LXXII "Now what of Roland's and Rinaldo's might, Not without reason held in such renown, Ought you to think (she said) when thus in fight Ye by a female hand are overthrown?

Say, if the buckler one of these requite, -- Better than by a woman ye have done, Will ye by those redoubted warriors do?

So think not I, nor haply think so you.

LXXIII "This may suffice you all; and need in none A clearer proof of prowess to display; And who desires, if rashly any one Desires, again his valour to a.s.say, Would add but scathe to shame, now made his own; Now; and the same to-day as yesterday.

Unless perchance he thinks it praise and gain, By such ill.u.s.trious warriors to be slain."

LXXIV When they by Ulany were certified A woman's hand had caused their overthrow, Who with a deeper black than pitch had dyed Their honour, heretofore so fair of show; And more than ten her story testified, Where one sufficed -- with such o'erwhelming woe Were they possest, they with such fury burned, They well nigh on themselves their weapons turned.

LXXV What arms they had upon them, they unbound, And cast them, strung by rage and fury sore, Into the moat which girt that castle round, Nor even kept the faulchions which they wore; And, since a woman them had cast to ground, O'erwhelmed with rage and shame, the warriors swore, Themselves of such a crying shame to clear, They, without bearing arms, would pa.s.s a year;

LXXVI And that they evermore afoot would fare Up hill or down, by mountain or by plain, Nor, when the year was ended, would they wear The knightly mail or climb the steed again; Save that from other they by force should bear, In battle, other steeds and other chain.

So, without arms, to punish their misdeeds, These wend a-foot, those others on their steeds.

LXXVII Lodged in a township at the fall of night, Duke Aymon's daughter, journeying Paris-ward, Hears how King Agramant was foiled in fight.

Good harbourage withal of bed and board, She in her hostel found; but small delight This and all comforts else to her afford.

For the sad damsel meat and sleep foregoes, Nor finds a resting place; far less repose.

LXXVIII But so I will not on her story dwell, As not to seek anew the valiant twain; Who, by consent, beside a lonely well, Had tied their goodly coursers by the rein.

I of their war to you somedeal will tell, A war not waged for empire or domain, But that the best should buckle to his side Good Durindana, and Baiardo ride.

LXXIX No signal they, no trumpet they attend, To blow them to the lists, no master who Should teach them when to foin and when to fend, Or wake their sleeping wrath; their swords they drew: Then, one against the other, boldly wend, With lifted blades, the quick and dextrous two.

Already 'gan the champions' fury heat, And fast and hard their swords were heard to beat.

Lx.x.x None e'er by proof two other faulchions chose For sound and solid, able to endure Three strokes alone of such conflicting foes, Pa.s.sing all means and measure; but so pure, So perfect was their temper, from all blows By such repeated trial so secure, They in a thousand strokes might clash on high, -- Nay more, nor yet the solid metal fly.

Lx.x.xI With mickle industry, with mighty pain And art, Rinaldo, shifting here and there, Avoids the deadly dint of Durindane, Well knowing how 'tis wont to cleave and tear.

Grada.s.so struck with greater might and main, But well nigh all his strokes were spent in air; Of, if he sometimes smote, he smote on part, Where Durindana wrought less harm than smart.

Lx.x.xII Rinaldo with more skill his blade inclined, And stunned the arm of Sericana's lord.

Him oft he reached where casque and coat confined, And often raked his haunches with the sword: But adamantine was his corslet's rind, Nor link the restless faulchion broke or bored.

If so impa.s.sive was the paynim's scale, Know, charmed by magic was the stubborn mail.

Lx.x.xIII Without reposing they long time had been, Upon their deadly battle so intent, That, save on one another's troubled mien, Their angry eyes the warriors had not bent.

When such despiteous war and deadly spleen, Diverted by another strife, were spent, Hearing a mighty noise, both champions turn, And good Baiardo, sore bested, discern.

Lx.x.xIV They good Baiardo by a monster view, -- A bird, and bigger than that courser -- prest.

Above three yards in length appeared to view The monster's beak; a bat in all the rest.

Equipt with feathers, black as ink in hue, And piercing talons was the winged pest; An eye of fire it had, a cruel look, And, like ship-sails, two spreading pinions shook.

Lx.x.xV Perhaps it was a bird; but when or where Another bird resembling this was seen I know not, I, nor have I any where, Except in Turpin, heard that such has been.

Hence that it was a fiend, to upper air Evoked from depths of nether h.e.l.l I ween; Which Malagigi raised by magic sleight, That so he might disturb the champions' fight.

Lx.x.xVI So deemed Rinaldo too: and contest sore 'Twixt him and Malagigi hence begun; But he would not confess the charge; nay swore, Even by the light which lights the glorious sun, That he might clear him of the blame he bore, He had not that which was imputed done.

Whether a fiend or fowl, the pest descends, And good Baiardo with his talons rends.

Lx.x.xVII Quickly the steed, possessed of mickle might, Breaks loose, and, in his fury and despair, Against the monster strives with kick and bite; But swiftly he retires and soars in air: He thence returning, prompt to wheel and smite, Circles and beats the courser, here and there.

Wholly unskilled in fence, and sore bested, Baiardo swiftly from the monster fled.

