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[Original Size]
DON FERNANDO GOMERSALEZ
From the Spanish of Astley's.
Don Fernando Gomersalez! basely have
they borne thee down;
Paces ten behind thy charger is thy
glorious body thrown;
Fetters have they bound upon thee—iron
fetters, fast and sure;
Don Fernando Gomersalez, thou art cap-
tive to the Moor!
Long within a dingy dungeon pined that brave and noble
knight,
For the Saracenic warriors well they knew and feared his
might;
Long he lay and long he languished on his dripping bed
of stone,
Till the cankered iron fetters ate their way into his bone.
On the twentieth day of August—'twas the feast of false
Mahound—
Came the Moorish population from the neighbouring cities
round;
There to hold their foul carousal, there to dance and there
to sing,
And to pay their yearly homage to Al-Widdicomb, the
King!