LX.

Whom by such long and by such tedious way
She sought throughout the realm of France in vain;
Here by the cognizance, his old display,
Afar, by her distinguished from the train.
At the first sight of her he quits the fray
And wears a semblance loving and humane.
He clipt her round with many a fond caress,
And kissed a thousand times, or little less.

LXI.

To dame and damsel in that ancient age

They trusted much, that, in their wandering vein,
Roved, unescorted, many a weary stage,
Through foreign countries and by hill and plain;
Whom they returning hold for fair and sage,
Nor of their faith suspicion entertain.
Here Brandimart by Flordelice was taught,
How Roland wandered, of his wits distraught.'
LXII.

Had he such strange and evil tidings heard
From other lips, he scarce had these believed:
But credited fair Flordelice's word,

From whom more wondrous things he had received.
Nor this, as told by other, she averred;

This had she seen, and ill could be deceived;

For well as any she Orlando knows ;

And both the when and where that damsel shows.

LXIII.

She tells him, How the perilous bridge's floor
From cavaliers King Rodomont defends;
'Where, on a pompous sepulchre, the Moor

His prisoners' ravished arms and vest suspends;
Tells how she saw Orlando, raging sore,

'Do fearful deeds,' and her relation ends,
Describing how the paynim fell reversed,
To his great peril, in the stream immersed.

LXIV.

Brandimart, who the County loves as dear
As man can love a brother, friend, or son,
Disposed to seek Orlando, far and near.
Nor pain nor peril in the adventure shun,
Till something for the comfort of that peer
By wizard's or by leech's art be done,
Armed as he is, leaps lightly on his steed,
And takes his way beneath the lady's lead.

LXV.

Thitherward where 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 arrayed.
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 Argièr,

Assorting with his moody rage, 'gan say;

"Whoe'er thou art, sir knight, and whencesoe'er'Brought by mistake of purpose or of way,

66

66

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, laid;
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 pass, where one
Fell prone 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 passage is, unfenced the brink!

LXIX.

With heavy spears, the growth of forest hoar,
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 too narrow was the scanty plank.
Hence both fall headlong, and the deafening sound
Re-echo vaulted skies and grassy 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 hard and where 'tis softer knows,
Where shallow is the water, where profound:
With breast and flanks above the waves he rose,
And Brandimart assailed 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.

*Phaeton.