No son abrazos de amor
Los que los dos se están dando;
Que el uno tiene una daga,
Y otro un puñal acerado.
So run the first two verses, which I leave the reader to translate for himself, lest further damage be done them.
The proclamation of Don Henry takes up the story where the preceding ballad left it off. In the translation of this, it seems to me, Lockhart has been much more successful than his great father-in-law proved himself in that of its companion ballad. I do not think it possible, however, to render adequately by an English pen the dignified rhythm of the Castilian in which this romancero is dressed. But the second verse,
So dark and sullen is the glare of Pedro’s lifeless eyes,
Still half he fears what slumbers there to vengeance may arise.
So stands the brother, on his brow the mark of blood is seen,
Yet had he not been Pedro’s Cain, his Cain had Pedro been,