To give me vengeance on these Roman foes;
Else all is over, 'tis a hopeless case,
To save from ruin this Numantian race.
Enter the river Douro, with several boys attired as rivers like himself, these being the tributary streams which flow into the Douro.
Douro.
O Spain, my mother dear, thy piercing cries
Have struck upon mine ears for many an hour,
And if I did not haste me to arise,
It was that succour lay beyond my power.
That fatal day, that day of miseries,