LXV Thitherward were Orlando she had spied, In company the knight and lady made.

They daily post till to that bridge they ride, Which Argier's king maintained, in arms arraid, To him the guard their coming signified; Courser and arms his squires as well conveyed; And Brandimart no sooner is at hand Than Rodomont is armed and at his stand.

LXVI With lofty voice the sovereign of Argier, a.s.sorting with his moody rage, 'gan say: " -- Whoe'er thou art, sir knight, and whencesoe'er -- Brought by mistake of purpose or of way, Light from thine horse and doff thy warlike gear, To deck this sepulchre, ere thee I slay, An offering to its lovely tenant's spirit; And thou in thy forced homage have no merit."

LXVII Brandimart, at the paynim's proud discourse, His weapon in the rest, for answer, layed; He good Batoldo spurred, his gentle horse, And at the champion with such fury made, As showed that he, for courage and for force, With any warrior in the world had weighed.

King Rodomont as well, with rested spear, Thundered along the bridge, in fierce career.

LXVIII The paynim's courser, ever used to go Upon that bridge's fearful pa.s.s, where one Fell p.r.o.ne parforce into the stream below, Securely to the fierce encounter run: While, trembling, and irresolute in show, That other to the unwonted course is gone.

Quivers the bridge beneath, as it would sink: Narrow that pa.s.sage is, unfenced the brink!

LXIX With heavy spears, the growth of forest h.o.a.r, Saplings rough-hewn, those masters of the just, Upon the perilous bridge encountering sore, Exchange, on either side, no gentle thrust.

Nor much their mighty strength or manege-lore Avails the steeds; for, prostrate in the dust, Crumbles each knight and charger in mid-course; Whelmed in one fate, the rider and his horse.

LXX When either steed would nimbly spring from ground, As the spur galled and gored his bleeding flank, He on that little bridge no footing found; For all to narrow was the scanty plank.

Hence both fall headlong, and the deafening sound Re-echo vaulted skies and gra.s.sy bank.

So rang our stream, when from the heavenly sphere Was hurled the sun's ill-fated charioteer.

LXXI With all their weight, down hurtled from the steep, Coursers and cavaliers, who sate them well; And dived into the river's darksome deep, To search for beauteous nymph in secret cell.

Nor this the first nor yet the second leap Which from the bridge had made that infidel!

Who, often floundering in its oozy bed, Well in the soundings of that stream was read.

LXXII He where 'tis hand and where 'tis softer knows, Where shallow is the water, where profound: With breast and flanks above the waves he rose, And Brandimart a.s.sailed on safer ground.

Brandimart, whirling with the current, goes, While his steed's feet the faithless bottom pound.

He, with his lord, stands rooted in the mud, With risk to both of drowning in the flood.

LXXIII Whelming them upside-down, the waters flow, And plunge them in the river's deepest bed; The horse is uppermost, the knight below.

From the bridge looks his lady, sore bested, And tear employs, and prayer, and suppliant vow: -- "Ah, Rodomont! for love of her, whom dead Ye worship, do not deed of such despite!

Permit not, sir, the death of such a knight.

LXXIV "Ah! courteous lord! if e'er you loved withal, Have pity upon me who love this peer; Let it suffice that he become thy thrall!

For if thou on this stone suspend his gear, Amid whatever spoils adorn the wall, The best and worthiest will his spoils appear."

She ended, and her prayer so well addrest, It touched, though hard to move, the paynim's breast.

LXXV Moved by her words, he lent her lover aid, So by his courser in the stream immersed; And largely drank, albeit with little thirst.

But Rodomont a while his help delayed, And seized the warrior's sword and helmet first.

Him half exhausted from the stream he drew, And prisoned with that other captive crew.

LXXVI All happiness was in that damsel spent, When taken she her Brandimart espied, Although to see him captive more content, Than to behold him perish in the tide.

None but herself she blames for the event, Who thitherward had been the champion's guide, She having to that faithful warrior shown, How at the bridge Orlando she had known.

LXXVII She parts, and has anew already planned Thither with good Rinaldo to resort; With Guido, Sansonet of doughty hand, Or other cavalier of Pepin's court; Some warrior good by water and by land, That with the Saracen will well a.s.sort.

Who, if no stronger than her baffled knight, With better fortune may maintain the fight.

LXXVIII For many days the damsel vainly strayed, Ere she encountered any one who bore Semblance of knight, that might afford her aid, And free her prisoned lover from the Moor; After she long and fruitless search had made, At length a warrior crost her way, that wore A richly ornamented vest, whose ground With trunks of cypresses was broidered round.

LXXIX Who was that champion, shall be said elsewhere; For I to Paris must return, and show How Malagigi and Rinaldo are Victorious o'er the routed Moorish foe.

To count the flyers were a useless care, Or many drowned in Stygian streams below.

The darkness rendered Turpin's labour vain, Who tasked himself to tell the pagans slain.

Lx.x.x King Agramant in his pavilion lies, From his first sleep awakened by a knight: He that the king will be a prisoner cries, Save he with speed betake himself to flight, The monarch looks about him and espies His paynim bands dispersed in panic fright.

Naked, they far and near desert the field; Nay, never halt to s.n.a.t.c.h the covering shield.

Lx.x.xI Uncounselled and confused, the king arrayed His naked limbs in knightly plate and chain, When thither Falsiron, the Spaniard, made Grandonio, Balugantes, and their train: They to the Moorish king the risk displayed Of being taken in that press, or slain; And vouched if thence he should in safety fare, He well might thank propitious Fortune's care.

