Orlando Furioso Part 132

While they discoursed thereon, the skipper, moved By a new notion, said what all approved.

CLx.x.xVII A hermit not far distance hence, he said A lonely rock inhabits in this sea; Whose isle none, seeking succour, vainly tread, Whether for counsel or for aid it be: Who hath done superhuman deeds; the dead Restores to life; and makes the blind to see; Hushes the winds; and with a sign o' the cross Lulls the loud billows when they highest toss;

CLx.x.xVIII And adds they need not doubt, if they will go To seek that holy man to G.o.d so dear, But he on Olivier will health bestow; Having his virtue proved by signs more clear.

This counsel pleases good Orlando so, That for the holy place he bids him steer; Who never swerving from his course, espies The lonely rock, upon Aurora's rise.

CLx.x.xIX Worked by good mariners, the bark was laid Safely beside the rugged rock and fell: The marquis there, with crew and servants' aid, They lowered into their boat; and through the swell And foaming waters in that shallop made For the rude isle; thence sought the holy cell; The holy cell of that same hermit h.o.a.r, By whom Rogero was baptized before.

CXC The servant of the Lord of Paradise Receives Orlando and the rest on land; Blesses the company in cheerful wise; And after of their errand makes demand; Though he already had received advice From angels of the coming of that band.

That they were thither bound in search of aid For Oliviero's hurt, Orlando said;

CXCI Who, warring for the Christian faith, in fight To perilous pa.s.s was brought by evil wound.

All dismal fear relieved that eremite, And promised he would make him wholly sound.

In that no unguents hath the holy wight, Nor is in other human medicine found, His church he seeks, his knee to Jesus bows, And issues from the fane with cheerful brows;

CXCII And in the name of those eternal Three, The Father, and the Son, and Holy Ghost, On Oliviero bade his blessing be.

Oh! grace vouchsafed to faith! his sainted host From every pain the paladin did free; And to his foot restored its vigour lost.

He moved more nimble than before, and sure; And present was Sobrino at the cure.

CXCIII Sobrino, so diseased that he described How worse with each succeeding day he grew, As soon as he that holy monk espied The manifest and mighty marvel do, Disposed himself to cast Mahound aside, And own in Christ a living G.o.d and true.

He, full of faith, with contrite heart demands Our holy rite of baptism at his hands.

CXCIV So him baptized the hermit; and as well That monarch made as vigorous as whilere.

At this conversion no less gladness fell On Roland and each Christian cavalier, Than when, restored from deadly wound, and well The friendly troop beheld Sir Olivier.

Rogero more rejoiced than all that crew; And still in faith and grace the warrior grew.

CXCV Rogero from the day he swam ash.o.r.e Upon that islet, there had ever been.

That band is counselled by the hermit h.o.a.r, Who stands, benign, those warlike knights between, Eschewing in their pa.s.sage mire and moor, To wade withal through that dead water, clean, Which men call life; wherein so fools delight; And evermore on heaven to fix their sight.

CXCVI Roland on s.h.i.+pboard sends one from his throng, Who fetches hence good wine, hams, cheese, and bread; And makes the sage, who had forgotten long All taste of partridge since on fruits he fed, Even do for love, what others did, among Those social guests for whom the board was spread.

They, when their strength by food was reinforced, Of many things amid themselves discoursed;

CXCVII And as in talk it often doth befall That one thing from another takes its rise, Roland and Olivier Rogero call To mind for that Rogero, in such wise Renowned in arms; whose valour is of all Lauded and echoed with accordant cries.

Not even had Rinaldo known the knight For him whose prowess he had proved in fight.

CXCVIII Him well Sobrino recognized whilere, As soon as with that aged man espied; But he at first kept silence; for in fear Of some mistake the monarch's tongue was tied.

But when those others knew the cavalier For that Rogero, famous far and wide, Whose courtesy, whose might and daring through The universal world loud Rumor blew,

CXCIX All, for they know he is a Christian, stand About him with serene and joyful face: All press upon the knight; one grasps his hand; Another locks him fast in his embrace: Yet more than all the others of that band Him would Montalban's lord caress and grace: Why more than all the others will appear In other strain, if you that strain will hear.

CANTO 44

ARGUMENT Rinaldo his sister to the Child hath plight, And to Ma.r.s.eilles is with the warrior gone: And having crimsoned wide the field in fight, Therein arrives King Otho's valiant son.

To Paris thence: where to that squadron bright Is mighty grace and wonderous honour done.

The Child departs, resolved on Leo's slaughter, To whom Duke Aymon had betrothed his daughter.

I In poor abode, mid paltry walls and bare, Amid discomforts and calamities, Often in friends.h.i.+p heart united are, Better than under roof of lordly guise, Or in some royal court, beset with snare, Mid envious wealth, and ease, and luxuries; Where charity is spent on every side, Nor friends.h.i.+p, unless counterfeit, is spied.

II Hence it ensues that peace and pact between Princes and peers are of such short-lived wear.

To-day king, pope, and emperor leagued are seen, And on the marrow deadly foemen are.

Because such is not as their outward mien The heart, the spirit, that those sovereigns bear.

Since, wholly careless as to right or wrong, But to their profit look the faithless throng.

III Though little p.r.o.ne to friends.h.i.+p is that sort, Because with those she loveth not to dwell, Who, be their talk in earnest or in sport, Speak not, except some cozening tale to tell; Yet if together in some poor resort They prisoned are by Fortune false and fell, What friends.h.i.+p is they speedily discern; Though years had past, and this was yet to learn.

