Part 30 (2/2)
This said, he vanished from his sleeping friend, Like smoke in wind, or mist in t.i.tan's s.h.i.+ne; Sleep fled likewise, and in his troubled thought, With wonder, pleasure; joy, with marvel fought.
XX The duke looked up, and saw the azure sky With argent beams of silver morning spread, And started up, for praise axed virtue lie In toil and travel, sin and shame in bed: His arms he took, his sword girt to his thigh, To his pavilion all his lords them sped, And there in council grave the princes sit, For strength by wisdom, war is ruled by wit.
XXI Lord Guelpho there, within whose gentle breast Heaven had infused that new and sudden thought, His pleasing words thus to the duke addressed: ”Good prince, mild, though unasked, kind, unbesought, Oh let thy mercy grant my just request, Pardon this fault by rage not malice wrought; For great offence, I grant, so late commit, My suit too hasty is, perchance unfit.
XXII But since to G.o.dfrey meek benign and kind, For Prince Rinaldo bold, I humbly sue, And that the suitor's self is not behind Thy greatest friends in state or friends.h.i.+p true; I trust I shall thy grace and mercy find Acceptable to me and all this crew; Oh call him home, this trespa.s.s to amend, He shall his blood in G.o.dfrey's service spend.
XXIII ”And if not he, who else dares undertake Of this enchanted wood to cut one tree?
Gainst death and danger who dares battle make, With so bold face, so fearless heart as he?
Beat down these walls, these gates in pieces break, Leap o'er these rampires high, thou shalt him see, Restore therefore to this desirous band Their wish, their hope, their strength, their s.h.i.+eld, their hand;
XXIV ”To me my nephew, to thyself restore A trusty help, when strength of hand thou needs, In idleness let him consume no more, Recall him to his n.o.ble acts and deeds!
Known be his worth as was his strength of yore Wher'er thy standard broad her cross outspreads, Oh, let his fame and praise spread far and wide, Be thou his lord, his teacher and his guidel”
XXV Thus he entreated, and the rest approve His words, with friendly murmurs whispered low.
G.o.dfrey as though their suit his mind did move To that whereon he never thought tell now, ”How can my heart,” quoth he, ”if you I love, To your request and suit but bend and bow?
Let rigor go, that right and justice be Wherein you all consent and all agree.
XXVI ”Rinaldo shall return; let him restrain Henceforth his headstrong wrath and hasty ire, And with his hardy deeds let him take pain To correspond your hope and my desire: Guelpho, thou must call home the knight again, See that with speed he to these tents retire, The messengers appoint as likes thy mind, And teach them where they should the young man find.”
XXVII Up start the Dane that bare Prince Sweno's brand, ”I will,” quoth he, ”that message undertake, I will refuse no pains by sea or land, To give the knight this sword, kept for his sake.”
This man was bold of courage, strong of hand, Guelpho was glad he did the proffer make: ”Thou shalt,” quoth he, ”Ubaldo shalt thou have To go with thee, a knight, stout, wise, and grave.”
XXVIII Ubaldo in his youth had known and seen The fas.h.i.+ons strange of many an uncouth land, And travelled over all the realms between The Arctic circle and hot Meroe's strand, And as a man whose wit his guide had been, Their customs use he could, tongues understand, Forthy when spent his youthful seasons were Lord Guelpho entertained and held him dear.
XXIX To these committed was the charge and care To find and bring again the champion bold, Guelpho commands them to the fort repair, Where Boemond doth his seat and sceptre hold, For public fame said that Bertoldo's heir There lived, there dwelt, there stayed; the hermit old, That knew they were misled by false report, Among them came, and parleyed in this sort:
x.x.x ”Sir knights,” quoth he, ”if you intend to ride, And follow each report fond people say, You follow but a rash and truthless guide That leads vain men amiss and makes them stray; Near Ascalon go to the salt seaside, Where a swift brook fails in with hideous sway, An aged sire, our friend, there shall you find, All what he saith, that do, that keep in mind.
x.x.xI ”Of this great voyage which you undertake, Much by his skill, and much by mine advise Hath he foreknown, and welcome for my sake You both shall be, the man is kind and wise.”
Instructed thus no further question make The twain elected for this enterprise, But humbly yielded to obey his word, For what the hermit said, that said the Lord.
x.x.xII They took their leave, and on their journey went, Their will could brook no stay, their zeal, no let; To Ascalon their voyage straight they bent, Whose broken sh.o.r.es with brackish waves are wet, And there they heard how gainst the cliffs, besprent With bitter foam, the roaring surges bet, A tumbling brook their pa.s.sage stopped and stayed, Which late-fall'n rain had proud and puissant made,
x.x.xIII So proud that over all his banks he grew, And through the fields ran swift as shaft from bow, While here they stopped and stood, before them drew An aged sire, grave and benign in show, Crowned with a beechen garland gathered new, Clad in a linen robe that raught down low, In his right hand a rod, and on the flood Against the stream he marched, and dry shod yode.
x.x.xIV As on the Rhene, when winter's freezing cold Congeals the streams to thick and hardened gla.s.s, The beauties fair of shepherds' daughters bold With wanton windlays run, turn, play and pa.s.s; So on this river pa.s.sed the wizard old, Although unfrozen soft and swift it was, And thither stalked where the warriors stayed, To whom, their greetings done, he spoke and said:
x.x.xV ”Great pains, great travel, lords, you have begun, And of a cunning guide great need you stand, Far off, alas! is great Bertoldo's son, Imprisoned in a waste and desert land, What soil remains by which you must not run, What promontory, rock, sea, sh.o.r.e or sand Your search must stretch before the prince be found, Beyond our world, beyond our half of ground!
x.x.xVI But yet vouchsafe to see my cell I pray, In hidden caves and vaults though builded low, Great wonders there, strange things I will bewray, Things good for you to hear, and fit to know:”
This said, he bids the river make them way, The flood retired, backward gan to flow, And here and there two crystal mountains rise, So fled the Red Sea once, and Jordan thrice.
x.x.xVII He took their hands, and led them headlong down Under the flood, through vast and hollow deeps, Such light they had as when through shadows brown Of thickest deserts feeble Cynthia peeps, Their s.p.a.cious caves they saw all overflown, There all his waters pure great Neptune keeps, And thence to moisten all the earth he brings Seas, rivers, floods, lakes, fountains, wells and springs:
x.x.xVIII Whence Ganges, Indus, Volga, Ister, Po, Whence Euphrates, whence Tigris' spring they view, Whence Tanais, whence Nilus comes also, Although his head till then no creature knew, But under these a wealthy stream doth go, That sulphur yields and ore, rich, quick and new, Which the sunbeams doth polish, purge and fine, And makes it silver pure, and gold divine.
x.x.xIX And all his banks the rich and wealthy stream Hath fair beset with pearl and precious stone Like stars in sky or lamps on stage that seem, The darkness there was day, the night was gone, There sparkled, clothed in his azure-beam, The heavenly sapphire, there the jacinth shone, The carbuncle there flamed, the diamond sheen, There glistered bright, there smiled the emerald green.
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