but bear That in my breast, which, with transfiguring power Of piety, makes chastening sorrow take The form of hope, and sees, in Death, the friend And the restoring Angel. We must rest Perforce, and wait what tidings night may bring, Haply of comfort. Ho there! kindle fires, And see if aught of hospitality Can yet within these mournful walls be found!