thoritative voice and menacing air commanded him to
exchange garments with him, and clad himself in his rude garb of
sheep-skin, and took his crook and his scrip of provisions, and continued
up the rugged defiles of the mountains leading towards Castile, until he
was lost to view.

This tradition was fondly cherished by many, who clung to the belief in
the existence of their monarch as their main hope for the redemption of
Spain. It was even affirmed that he had taken refuge with many of his
host, in an island of the 'Ocean sea,' from whence he might yet return,
once more to elevate his standard, and battle for the recovery of his
throne.

Year after year, however, elapsed and nothing was heard of Don Roderick;
yet, like Sebastian of Portugal, and Arthur of England, his name continued
to be a rallying point for popular faith, and the mystery of his end to
give rise to romantic fables. At length, when generation after generation
had sunk into the grave, and near two centuries had passed and gone,
traces were said to be discovered that threw a light on the final fortunes
of the unfortunate Roderick. At that time, Don Alphonso the Great, King of
Leon, had wrested the city of Viseo in Lusitania from the hands of the
Moslems. As his soldiers were ranging about the city and its environs, one
of them discovered in a field, outside of the walls, a small chapel or
hermitage, with a sepulchre in front, on which was inscribed this epitaph
in Gothic characters:

HIC REQUIESCIT RUDERICUS,
ULTIMUS REX GOTHORUM.

HERE LIES RODERICK,
THE LAST KING OF THE GOTHS.

It has been believed by many that this was the veritable tomb of the
monarch, and that in this hermitage he had finished his days in solitary
penance. The warrior, as he contemplated the supposed tomb of the once
haughty Roderick, forgot all his faults and errors, and shed a soldier's
tear over his memory; but when his thoughts turned to Count Julian, his
patriotic indignation broke forth, and with his dagger he inscribed a rude
malediction on the stone.

'Accursed,' said he, 'be the impious and headlong vengeance of the traitor
Julian. He was a murderer of his king; a destroyer of his kindred; a
betrayer of his country. May his name be bitter in every mouth, and his
memory infamous to all generations.'

Here ends the legend of Don Roderick.

LINES

WRITTEN UNDER A PORTRAIT OF JUPITER AND DANAE.

Fair maid of Argos! dry thy tears, nor shun