The Works of Lord Byron Volume II Part 17

[Manuel de G.o.doy (1767-1851) received the t.i.tle of _Principe de la Paz_, Prince of the Peace, in 1795, after the Treaty of Basle, which ceded more than half St. Domingo to France. His tenure of power, as prime minister and director of the king's policy, coincided with the downfall of Spanish power, and before the commencement of the Peninsular War he was a.s.sociated in the minds of the people with national corruption and national degradation. He was, moreover, directly instrumental in the betrayal of Spain to France. By the Treaty of Fontainebleau, October 27, 1807, Portugal was to be divided between the King of Etruria and G.o.doy as Prince of the Algarves, Portuguese America was to fall to the King of Spain, and to bring this about Napoleon's troops were to enter Spain and march directly to Lisbon. The sole outcome of the treaty was the occupation of Portugal and subsequent invasion of Spain. Before Byron had begun his pilgrimage, G.o.doy's public career had come to an end.

During the insurrection at Aranjuez, March 17-19, 1808, when Charles IV.

abdicated in favour of his son Ferdinand VII., G.o.doy was only preserved from the fury of the populace by a timely imprisonment. In the following May, by which time Ferdinand himself was a prisoner in France, he was released at the instance of Murat, and ordered to accompany Charles to Bayonne, for the express purpose of cajoling his master into a second abdication in favour of Napoleon. The remainder of his long life was pa.s.sed, first at Rome, and afterwards at Paris, in exile and dependence.

The execration of G.o.doy, "who was really a mild, good-natured man,"

must, in Napier's judgment, be attributed to Spanish venom and Spanish prejudice. The betrayal of Spain was, he thinks, the outcome of Ferdinand's intrigues no less than of G.o.doy's unpatriotic ambition.

Another and perhaps truer explanation of popular odium is to be found in his supposed atheism and well-known indifference to the rites of the Church, which many years before had attracted the attention of the Holy Office. The peasants cursed G.o.doy because the priests triumphed over his downfall (Napier's _History of the War in the Peninsula_, i. 8; Southey's _Peninsular War_, i. 85 note, 93, 215, 280).]

9.

Bears in his cap the badge of crimson hue, Which tells you whom to shun and whom to greet.

Stanza l. lines 2 and 3.

The red c.o.c.kade, with "Fernando Septimo" in the centre.

10.

The ball-piled pyramid, the ever-blazing match.

Stanza li. line 9.

All who have seen a battery will recollect the pyramidal form in which shot and sh.e.l.ls are piled. The Sierra Morena was fortified in every defile through which I pa.s.sed in my way to Seville.

11.

Foiled by a woman's hand, before a battered wall.

Stanza lvi. line 9.

Such were the exploits of the Maid of Saragoza, who by her valour elevated herself to the highest rank of heroines. When the author was at Seville, she walked daily on the Prado, decorated with medals and orders, by command of the Junta.

[The story, as told by Southey (who seems to have derived his information from _The Narrative of the Siege of Zaragoza_, by Charles Richard Vaughan, M.B., 1809), is that "Augustina Zaragoza (_sic_), a handsome woman of the lower cla.s.s, about twenty-two years of age," a vivandiere, in the course of her rounds came with provisions to a battery near the Portello gate. The gunners had all been killed, and, as the citizens held back, "Augustina sprang over the dead and dying, s.n.a.t.c.hed a match from the hand of a dead artilleryman, and fired off a twenty-six pounder; then, jumping upon the gun, made a solemn vow never to quit it alive during the siege."

After the retreat of the French, "a pension was settled upon Augustina, and the daily pay of an artilleryman. She was also to wear a small shield of honour, embroidered upon the sleeve of her gown, with 'Zaragoza' inscribed upon it" (Southey's _Peninsular War_, ii. 14, 34).

Napier, "neither wholly believing nor absolutely denying these exploits," which he does not condescend to give in detail, remarks "that for a long time afterwards, Spain swarmed with Zaragoza heroines, clothed in half-uniforms, and theatrically loaded with weapons."

A picture of "The Defence of Saragossa," painted by Sir David Wilkie, which contained her portrait, was exhibited in the Royal Academy in 1829, and was purchased by the king (Napier's _History of the War in the Peninsula_, i. 45; _Life of Sir D. Wilkie_, by John W. Mollett, 1881, p.

83). Compare, too, _The Age of Bronze_, vii. lines 53-56--

"... the desperate wall Of Saragossa, mightiest in her fall; The man nerved to a spirit, and the maid Waving her more than Amazonian blade."]

12.

The seal Love's dimpling finger hath impressed Denotes how soft that chin which bears his touch.

Stanza lviii. lines 1 and 2.

"Sigilla in mento impressa Amoris digitulo Vestigio demonstrant mollitudinem."

Aul. Gel.

[The quotation does not occur in Aulus Gellius, but is a fragment in iambic metre from the Papia papae pe?? ??????? [peri e)nkomi/on] of M.

Terentius Varro, cited by the grammarian Nonius Marcellus (_De Comp.

Doct_., ii. 135, lines 19-23). _Sigilla_ is a variant of the word in the text, _laculla_, a diminutive of _lacuna_, signifying a dimple in the chin. _Lacullum_ is not to be found in Facciolati. (_Vide_ Riese, _Varro. Satur. Menipp. Rel_., 1865, p. 164.)]

13.

Oh, thou Parna.s.sus!

Stanza lx. line 1.

These stanzas were written in Castri (Delphos), at the foot of Parna.s.sus, now called ??a???a [Liakyra] (Liakura), Dec. [16], 1809.

14.

Fair is proud Seville; let her country boast Her strength, her wealth, her site of ancient days.

Stanza lxv. lines 1 and 2.

Seville was the Hispalis of the Romans.

15.

Ask ye, Boeotian Shades! the reason why?

Stanza lxx. line 5.

This was written at Thebes, and consequently in the best situation for asking and answering such a question; not as the birthplace of Pindar, but as the capital of Boeotia, where the first riddle was propounded and solved.

[Byron reached Thebes December 22, 1809. By the first riddle he means, of course, the famous enigma of Oedipus--the prototype of Boeotian wit.]

16.

Some bitter o'er the flowers its bubbling venom flings.

Stanza lx.x.xii. line 9.

"Medio de fonte leporum Surgit amari aliquid quod in ipseis floribus angat."

Lucr., iv. 1133.

17.

A Traitor only fell beneath the feud.

Stanza lx.x.xv. line 7.

Alluding to the conduct and death of Solano, the governor of Cadiz, in May, 1808.

[The Marquis of Solano, commander-in-chief of the forces at Cadiz, was murdered by the populace. The "Supreme Junta" of Seville had directed him to attack the French fleet anch.o.r.ed off Cadiz, and Admiral Purvis, acting in concert with General Spencer, had offered to co-operate, but Solano was unwilling to take his orders "from a self-const.i.tuted authority, and hesitated to commit his country in war with a power whose strength he knew better than the temper of his countrymen." "His abilities, courage, and unblemished character have never been denied."--Napier's _War in the Peninsula_, i. 20, 21.]

18.

"War even to the knife!"

Stanza lx.x.xvi. line 9.

"War to the knife." Palafox's answer to the French general at the siege of Saragoza.

[Towards the close of the first siege of Zaragoza, August 5, 1808, Marshal Lefebvre (1755-1820), under the impression that the city had fallen into his hands, "required Palafox to surrender in these words: 'Quartel-general, Santa Engracia. La Capitulation!' ['Head-quarters, St.