You, with such glorious hearts, who were not flow
To follow, nor far off, the gorgeous oak
Seized, and shook down the golden acorns so,
And so the red and yellow truncheon broke,
That we to you our festive laurels owe,
And the fair lily, rescued from its stroke;
Another wreath may round your temples bloom,
In that Fabricius you preserved to Rome.
Stanza iv.
The golden oak was the bearing of Pope Julius II. who lost Ravenna; and the red and yellow truncheon, we are told, is to be considered as the symbol of Spain.
Fabrizio Colonua surrendered to Alphonso on condition he should not be delivered up to his enemies the French; Alphonso resisted their solicitations to consign him to them, and afterwards set him free and restored him to the pope.
Rome’s mighty column, by your valiant hand
Taken and kept entire, &c.
Stanza v. lines 1 and 2.
In the original,
La gran colonna del nome Romano
Che voi prendeste e che serbaste intera,
a play upon the name of Fabrizio Colonna, which is necessarily sacrificed in an English translation.
The loss of that French captain and our chief.
Stanza vi. line 3.
Of Gaston de Foix, the French general, who perished in the field.
