Lord Byron

Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (With Byron's Biography)


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rel="nofollow" href="#ulink_df7a9cb3-d04c-54e2-b1ea-b3af72f8ef5f">az ——by tottering convent crowned.—[MS. erased.] Alcornoque.—[Note (pencil).]

      "Our first object was the convent of Nossa Senhora da Penha, the little romantic pile of white building I had seen glittering from afar when I first sailed by the coast of Lisbon. From this pyramidical elevation the view is boundless; you look immediately down upon an immense expanse of sea.

      ... A long series of detached clouds of a dazzling whiteness suspended low over the waves had a magic effect, and in pagan times might have appeared, without any great stretch of fancy, the cars of marine divinities, just risen from the bosom of their element."—Italy, etc., p. 249.

      "Before the entrance, formed by two ledges of ponderous rock, extends a smooth level of greensward.... The Hermitage, its cell, chapel, and refectory, are all scooped out of the native marble, and lined with the bark of the cork tree. Several of the passages are not only roofed, but floored with the same material ... The shrubberies and garden-plots dispersed amongst the mossy rocks ... are delightful, and I took great pleasure in ... following the course of a transparent rill, which was conducted through a rustic water-shoot, between bushes of lavender and roses, many of the tenderest green."—Ibid., p. 250.

      The inscription to the memory of Honorius (d. 159, æt. 95) is on a stone in front of the cave—

      "Hic Honorius vitam finivit;

       Et ideo cum Deo in coelis revivit."]

      The crosses made no impression upon Hobhouse, who, no doubt, had realized that they were nothing but guideposts. For an explanation, see letter of Mr. Matthew Lewtas to the Athenæum, July 19, 1873: "The track from the main road to the convent, rugged and devious, leading up to the mountain, is marked out by numerous crosses now, just as it was when Byron rode along it in 1809, and it would appear he fell into the mistake of considering that the crosses were erected to show where assassinations had been committed."]

      The "Prince's palace" (line 5) may be the royal palace at Cintra, "the Alhambra of the Moorish kings," or, possibly, the palace (vide post, stanza xxix. line 7) at Mafra, ten miles from Cintra.]

      In golden characters right well designed First on the list appeareth one "Junot;" Then certain other glorious names we find, (Which Rhyme compelleth me to place below:) Dull victors! baffled by a vanquished foe, Wheedled by conynge tongues of laurels due, Stand, worthy of each other in a rowSirs Arthur, Harry, and the dizzard Hew Dalrymple, seely wight, sore dupe of t'other tew.

      Convention is the dwarfy demon styled That failed the knights in Marialva's dome: Of brains (if brains they had) he them beguiled, And turned a nation's shallow joy to gloom. For well I wot, when first the news did come That Vimiera's field by Gaul was lost, For paragraph ne paper scarce had room, Such Pæans teemed for our triumphant host, In Courier, Chronicle, and eke in Morning Post.

      But when Convention sent his handy work Pens, tongues, feet, hands combined in wild uproar; Mayor, Aldermen, laid down the uplifted fork; The Bench of Bishops half forgot to snore; Stern Cobbett,Awho for one whole week forbore To question aught, once more with transport leapt, And bit his devilish quill agen, and swore With foes such treaty never should be kept, While roared the blatant Beast,B and roared, and raged, and—slept!!

      Thus unto Heaven appealed the people: Heaven Which loves the lieges of our gracious King, Decreed that ere our Generals were forgiven, Enquiry should be held about the thing. But Mercy cloaked the babes beneath her wing; And as they spared our foes so spared we them; (Where was the pity of our Sires for Byng?)C Yet knaves, not idiots should the law condemn; Then live ye gallant Knights! and bless your Judges'