Lx.x.xVIII Baiardo to the neighbouring forest flies, Seeking the closest shade and thickest spray; Above the feathered monster flaps, with eyes Intent to mark where widest is the way.

But that good horse the greenwood threads, and lies At last within a grot, concealed from day.

When the winged beast has lost Baiardo's traces.

He soars aloft, and other quarry chases.

Lx.x.xIX Rinaldo and Grada.s.so, who descried Baiardo's flight, the conqueror's destined meed, The battle to suspend, on either side, Till they regained the goodly horse, agreed, Saved from that fowl which chased him, far and wide; Conditioning whichever found the steed, With him anew should to that fountain wend, Beside whose brim their battle they should end.

XC Quitting the fount, they follow, where they view New prints upon the forest greensward made: By much Baiardo distances the two, Whose tardy feet their wishes ill obeyed.

Himself the king on his Alfana threw, That near at hand was tethered in the glade, Leaving his foe behind in evil plight; -- Never more malcontent and vext in sprite.

XCI Rinaldo ceased in little time to spy Baiardo's traces, who strange course had run; And made for th.o.r.n.y thicket, wet or dry, Tree, rock, or river, with design to shun Those cruel claws, which, pouncing from the sky, To him such outrage and such scathe had done.

Rinaldo, after labour vain and sore To await him at the fount returned once more;

XCII In case, as erst concerted by the twain, The king should thither with the steed resort; But having sought him there with little gain, Fared to his camp afoot, with piteous port.

Return we now to him of Sericane, He that had sped withal in other sort, Who, not by judgement, guided to his prey, But his rare fortune, heard Baiardo neigh;

XCIII And found him shrowded in his caverned lair, So sore moreover by his fright opprest, He feared to issue into open air.

Thus of that horse himself the king possest.

Well he remembered their conditions were To bring him to the fount; but little pressed Now was that knight to keep the promise made, And thus within himself in secret said:

XCIV "Win him who will, in war and strife, I more Desire in peace to make the steed my own: From the world's further side, did I of yore Wend hitherward, and for this end alone.

Having the courser, he mistakes me sore, That thinks the prize by me will be foregone.

Him would Rinaldo conquer, let him fare To Ind, as I to France have made repair.

XCV "For him no less secure is Sericane, Than twice for me has been his France," he said, And p.r.i.c.ked for Arles, along the road most plain, And in its haven found the fleet arrayed.

Freighted with him, the steed and Durindane, A well-rigged galley from that harbour weighed.

Of these hereafter! -- I, at other call, Now quit Rinaldo, king, and France, and all.

XCVI Astolpho in his flight will I pursue, That made his hippogryph like palfrey flee, With reins and sell, so quick the welkin through; That hawk and eagle soar a course less free.

O'er the wide land of Gaul the warrior flew From Pyrenees to Rhine, from sea to sea.

He westward to the mountains turned aside, Which France's fertile land from Spain divide.

XCVII To Arragon he past out of Navarre, -- They who beheld, sore wondering at the sight -- Then, leaves he Tarragon behind him far, Upon his left, Biscay upon his right: Traversed Castile, Gallicia, Lisbon, are Seville and Cordova, with rapid flight; Nor city on sea-sh.o.r.e, nor inland plain, Is unexplored throughout the realm of Spain.

XCVIII Beneath him Cadiz and the strait he spied, Where whilom good Alcides closed the way; From the Atlantic to the further side Of Egypt, bent o'er Africa, to stray; The famous Balearic isles descried, And Ivica, that in his pa.s.sage lay; Toward Arzilla then he turned the rein, Above the sea that severs it from Spain.

XCIX Morocco, Fez, and Oran, looking down, Hippona, Argier, he, and Bugia told, Which from all cities bear away the crown, No palm or parsley wreath, but crown of gold; n.o.ble Biserta next and Tunis-town, Capys, Alzerba's isle, the warrior bold, Tripoli, Berniche, Ptolomitta viewed, And into Asia's land the Nile pursued.

C 'Twixt Atlas' s.h.a.ggy ridges and the sh.o.r.e, He viewed each regions in his s.p.a.cious round; He turned his back upon Carena h.o.a.r, And skimmed above the Cyrenaean ground; Pa.s.sing the sandy desert of the Moor, In Albajada, reached the Nubian's bound; Left Battus' tomb behind him on the plain, And Ammon's, now dilapidated, fane.

CI To other Tremizen he posts, where bred As well the people are in Mahound's style; For other Aethiops then his pinions spread, Which face the first, and lie beyond the Nile.

Between Coallee and Dobada sped, Bound for the Nubian city's royal pile; Threading the two, where, ranged on either land, Moslems and Christians watch, with arms in hand.

CII In Aethiopia's realm Senapus reigns, Whose sceptre is the cross; of cities brave, Of men, of gold possest, and broad domains, Which the Red Sea's extremest waters lave.

A faith well nigh like ours that king maintains, Which man from his primaeval doom may save.

Here, save I err in what their rites require, The swarthy people are baptized with fire.

CIII Astolpho lighted in the s.p.a.cious court, Intending on the Nubian king to wait.

Less strong than sumptuous is the wealthy fort, Wherein the royal Aethiop keeps his state, The chains that serve the drawbridge to support, The bolts, the bars, the hinges of the gate, And finally whatever we behold Herewrought in iron, there is wrought in gold.