He has come within the thicket, there lay they on the green,
And he has pluck'd from off the grass the false priest's javelin ;
Firm by the throat she held him bound, down went the weapon sheer,
Down through his body to the ground, even as the boar ye spear.

They wrapp'd him in his mantle, and left him there to bleed,

And all that day they held their way; his palfrey served their need ;—
Till to their ears a sound did come, might fill their hearts with dread,
A steady whisper on the breeze, and horsemen's heavy tread.

The Infanta trembled in the wood, but forth the Count did

And, gazing wide, a troop descried upon the bridge below;
Gramercy!" quoth Gonsalez-" or else my sight is gone,
Methinks I know the pennon yon sun is shining on.

go,

"Come forth, come forth, Infanta, mine own true men they be, Come forth, and see my banner, and cry Castille! with me; My merry men draw near me, I see my pennon shine,

Their swords shine bright, Infanta, and every blade is thine."

THE

SEVEN HEADS.

'It was in the following year, (nine hundred and eighty-six,) that the seven most noble brothers, commonly called the INFANTS OF LARA, were slain by the treachery of Ruy Velasquez, who was their uncle, for they were the sons of his sister, Donna Sancha. By the father's side, they were sprung from the Counts of Castille, through the Count Don Diego Porcellos. From whose daughter, as has been narrated above, and Nuño Pelchides, there came two sons, namely, Nuno Rasura, great-grandfather of the Count Garci Fernandez, and Gustio Gonzalez. The last-named gentleman was father of GANZALO GUSTIO, Lord of Salas of Lara; and his sons were those seven brothers famous in the history of Spain, not more by reason of their deeds of prowess, than of the disastrous death which was their fortune. They were all knighted in the same day by the Count Don Garcia, according to the fashion which prevailed in those days, and more especially in Spain.

"Now it happened that Ruy Velasquez, Lord of Villaren, celebrated his nuptials in Burgos with Donna Lambra, a lady of very high birth, from the country of Brivisca, and indeed a cousin-german to the Count Garci Fernandez himself. The feast was splendid, and great was the concourse of principal gentry; and among others were present the Count Garci Fernandez, and those seven brothers, with Gonzalo Gustio, their father.

"From some trivial occasion, there arose a quarrel between Gonzalez, the youngest of the seven brothers, on the one hand, and a relation of Donna Lambra, by name Alvar Sanchez, on the other, without, however, any very serious consequences at the time. But Donna Lambra conceived herself to have been insulted by the quarrel, and in order to revenge herself, when the seven brothers were come as far as Barvadiello, riding in her train, the more to do her honour, she ordered one of her slaves to throw at Gonzalez a wild cucumber soaked in blood, a heavy insult and outrage, according to the then existing customs and opinions of Spain. The slave, having done as he was bid, fled for protection to his lady, Donna Lambra; but that availed him nothing, for they slew him within the very folds of her garment.

"RUY VELASQUEZ, who did not witness these things with his own eyes, no sooner returned, than, filled with wrath on account of this slaughter, and of the insult to his bride, he began to devise how he might avenge himself of the seven brothers.

"With semblances of peace and friendship, he concealed his mortal hatred ; and, after a time, Gonzalo Gustio, the father, was sent by him, suspecting nothing, to Cordova. The pretence was to bring certain monies which had been promised to Ruy Velasquez by the barbarian king, but the true purpose, that he might be put to death at a distance from his own country; for Ruy Velasquez asked the Moor to do this in letters written in the Arabic tongue, of which Gonzalo was made the bearer. The Moor, however, whether moved to have compassion on the grey hairs of so principal a gentleman, or desirous of at least making a shew of humanity, did not slay Gonzalo, but contented himself with imprisoning him. Nor was his durance of the strictest, for a certain sister of the Moorish King found ingress, and held communication with him there; and from that conversation, it is said, sprung MUDARRA GONZALEZ, author and founder of that most noble Spanish lineage of the MANRIQUES.

"But the fierce spirit of Ruy Velasquez was not satisfied with the tribulations of Gonzalo Gustio; he carried his rage still farther. Pretending to make an incursion into the Moorish country, he led into an ambuscade the seven bro

thers, who had as yet conceived no thought of his treacherous intentions. It is true that Nuño Sallido, their grandfather, had cautioned them with many warnings, for he indeed suspected the deceit ; but it was in vain, for so God willed or permitted. They had some two hundred horsemen with them, of their vassals, but these were nothing against the great host of Moors that set upon them from the ambuscade; and although when they found how it was, they acquitted themselves like good gentlemen, and slew many, they could accomplish nothing except making the victory dear to their enemies. They were resolved to avoid the shame of captivity, and were all slain, together with their grandfather Sallido. Their heads were sent to Cordova, an agreeable present to that king, but a sight of misery to their aged father, who, being brought into the place where they were, recognized them in spite of the dust and blood with which they were disfigured. It is true, nevertheless, that he derived some benefit therefrom; for the king, out of the compassion which he felt, set him at liberty to depart to his own country.

"Mudarra, the son born to Gonzalo (out of wedlock) by the sister of the Moor, when he had attained to the age of fourteen years, was prevailed on by his mother to go in search of his father; and he it was that avenged the death of his seven brothers, by slaying with his own hand Ruy Velasquez, the author of that calamity. Donna Lambra likewise, who had been the original cause of all those evils, was stoned to death by him and burnt.

"By this vengeance which he took for the murder of his seven brothers, he so won to himself the good-liking of his step-mother Donna Sancha, and of all the kindred, that he was received and acknowledged as heir to the Signiories of his father. Donna Sancha herself adopted him as her son, and the manner of the adoption was thus, not less memorable than rude:-The same day that he was baptized and stricken knight by Garci Fernandez, Count of Castille, his father's wife being resolved to adopt him, made use of this ceremony,—she drew him within a very wide smock by the sleeve, and thrust his head forth at the neck-band, and then kissing him on the face, delivered him to the family as her own child.

"In the cloister of the Monastery of Saint Peter of Arlanza, they show the sepulchre of Mudarra. But concerning the place where his seven brothers were buried, there is a dispute between the members of that house and those of the Monastery of Saint Millan at Cogolla."-MARIANA, Book VIII. chap. 9.

Such is Mariana's edition of the famous story of the Infants of Lara, a story which, next to the legends of the Cid, and of Bernardo Del Carpio, appears to have furnished the most favourite subjects of the old Spanish minstrels.

The ballad, a translation of which follows, relates to a part of the history briefly alluded to by Mariana. In the Chronicle we are informed more minutely, that after the seven infants were slain, Almanzor, King of Cordova, invited his prisoner, Gonzalo Gustio, to feast with him in his palace; but when the Baron of Lara came, in obedience to the royal invitation, he found the heads of his sons set forth in chargers on the table. The old man reproached the Moorish King bitterly for the cruelty and baseness of this proceeding, and suddenly snatching a sword from the side of one of the royal attendants, sacrificed to his wrath, ere he could be disarmed and fettered, thirteen of the Moors who surrounded the person of Almanzor. The whole of the far more copious account of the Infants of Lara, which occurs in the Coronica General de España, has been translated by Mr Southey, in one of the notes to his Chronicle of the Cid.

Mr Depping says, forty curious engravings of scenes in this romantic history, by TEMPESTA, after designs of OTTO VAN VEEN, were published at Antwerp, in 1612. These are, I have no doubt, the same which Mr Southey mentions as being in the collection of Mr White of Litchfield.