IV In his retreat that ancient eremite Could bind his inmates with a faster noose, And in true love more firmly them unite, Than other could in domes where courtiers use; And so enduring was the knot and tight, That nothing short of death the tie could loose.

Benignant all the hermit found that crew; Whiter at heart than swans in outward hue.

V All kind he found them, and of courteous lore; Untainted with iniquity, in wise Of them I painted, and who nevermore Go forth, unless concealed in some disguise.

Of injuries among them done before All memory, by those comrades buried lies: Nor could they better love, if from one womb And from one seed that warlike band had come.

VI Rinaldo more than all that lordly train Rogero graced and lovingly caressed; As well because be on the listed plain Had proved the peer so strong in martial gest, As that he was more courteous and humane Than any knight that e'er laid lance in rest: But much more; that to him on many a ground By mighty obligation was he bound.

VII The fearful risk by Richardetto run He knew, and how Rogero him bested; What time the Spanish monarch's hest was done, And with his daughter he was seized in bed; And how he had delivered either son Of good Duke Buovo (as erewhile was said) From Bertolagi of Maganza's hand, His evil followers, and the paynim band.

VIII To honour and to hold Rogero dear, Him, Sir Rinaldo thought, this debt constrained; And that he could not so have done whilere, The warlike lord was sorely grieved and pained; When one for Africk's monarch couched the spear, And one the cause of royal Charles maintained: Now he Rogero for a Christian knew, What could not then be done he now would do.

IX Welcome, with endless proffers, on his side, And honour he to good Rogero paid.

The prudent sire that in such kindness spied An opening made for more, the pa.s.s a.s.sayed: "And nothing else remains," that hermit cried, "Nor will, I trust, my counsel be gainsaid) But that, conjoined by friends.h.i.+p, you shall be Yet faster coupled by affinity.

X "That from the two bright progenies, which none Will equal in ill.u.s.trious blood below, A race may spring, that brighter than the sun Will s.h.i.+ne, wherever that bright sun may glow; And which, when years and ages will have run Their course, will yet endure and fairer show, While in their orbits burn the heavenly fires: So me, for your instruction, G.o.d inspires."

XI And his discourse pursuing still, the seer So spake, he moves Rinaldo by his rede To give his sister to the cavalier; Albeit with either small entreaties need.

Together with Orlando, Olivier The counsel lauds, and would that union speed: King Charles and Aymon will, he hopes, approve, And France will welcome wide their wedded love.

XII So spake together peer and paladine: Nor knew that Aymon, with King Charles' consent, Unto the Grecian emperor Constantine To give his gentle daughter had intent; Who for young Leo, of his lofty line The heir and hope, to crave the maid had sent.

Such warmth the praises of her worth inspired, With love of her unseen was Leo fired.

XIII To him hath Aymon answered: he, alone, Cannot conclude thereon in other sort, Until he first hath spoken with his son, Rinaldo, absent then from Charles's court; Who with winged haste, he deems, will thither run, And joy in kinsman of such high report; But from the high regard he bears his heir, Can nought resolve till thither he repair.

XIV Now good Rinaldo, of his father wide, And of the imperial practice knowing nought, Promised his beauteous sister as a bride, Upon his own, as well as Roland's thought And the others, harboured in that cell beside; But most of all on him the hermit wrought; And by such marriage, 'twas the peer's belief, He could not choose but pleasure Clermont's chief.

XV That day and night, and of the following day Great part, with that sage monk the warriors spent; Scarce mindful that the crew their coming stay, Albeit the wind blew fair for their intent, But these, impatient at their long delay, More than one message to the warriors sent; And to return those barons urged so sore, Parforce they parted from the hermit h.o.a.r.

XVI The Child who, so long banished, had not stayed From the lone rock, whereon the waters roared, His farewell to that holy master made, Who taught him the true faith: anew with sword Orlando girt his side, and with the blade, Frontino and martial Hector's arms restored; As knowing horse and arms were his whilere, As well as out of kindness to the peer;

XVII And, though the enchanted sword with better right Would have been worn by good Anglantes' chief, Who from the fearful garden by his might Had won the blade with mickle toil and grief, Than by Rogero, who that faulchion bright Received with good Frontino, from the thief, He willingly thereof, as with the rest, As soon as asked, the warrior repossest.

XVIII The hermit blessings on the band implores: They to their bark in fine return; their sails Give to the winds, and to the waves their oars; And such clear skies they have and gentle gales, Nor vow nor prayer the patron makes; and moors His pinnace in the haven of Ma.r.s.eilles.

There, safely harboured, let the chiefs remain, Till I conduct Astolpho to that train.

XIX When of that b.l.o.o.d.y, dear-brought victory The scarcely joyful tale Astolpho knew, He, seeing evermore fair France would be Secure from mischief from the Moorish crew, Homeward to send the king of Aethiopy Devised, together with his army, through The sandy desert, by the self-same track, Through which he led them to Biserta's sack.

XX Erewhile restored, in Afric waters ride Sir Dudon's s.h.i.+ps which did the paynims rout; Whose prows (new miracle!) and p.o.o.p, and side, As soon as all their sable crews are out, Are changed anew to leaves; which far and wide, Raised by a sudden breeze, are blown about; And scattered in mid-air, like such light gear, Go eddying with the wind, and disappear.

XXI Home, horse and foot, the Nubian host arraid By squadrons, all, from wasted Africk go; But to their king, first, thanks Astolpho paid, And said, he an eternal debt should owe; In that he had in person given him aid With all his might and main against the foe.

The skins Astolpho gave them, which confined The turbid and tempestuous southern wind.