Landor's  reply  took  Southey  somewhat  by  surprise,  for  it  announced
that  he  had  at  intervals  been  writing  other  things  beside  Latin  Idyls
and  Alcaics,  Hints  to  Juntas,  Simonideas,  and  Letters  to  Burdett,
and  that  among  them  was  a  tragedy  with  Count  Julian  for  its  hero  !
What  other  feeling  also  arose  to  Southey  as  portions  of  the  tragedy
were  sent  to  him,  we  shall  shortly  see  ;  but  when,  after  a  few  months,
all  was  completed  and  before  him,  he  could  not  but  survey  with  some
despondency  his  own  Pelayo.  He  talked  of  compressing  some  parts
of  it,  and  said  it  was  well  that  their  conceptions  of  all  the  historical
personages  were  so  entirely  unlike,  as  he  should  inevitably  have  been
deterred  from  proceeding.  With  eager  and  frank  reassurance  Landor
rejuied.  In  the  portions  just  sent  to  him  he  perceived  the  same  strain
of  high  impassioned  sentiment,  proper  and  peculiar  to  the  character
on  which  it  was  to  act.  The  poem  would  be  different  from  Southey's
former  efforts  in  a  greater  degree  than  any  two  epic  poems  known  to
him,  however  remote  their  ages.
