Soph. Antig. 891.
“Oh sepulchre, oh bridal bed, oh earth-dug everlasting dwelling!—by the worst of deaths I perish before the allotted day.”
I visited in September last the principal historical scenes recorded in this Canto—the Castle at Bayonne where Napoléon filched the crown with such sinister dexterity from the old King, as well as from Ferdinand VII.; the fine fortress at Badajoz where the miserable Godoy was born; the museum of Armoin at Madrid, where, alas, the sword of Francis the First surrendered at Pavía, is not; and the monument in the Prado, erected to the memory of the victims who fell on the Dos de Maio. I had previously visited the fields of Roriça and Vimieiro, and made more than one pilgrimage to Corunna.
The name of the Maid of Zaragoza (in contradiction to all English writers) I have fixed, upon Spanish authority, as Manuela Sanchez.
IBERIA WON.
Canto IX.
I.