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XXXIV.

The better part now of the lingring day
They travell'd had, whenas they far espied
A weary wight forwandring by the way;
And towards him they gan in haste to ride,
To weet of news that did abroad betide,
Or tidings of her knight of the Redcross;
But he, them spying gan to turn aside

For fear, as seem'd, or for some feigned loss:
More greedy they of news fast towards him do cross.

XXXV.

A silly man, in simple weeds forworn,
And soil'd with dust of the long dried way;
His sandals were with toilsome travel torn,
And face all tann'd with scorching sunny ray,
As he had travell'd many a summer's day
Through boiling sands of Arabie and Inde;
And in his hand a Jacob's staff, to stay

His weary limbs upon; and eke behind

His scrip did hang, in which his needments he did bind.

XXXVI.

The knight, approaching nigh, of him inquir'd
Tidings of war, and of adventures new;
But wars, nor new adventures, none he heard.
Then Una gan to ask, if ought he knew
Or heard abroad of that her champion true,
That in his armor bare a croslet red.
"Ay me! dear dame," quoth he, "well may

I rue

To tell the sad sight which mine eyes have read ;

These eyes did see that knight both living and eke dead."

XXXVII.

That cruel word her tender heart so thrill'd,
That sudden cold did run through every vein,
And stony horror all her senses fill'd,

With dying fit that down she fell for pain.

The knight her lightly reared up again,

And comforted with courteous kind relief:

Then, won from death, she bad him tellen plain

The further process of her hidden grief:

The lesser pangs can bear, who hath endur'd the chief.

XXXVIII

Then gan the pilgrim thus ;

“I chanc'd this day,

This fatal day, that shall I ever rue,
To see two knights, in travel on my way
(A sorry sight), arrang'd in battle new,

Both breathing vengeance, both of wrathful hue
My fearful flesh did tremble at their strife,
To see their blades so greedily imbrue,

That, drunk with blood, yet thirsted after life :

[knife."

What more? the Redcross knight was slain with Paynim

XXXIX.

"Ah! dearest lord," quoth she, "how might that be,
And he the stoutest knight, that ever won ?"
"Ah! dearest dame," quoth he, "how might I see
The thing, that might not be, and yet was done ?"
"Where is," said Satyrane, "that Paynim's son,
That him of life, and us of joy, hath reft ?"
"Not far away," quoth he, "he hence doth won*
Foreby a fountain, where I late him left

[cleft."

Washing his bloody wounds, that through the steel were

*Won, travel.

XL.

Therewith the knight then marched forth in haste,
While Una, with huge heaviness opprest,

Could not for sorrow follow him so fast;

And soon he came, as he the place had guest,
Whereas that Pagan proud himself did rest
In secret shadow by a fountain side;

Even he it was, that erst would have supprest
Fair Una; whom when Satyrane espied,

With foul reproachful words he boldly him defied;

XLI.

And said; "Arise, thou cursed miscreant,

That hast with knightless guile, and treacherous train,
Fair knighthood foully shamed, and doest vaunt
That good knight of the Redcross to have slain :
Arise, and with like treason now maintain
Thy guilty wrong, or else thee guilty yield."
The Saracen, this hearing, rose amain,

And, catching up in haste his three-square shield
And shining helmet, soon him buckled to the field;

XLII.

And, drawing nigh him, said; "Ah! misborn Elf,
In evil hour thy foes thee hither sent
Another's wrongs to wreak upon thyself:
Yet ill thou blamest me, for having blent
My name with guile and traitorous intent :
That Redcross knight, perdie,* I never slew;
But had he been, where erst his arms were lent,
Th' enchanter vain his error should not rue :
But thou his error shalt, I hope, now proven true."

* Perdie, a sort of oath.

XLIII.

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Therewith they gan, both furious and fell,
To thunder blows, and fiercely to assail
Each other, bent his enemy to quell ;
That with their force they pierc'd both plate and mail,
And made wide furrows in their fleshes frail,

That it would pity any living eye: C

Large floods of blood adown their sides did rail ;

b

But floods of blood could not them satisfy:

Both hungered after death; both chose to win, or die. C

XLIV

So long they fight, and full revenge pursue,"
That, fainting, each themselves to breathen let ;
And, oft refreshed, battle oft renew,

As when two boars with rankling malice met,
Their gory sides fresh bleeding fiercely fret;
Till breathless both themselves aside retire,
Where, foaming wrath, their cruel tusks they whet,
And trample th' earth, the whiles they may respire;
Then back to fight again, new breathed and entire.

b

XLV.

So fiercely, when these knights had breathed once,
They gan to fight return; increasing more
Their puissant force, and cruel rage at once,
With heaped strokes more hugely than before:
That with their dreary wounds, and bloody gore,
They both deformed, scarcely could be known.
By this, sad Una fraught with anguish sore,

Led with their noise which through the air was thrown,
Arriv'd where they in earth their fruitless blood had sown.

XLVI.

Whom all so soon as that proud Saracen
Espied, he gan revive the memory
Of his lewd love and late attempted sin;
And left the doubtful battle hastily,

To catch her newly offer'd to his eye;
But Satyrane, with strokes him turning, staid,
And sternly bad him other business ply
Than hunt the steps of pure unspotted maid:
Wherewith he, all enrag'd, these bitter speeches said;

XLVII.

"O foolish faĕry's son, what fury mad
Hath thee incenst to haste thy doleful fate?
Were it not better I that lady had

Than that thou hadst repented it too late?
Most senseless man he, that himself doth hate
To love another: Lo then for thine aid,
Here, take thy lovers token on thy pate."
So they to fight; the whiles the royal maid
Fled far away, of that proud Paynim sore afraid.

XLVIII.

But that false pilgrim, which that leasing told,
Being in deed old Archimage, did stay
In secret shadow all this to behold;

And much rejoiced in their bloody fray :
But, when he saw the damsel pass away,
He left his stand, and her pursued apace,
In hope to bring her to her last decay.
But for to tell her lamentable case,

And eke this battle's end, will need another place.

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