Despiteful thus she grew, because Humbled yet unrepentant. Who could say To what excess bad passions might impel A woman thus possess’d? She could not fail To mark Siverian’s absence, for what end Her conscience but too surely had divined; And Gaudiosa, well aware that all To the vile paramour was thus made known, Had to safe hiding-place with timely fear Removed her children. Well the event had proved How needful was that caution; for at night She sought the mountain solitudes, and morn Beheld Numacian’s soldiers at the gate. Yet did not sorrow in Pelayo’s heart For this domestic shame prevail that hour, Nor gathering danger weigh his spirit down. The anticipated meeting put to flight These painful thoughts; to-morrow will restore All whom his heart holds dear; his wife beloved, No longer now remember’d for regret, Is present to his soul with hope and joy; His inward eye beholds Favila’s form In opening youth robust, and Hermesind, His daughter, lovely as a budding rose; Their images beguile the hours of night, Till with the earliest morning he may seek Their secret hold. The nightingale not yet Had ceased her song, nor had the early lark Her dewy nest forsaken, when the Prince Upward beside Pionia took his way Toward Auseva. Heavily to him, Impatient for the morrow’s happiness, Long night had linger’d, but it seem’d more long To Roderick’s aching heart. He too had watch’d For dawn, and seen the earliest break of day, And heard its earliest sounds; and when the Prince Went forth, the melancholy man was seen With pensive pace upon Pionia’s side Wandering alone and slow. For he had left The wearying place of his unrest, that morn With its cold dews might bathe his throbbing brow, And with its breath allay the feverish heat That burnt within. Alas! the gales of morn Reach not the fever of a wounded heart! How shall he meet his Mother’s eye, how make His secret known, and from that voice revered Obtain forgiveness, ... all that he has now To ask, ere on the lap of earth in peace He lay his head resign’d? In silent prayer He supplicated Heaven to strengthen him Against that trying hour, there seeking aid Where all who seek shall find; and thus his soul Received support, and gather’d fortitude, Never than now more needful, for the hour Was nigh. He saw Siverian drawing near, And with a dim but quick foreboding met The good old man; yet when he heard him say My Lady sends to seek thee, like a knell To one expecting and prepared for death, But fearing the dread point that hastens on, It smote his heart. He follow’d silently, And knit his suffering spirit to the proof.