VII.

“Biscayan bondsmen!--for ’tis bonds ye wear, While stalks the proud invader o’er your soil; Methinks, ’tis said Cantabrian blood ye share, Methinks, ’tis said that vain was Roman toil To bend your stubborn hearts within its coil! But this, forsooth, was thousand years ago. Were your’s Cantabrian blood, ’twould surely boil, To see Cantabria’s glory laid so low. Why yes, the Frenchman, sure, excels the Roman foe!