XLIV -- "So oft have I had Roland on the hip, And oft," (exclaimed the boaster) "heretofore; From him it had been easy task to strip What other arms, beside his helm, he wore; And if I still have let the occasion slip, -- We sometimes think of things unwished before: Such wish I had not; I have now; and hope To compa.s.s easily my present scope."

XLV The good Orlando could no more forbear, And cried, "Foul miscreant, liar, marched with me, Say, caitiff, in what country, when and where Boast you to have obtained such victory?

That paladin am I, o'er whom you dare To vaunt, and whom you distant deemed: now see If you can take my helm, or I have might To take your other arms in your despite.

XLVI "Nor I o'er you the smallest vantage wou'd."

He ended, and his temples disarrayed, And to a beech hung up the helmet good, And nigh as quickly bared his trenchant blade.

Ferrau stands close, and in such att.i.tude, (His courage not for what had chanced dismayed) Covered with lifted shield and naked sword, As might best shelter to his head afford.

XLVII 'Twas thus those warriors two, with faulchions bare, Turning their ready steeds, began to wheel; And where the armour thinnest was, and where The meeting plates were joined, probed steel with steel; Nor was there in the world another pair More fitted to be matched in fierce appeal: Equal their daring, equal was their might, And safe alike from wound was either knight.

XLVIII By you, fair sir, already, I presume, That fierce Ferrau was charmed is understood, Save where the child, enclosed within the womb Of the full mother, takes its early food; And hence he ever, till the squalid tomb Covered his manly face, wore harness good (Such was his wont) the doubtful part to guard, Of seven good plates of metal, tempered hard.

XLIX Alike a charmed life Orlando bore, Safe every where, except a single part: Unfenced beneath his feet, which evermore By him were guarded with all care and art.

The rest than diamond dug from mountain h.o.a.r More hard, unless report from truth depart; And armed to battle either champion went, Less for necessity than ornament.

L Waxing more fierce and fell the combat rages, Of fear and horror full, between the twain: The fierce Ferrau such dreadful battle wages, That stroke or thrust is never dealt in vain: Each mighty blow from Roland disengages And loosens, breaks, or shatters, plate and chain.

Angelica alone, secure from view, Regards such fearful sight, and marks the two.

LI For, during this, the king of Circa.s.sy, Who deemed Angelica not far before, When Ferrau and Orlando desperately Closing in fight were seen, his horse did gore Along the way by which he deemed that she Had disappeared; and so that battle sore Was witnessed 'twixt the struggling foes, by none, Beside the daughter of king Galaphron.

LII After the damsel had sometime descried This dread and direful combat, standing nigh; And it appearing that on either side With equal peril both the warriors vie, She, fond of novelty, the helm untied Designs to take; desirous to espy What they would do when they perceived the wrong; But, without thought to keep her plunder long.

LIII To give it to Orlando was she bent, But first she would upon the warrior play: The helmet she took down with this intent And in her bosom hid, and marked the fray: Next thence, without a word to either went, And from the scene of strife was far away Ere either of the two had marked the feat; So were they blinded by their angry heat.

LIV But Ferrau, who first chanced the loss to see, From Roland disengaged himself, and cried, "How like unwary men and fools are we Treated by him, who late with us did ride!

What meed, which worthiest of the strife might be, If this be stolen, the victor shall abide?"

Roland draws back, looks upward, and with ire, Missing the n.o.ble casque, is all on fire:

LV And in opinion with Ferrau agreed, That he the knight, who was with them before, Had born away the prize: hence turned his steed.

And with the spur admonished Brigliador.

Ferrau, who from the field beheld him speed.

Followed him, and when Roland and the Moor Arrived where tracks upon the herbage green Of the Circa.s.sian and the maid were seen,

LVI Towards a vale upon the left the count Went off, pursuing the Circa.s.sian's tread; The Spaniard kept the path more nigh the mount, By which the fair Angelica had fled.

Angelica, this while, has reached a fount, Of pleasant site, and shaded overhead; By whose inviting shades no traveller hasted, Nor ever left the chrystal wave untasted.

LVII Angelica, the sylvan spring beside, Reposes, unsuspicious of surprise; And thinking her the sacred ring will hide, Fears not that evil accident can rise.

On her arrival at the fountain's side, She to a branch above the helmet ties; Then seeks the fittest sapling for her need, Where, fastened to its trunk, her mare may feed.

LVIII The Spanish cavalier the stream beside Arrived, who had pursued her traces there: Angelica no sooner him espied, Than she evanished clean, and spurred her mare: The helm this while had dropt, but lay too wide To be recovered of the flying fair.

As soon as sweet Angelica he saw, Towards her full of rapture sprang Ferrau.

LIX She disappeared, I say, as forms avaunt At sleep's departure: toiling long and sore He seeks the damsel there, 'twixt plant and plant, Now can his wretched eyes behold her more.

Blaspheming his Mahound and Termagant, And cursing every master of his lore, Ferrau returned towards the sylvan fount, Where lay on earth the helmet of the count.

LX This he soon recognised, for here he read Letters upon the margin, written fair, Which how Orlando won the helmet said; And from what champion took, and when and where.

With it the paynim armed his neck and head, Who would not for his grief the prize forbear; His grief for loss of her, conveyed from sight, As disappear the phantoms of the night.

