Southey's reference is, _Romancero General_. _Medina del Campo_, 1602, ff. 35. The lines form part of "a child's poem, or, more properly, a poem written in the character of a child (a species of playful composition at that time popular among the Spaniards)," and are quoted by Southey, together with an Ode by Luis de Gongora, to show the exultant anticipation with which the success of the Armada, in which expedition Lope de Vega had entered himself as a volunteer, was expected by the Spaniards.
In the second volume of Mr. Ticknor's admirable _History of Spanish Literature_ will be found an English translation of the Spanish ballad referred to by your correspondent L. H. J. T. I am not quite sure whether the Spanish ballad is given by Mr. Ticknor or not; but the following is a part of the English translation:--
"And Bartolo, my brother, To England forth is gone, Where the Drake he means to kill; And the Lutherans every one, Excommunicate from God. Their Queen among the first He will capture and bring back, Like heretics accurs'd: And he promises, moreover, Amongst his spoils and gains, A heretic young serving-boy To give me, bound in chains; And for my lady grandmamma, Whose years such waiting crave, A little handy Lutheran, To be her maiden slave."
These stanzas are cited by Mr. Ticknor to illustrate the state of public feeling which prevailed in Spain respecting Sir Francis Drake and his countrymen. Lope de Vega was also, it will be remembered, the author of a poem on Drake's last expedition and death, entitled _La Dragontea_.
_Templars_ (Vol. v., p. 295.).--With respect to the somewhat modern imposture of the Paris Templars, E. A. H. L. had better consult Thilo's _Codex Apocryphus_. In the generality of foreign masonic books he will find the derivation of the Freemasons from the Templars asserted as being their tradition. As to "the succession of Grand Masters kept up" by them, I question whether that is asserted by them, or elsewhere than in the Parisian imposture. The masonic formularies called _Thuileur_, and M. de Bonneville's _Maçonnerie Ecossaise_, may be consulted. But the history of the order subsequent to that worthy, Jacques de Molai, will not there, or elsewhere, be traced. The facts of common external history which relate to the abolition of that order, such as the foundation of the Portuguese Order of Christ, will all be found in Wilke's _German History of the Temple Order_.