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Low lay her Peers on Fontarabia's[1] plains:
And Lisboa groan'd beneath stern Mah'met's chains:
Vain was the hope the North might rest unspoil'd;
When stern Iberia's spirit fierce recoil'd.
As from the toils the wounded lion bounds,
And tears the hunters and the sated hounds;
So smarting with his wounds th' Iberian tore,
And to his sun-scorch'd regions drove, the Moor:
The vengeful Moors, as mastiffs on their prey,
Return'd; as heavy clouds their deep array
Blacken'd o'er Tago's banks.—As Sagrez[2] braves
And stems the furious rage of Afric's waves,
So braved, so stood the Lusitanian bands,
The southern bulwark of Europa's lands.

  1. The irruption of the Mohammedans into Europe gave rise to that species of poetry called Romance. The Orlando Furioso is founded upon the invasion of France,

    When Charlemaigne with all his Peerage fell
    By Fontarabia——Milton.

  2. The promontory of Sagrez, where Henry, Duke of Viseo, resided and established his naval school, is on the southern part of Portugal, opposite to Africa.
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