"If thou art brave in battle's hour
As thou art bold in pleasure's rout;
If thou canst make the lances fly
As thou canst fling thy words about;
"If thou canst in the vega fight
As thou the ladies' eyes canst praise;
And show on horseback half the skill
That marks thee in the dance's maze;
"Meet with the briskness of the joust
The challenge of the deadly lance,
And in the play of scimitars
Be sprightly as in festive dance;
"If thou art ready in the field
As thou art nimble on the square;
And canst the front of battle face
As though thou flirtest with the fair;
"If thou dost don thy shining mail
As lightly as thy festive suit,
And listenest to the trumpet call
As though it were thy lady's lute;
"And if, as in the gamesome hour
Thou flingest round the rattling reed
Against the foeman's moated camp,
Thou spurrest on thy thundering steed;
"If, when the foe is face to face,
Thou boastest as thou oft hast done
When far away his ranks were ranged,
And the fierce fight had not begun;--
"Go, Zaide, to the Alhambra go,
And there defend thy soldier fame;
For every tongue is wagging there,
And all, derisive, speak thy name.
"And if thou fear to go alone,
Take others with thee to thine aid;
Thy friends are ready at thy beck,
And Zaide need not be afraid!
"It is not in the palace court,
Amid the throng of ladies bright,
That the good soldier, by his tongue,
Proves himself valorous in the fight.
"It is not there his hands can show
What in the battle he can do;
But where the shock of onset tests
The fearless heart, the iron thew.
"Betake thee to the bloody field
And let thy sword thy praises sing;
But silence is most eloquent
Amid the courtiers of the King."
Thus Tarfe wrote, the Moorish knight,
His heart so filled with furious rage
That where his fiery pen had passed
It pierced and rent the flimsy page.
He called his varlet to his side,
"Now seek the Alhambra's hall," said he,
"And privately to Zaide say
That this epistle comes from me;
"And whisper, that none else may hear,
And say that I his coming wait,
Where Genil's crystal torrent laves
The pillars of yon palace gate."