[73] [The scene is laid on the heights of the Sierra Morena. The travellers are looking across the "long level plain" of the Guadalquivir to the mountains of Ronda and Granada, with their "hill-forts ...perched everywhere like eagles' nests" (Ford's _Handbook for Spain_, i. 252). The French, under Dupont, entered the Morena, June 2, 1808. They stormed the bridge at Alcolea, June 7, and occupied Cordoba, but were defeated at Bailen, July 19, and forced to capitulate. Hence the traces of war. The "Dragon's nest" (line 7) is the ancient city of Jaen, which guards the skirts of the Sierras "like a watchful Cerberus." It was taken by the French, but recaptured by the Spanish, early in July, 1808 (_History of the War in the Peninsula_, i. 71-80).] [74] {55} [The Sierra Morena gets its name from the classical _Montes Mariani_, not, as Byron seems to imply, from its dark and dusky aspect.] [co] {56} ----_the never-changing watch_.--[MS. D.] [cp] _The South must own_----.--[MS. D.] [cq] _When soars Gaul's eagle_----.--[MS. D.] [75] [As time went on, Byron's sentiments with regard to Napoleon underwent a change, and he hesitates between sympathetic admiration and reluctant disapproval. At the moment his enthusiasm was roused by Spain's heroic resistance to the new Alaric, "the scourger of the world," and he expresses himself like Southey "or another" (_vide post_, Canto III., pp. 238, 239).] [76] {57} ["A short two-edged knife or dagger ... formerly worn at the girdle" (_N. Eng. Dict._, art. "Anlace"). The "anlace" of the Spanish heroines was the national weapon, the _puñal_, or _cuchillo_, which was sometimes stuck in the sash (_Handbook for Spain_, ii. 803).] [77] [Compare _Macbeth_, act v. sc. 5, line 10-- "The Time has been, my senses would have cooled To hear a night-shriek."] [cr] -----_the column-scattering bolt afar,_ _The falchion's flash_--[MS. erased, D.] [cs] {59} _The seal Love's rosy finger has imprest_ _On her fair chin denotes how soft his touch:_ _Her lips where kisses make voluptuous nest_.--[MS. erased.] [78] [Writing to his mother (August 11, 1809), Byron compares "the Spanish style" of beauty to the disadvantage of the English: "Long black hair, dark languishing eyes, _clear_ olive complexions, and forms more graceful in motion than can be conceived by an Englishman ... render a Spanish beauty irresistible" (_Letters_, 1898, i. 239). Compare, too, the opening lines of _The Girl of Cadiz_, which gave place to the stanzas _To Inez_, at the close of this canto-- "Oh never talk again to me Of northern climes and British ladies." But in _Don Juan_, Canto XII. stanzas lxxiv.-lxxvii., he makes the _amende_ to the fair Briton-- "She cannot step as doth an Arab barb, Or Andalusian girl from mass returning. * * * * * But though the soil may give you time and trouble, Well cultivated, it will render double."] [ct] {60}