En medio se arrojaba de la llama
Lleno de temerario desatino.
Y al arrojarse dijo: O clara fama,
Ocupa aqui tus lenguas y tus ojos
En esta hazaña que a cantar te llama!
Venid, Romanos, ya por los despojos
Deste ciudad en polvo y humo envueltos,
Y sus floras y frutos en abrojos!
[Note 14], Page 112.
Viriato. It is a touch of genius, on Cervantes' part, to give this youth, who concentrates at last in his own person all the heroism of his nation, the name of the illustrious Lusitanian hero, Viriatus, the William Wallace of his age and country, who for more than a decade was the terror of the Romans and the pride of his nation, and who, like the Scottish hero, was at last done to death by treachery.