Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 2.djvu/92

58 Marked her black eye that mocks her coal-black veil,

Heard her light, lively tones in Lady's bower,

Seen her long locks that foil the painter's power,

Her fairy form, with more than female grace,

Scarce would you deem that Saragoza's tower

Beheld her smile in Danger's Gorgon face,

Thin the closed ranks, and lead in Glory's fearful chase.

LVI.

Her lover sinks—she sheds no ill-timed tear;

Her Chief is slain—she fills his fatal post;

Her fellows flee—she checks their base career;

The Foe retires—she heads the sallying host:

Who can appease like her a lover's ghost?

Who can avenge so well a leader's fall?

What maid retrieve when man's flushed hope is lost?

Who hang so fiercely on the flying Gaul,

Foiled by a woman's hand, before a battered wall?N11

LVII.

Yet are Spain's maids no race of Amazons,

But formed for all the witching arts of love:

Though thus in arms they emulate her sons,

And in the horrid phalanx dare to move,

'Tis but the tender fierceness of the dove,

Pecking the hand that hovers o'er her mate:

In softness as in firmness far above

Remoter females, famed for sickening prate;

Her mind is nobler sure, her charms perchance as great.