XXII. THE MOORISH COUNCIL.

Thus they beside the fountain sate, of food

And rest forgetful, when a messenger

Summon’d Count Julian to the Leader’s tent.

In council there at that late hour he found

The assembled Chiefs, on sudden tidings call’d

Of unexpected weight from Cordoba.

Jealous that Abdalazis had assumed

A regal state, affecting in his court

The forms of Gothic sovereignty, the Moors,

Whom artful spirits of ambitious mould

Stirr’d up, had risen against him in revolt:

And he who late had in the Caliph’s name

Ruled from the Ocean to the Pyrenees,

A mutilate and headless carcase now,

From pitying hands received beside the road

A hasty grave, scarce hidden there from dogs

And ravens, nor from wintry rains secure.

She, too, who in the wreck of Spain preserved

Her queenly rank, the wife of Roderick first,

Of Abdalazis after, and to both

Alike unhappy, shared the ruin now

Her counsels had brought on; for she had led

The infatuate Moor, in dangerous vauntery,

To these aspiring forms, ... so should he gain

Respect and honour from the Musselmen,

She said, and that the obedience of the Goths

Follow’d the sceptre. In an evil hour

She gave the counsel, and in evil hour

He lent a willing ear; the popular rage

Fell on them both; and they to whom her name

Had been a mark for mockery and reproach,

Shudder’d with human horror at her fate.

Ayub was heading the wild anarchy;

But where the cement of authority

Is wanting, all things there are dislocate:

The mutinous soldiery, by every cry

Of rumour set in wild career, were driven

By every gust of passion, setting up

One hour, what in the impulse of the next,

Equally unreasoning, they destroy’d: thus all

Was in misrule where uproar gave the law,

And ere from far Damascus they could learn

The Caliph’s pleasure, many a moon must pass.

What should be done? should Abulcacem march

To Cordoba, and in the Caliph’s name

Assume the power which to his rank in arms

Rightly devolved, restoring thus the reign

Of order? or pursue with quicken’d speed

The end of this great armament, and crush

Rebellion first, then to domestic ills

Apply his undivided mind and force

Victorious? What in this emergency

Was Julian’s counsel, Abulcacem ask’d,

Should they accomplish soon their enterprize?

Or would the insurgent infidels prolong

The contest, seeking by protracted war

To weary them, and trusting in the strength

Of these wild hills?

Julian replied, The Chief

Of this revolt is wary, resolute,

Of approved worth in war: a desperate part

He for himself deliberately hath chosen,

Confiding in the hereditary love

Borne to him by these hardy mountaineers,

A love which his own noble qualities

Have strengthen’d so that every heart is his.

When ye can bring them to the open proof

Of battle, ye will find them in his cause

Lavish of life; but well they know the strength

Of their own fastnesses, the mountain paths

Impervious to pursuit, the vantages

Of rock, and pass, and woodland, and ravine;

And hardly will ye tempt them to forego

These natural aids wherein they put their trust

As in their stubborn spirit, each alike

Deem’d by themselves invincible, and so

By Roman found and Goth ... beneath whose sway

Slowly persuaded rather than subdued

They came, and still through every change retain’d

Their manners obstinate and barbarous speech.

My counsel, therefore, is, that we secure

With strong increase of force the adjacent posts,

And chiefly Gegio, leaving them so mann’d

As may abate the hope of enterprize

Their strength being told. Time in a strife like this

Becomes the ally of those who trust in him:

Make then with Time your covenant. Old feuds

May disunite the chiefs: some may be gain’d

By fair entreaty, others by the stroke

Of nature, or of policy, cut off.

This was the counsel which in Cordoba

I offer’d Abdalazis: in ill hour

Rejecting it, he sent upon this war

His father’s faithful friend! Dark are the ways

Of destiny! had I been at his side

Old Muza would not now have mourn’d his age

Left childless, nor had Ayub dared defy

The Caliph’s represented power. The case

Calls for thine instant presence, with the weight

Of thy legitimate authority.

Julian said Orpas, turning from beneath

His turban to the Count a crafty eye,

Thy daughter is return’d; doth she not bring

Some tidings of the movements of the foe?

The Count replied, When child and parent meet

First reconciled from discontents which wrung

The hearts of both, ill should their converse be

Of warlike matters! There hath been no time

For such enquiries, neither should I think

To ask her touching that for which I know

She hath neither eye nor thought.

There was a time

Orpas with smile malignant thus replied,

When in the progress of the Caliph’s arms

Count Julian’s daughter had an interest

Which touch’d her nearly! But her turn is served,

And hatred of Prince Orpas may beget

Indifference to the cause. Yet Destiny

Still guideth to the service of the faith

The wayward heart of woman; for as one

Delivered Roderick to the avenging sword,

So hath another at this hour betray’d

Pelayo to his fall. His sister came

At nightfall to my tent a fugitive.

