The Prose Works of William Wordsworth: For the First Time Collected, With Additions from Unpublished Manuscripts. In Three Volumes.Wordsworth, William
General
The Prose Works of William Wordsworth: For the First Time Collected, With Additions from Unpublished Manuscripts.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
The French were told in that proclamation, that French blood
profusely shed was crying out for vengeance! And the Spanish blood, does
not _it_ cry out for vengeance? That Spanish blood, shed by an army
which hesitated not to attack a disarmed and defenceless people, living
under their laws and their king, and against whom cruelties were
committed, which shake the human frame with horror. We, all Spain,
exclaim--the Spanish blood shed in Madrid cries aloud for revenge!
Comfort yourselves, we are your brethren: we will fight like you, until
we perish in defending our king and country. Assist us with your good
wishes, and your continual prayers offered up to the Most High, whom we
adore, and who cannot forsake us, because he never forsakes a just
cause.' Again, in the conclusion of their address to the People of
Portugal, quoted before, 'The universal cry of Spain is, we will die in
defence of our country, but we will take care that those infamous
enemies shall die with us. Come then, ye generous Portugueze, and unite
with us. You have among yourselves the objects of your vengeance--obey
not the authors of your misfortunes--attack them--they are but a handful
of miserable panic-struck men, humiliated and conquered already by the
perfidy and cruelties which they have committed, and which have covered
them with disgrace in the eyes of Europe and the world! Rise then in a
body, but avoid staining your honourable hands with crimes, for your
design is to resist them and to destroy them--our united efforts will do
for this perfidious nation; and Portugal, Spain, nay, all Europe, shall
breathe or die free like men.'--Such are their hopes; and again see,
upon this subject, the paper entitled '_Precautions_;' a contrast this
to the impious mockery of Providence, exhibited by the Tyrant in some
passages heretofore quoted! 'Care shall be taken to explain to the
nation, and to convince them that, when free, as we trust to be, from
this civil war, to which the French have forced us, and when placed in a
state of tranquillity, our Lord and King, Ferdinand VII, being restored
to the throne of Spain, under him and by him, _the Cortes will be
assembled, abuses reformed_, and such laws shall be enacted, as the
circumstances of the time and experience may dictate for the public good
and happiness. Things which we Spaniards know how to do, which we have
done as well as other nations, without any necessity that the vile
French should come to instruct us, and, according to their custom, under
the mask of friendship, should deprive us of our liberty, our laws, &c.
&c.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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