Twas hence a foul mistake the assaulted made;
It caused their utter loss, and ruined all :
They of Maganza deemed themselves betrayed
By the infidels, upon their leader's fall:
On the other side, so charged with hostile blade,
The Moors those Maganzese assassins call;
And, with fierce slaughter, either angry horde
'Gan bend the bow, and brandish lance and sword.
XVI.
Rogero, charging this, or the other band,
Slays ten or twenty, shifting his career;
No fewer by the warlike damsel's hand
Are slaughtered and extinguished, there and here:
As many men as feel the murderous brand
Are from the saddle seen to disappear;
Before it vanish cuirass, helms, and shields,
As the dry wood to fire in forest yields.
XVII.
If ever you remember to have viewed,
Or heard,-what time the wasps divided are,
And all the winged college is at feud,
Mustering their swarms for mischief in mid air,-
The greedy swallow swoop amid that brood,
To mangle and devour, and kill, and tear,
You must imagine so, on either part
The bold Rogero and Marphisa dart.
Not so Sir Richardet and Aldigier,
Varied the dance between those squadrons twain;
For, heedless of the Moors, each cavalier
Had but an eye to false Maganza's train.
The brother of Rinaldo, Charles's peer,
Much courage added to much might and main;
And these were now redoubled by the spite,
Which against false Maganza warned the knight.
This cause made him who in his fury shared,
Good Buovo's bastard, seem a lion fell;
He, without pause, each trusty helmet pared
With his good blade, or crushed it like the shell
Of brittle egg; and who would not have dared-
Would not have shown a Hector's worth as well,
Having two such companions in the stower,
Of warlike wights the very choice and flower?
Marphisa, waging all the while the fight,
On her companions often turned to gaze,
And as she marked their rivalry in might,
Admiring, upon all bestowed her praise;
But when she on Rogero fixed her sight,
Deemed him unparalleled; and in amaze,
At times believed that Paladin was Mars,
Who left his heaven to mix in mortal wars.
XXI.
She marvels at the champion's horrid blows;
She marvels how in vain they never fell.
The iron, smit by Balisarda, shows
Like paper, not like stubborn plate and shell.
To pieces helm and solid corslet goes,
And men are severed, even to the sell;
Whom into equal parts those strokes divide,
Half dropt on this, and half on the other side.
With the same downright stroke, he overbore
The horse and rider, bleeding in the dust;
The heads of others from their shoulders bore,
And parted from the hips the bleeding bust.
He often at a blow cleft five and more;
And-but I doubt who hears me might distrust
What of a seeming falsehood bears the impréss-
I would say more; but I parforce say less.
Good Turpin, he who knows that he tells true,
And leaves men to believe what they think right,
Says of Rogero wondrous things, which you
Hearing related, would as falsehoods slight.
Thus, with Marphisa matched, that hostile crew
Appears like ice, and she like burning light.
Nor her Rogero with less marvel eyes,
Than she had marked his valour with surprise.
XXIV.
As she had Mars in bold Rogero seen,
Perhaps Bellona he had deemed the maid,
If for a woman he had known that queen,
Who seemed the contrary, in arms arrayed;
And haply emulation had between
The pair ensued, by whom with cruel blade
Most deadly signs of prowess should be shown,
Mid that vile herd, on sinew, flesh, and bone.
To rout each hostile sqadror, filled with dread,
Sufficed the soul and valour of the four;
Nor better arms remained for them who fled
Than the sharp goads which on their heels they wore.
Happy was he with courser well bested!
By trot or amble they set little store;
And he who had no steed, here learned, dismayed,
How wretched is the poor foot-soldier's trade.
XXVI.
The conquerors' prize remained both field and prey;
Nor was there footman left nor muleteer;
The Moor took this, Maganza took that way;
One leaves the prisoners, and one leaves the gear.
With visage glad, and yet with heart more gay,
The four untied each captive cavalier;
Nor were less diligent to free from chains
The prisoned pages, and unload the wains.
XXVII.
Besides good quantity of silver fine,
Wrought into different vessels, with a store
Of feminine array, of fair design,
Embroidered round about with choicest lore,
And suit of Flemish tapestry, framed to line
Royal apartments, wrought with silk and ore-
-They, 'mid more costly things in plenty spread-
Discovered flasks of wine, and meat and bread.
