then from the heart of one of the new lights
there came a voice,^a and as I turned toward it,
I seemed a needle turning to the polestar;

and it began: "The love that makes me fair
draws me to speak about the other leader ^b
because of whom my own was so praised here.

Where one is, it is right to introduce
the other: side by side, they fought, so may
they share in glory and together gleam.

Christ's army, whose rearming cost so dearly,
was slow, uncertain of itself, and scanty
behind its ensign,^c when the Emperor

who rules forever helped his ranks in danger—
only out of His grace and not their merits.
And, as was said, He then sustained His bride,

providing her with two who could revive
a straggling people: champions who would
by doing and by preaching bring new life.

In that part of the West where gentle zephyr
rises to open those new leaves in which
Europe appears reclothed,^d not far from where,

behind the waves that beat upon the coast,
the sun, grown weary from its lengthy course,
at times conceals itself from all men's eyes—

there, Calaroga, blessed by fortune, sits
under the aegis of the mighty shield
on which the lion loses and prevails.^e

Within its walls was born the loving vassal
of Christian faith,^f the holy athlete, one
kind to his own and harsh to enemies;

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