; but, in the act and process of acquiring
that freedom, to recompense herself, as it were in a moment, for all
which she had suffered through ages; to levy, upon the false fame of a
cruel Tyrant, large contributions of true glory; to lift herself, by the
conflict, as high in honour--as the disgrace was deep to which her own
weakness and vices, and the violence and perfidy of her enemies, had
subjected her.

Let us suppose that our own Land had been so outraged; could we have
been content that the enemy should be wafted from our shores as lightly
as he came,--much less that he should depart illustrated in his own eyes
and glorified, singing songs of savage triumph and wicked
gaiety?--No.--Should we not have felt that a high trespass--a grievous
offence had been committed; and that to demand satisfaction was our
first and indispensable duty? Would we not have rendered their bodies
back upon our guardian ocean which had borne them hither; or have
insisted that their haughty weapons should submissively kiss the soil
which they had polluted? We should have been resolute in a defence that
would strike awe and terror: this for our dignity:--moreover, if safety
and deliverance are to be so fondly prized for their own sakes, what
security otherwise could they have? Would it not be certain that the
work, which had been so ill done to-day, we should be called upon to
execute still more imperfectly and ingloriously to-morrow; that we
should be summoned to an attempt that would be vain?

In like manner were the wise and heroic Spaniards moved. If an Angel
from heaven had come with power to take the enemy from their grasp (I do
not fear to say this, in spite of the dominion which is now re-extended
over so large a portion of their Land), they would have been sad; they
would have looked round them; their souls would have turned inward; and
they would have stood like men defrauded and betrayed.

For not presumptuously had they taken upon themselves the work of
chastisement. They did not wander madly about the world--like the
Tamerlanes, or the Chengiz Khans, or the present barbarian Ravager of
Europe--under a mock title of Delegates of the Almighty, acting upon
self-assumed authority. Their commission had been thrust upon them. They
had been trampled upon, tormented, wronged--bitterly, wantonly wronged,
if ever a people on the earth was wronged. And this it was which
legitimately incorporated their law with the supreme conscience, a