XXVIII.
When now the conquering troop their temples bare,
All see they have received a damsel's aid,
Known by her curling locks of golden hair,
And delicate and beauteous face displayed:
Her the knights honoured much, and to declare
Her name, so well deserving glory, prayed;
Nor she, that ever was of courteous mood
Among her friends, their instances withstood.
XXIX.
With viewing her they cannot sate their eyes,
Who in the battle such had her espied,
She speaks but with the Child, but him descries
None prizes, values none, 'twould seem, beside.
Meanwhile that ready spread a banquet lies,'
To them is by the servants notified.
This they had served about a neighbouring fountain,
Screened from the sun by an o'ershadowing mountain.
This spring was one of those four fountains rare,
Of those in France produced by Merlin's sleight;
Encompassed round about with marble fair,
Shining and polished, and than milk more white.
There in the stone choice figures chiselled were,
By that magician's godlike labour dight;
Save voice was wanting, these you might have thought
Were living and with nerve and spirit fraught.
XXXI.
Here, to appearance, from the forest prest
A cruel Beast and hideous to the eye,
With teeth of wolf, an ass's head and crest,
A carcass with long famine lean and dry,
And lion's claws; a fox in all the rest:
Which seemed to ravage France and Italy,
And Spain and England's desolated strands,
Europe and Asia, and in fine all lands.'
That beast the low and those of proudest port
Had slain or maimed throughout this earthly ball;
Yea, fiercest seemed on those of noble sort,
Sovereign and satrap, prince and peer, to fall;
And made most havoc in the Roman court;
For it had slaughtered Pope and Cardinal:
Had filled St. Peter's beauteous seat with scathe.
And brought foul scandal on the HOLY FAITH.
XXXIII.
Whate'er she touches, wall or rampire steep,
Goes to the ground; where'er the monster wends,
Each fortress opens; neither castle-keep,
Nor city from her rage its wealth defends.
Honours divine as well that Beast would reap,
It seems (while the besotted rabble bends)
And claim withal, as to its keeping given,
The sacred keys which open Hell and Heaven.
XXXIV.
Approaching next, is seen a cavalier,
His temples circled with imperial bay;
Three youths with him in company appear,
With golden lilies wrought in their array :
A lion seems against that monster drear
To issue, with the same device as they :
The names of these are on the marble read,
Some on their skirt, some written overhead.
Of those who so against that Beast advance,
One to the hilt has in his life-blood dyed
His faulchion, Francis styled the first of France;
With Austrian Maximilian at his side:
In one, who gores his gullet with the lance,
The emperor Charles the fifth is signified:
Henry the eighth of England is he hight,
Who in the monster's breast a dart has pight.
XXXVI.
THE TENTH, in writing, on his back displayed
The Lion, who that Beast is seen to hold
By both his ears, and him so well has bayed,
That thither troop assistants manifold.
"Twould seem the world all fear aside has laid;
And in amendment of their errors old,
Thitherward nobles troop, but these are few
And so that hideous Beast those hunters slew.
XXXVII.
In wonder stood long time that warlike train,
Desirous, as the storied work they traced,
To know by hands of whom that Beast was slain,
Which had so many smiling lands defaced,
The names unknown to them, though figured plain
Upon the marble which that fountain cased:
They one another prayed, if any guessed
That story, he would tell it to the rest.
XXXVIII.
Vivian on Malagigi turned his eyes,
Who listening stood this while, yet spake he nought. "With thee," he cried, "to tell the meaning lies, "That shouldst by what I see in this be taught: "Who are they, by whose darts and lances dies "The hideous monster, that to bay is brought ?' -And Malagigi-"Hitherto their glory "No author has consigned to living story.
"The chiefs whose names are graved upon the stone, "Not yet have moved upon this worldly stage;
But will within seven hundred years be known,
"To the great honour of a future age.
'What time king Arthur filled the British throne, "This fountain Merlin made, enchanter sage;
"Who things to come upon the marble fair "Made sculpture by a cunning artist's care.
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