x.x.xVI Then on his way to be baptized he hied, That he might next espouse the martial may, With Bradamant; who served him as a guide To Vallombrosa's fane, an abbey gray, Rich, fair, nor less religious, and beside, Courteous to whosoever pa.s.sed that way; And they encountered, issuing from the chase, A woman, with a pa.s.sing woful face.

x.x.xVII Rogero, as still courteous, still humane To all, but woman most, when he discerned Her dainty visage furrowed by a rain Of lovely tears, sore pitied her, and burned With the desire to know her grievous pain; And having to the mournful lady turned, Besought her, after fair salute, to show What cause had made her eyes thus overflow.

x.x.xVIII And she, uplifting their moist rays and bright, Most kindly to the inquiring Child replied; And of the cause of her unhappy plight, Him, since he sought it, fully satisfied.

"Thou hast to understand, O gentle knight, My visage is so bathed with tears," she cried, "In pity to a youth condemned to die This very day, within a town hard by.

x.x.xIX "Loving a gentle lady and a gay, The daughter of Marsilius, king of Spain, And feigning, veiled in feminine array, The modest roll of eye and girlish strain, With her each night the amorous stripling lay, Nor any had suspicion of the twain: But nought so hidden is, but searching eye In the long run the secret will espy.

XL "One first perceived it, and then spoke with two, Those two with more, till to the king 'twas said; Of whom but yesterday a follower true Gave order to surprise the pair in bed, And in the citadel the prisoners new, To separate dungeons in that fortress led; Nor think I that enough of day remains To save the lover from his cruel pains.

XLI "I fled, not to behold such cruelty, For they alive the wretched youth will burn; Nor think I aught could more afflicting be Than such fair stripling's torment to discern, Or that hereafter thing can pleasure me So much, but that it will to trouble turn, If memory retrace the cruel flame Which preyed upon his fair and dainty frame."

XLII Touched deeply, Bradamant his danger hears, In heart sore troubled at the story shown; As anxious for the lover, it appears, As if he were a brother of her own: Nor certes wholly causeless are her fears, As in an after verse will be made known, Then, to Rogero: "Him to keep from harms, Meseems we worthily should turn our arms."

XLIII And to that melancholy damsel said: "Place us but once within the walls, and I, So that the youth be not already dead, Will be your warrant that he shall not die."

Rogero, who the kindly bosom read Of Bradamant, still full of piety, Felt himself but all over with desire To s.n.a.t.c.h the unhappy stripling from the fire.

XLIV And to the maid, whose troubled face apears Bathed with a briny flood, "Why wait we? -- need Is here of speedy succour, not of tears.

Do you but where the youth is prisoned lead; Him from a thousand swords, a thousand spears, We vow to save; so it be done with speed.

But haste you, lest too tardy be our aid, And he be burnt, which succour is delayed."

XLV The haughty semblance and the lofty say Of these, who with such wondrous daring glowed, That hope, which long had ceased to be her stay, Again upon the grieving dame bestowed: But, for she less the distance of the way Dreaded, than interruption of the road, Lest they, through this, should take that path in vain, The damsel stood suspended and in pain.

XLVI Then said: "If to the place our journey lay By the highroad, which is both straight and plain, That we in time might reach it, I should say, Before the fire was lit; but we must strain By path so foul and crooked, that a day To reach the city would suffice with pain; And when, alas! we thither shall have sped, I fear that we shall find the stripling dead."

XLVII "And wherefore take we not the way most near?"

Rogero answers; and the dame replies, "Because fast by where we our course should steer, A castle of the Count of Poictiers lies: Where Pinnabel for dame and cavalier Did, three days past, a shameful law devise; Than whom more worthless living wight is none, The Count Anselmo d'Altaripa's son.

XLVIII "No cavalier or lady by that rest Without some noted scorn and injury goes; Both of their coursers here are dispossest, And knight his arms and dame her gown foregoes.

No better cavaliers lay lance in rest, Nor have for years in France against their foes, Than four, who for Sir Pinnabel have plight Their promise to maintain the castle's right.

XLIX "Whence first arose the usage, which began But three days since, you now, sir knight, shall hear; And shall the cause, if right or evil, scan, Which moved the banded cavaliers to swear.

So ill a lady has the Castellan, So wayward, that she is without a peer: Who, on a day, as with the count she went, I know not whither, by a knight was shent.

L "This knight, as flouted by that bonnibel, For carrying on his croup an ancient dame, Encountered with her champion Pinnabel, Of overweening pride and little fame: Him he o'erturned, made alight as well, And put her to the proof, if sound or lame; -- Left her on foot, and had that woman old In the dismounted damsel's garment stoled.

LI "She, who remained on foot, in fell despite, Greedy of vengeance, and athirst for ill, Leagued with the faithless Pinnabel, a wight All evil prompt to further and fulfil, Says she shall never rest by day nor night, Nor ever know a happy hour, until A thousand knights and dames are dispossest Of courser, and of armour, and of vest.

LII "Four puissant knights arrived that very day It happened, at a place of his, and who Had all of them from regions far away Come lately to those parts: so many true And valiant warriors, skilled in martial play, Our age has seen not. These the goodly crew: Guido the savage, but a stripling yet, Gryphon, and Aquilant, and Sansonet!

LIII "Them at the fortilage, of which I told, Sir Pinnabel received with semblance fair, Next seized the ensuing night the warriors bold In bed, nor loosed, till he had made them swear That (he such period fixt) they in his hold Should be his faithful champions for a year And month; and of his horse and arms deprive Whatever cavalier should there arrive.

LIV "And any damsel whom the stranger bore With him, dismount, and strip her of her vest.

So, thus surprised, the warlike prisoners swore; So were constrained to observe the cruel hest, Though grieved and troubled: nor against the four, It seems, can any joust, but vails his crest.

Knight infinite have come, but one and all, Afoot and without arms have left that Hall.

LV "Their order is, who from the castle hies, The first by lot, shall meet the foe alone, But if he find a champion of such guise As keeps the sell, while he himself is thrown, The rest must undertake the enterprise, Even to the death, against that single one, Ranged in a band. If such each single knight, Imagine the a.s.sembled warriors' might!

LVI "Nor stands it with our haste, which all delay, All let forbids, that you beside that tower Be forced to stop and mingle in the fray: For grant that you be conquerors in the stower, (And as your presence warrants well, you may,) 'Tis not a thing concluded in an hour.

And if all day he wait our succour, I Much fear the stripling in the fire will die."

LVII "Regard we not this hindrance of our quest,"

Rogero cried, "But do we what we may!

Let HIM who rules the heavens ordain the rest, Or Fortune, if he leave it in her sway; To you shall by this joust be manifest If we can aid the youth; for whom to-day They on a ground so causeless and so slight, As you to us rehea.r.s.ed, the fire will light."

LVIII Rogero ceased; and in the nearest way The damsel put the pair without reply: Nor these beyond three miles had fared, when they Reached bridge and gate, the place of forfeitry, Of horse and arms and feminine array, With peril sore of life. On turret high, Upon first sight of them, a sentinel Beat twice upon the castle's larum-bell.

LIX And lo, in eager hurry from the gate An elder trotting on hackney made!

And he approaching cried, "Await, await!

-- Hola! halt, sirs, for here a fine is paid: And I to you the usage shall relate, If this has not to you before been said."

And to the three forthwith began to tell The use established there by Pinnabel.

LX He next proceeds, as he had wont before To counsel other errant cavalier.

"Unrobe the lady," (said the elder h.o.a.r,) "My sons, and leave your steeds and martial geer; Nor put yourselves in peril, and with four Such matchless champions hazard the career.

Clothes, arms, and coursers every where are rife; But not to be repaired is loss of life."

LXI " -- No more!" (Rogero said) "No more! for I Am well informed of all, and hither speed With the intention, here by proof to try If, what my heart has vouched, I am in deed.

For sign or threat I yield not panoply, If nought beside I hear, nor vest nor steed.

And this my comrade, I as surely know, These for mere words as little will forego.

LXII "But let me face to face, by Heaven, espy Those who would take my horse and arms away; For we have yet beyond that hill to hie, And little time can here afford to stay."

"Behold the man," that ancient made reply, "Clear of the bridge!" -- Nor did in this missay; For thence a warrior p.r.i.c.ked, who, powdered o'er With snowy flowers, a crimson surcoat wore.

LXIII Bradamant for long time with earnest prayer, For courtesy the good Rogero prest, To let her from his sell the warrior bear, Who with white flowers had purfled o'er his vest.

But moved him not; and to Rogero's share Must leave, and do herself, what liked him best.

He willed the whole emprize his own should be, And Bradamant should stand apart to see.

LXIV The Child demanded of that elder, who Was he that from the gate first took his way, And he, " 'Tis Sansonet; of crimson hue, I know his surcoat, with white flowers gay."

Without a word exchanged, the warlike two Divide the ground, and short is the delay.

For they against each other, levelling low Their spears, and hurrying sore their coursers, go.

LXV This while had issued from the fortress near, With many footmen girt, Sir Pinnabel, All ready to despoil the cavalier, Who in the warlike joust should void is sell.

At one another spurred in bold career The knights, with their huge lances rested well.

Up to the points nigh equal was each stick, Of stubborn native oak, and two palms thick.

LXVI Sansonet, of such staves, above five pair Had made them sever from the living stock, In neighboring wood, and bade his followers bear Two of them hither, destined for that shock: Such truncheons to withstand, well needed-were A shield and cuira.s.s of the diamond rock.

One he had made them give his foe, and one He kept himself, the present course to run.

LXVII With these which might the solid anvil bore, (So well their ends were pointed) there and here, Each aiming at the shield his foeman wore, The puissant warriors shocked in mid career.

That of Rogero, wrought with magic lore, By fiends, had little from the stroke to fear: I of the buckler speak Atlantes made, Of whose rare virtues I whilere have said.

LXVIII I have already said, the enchanted light Strikes with such force on the beholder's eyes, That, at the shield's discovery, every wight Is blinded, or on earth half lifeless lies.

Wherefore, well mantled with a veil, the knight Keeps it, unless some pa.s.sing need surprise: Impa.s.sive is the shield as well believed, Since it no damage in the shock received.

LXIX The other by less skilful artist wrought, Did not so well that weightless blow abide, But, as if smit by thunder, in a thought, Gave way before the steel, and opened wide; Gave way before the griding steel, which sought The arm beneath, by this ill fortified: So that Sir Sansonet was smote, and reeled, In his departure, unhorsed upon the field.

LXX And this was the first comrade of the train That of the tower maintained the usage fell, Who there had failed another's spoil to gain, And voided in the joust his knightly sell.

Who laughs, as well will sometimes have to plain, And find that Fortune will by fits rebel.

Anew the warder on his larum beats, And to the other knights the sign repeats.