Lx.x.xII Marsilius so, Sobrino so, their fear Express; so, one and all, the friendly band; They warn him that Destruction is as near As swift Mount Alban's lord is nigh at hand.

And if against so fierce a cavalier, And such a troop, he seeks to make a stand, He and his friends in that disastrous strife Will surely forfeit liberty or life.

Lx.x.xIII But he to Arles and Narbonne may retreat, With such few squadrons as his rule obey: Since either is well fortified, and meet The warfare to maintain above one day; And having saved his person, the defeat May venge upon the foe, by this delay: His troops may rally quickly in that post, And rout in fine King Charles' conquering host.

Lx.x.xIV Agramant to those lords' opinion bent, Though that hard counsel he could ill endure; As if supplied with wings, towards Arles he went, By roads which offered pa.s.sage most secure.

Beside safe guides, much favoured his intent His setting out, when all things were obscure.

Scaping the toils by good Rinaldo spread, Some twenty thousand of the paynims fled.

Lx.x.xV Those whom Rinaldo, whom his brethren slew, Whom Oliviero's sons, the valiant twain, Those who were slaughtered by Mount Alban's crew, -- The fierce seven hundred, good Rinaldo's train -- Those whom the valiant Sansonet o'erthrew, And those that in their flight were drowned in Seine, He who would count, might count as well what flowers Zephyr and Flora shed, mid April-showers.

Lx.x.xVI Here one conjectures Malagigi bore A part in the alarum of that night: Not that he stained the mead with paynim gore, Nor splintered heads; but that the wizard wight, Infernal angels, by his magic lore, Called from Tartarean caverns into light; Whose many spears and banners waving wide Two kingdoms such as France had scarce supplied.

Lx.x.xVII And with them such sonorous metal brayed, So many drums and martial noises sounded; So many steeds in that encounter neighed; So many cries -- with rush of foot confounded -- Rose all about, that hill, dale, wood, and glade, From distant parts, the deafening din rebounded; And struck into the Moors such sudden dread, They turned and from the field in panic fled.

Lx.x.xVIII Their king forgets no, how Rogero lay Sore wounded, and as yet in evil case.

Him, with what care they could, he made convey From that dread field, on horse of easy pace.

Borne to the sea by the securest way, They in a bark the suffering warrior place, And thence commodiously to Arles transport; Whither their wasted squadrons make resort.

Lx.x.xIX Chased by Rinaldo and King Charlemagne, A hundred thousand, or well nigh, I ween, By wood, by mountain, valley, and by plain, Flying the fury of the Franks are seen; More find the pa.s.sage blocked, and widely stain With crimson what before was white and green.

Not so Grada.s.so's puissant troops was spent, Who farther from the field had pitched his tent.

XC Nay; when he hears it is Mount Alban's knight By whom a.s.sailed the paynim quarters are, He in his heart exults, with such delight, That he, for very joy, leaps here and there.

He thanks and lauds his G.o.d, who him that night Blest with so high a fortune and so rare; Hoping to win the horse without a peer, Baiardo, from the Christian cavalier.

XCI Grada.s.so had desired long time before (I think you will have read the tale elsewhere) To back that courser, which Rinaldo bore, And Durindana by his side to wear: He with a hundred thousand men and more To France, with this design, had made repair; And had erewhile to b.l.o.o.d.y fight defied, Even for that good steed, Mount Alban's pride.

XCII Hence had that king repaired to the sea-sh.o.r.e, The place a.s.signed to end their discord fell: But all was marred by Malagigi's lore; Who, cheating good Rinaldo with a spell, To sea the champion in a pinnace bore.

Too tedious were the tale at length to tell.

Hence evermore Grada.s.so had opined, The gentle baron was of craven kind.

XCIII Now that Grada.s.so learns Mount Alban's peer Is he, that storms the camp, in huge delight, Armed, on Alfana leaps the cavalier, And through the pitchy darkness seeks the knight, O'erturning all who cross his fierce career, He leaves afflicted and in piteous plight The broken bands of Afric and of France.

All, food alike for his wide-wasting lance.

XCIV He seeks the paladin, now here now there, Echoing his name as loud as he can shout; And thitherward inclines his courser, where The bodies are most thickly strown about.

At length encounter, sword to sword, the pair, For broken are alike their lances stout; Which shivering in their hands, had flown upright.

And smote the starry chariot of the Night.

XCV When King Grada.s.so recognized the foe, Not by the blazoned bearing of his shield, But by Baiardo -- by that horrid blow, Which made him seem sole champion of the field, He to reproach the knight was nothing slow, And of unworthy action him appealed; In that he had not kept his ground and day, Erewhile appointed for the fierce a.s.say.

XCVI "Belike thou hoped," (said he of Sericane,) "If for that time my vengeance thou couldst fly, We should not meet in this wide world again: But we are met, thou seest, anew; and I, Be sure, though thou shouldst seek the Stygian reign, Or be from earth translated to the sky, Will hunt thee, save that courser thou forego, Be it through heaven above or h.e.l.l below.

XCVII "Dost thou, as matched with me mistrust thy force, (And that thou wert ill paired was seen whilere,) And more esteemest life than fame, a course Remains, which thee may from thy peril clear.

And thou, if thou in peace resign the horse, May'st live, if life be deemed so pa.s.sing dear; But live afoot, unmeriting a steed, That dost by chivalry such foul misdeed."