[Footnote 1: último circulo. Becquer follows no particular metaphysical system in his description of the various heavenly spheres.]
[Footnote 2: serafines. The seraphim ('burning' _or_ 'flaming ones') are the highest order in the hierarchy of angels. They are mentioned by Isaiah (vi. 2).
Dante speaks of the seraph as "that soul in Heaven which is most enlightened." _Paradiso_, canto XXI, Charles Eliot Norton's translation. See p. 47, note 1, and also p. 152, note 1.]
[Footnote 3: cubierto el rostro con las triples alas. Becquer does not follow exactly the Biblical description. "Above it stood the seraphim: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly." Isaiah vi. 2.
In the famous vision of St. Francis of Assisi, at the time that he received his stigmata, the Seraph appeared to him with two wings raised above his head, with two wings stretched out for flight, and with two wings covering his whole body. See Mrs. Oliphant, Francis _of Assisi_, London, Macmillan & Co., 1871, pp. 253-255.]
Un aliento de fuego abrasó su cara, un mar de luz obscureció sus ojos, un trueno gigante retumbó en sus oídos, y arrancado del corcel y lanzado al vacío como la piedra candente que arroja un volcán, se sintió bajar, y bajar sin caer nunca, ciego, abrasado y ensordecido, como cayó el ángel rebelde cuando Dios derribó el pedestal de su orgullo con un soplo de sus labios.[1]
Nine days they fell; confounded Chaos roared, And felt tenfold confusion in their fall Through his wild anarchy; so huge a rout Encumbered him with ruin. Hell at last, Yawning, received them whole, and on them closed-- Hell, their fit habitation, fraught with fire Unquenchable, the house of woe and pain. Milton, _Paradise Lost_, book vi.]
La noche había cerrado, y el viento gemía agitando las hojas de los árboles, por entre cuyas frondosas ramas se deslizaba un suave rayo de luna, cuando Teobaldo, incorporándose sobre el codo y restregándose los ojos como si despertara de un profundo sueño, tendió alrededor una mirada y se encontró en el mismo bosque donde hirió al jabalí, donde cayó muerto su corcel; donde le dieron aquella fantástica cabalgadura que le había arrastrado á unas regiones desconocidas y misteriosas.