Their nimble feet in mazy trances wind;
And oft at eve, the wondering swain hath heard
The Arcadian pipe and breathing minstrelsy,
From joyous troops of those rude deities
Whose homes are on the steep and rocky mount,
Or by the silver wave in woody dell,
And know the shrine, with flowery myrtles veiled,
All lonely placed by that wild mountain stream,
That from the sacred hills, like Hippocrene,
With warbling numbers, softly glides along.
Kneel humbly there, and at the auspicious time,
Invoke the listening spirit to my aid,
That I may fly the nymph of shapely form,
Whose fragrant brow inwoven wreaths adorn,
Of blushing rose and ivy tendrils green.
Then swear for me to deck the favoring shrine
With flowrets, blooming from the lap of Spring,
And on the sculptured pile, with solemn vow,
The tender kid devote in sacrifice.
So may my heaving bosom rest serene,
Nor winged spells incite the soul again
To love the soft eyed maid Zenophyle.

THE LEGEND OF DON RODERICK.

NUMBER TWO.

The course of our legendary narration now returns to notice the fortunes
of Count Julian, after his departure from Toledo, to resume his government
on the coast of Barbary. He left the Countess Frandina at Algeziras, his
paternal domain, for the province under his command was threatened with
invasion. In fact, when he arrived at Ceuta he found his post in imminent
danger from the all-conquering Moslems. The Arabs of the East, the
followers of Mahomet, having subjugated several of the most potent
oriental kingdoms, had established their seat of empire at Damascus,
where, at this time, it was filled by Waled Almanzor, surnamed 'the Sword
of God.' From thence the tide of Moslem conquest had rolled on to the
shores of the Atlantic; so that all Almagreb, or Western Africa, had
submitted to the standard of the prophet, with the exception of a portion
of Tingitania, lying along the straits; being the province held by the
Goths of Spain, and commanded by Count Julian. The Arab invaders were a
hundred thousand strong, most of them veteran troops, seasoned in warfare
and accustomed to victory. They were led by an old Arab general, Muza ben
Nosier, to whom was confided the government of Almagreb; most of which he
had himself conquered. The ambition of this veteran was to make the Moslem
conquest complete, by expelling the Christians from the African shores;
with this view his troops menaced the few remai