They seek, are sought; to daily battle led, Shrink not, though far outnumbered by their Foes, For they have learnt to open and to close The ridges of grim war;[A] and at their head Are captains such as erst their country bred 5 Or fostered, self-supported chiefs,--like those Whom hardy Rome was fearful to oppose; Whose desperate shock the Carthaginian fled. In One who lived unknown a shepherd's life Redoubted Viriatus breathes again;[B] 10 And Mina, nourished in the studious shade,[C] With that great Leader[D] vies, who, sick of strife And bloodshed, longed in quiet to be laid In some green island of the western main. FOOTNOTES: [A] Compare _Paradise Lost_, book vi. ll. 235-36-- and when to close The ridges of grim war. ED. [B] Viriatus, for eight or fourteen years leader of the Lusitanians in the war with the Romans in the middle of the second century B.C. He defeated many of the Roman generals, including Q. Pompeius. Some of the historians say that he was originally a shepherd, and then a robber or guerilla chieftain. (See Livy, books 52 and 54.)--ED. [C] "Whilst the chief force of the French was occupied in Portugal and Andalusia, and there remained in the interior of Spain only a few weak corps, the Guerilla system took deep root, and in the course of 1811 attained its greatest perfection. Left to itself the boldest and most enterprising of its members rose to command, and the mode of warfare best adapted to their force and habits was pursued. Each province boasted of a hero, in command of a formidable band--Old Castile, Don Julian Sanches; Aragon, Longa; Navarre, Esprez y Mina, ... with innumerable others, whose deeds spread a lustre over every part of the kingdom.... Mina and Longa headed armies of 6000 or 8000 men with distinguished ability, and displayed manoeuvres oftentimes for months together, in baffling the pursuit of more numerous bodies of French, which would reflect credit on the most celebrated commanders." Mina had been trained for clerical life. (See _Account of the War in Spain and Portugal, and in the south of France, from 1808 to 1814 inclusive_, by Lieut.-Colonel John T. Jones. London, 1818.)--ED. [D] Sertorius.--W. W. 1827. See note to _The Prelude_ book i. vol. iii. p. 138.--ED. "THE POWER OF ARMIES IS A VISIBLE THING" Composed 1811.--Published 1815 One of the "Sonnets dedicated to Liberty."