The poetical works of Sir Walter Scott ... Notes & life of the author.

* NOTES TO DON RODERICK.
their natural leaders,-those who entertained this enthusiastic but delu,
sive opinion may be pardoned for expressing their disappointment at the
protracted warfare in the peninsula. There are, however, another class
of persons, who, having themselves the highest dread or veneration, or
something allied to both, for the power of the modern Attila, will nevertheless give the heroical Spaniards little or no credit for the long, stub.
iorn, and unsubdued resistance of three years to a power before whom
their former well-prepared, well-armed, and nu-nerous adversaries fell in
the course of as many months. While these gentlemen plead for defe.
rence to Buonaparte, and crave
Respect for his great place-and bid the devil
Be duly honour'd for his burning throne,
It may not be altogether unreasonable to claim some modification of eene
sure upon those who have been long and to a great extent successfully
resisting this great enemy of mankind. That the energy of Spain has not
uniformly been directed by conduct equal to its vigour; has been too
obvious; that her armies, under their complicated disadvantages, have
shared the fate of such as were defeated after taking the field with every
possible advantage of arms and discipline, is surely not to be wondered at.
But that a nation, under the circumstances of repeated discomfiture,
internal treason, and the mismanagement incident to a temporary and
hastily-adopted government, should have wasted, by its stubborn, uni.
form, and prolonged resistance, nmyriads after myriads of those soldiers
who had overrun the world-that some of its provinces should, like Gali.
cia, after being abandoned by their allies, and overrun by their enemies,
have recovered their freedom by their own unassisted exertions-that
others, like Catalonia, undismayed by the treason which betrayed some
fortresses, and the force which subdued others, should not only have continued their resistance, but have attained, over their victorious enemy, a
superiority, which is even now enabling them to besiege and retake the
places of strength which had been wrested from them, is a tale hitherto
untold in the revolutionary war.
NOTE VIII.
They won not Zaragoza, but her children's bloody tomb.
The interesting account of Mr. Vaughan has made most readers
acquainted with the first siege of Zaragoza. The last and fatal siege of
that gallant and devoted city is detailed with great eloquence and preci.
sion in the "Edinburgh Annual Register" for 1809,-a work in which
the affairs of Spain have been treated of with attention corresponding to
their deep interest, and to the peculiar sources of information open to th6
historian,
INOTE IX,
- The Vault of Destiny.
Before finally dismissing the enchanted cavern of Don Roderick, it
may be noticed, that the legend occurs in one of Calderon's plays, enti.
tled " La Virgen del Sagrario." The scene opens with the noise of the
chase, and Recisundo, a predecessor of Roderick upon the Gothic throne,
enters pursuing a stag. The animal assumes the form of a man, and
defies the kind to enter the cave, which forms the bottom of the scene,
and engage with him in single combat. The king accepts the challenge,
and they engage according y. but without advantage on either side,
which induces the Genie to inform Recisundo, that he is not the monarch
for whom the adventure of th- enchanted cavern is reserved, and he proceeds to predict the downfal of the Gothic monarchy, and of the Christian
religion, which shall attend the discovery of its mysteries. Recisundo,
appalled by these prophecies, orders the cavern to be secured by a gate
and bolts of iron. In the second part of the same play we are informed,
that Don Roderick had removed the barrier and transgressed the prohibition of his ancestor, and had bee's apprised by the prodigies which he
discovered of the approaching ruin of his kingdom.