Part 6 (1/2)
LIII The herald Ligiere now from G.o.dfrey came, To will them stay and calm their courage hot; ”Retire,” quoth he, ”G.o.dfrey commands the same; To wreak your ire this season fitteth not;”
Though loth, Rinaldo stayed, and stopped the flame, That boiled in his hardy stomach hot; His bridled fury grew thereby more fell, So rivers, stopped, above their banks do swell.
LIV The hands retire, not dangered by their foes In their retreat, so wise were they and wary, To murdered Dudon each lamenting goes, From wonted use of ruth they list not vary.
Upon their friendly arms they soft impose The n.o.ble burden of his corpse to carry: Meanwhile G.o.dfredo from a mountain great Beheld the sacred city and her seat.
LV Hierusalem is seated on two hills Of height unlike, and turned side to side, The s.p.a.ce between, a gentle valley fills, From mount to mount expansed fair and wide.
Three sides are sure imbarred with crags and hills, The rest is easy, scant to rise espied: But mighty bulwarks fence that plainer part, So art helps nature, nature strengtheneth art.
LVI The town is stored of troughs and cisterns, made To keep fresh water, but the country seems Devoid of gra.s.s, unfit for ploughmen's trade, Not fertile, moist with rivers, wells and streams; There grow few trees to make the summer's shade, To s.h.i.+eld the parched land from scorching beams, Save that a wood stands six miles from the town,'
With aged cedars dark, and shadows brown.
LVII By east, among the dusty valleys, glide The silver streams of Jordan's crystal flood; By west, the Midland Sea, with bounders tied Of sandy sh.o.r.es, where Joppa whilom stood; By north Samaria stands, and on that side The golden calf was reared in Bethel wood; Bethlem by south, where Christ incarnate was, A pearl in steel, a diamond set in bra.s.s.
LVIII While thus the Duke on every side descried The city's strength, the walls and gates about, And saw where least the same was fortified, Where weakest seemed the walls to keep him out; Ermina as he armed rode, him spied, And thus bespake the heathen tyrant stout, ”See G.o.dfrey there, in purple clad and gold, His stately port, and princely look behold.
LIX ”Well seems he born to be with honor crowned, So well the lore he knows of regiment, Peerless in fight, in counsel grave and sound, The double gift of glory excellent, Among these armies is no warrior found Graver in speech, bolder in tournament.
Raymond pardie in counsel match him might; Tancred and young Rinaldo like in fight.”
LX To whom the king: ”He likes me well therefore, I knew him whilom in the court of France When I from Egypt went amba.s.sador, I saw him there break many a st.u.r.dy lance, And yet his chin no sign of manhood bore; His youth was forward, but with governance, His words, his actions, and his portance brave, Of future virtue, timely tokens gave.
LXI ”Presages, ah too true:” with that a s.p.a.ce He sighed for grief, then said, ”Fain would I know The man in red, with such a knightly grace, A worthy lord he seemeth by his show, How like to G.o.dfrey looks he in the face, How like in person! but some-deal more low.”
”Baldwin,” quoth she, ”that n.o.ble baron hight, By birth his brother, and his match in might.
LXII ”Next look on him that seems for counsel fit, Whose silver locks betray his store of days, Raymond he hight, a man of wondrous wit, Of Toulouse lord, his wisdom is his praise; What he forethinks doth, as he looks for, hit, His stratagems have good success always: With gilded helm beyond him rides the mild And good Prince William, England's king's dear child.
LXIII ”With him is Guelpho, as his n.o.ble mate, In birth, in acts, in arms alike the rest, I know him well, since I beheld him late, By his broad shoulders and his squared breast: But my proud foe that quite hath ruinate My high estate, and Antioch opprest, I see not, Boemond, that to death did bring Mine aged lord, my father, and my king.”
LXIV Thus talked they; meanwhile G.o.dfredo went Down to the troops that in the valley stayed, And for in vain he thought the labor spent, To a.s.sail those parts that to the mountains laid, Against the northern gate his force he bent, Gainst it he camped, gainst it his engines played; All felt the fury of his angry power, That from those gates lies to the corner tower.
LXV The town's third part was this, or little less, Fore which the duke his glorious ensigns spread, For so great compa.s.s had that forteress, That round it could not be environed With narrow siege--nor Babel's king I guess That whilom took it, such an army led-- But all the ways he kept, by which his foe Might to or from the city come or go.
LXVI His care was next to cast the trenches deep, So to preserve his resting camp by night, Lest from the city while his soldiers sleep They might a.s.sail them with untimely flight.
This done he went where lords and princes weep With dire complaints about the murdered knight, Where Dudon dead lay slaughtered on the ground.
And all the soldiers sat lamenting round.
LXVII His wailing friends adorned the mournful bier With woful pomp, whereon his corpse they laid, And when they saw the Bulloigne prince draw near, All felt new grief, and each new sorrow made; But he, withouten show or change of cheer, His springing tears within their fountains stayed, His rueful looks upon the corpse he cast Awhile, and thus bespake the same at last;
LXVIII ”We need not mourn for thee, here laid to rest, Earth is thy bed, and not the grave the skies Are for thy soul the cradle and the nest, There live, for here thy glory never dies: For like a Christian knight and champion blest Thou didst both live and die: now feed thine eyes With thy Redeemer's sight, where crowned with bliss Thy faith, zeal, merit, well-deserving is.
LXIX ”Our loss, not thine, provokes these plaints and tears: For when we lost thee, then our s.h.i.+p her mast, Our chariot lost her wheels, their points our spears, The bird of conquest her chief feather cast: But though thy death far from our army hears Her chiefest earthly aid, in heaven yet placed Thou wilt procure its help Divine, so reaps He that sows G.o.dly sorrow, joy by heaps.
LXX ”For if our G.o.d the Lord Armipotent Those armed angels in our aid down send That were at Dothan to his prophet sent, Thou wilt come down with them, and well defend Our host, and with thy sacred weapons bent Gainst Sion's fort, these gates and bulwarks rend, That so by hand may win this hold, and we May in these temples praise our Christ for thee.”
LXXI Thus he complained; but now the sable shade Ycleped night, had thick enveloped The sun in veil of double darkness made; Sleep, eased care; rest, brought complaint to bed: All night the wary duke devising laid How that high wall should best be battered, How his strong engines he might aptly frame, And whence get timber fit to build the same.
LXXII Up with the lark the sorrowful duke arose, A mourner chief at Dudon's burial, Of cypress sad a pile his friends compose Under a hill o'ergrown with cedars tall, Beside the hea.r.s.e a fruitful palm-tree grows, Enn.o.bled since by this great funeral, Where Dudon's corpse they softly laid in ground, The priest sung hymns, the soldiers wept around.
LXXIII Among the boughs, they here and there bestow Ensigns and arms, as witness of his praise, Which he from Pagan lords, that did them owe, Had won in prosperous fights and happy frays: His s.h.i.+eld they fixed on the hole below, And there this distich under-writ, which says, ”This palm with stretched arms, doth overspread The champion Dudon's glorious carcase dead.”