Explore "Don Nuno, Count of Lara" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
"King Alfonso the Eighth, having exhausted his treasury in war, wishes to lay a tax of five farthings upon each of the Castillan hidalgos, in order to defray the expenses of a journey from Burgos to Cuenca. This proposition of the king was met with disdain by the noblemen who had been assembled on the occasion. "
Don Nuno, Count of Lara, / In anger and in pride, / Forgot all reverence for the king, / And thus in wrath replied:
"Our noble ancestors," quoth he, / "Ne'er such a tribute paid; / Nor shall the king receive of us / What they have once gainsaid.
"The base-born soul who deems it just / May here with thee remain; / But follow me, ye cavaliers, / Ye noblemen of Spain."
Forth followed they the noble Count, / They marched to Glera's plain; / Out of three thousand gallant knights / Did only three remain.
They tied the tribute to their spears, / They raised it in the air, / And they sent to tell their lord the king / That his tax was ready there.
"He may send and take by force," said they, / "This paltry sum of gold; / But the goodly gift of liberty / Cannot be bought and sold. "