The vast and elaborate vestibule, in short, in which we had been so long detained, 'Where wonders wild of Arabesque combine has no corresponding palace attached to it; and the long noviciate we are made to serve to the mysterious powers of romance is not repaid, after all, by an introduction to their awful presence JEFFREY.] THE VISION OF DON RODERICK CONCLUSION. I. "WHO shall command Estrella's mountain-tide 1 Back to the source, when tempest-chafed, to hie? Who, when Gascogne's vex'd gulf is raging wide, Shall hush it as a nurse her infant's cry? His magic power let such vain boaster try, And when the torrent shall his voice obey, And Biscay's whirlwinds list his lullaby, Let him stand forth and bar mine eagles' way, And they shall heed his voice, and at his bidding stay. [MS." Who shall command the torrent's headlong tide."] II. "Else ne'er to stoop, till high on Lisbon's towers They close their wings, the symbol of our yoke, And their own sea hath whelm'd yon red-cross Powers! Thus, on the summit of Alverca's rock, To Marshal. Duke, and Peer, Gaul's Leader spoke. While downward on the land his legions press, Before them it was rich with vine and flock, And smiled like Eden in her summer dress; Behind their wasteful march, a reeking wilder ness, 1 1 I have ventured to apply to the movements of the French army that sublime passage in the prophecies of Joel, which seems applicable to them in more respects than that I have adopted in the text. One would think their ravages, their military appointments, the terror which they spread among invaded nations, their military discipline, their arts of political intrigue and deceit, were distinctly pointed out in the following verses of Scripture (chap. ii.): "2. A day of darknesse and of gloominesse, a day of clouds and of thick darknesse, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong, there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the yeares of many genèrations. 3. A fire devoureth before them, and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behinde them a desolate wilderness, yea, and nothing shall escape them. 4. The ap |