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

XLII.

And, drawing nigh him, said; "Ah! misborn Elfe,
In evill houre thy foes thee hither sent
Anothers wrongs to wreak upon thy selfe:
Yet ill thou blamest me, for having blent1
My name with guile and traiterous intent :
That Redcrosse Knight, perdie,2 I never slew;
But had he beene, where earst his armes were lent,
Th' Enchaunter vaine his errour should not rew:
But thou his errour shalt, I hope, now proven trew."

XLIII.
Therewith they gan, both furious and fell,
To thunder blowes, and fiersly to assaile
Each other, bent his enimy to quell ;

That with their force they perst both plate and maile,
And made wide furrowes in their fleshes fraile,

That it would pitty any living eie:

Large floods of blood adowne their sides did raile 3;
But floods of blood could not them satisfie:

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

XLIV.

So long they fight, and full revenge pursue,

That, fainting, each themselves to breathen lett;
And, ofte refreshed, battell oft renue.

As when two bores, with rancling malice mett,

1 Blent, stained.

2 Perdie, in truth.

3 Raile, flow.

XLII. 7. — But had he beene, &c.] But had he been in the place of Archimago, (see canto III. stanzas XXXVII., XXXVIII.,) he, and not the Enchanter, should have suffered for it. "His," in the eighth and ninth line, means the Enchanter's.

Their gory sides fresh bleeding fiercely frett; 1 Til breathlesse both themselves aside retire, Where, foming wrath, their cruell tuskes they whett, And trample th' earth, the whiles they may respire; Then backe to fight againe, new breathed and entire.

XLV.

So fiersly, when these Knights had breathed once, They gan to fight retourne; increasing more Their puissant force, and cruell rage attonce, With heaped strokes more hugely then 2 before; That with their drery wounds, and bloody gore, They both deformed, scarsely could bee known. By this, sad Una fraught with anguish sore, Led with their noise which through the air was thrown, Arriv'd, wher they in erth their fruitles blood had sown.

XLVI.

Whom all so soone as that proud Sarazin
Espide, he gan revive the memory
Of his leud lusts, and late attempted sin;
And lefte the doubtfull battel hastily,
To catch her, newly offred to his eie:
But Satyrane, with strokes him turning, staid,
And sternely bad him other business plie
Then hunt the steps of pure unspotted Maid:
Wherewith he al enrag'd these bitter speaches said;

XLVII.

"O foolish Faeries sonne, what fury mad
Hath thee incenst to hast thy dolefull fate?
Were it not better I that Lady had
Then that thou hadst repented it too late?
Most sencelesse man he, that himselfe doth hate

To love another: Lo then, for thine ayd,
Here take thy lovers token on thy pate."
So they to fight; the whiles the royall Mayd
Fledd farre away, of that proud Paynim sore afrayd.

XLVIII.

But that false Pilgrim, which that leasing1 told,
Being in deed old Archimage, did stay
In secret shadow all this to behold;
And much reioyced in their bloody fray:
But, when he saw the Damsell passe away,
He left his stond, and her pursewd apace,
In hope to bring her to her last decay.2
But for to tell her lamentable cace,

And eke this battels end, will need another place.

1 Leasing, falsehood.

Last decay, final destruction.

XLVIII. 9. And eke this battels end.] The poet never redeems the promise here made to tell us the issue of this battle. Sir Satyrane reappears in the third book, canto VII.

In Una's residence with the Satyrs, the poet may give us to understand that Truth, in a corrupt age, may be found hidden among a rural population, and in "huts where poor men lie;" and in Sir Satyrane, to personify the restoring energy which resides in the heart of a virtuous people. The explanation, however, is suggested, not asserted.

CANTO VII.

The Redcrosse Knight is captive made,

By Gyaunt proud opprest:

Prince Arthure meets with Una great-
ly with those newes distrest.

I.

WHAT man so wise, what earthly witt so ware,'
As to discry the crafty cunning traine,

By which Deceipt doth maske in visour faire,
And cast her coulours died deepe in graine,

To seeme like Truth whose shape she well can faine,
And fitting gestures to her purpose frame,

The guiltlesse man with guile to entertaine?

Great maistresse of her art was that false Dame, The false Duessa, cloked with Fidessaes name.

II.

Who when, returning from the drery Night,
She found not in that perilous Hous of Pryde,
Where she had left, the noble Redcrosse Knight,
Her hoped pray; she would no lenger byde,
But forth she went to seeke him far and wide.
Ere long she fownd, whereas he wearie sate
To rest him selfe, foreby 2 a fountaine syde,

1 Ware, cautious.

2 Foreby, near.

1. 1.

What man, &c.] The narrative now returns to the Redcross Knight, who had escaped from the house of Pride, at the end of canto V.

Disarmed all of yron-coted plate;

And by his side his steed the grassy forage ate.

III.

Hee feedes upon the cooling shade, and bayes1
His sweatie forehead in the breathing wynd,
Which through the trembling leaves full gently playes,
Wherein the chearefull birds of sundry kynd

Doe chaunt sweet musick, to delight his mynd:

The Witch approching gan him fayrely greet,
And with reproch of carelesnes unkynd
Upbrayd, for leaving her in place unmeet,

With fowle words tempring faire, soure gall with hony sweet.

IV.

Unkindnesse past, they gan of solace treat,

And bathe in pleasaunce of the ioyous shade,
Which shielded them against the boyling heat,
And, with greene boughes decking a gloomy glade,
About the fountaine like a girlond made;
Whose bubbling wave did ever freshly well,
Ne ever would through fervent sommer fade:
The sacred Nymph, which therein wont to dwell,
Was out of Dianes favor, as it then befell.

V.

The cause was this: One day, when Phoebe fayre
With all her band was following the chace,
This nymph, quite tyr'd with heat of scorching ayre
Satt downe to rest in middest of the race:
The goddesse wroth gan fowly her disgrace,2
And badd the waters, which from her did flow,
Be such as she her selfe was then in place.
Thenceforth her waters wexed dull and slow;
And all, that drunk thereof, did faint and feeble grow.

1 Bayes, bathes.

2 Disgrace, upbraid.