Part 23 (1/2)

LXIX ”'Yet may you well avoid mine ire and wrath, If to my will your yielding hearts you bend, You must forsake your Christendom and faith, And gainst G.o.dfredo false my crown defend.'

We all refused, for speedy death each prayeth, Save false Rambaldo, he became her friend, We in a dungeon deep were helpless cast, In misery and iron chained fast.

LXX ”Then, for alone they say falls no mishap, Within short while Prince Tancred thither came, And was unwares surprised in the trap: But there short while we stayed, the wily dame In other folds our mischiefs would upwrap.

From Hidraort an hundred hors.e.m.e.n came, Whose guide, a baron bold to Egypt's king, Should us disarmed and bound in fetters bring.

LXXI ”Now on our way, the way to death we ride, But Providence Divine thus for us wrought, Rinaldo, whose high virtue is his guide To great exploits, exceeding human thought, Met us, and all at once our guard defied, And ere he left the fight to earth them brought.

And in their harness armed us in the place, Which late were ours, before our late disgrace.

LXXII ”I and all these the hardy champion knew, We saw his valor, and his voice we heard; Then is the rumor of his death untrue, His life is safe, good fortune long it guard, Three times the golden sun hath risen new, Since us he left and rode to Antioch-ward; But first his armors, broken, hacked and cleft, Unfit for service, there he doft and left.”

LXXIII Thus spake the Briton prince, with humble cheer The hermit sage to heaven cast up his eyne, His color and his countenance changed were, With heavenly grace his looks and visage s.h.i.+ne, Ravished with zeal his soul approached near The seat of angels pure, and saints divine, And there he learned of things and haps to come, To give foreknowledge true, and certain doom.

LXXIV At last he spoke, in more than human sound, And told what things his wisdom great foresaw, And at his thundering voice the folk around Attentive stood, with trembling and with awe: ”Rinaldo lives,” he said, ”the tokens found From women's craft their false beginnings draw, He lives, and heaven will long preserve his days, To greater glory, and to greater praise.

LXXV ”These are but trifles yet, though Asia's kings Shrink at his name, and tremble at his view, I well foresee he shall do greater things, And wicked emperors conquer and subdue; Under the shadow of his eagle's wings Shall holy Church preserve her sacred crew, From Caesar's bird he shall the sable train Pluck off, and break her talons sharp in twain.

LXXVI ”His children's children at his hardiness And great attempts shall take example fair, From emperors unjust in all distress They shall defend the state of Peter's chair, To raise the humble up, pride to suppress, To help the innocents shall be their care.

This bird of east shall fly with conquest great, As far as moon gives light or sun gives heat;

LXXVII ”Her eyes behold the truth and purest light, And thunders down in Peter's aid she brings, And where for Christ and Christian faith men fight, There forth she spreadeth her victorious wings, This virtue nature gives her and this might; Then lure her home, for on her presence hings The happy end of this great enterprise, So Heaven decrees, and so command the skies.”

LXXVIII These words of his of Prince Rinaldo's death Out of their troubled hearts, the fear had rased; In all this joy yet G.o.dfrey smiled uneath.

In his wise thought such care and heed was placed.

But now from deeps of regions underneath Night's veil arose, and sun's bright l.u.s.tre chased, When all full sweetly in their cabins slept, Save he, whose thoughts his eyes still open kept.

ELEVENTH BOOK

THE ARGUMENT.

With grave procession, songs and psalms devout Heaven's sacred aid the Christian lords invoke; That done, they scale the wall which kept them out: The fort is almost won, the gates nigh broke: G.o.dfrey is wounded by Clorinda stout, And lost is that day's conquest by the stroke; The angel cures him, he returns to fight, But lost his labor, for day lost his light.

I The Christian army's great and puissant guide, To a.s.sault the town that all his thoughts had bent, Did ladders, rams, and engines huge provide, When reverend Peter to him gravely went, And drawing him with sober grace aside, With words severe thus told his high intent; ”Right well, my lord, these earthly strengths you move, But let us first begin from Heaven above:

II ”With public prayer, zeal and faith devout, The aid, a.s.sistance, and the help obtain Of all the blessed of the heavenly rout, With whose support you conquest sure may gain; First let the priests before thine armies stout With sacred hymns their holy voices strain.

And thou and all thy lords and peers with thee, Of G.o.dliness and faith examples be.”

III Thus spake the hermit grave in words severe: G.o.dfrey allowed his counsel, sage, and wise, ”Of Christ the Lord,” quoth he, ”thou servant dear, I yield to follow thy divine advice, And while the princes I a.s.semble here, The great procession, songs and sacrifice, With Bishop William, thou and Ademare, With sacred and with solemn pomp prepare.”

IV Next morn the bishops twain, the heremite, And all the clerks and priests of less estate, Did in the middest of the camp unite Within a place for prayer consecrate, Each priest adorned was in a surplice white, The bishops donned their albes and copes of state, Above their rochets b.u.t.toned fair before, And mitres on their heads like crowns they wore.

V Peter alone, before, spread to the wind The glorious sign of our salvation great, With easy pace the choir come all behind, And hymns and psalms in order true repeat, With sweet respondence in harmonious kind Their humble song the yielding air doth beat, ”Lastly, together went the reverend pair Of prelates sage, William and Ademare,

VI The mighty duke came next, as princes do, Without companion, marching all alone, The lords and captains then came two and two, With easy pace thus ordered, pa.s.sing through The trench and rampire, to the fields they gone, No thundering drum, no trumpet shrill they hear, Their G.o.dly music psalms and prayers were.

VII To thee, O Father, Son, and sacred Sprite, One true, eternal, everlasting King; To Christ's dear mother, Mary, vlrgin bright, Psalms of thanksgiving and of praise they sing; To them that angels down from heaven to fight Gainst the blasphemous beast and dragon bring; To him also that of our Saviour good, Washed the sacred font in Jordan's flood.

VIII Him likewise they invoke, called the Rock Whereon the Lord, they say, his Church did rear, Whose true successors close or else unlock The blessed gates of grace and mercy dear; And all the elected twelve the chosen flock, Of his triumphant death who witness bear; And them by torment, slaughter, fire and sword Who martyrs died to confirm his word;

IX And them also whose books and writings tell What certain path to heavenly bliss us leads; And hermits good, and ancresses that dwell Mewed up in walls, and mumble on their beads, And virgin nuns in close and private cell, Where, but shrift fathers, never mankind treads: On these they called, and on all the rout Of angels, martyrs, and of saints devout.