For its peculiar people, as of yore

Abraham’s ungrateful race beneath the Law.

Who knows not how on that most holy night

When peace on Earth by Angels was proclaim’d,

The light which o’er the fields of Bethlehem shone,

Irradiated whole Spain? not just display’d,

As to the Shepherds, and again withdrawn;

All the long winter hours from eve till morn

Her forests and her mountains and her plains,

Her hills and valleys were embathed in light,