LXI When in this goodly casque he was arrayed, He deemed nought wanting to his full content, But the discovery of the royal maid, Who like a flash of lightning came and went: For her he searches every greenwood shade, And when all hope of finding her is spent, He for the vain pursuit no longer tarries, But to the Spanish camp returns near Paris;

LXII Tempering the grief which glowed within his breast, For such sore disappointment, with the thought That he was with Orlando's morion blest, As sworn. By good Anglante's count, when taught That the false Saracen the prize possest, Long time the Spanish knight was vainly sought; Nor Roland took the helmet from his head, Till he between two bridges laid him dead.

LXIII Angelica thus, viewless and alone, Speeds on her journey, but with troubled front; Grieved for the helmet, in her haste foregone On her departure from the gra.s.sy fount.

"Choosing to do what I should least have done,"

(She said) "I took his helmet from the count.

This for his first desert I well bestow; A worthy recompense for all I owe!

LXIV "With good intentions, as G.o.d knows, I wrought; Though these an ill and different end produce; I took the helmet only with the thought To bring that deadly battle to a truce; And not that this foul Spaniard what he sought Should gain, or I to his intent conduce."

So she, lamenting, took herself to task For having robbed Orlando of his casque.

LXV By what appeared to her the meetest way, Moody and ill-content she eastward pressed; Ofttimes concealed, sometimes in face of day, As seemed most opportune and pleased her best.

After much country seen, a forest gray She reached, where, sorely wounded in mid breast, Between two dead companions on the ground, The royal maid a bleeding stripling found.

LXVI But of Angelica I now no more Shall speak, who first have many things to say; Nor shall to the Circa.s.sian or the Moor Give for long s.p.a.ce a rhyme; thence called away By good Anglante's prince, who wills, before I of those others tell, I should display The labours and the troubles he sustained, Pursuing the great good he never gained.

LXVII At the first city, whither he was brought (Because to go concealed he had good care), He a new helmet donned; but took no thought What was the head-piece he designed to bear.

So safe is he in fairy spell, it nought Imports, if hard or soft its temper were.

Orlando, covered thus, pursues the quest, Nor him day, night, or rain, or sun arrest.

LXVIII It was the hour that our of Ocean's bed Dan Phoebus drew his dripping steeds, and high And low, still scattering yellow flowers and red, Aurora stained the heavens with various dye, And Stars had cast their veils about their head, Departing from their revels in the sky; When pa.s.sing on a day fair Paris near, Orlando made his mighty worth appear.

LXIX Two squadrons he encountered; one an old Saracen, Manilardo clept, obeyed; King of Noritia, whilom fierce and bold.

But fitter now to counsel than to aid.

The next beneath the standard was enrolled Or Tremisena's monarch, who was said 'Mid Africans to be a perfect knight; Alzirdo he by those who knew him, hight:

LXX These, with the other Saracen array, Cantoned throughout the winter months had lain, Some near the city, some more far away, All lodged nigh town or hamlet on the plain.

For since King Agramant had many a day Spent in attacking Paris' walls in vain, He (for no other means remained to try) Would lastly with a siege the city ply;

LXXI And to do this had people infinite: Since he, beside the host that with him came, And that of Spain which followed to the fight The Spanish King Marsilius' oriflame, Many of France did in his pay unite: For all from Paris he to Arles's stream, With part of Gascony, some straggling tower Excepted, had reduced beneath his power.

LXXII The quivering brook, as warmer breezes blew, Beginning now from ice its waves to free, And the fresh-springing gra.s.s and foliage new, To cloathe again the field and greenwood tree, All those King Agramant a.s.sembled, who Had followed him in his prosperity; To muster in review the armed swarm, And give to his affairs a better form:

LXXIII Hence did the King of Tremisen' repair, With him who had Noritia in command, To be in time at that full muster, where Each squadron, good or bad, was to be scanned Orlando thus by chance encountered there, As I have told you, this united hand; Who, as his usage was, went seeking her, By whom he had been made Love's prisoner.

LXXIV Alzirdo, as the approaching count he eyes, Who in this world for valour has no peer, With such a haughty front, and in such guise, The G.o.d of war would less in arms appear, The features known before astounded spies, The fierce, disdainful glance and furious cheer; And him esteems a knight of prowess high, Which, fondly, he too sore desires to try.

LXXV Arrogant, young, and of redoubted force, Alzirdo was, and prized for dauntless mind; Who bent to joust p.r.i.c.ked forth his foaming horse, Happier had he remained in line behind!

Met by Anglante's prince in middle course, Who pierced his heart as they encountering joined.

Frighted, the lightened courser scoured the plain, Without a rider to direct the rein.

LXXVI Rises a sudden and a horrid cry, And air on every side repeats the scream; As his scared band the falling youth descry, And issuing from his wound so wide a stream: Disordered, they the count in fury ply, And, raised to cut or thrust, their weapons gleam.

Against that flower of knights, their feathered reeds, A thicker squadron yet in tempest speeds.

LXXVII With sound like that, with which from hill repair, Or from the champaign's flat the hurrying swine, (If the Wolf, issue from his grot, or Bear, Descending to the mountains' lower line, Some bristly youngling take away and tear, Who with loud squeal and grunt is heard to pine) Came driving at the count the barbarous rout; "Upon him!" and "upon him!" still their shout.

LXXVIII At once spears, shafts, and swords, his corslet bore By thousands, and as many pierce his shield.

This threatens on one side, and that before, And those the ponderous mace behind him wield.

But he esteems the craven rout no more.

He, who did never yet to terror yield, Than hungry Wolf in twilight makes account To what the number of the flock may mount.