The Prose Works of William Wordsworth: For the First Time Collected, With Additions from Unpublished Manuscripts. In Three Volumes.Wordsworth, William
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The Prose Works of William Wordsworth: For the First Time Collected, With Additions from Unpublished Manuscripts. In Three Volumes.
Wordsworth, William
English literature -- 19th century
But a more urgent service calls me to point to further works of these
united powers, more obvious and obtrusive--works and appearances, such
as were hailed by the citizen of Seville when returning from
Madrid;--'where' (to use the words of his own public declaration) 'he
had left his countrymen groaning in the chains which perfidy had thrown
round them, and doomed at every step to the insult of being eyed with
the disdain of the conqueror to the conquered; from Madrid threatened,
harrassed, and vexed; where mistrust reigned in every heart, and the
smallest noise made the citizens tremble in the bosom of their families;
where the enemy, from time to time, ran to arms to sustain the
impression of terror by which the inhabitants had been stricken through
the recent massacre; from Madrid a prison, where the gaolers took
pleasure in terrifying the prisoners by alarms to keep them quiet; from
Madrid thus tortured and troubled by a relentless Tyrant, to fit it for
the slow and interminable evils of Slavery;'--when he returned, and was
able to compare the oppressed and degraded state of the inhabitants of
that metropolis with the noble attitude of defence in which Andalusia
stood. 'A month ago,' says he, 'the Spaniards had lost their
country;--Seville has restored it to life more glorious than ever; and
those fields, which for so many years have seen no steel but that of the
plough-share, are going amid the splendour of arms to prove the new
cradle of their adored country.'--'I could not,' he adds, 'refrain from
tears of joy on viewing the city in which I first drew breath--and to
see it in a situation so glorious!'
We might have trusted, but for late disgraces, that there is not a man
in these islands whose heart would not, at such a spectacle, have beat
in sympathy with that of this fervent Patriot--whose voice would not be
in true accord with his in the prayer (which, if he has not already
perished for the service of his dear country, he is perhaps uttering at
this moment) that Andalusia and the city of Seville may preserve the
noble attitude in which they then stood, and are yet standing; or, if
they be doomed to fall, that their dying efforts may not be unworthy of
their first promises; that the evening--the closing hour of their
freedom may display a brightness not less splendid, though more aweful,
than the dawn; so that the names of Seville and Andalusia may be
consecrated among men, and be words of life to endless generations.
Saragossa!--She also has given bond, by her past actions, that she
cannot forget her duty and will not shrink from it.[20]
[20] Written in February.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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