Sangre! sangre! oh, cielos, cuantos
Sin saber que lo es, la pisan!
This romance was originally printed with the ‘Moro Esposito,’ Paris 1834, vol. ii. p. 451. It was subsequently included among the ‘Romances Historicos,’ Madrid 1841, p. 19. The Alcazar of Seville has been described by so many travellers that it is unnecessary to add to their accounts of it, or to the graphic details of the romance. The stain on the floor may remind the reader of the legends of Holyrood and the Alhambra, as well as of other places.
40. [Page 233.] “Darting round fierce looks,” &c.
This description of anger, as again at [p. 241], seems a favourite one with the Duke, as well as other poets; thus Virgil—
Totoque ardentis ab ore
Scintillæ absistunt, oculis micat acribus ignis.
41. [Page 234.] “The crackling of his arms and knees.”
From the peculiarity of this formation, the king was recognized by an old woman who had witnessed his killing a man he had met in a night rencontre in the street opposite her house, and she having given evidence to that effect, he ordered his statue to be beheaded, and so placed in the street in memorial of the sentence against himself.