She tells me that on learning our approach

The rebel to a cavern in the hills

Had sent his wife and children, and with them

Those of his followers, thinking there conceal’d

They might be safe. She, moved, by injuries

Which stung her spirit, on the way escaped,

And for revenge will guide us. In reward

She asks her brother’s forfeiture of lands

In marriage with Numacian: something too

Touching his life, that for her services

It might be spared, she said; ... an after-thought

To salve decorum, and if conscience wake

Serve as a sop: but when the sword shall smite

Pelayo and his dangerous race, I ween

That a thin kerchief will dry all the tears

The Lady Guisla sheds!

’Tis the old taint!

Said Julian mournfully; from her mother’s womb

She brought the inbred wickedness which now

In ripe infection blossoms. Woman, woman,

Still to the Goths art thou the instrument

Of overthrow; thy virtue and thy vice

Fatal alike to them!

Say rather, cried

The insidious renegade, that Allah thus

By woman punisheth the idolatry

Of those who raise a woman to the rank

Of godhead, calling on their Mary’s name

With senseless prayers. In vain shall they invoke

Her trusted succour now! like silly birds

By fear betray’d, they fly into the toils;

And this Pelayo, who in lengthen’d war

Baffling our force, has thought perhaps to reign

Prince of the Mountains, when we hold his wife

And offspring at our mercy, must himself

Come to the lure.

Enough, the Leader said;

This unexpected work of favouring Fate

Opens an easy way to our desires,

And renders farther counsel needless now.

Great is the Prophet whose protecting power

Goes with the faithful forth! the rebels’ days

Are number’d; Allah hath deliver’d them

Into our hands!

So saying he arose;

The Chiefs withdrew, Orpas alone remain’d

Obedient to his indicated will.

The event, said Abulcacem, hath approved

Thy judgement in all points; his daughter comes

At the first summons, even as thou saidst;

Her errand with the insurgents done, she brings

Their well-concerted project back, a safe

And unexpected messenger; ... the Moor,

The shallow Moor, ... must see and not perceive;

Must hear and understand not; yea must bear,

Poor easy fool, to serve their after mirth,

A part in his own undoing! But just Heaven

With this unlook’d-for incident hath marr’d

Their complots, and the sword shall cut this web

Of treason.

Well, the renegade replied,

Thou knowest Count Julian’s spirit, quick in wiles,

In act audacious. Baffled now, he thinks

Either by instant warning to apprize

The rebels of their danger, or preserve

The hostages when fallen into our power,

Till secret craft contrive, or open force

Win their enlargement. Haply too he dreams

Of Cordoba, the avenger and the friend

Of Abdalazis, in that cause to arm

Moor against Moor, preparing for himself

The victory o’er the enfeebled conquerors.

Success in treason hath embolden’d him,

And power but serves him for fresh treachery, false

To Roderick first, and to the Caliph now.

The guilt, said Abulcacem, is confirm’d,

The sentence past; all that is now required

Is to strike sure and safely. He hath with him

A veteran force devoted to his will,

Whom to provoke were perilous; nor less

Of peril lies there in delay: what course

Between these equal dangers should we steer?

They have been train’d beneath him in the wars

Of Africa, the renegade replied;

Men are they who, from their youth up, have found

Their occupation and their joy in arms;

Indifferent to the cause for which they fight,

But faithful to their leader, who hath won

By licence largely given, yet temper’d still

With exercise of firm authority,

Their whole devotion. Vainly should we seek

By proof of Julian’s guilt to pacify

Such martial spirits, unto whom all creeds

And countries are alike; but take away

The head, and forthwith their fidelity

Goes at the market price. The act must be

Sudden and secret; poison is too slow.

Thus it may best be done; the Mountaineers,

Doubtless, ere long will rouse us with some spur

Of sudden enterprise: at such a time

A trusty minister approaching him

May smite him, so that all shall think the spear

Comes from the hostile troops.

Right counsellor!

Cried Abulcacem, thou shalt have his lands,

The proper meed of thy fidelity:

His daughter thou may’st take or leave. Go now

And find a faithful instrument to put

Our purpose in effect!... And when ’tis done,

The Moor, as Orpas from the tent withdrew,

Muttering pursued, ... look for a like reward

Thyself! that restless head of wickedness

In the grave will brood no treasons. Other babes

Scream when the Devil, as they spring to life,

Infects them with his touch; but thou didst stretch

Thine arms to meet him, and like mother’s milk

Suck the congenial evil! Thou hast tried

Both laws, and were there aught to gain, wouldst prove

A third as readily; but when thy sins

Are weigh’d, ’twill be against an empty scale,

And neither Prophet will avail thee then!