But the Path of the Righteous is as the light of dawn, That shineth more and more unto the perfect day. The way of the wicked is as darkness: They know not at what they stumble.
(The Spanish champion, Bernardo del Carpio, having made many ineffectual efforts to procure the release of his father, the Count Saldana, who had been imprisoned by King Alfonso, at last took up arms. The war proved so destructive that the people demanded of the King, Saldana's liberty. Alfonso offered Bernardo possession of his father's person in exchange for his castle. Bernardo accepted the offer, gave up his castle, and rode forth with the king to meet his father.)
The warrior bowed his crested head, and tamed his heart of fire, And sued the haughty king to free his long-imprisoned sire: "I bring thee here my fortress keys, I bring my captive train, I pledge thee faith, my liege, my lord!--oh, break my father's chain!"
"Rise, rise! even now thy father comes a ransomed man this day: Mount thy good horse, and thou and I will meet him on his way." Then lightly rose that loyal son, and bounded on his steed, And urged, as if with lance in rest, the charger's foamy speed.
And lo! from far, as on they pressed, there came a glittering band, With one that midst them stately rode, as a leader in the land; "Now haste, Bernardo, haste! for there, in very truth, is he, The father whom thy faithful heart hath yearned so long to see."
His dark eye flashed, his proud breast heaved, his cheek's blood came and went, He reached that gray-haired chieftain's side, and there, dismounting, bent: A lowly knee to earth he bent, his father's hand he took,-- What was there in its touch that all his fiery spirit shook?
That hand was cold--a frozen thing--it dropped from his like lead: He looked up to the face above--the face was of the dead! A plume waved o'er the noble brow--the brow was fixed and white; He met at last his father's eyes--but in them was no sight!
Up from the ground he sprang, and gazed, but who could paint that gaze? They hushed their very hearts, that saw its horror and amaze; They might have chained him, as before that stony form he stood, For the power was stricken from his arm, and from his lip the blood.