Seemed as if every Spanish soldier peal’d
His requiem, not his battle-shout!—Oh Sirs!
We stood not then on terms of war,—devices
To give the coward the cold praise of art:—
We fought with life and soul upon the issue,—
With sword (once drawn) whose battle knew no end,—
With hand, that wedded to the faithful hilt,
Knew no divorce but death, and held it then
With grasp which death unlocks not!—
Critics took but little notice of Manuel. In the Monthly Review[101] there appeared an article in which the play is unmercifully cut up, and the circumstance of De Zelos’s dagger, above all, subjected to ridicule: