XXI In wary wise, intent the truth to find, Rogero said, "You have I seen elsewhere; And have again, and yet again, divined, Yet know I not, nor can remember where.

Say it, yourself, if it returns to mind, And, I beseech, your name as well declare: Which I would gladly hear, in the desire To know whom I have rescued from the fire."

XXII " -- Me, it is possible you may have seen, I know not when nor where (the youth replied); For I too range the world, in armour sheen, Seeking adventure strange on every side; Or haply it a sister may have been, Who to her waist the knightly sword has tied; Born with me at a birth; so like to view, The family discerns not who is who.

XXIII "You not first, second, or even fourth will be, Who have in this their error had to learn; Nor father, brother, nor even mother me From her (such our resemblance) can discern.

'Tis true, this hair, which short and loose you see, In many guise, and hers, with many a turn, And in long tresses wound about her brow, Wide difference made between us two till now.

XXIV "But since the day, that, wounded by a Moor In the head (a story tedious to recite) A holy man, to heal the damsel's sore, Cut short to the mid-ear her tresses bright, Excepting s.e.x and name, there is no more One from the other to distinguish; hight I Richardetto am, Bradamant she; Rinaldo's brother and his sister we.

XXV "And to displease you were I not afraid, You with a wonder would I entertain, Which chanced from my resemblance to the maid; Begun in pleasure, finishing in pain."

He to whom nought more pleasing could be said, And to whose ears there was no sweeter strain That what in some sort on his lady ran, Besought the stripling so, that he began.

XXVI "It so fell out, that as my sister through The neighbouring wood pursued her path, a wound Was dealt the damsel by a paynim crew, Which her by chance without a helmet found.

And she was fain to trim the locks which grew Cl.u.s.tering about the gash, to maker her sound Of that ill cut which in her head she bore: Hence, shorn, she wandered through the forest h.o.a.r.

XXVII "Ranging, she wandered to a shady font; Where, worn and troubled, she, in weary wise, Lit from her courser and disarmed her front, And, couched upon the greenwood, closed her eyes.

A tale more pleasing than what I recount In story there is none, I well surmise: Thither repaired young Flordespine of Spain, Who in that wood was hunting with her train.

XXVIII "And, when she found my sister in the shade, Covered, except her face, with martial gear, -- In place of spindle, furnished with the blade -- Believed that she beheld a cavalier: The face and manly semblance she surveyed, Till conquered was her heart: with courteous cheer She wooed the maid to hunt with her, and past With her alone into that hold at last.

XXIX "When now she had her, fearless of surprise, Safe in a solitary place, that dame, By slow degrees, in words and amorous wise, Showed her deep-wounded heart; with sighs of flame, Breathed from her inmost breast, with burning eyes, She spake her soul sick with desire; became Now pale, now red; nor longer self-controlled, Ravished a kiss, she waxed so pa.s.sing bold.

x.x.x "My sister was a.s.sured the huntress maid Falsely conceited her a man to be; Nor in that need could she afford her aid; And found herself in sore perplexity.

' 'Tis better that I now dispel (she said) The foolish thought she feeds, and that in me The damsel should a gentle woman scan, Rather than take me for a craven man.'

x.x.xI "And she said well: for cravenhood it were Befitting man of straw, not warrior true, With whom so bright a lady deigned to pair, So wonderous sweet and full of nectarous dew, To clack like a poor cuckow to the fair, Hanging his coward wing, when he should woo, Shaping her speech to this in wary mode, My sister that she was a damsel, showed;

x.x.xII "That, like Camilla and like Hyppolite, Sought fame in battle-field, and near the sea, In Afric, in Arzilla, saw the light; To shield and spear enured from infancy.

A spark this quenched not; nor yet burned less bright The enamoured damsel's kindled phantasy.

Too tardy came the salve to ease the smart: So deep had Love already driven his dart.

x.x.xIII "Nor yet less fair to her my sister's face Appeared, less fair her ways, less fair her guise; Nor yet the heart returned into its place, Which joyed itself within those dear-loved eyes.

Flordespine deems the damsel's iron case To her desire some hope of ease supplies; And when she thinks she is indeed a maid, Laments and sobs, with mighty woe downweighed.

x.x.xIV "He who had marked her sorrow and lament, That day, himself had sorrowed with the fair.

'What pains (she said) did ever wight torment, So cruel, but that mine more cruel were?

I need not to accomplish my intent, In other love, impure or pure, despair; The rose I well might gather from the thorn: My longing only is of hope forlorn.

x.x.xV " 'It 'twas thy pleasure, Love, to have me shent, Because by glad estate thine anger stirred, Thou with some torture might'st have been content On other lovers used; but never word Have I found written of a female bent On love of female, mid mankind or herd.

Woman to woman's beauty still is blind; Nor ewe delights in ewe, nor hind in hind.

x.x.xVI " 'Tis only I, on earth, in air, or sea, Who suffer at thy hands such cruel pain; And this thou hast ordained, that I may be The first and last example in thy reign.

Foully did Ninus' wife and impiously For her own son a pa.s.sion entertain; Loved was Pasiphae's bull and Myrrha's sire; But mine is madder than their worst desire.

x.x.xVII " 'Here female upon male had set her will; Had hope; and, as I hear, was satisfied.

Pasiphae the wooden cow did fill: Others, in other mode, their want supplied.

But, had he flown to me, -- with all his skill, Dan Daedalus had not the noose untied: For one too diligent hath wreathed these strings; Even Nature's self, the puissantest of things.'

x.x.xVIII "So grieves the maid, so goads herself and wears, And shows no haste her sorrowing to forego; Sometimes her face, sometimes her tresses tears, And levels at herself the vengeful blow.

In pity, Bradamant the sorrow shares, And is constrained to hear the tale of woe, She studies to divert, with fruitless pain, The strange and mad desire; but speaks in vain.

x.x.xIX "She, who requires a.s.sistance, not support, Still more laments herself, with grief opprest.

By this the waning day was growing short, For the low sun was crimsoning the west; A fitting hour for those to seek a port, Who would not in the wood set up their rest.

When to this city, near her sylvan haunt, Young Flordespine invited Bradament.

XL "My sister the request could ill deny; And so they came together to the place, Where, but for you, by that ill squadron I Had been compelled the cruel flame to face: There Flordespina made her family Caress and do my sister no small grace; And, having in a female robe arraid, Past her on all beholders for a maid.

XLI "Because perceiving vantage there was none In the male cheer by which she was misled, The damsel held it wise, reproach to shun, Which might by any carping tongue be said.

And this the rather: that the ill, which one Of the two garments in her mind had bred, Now with the other which revealed the cheat, She would a.s.say to drive from her conceit.

XLII "The ladies share one common bed that night, Their bed the same, but different their repose.

One sleeps, one groans and weeps in piteous plight, Because her wild desire more fiercely glows; And on her wearied eyes should slumber light, All is deceitful that brief slumber shows.

To her it seems, as if relenting Heaven A better s.e.x to Bradamant is given.

XLIII "As the sick man with burning thirst distrest, If he should sleep, -- ere he that wish fulfil, -- Aye in his troubled, interrupted rest, Remembers him of every once-seen rill: So is the damsel's fancy still possest, In sleep, with images which glad her will.

Then from the empty dreams which crowd her brain, She wakes, and, waking, finds the vision vain.

XLIV "What vows she vowed, how oft that night she prayed, To all her G.o.ds and Mahound, in despair!

-- That they, by open miracle, the maid Would change, and give her other s.e.x to wear.

But all the lady's vows were ill appaid, And haply Heaven as well might mock the prayer; Night fades, and Phoebus raises from the main His yellow head, and lights the world again.

XLV "On issueing from their bed when day is broken, The wretched Flordespina's woes augment: For of departing Bradamant had spoken, Anxious to scape from that embarra.s.sment.

The princess a prime jennet, as a token, Forced on my parting sister, when she went; And gilded housings, and a surcoat brave, Which her own hand had richly broidered, gave.

XLVI "Her Flordespine accompanied some way, Then, weeping, to her castle made return.

So fast my sister p.r.i.c.ked, she reached that day Mount Alban; we who for her absence mourn, Mother and brother, greet the martial may, And her arrival with much joy discern: For hearing nought, we feared that she was dead, And had remained in cruel doubt and dread.

XLVII "Unhelmed, we wondered at her hair, which pa.s.sed In braids about her brow, she whilom wore; Nor less we wondered at the foreign cast Of the embroidered surcoat which she wore: And she to us rehea.r.s.ed, from first to last, The story I was telling you before; How she was wounded in the wood, and how, For cure, were shorn the tresses from her brow;

XLVIII "And next how came on her, with labour spent, -- As by the stream she slept -- that huntress bright; And how, with all her false semblance well content, She from the train withdrew her out of sight.

Nor left she any thing of her lament Untold; which touched with pity every wight; Told how the maid had harboured her, and all Which past, till she revisited her Hall.

XLIX "Of Flordespine I knew: and I had seen In Saragossa and in France the maid; To whose bewitching eyes and lovely mien My youthful appet.i.te had often strayed: Yet her I would not make my fancy's queen; For hopeless love is but a dream and shade: Now I this proffered in such substance view, Straitway the ancient flame breaks forth anew.

L "Love, with this hope, constructs his subtle ties; Who other threads for me would vainly weave.

'Tis thus he took me, and explained the guise In which I might the long-sought boon achieve.

Easy it were the damsel to surprise; For as the likeness others could deceive, Which I to Bradamant, my sister, bear, This haply might as well the maid ensnare.

LI "Whether I speed or no, I hold it wise, Aye to pursue whatever give delight.

I with no other of my plan devise, Nor any seek to counsel me aright.

Well knowing where the suit of armour lies My sister doffed, I thither go at night; Her armour and her steed to boot I take, Nor stand expecting until daylight break.

LII "I rode all night -- Love served me as a guide -- To seek the home of beauteous Flordespine; And there arrived, before in ocean's tide The western sun had hid his...o...b..t sheen.

A happy man was he who fastest hied To tell my coming to the youthful queen; Expecting from that lady, for his pain, Favour and goodly guerdon to obtain.

LIII "For Bradamant the guests mistake me all, -- As you yourself but now -- so much the more, That I have both the courser and the pall With which she left them but the day before.

Flordespine comes at little interval, With such festivity and courteous lore, And with a face, so jocund and so gay, She could not, for her life, more joy display.

LIV "Her beauteous arms about my neck she throws, And fondly clasping me, my mouth she kist.