Had night and darkness seem’d to Roderick’s heart,

With all their dread creations. From the throng

He turn’d aside, unable to endure

This burthen of the general woe; nor walls,

Nor towers, nor mountain fastnesses he sought,

A firmer hold his spirit yearn’d to find,

A rock of surer strength. Unknowing where,

Straight through the wild he hasten’d on all day

And with unslacken’d speed was travelling still

When evening gather’d round. Seven days from morn