That great Fernando here and Isabel,
Beneath this aged oak, these mountain skies,
Swore to maintain Biscaya’s rights full well.
’Tis said that those who lived where now ye dwell—
I did not say your fathers—with their swords
Won and preserved their fuéros from the fell
Assaults of native tyrants—idle words!
Ye know the fuéros melt i’ th’ breath of foreign lords.
X.
“’Tis said Biscaya’s lawgivers of old