Orlando Furioso Part 96

Three knights were nigh, and -- at the pommel hung -- A buckler from the damsel's saddle swung.

LI Before the lady and behind her ride More squires and maids, a numerous company.

Fair Bradamant of one that past beside Demanded who the stranger dame might be?

"That lady to the king of France" (replied The squire) "is sent upon an emba.s.sy From THE LOST ISLE, which lies mid seas that roll Their restless waves beyond the northern pole.

LII "Some THE LOST ISLE, some Iceland call the reign Whereof a royal lady fills the throne; Whose charms (before those charms all beauties wane) Are such as Heaven had dealt to her alone.

The s.h.i.+eld you see she sends to Charlemagne, But with the pact and purpose plainly shown, He should confer it on the knight, whose worth Is, in his judgment, fairest upon earth.

LIII "She, as she deems herself (and it is true She is the fairest of all womankind), A cavalier, that should in heart and thew Surpa.s.s all other warriors, fain would find; Resolved, should her a hundred thousand woo, None shall unfix the purpose of her mind; -- But he, held worthiest by the world's accord, Alone shall be her lover and her lord.

LIV "In France, in royal Charles's famous court, The damsel hopes to find the cavalier, Who in a thousand feats of high report Has shown that he excels each puissant peer.

All three are monarchy who the dame escort, And what their kingdoms ye as well shall hear.

One Sweden rules, one Gothland, Norway one; Surpast in martial praise by few or none.

LV "These three, whose kingdoms at some distance lie, Yet the least distant lie from the LOST ISLE, (Because few mariners its sh.o.r.e descry, As little known, that island so they style), Wooed and yet woo her for a wife, and vie In valour, and, to win the lady's smile, Ill.u.s.trious deeds have done, which Fame shall sound, While Heaven shall circle in its wonted round.

LVI "Yet she not these will wed, nor cavalier That does not, as she deems, all else excell.

-- 'Lightly I hold your proof of valour here,'

(Those northern monarchs was she wont to tell) 'And if, like sun amid the stars, one peer Outs.h.i.+nes his fellows, him I honour well: But therefore hold him not, in fierce alarms, Of living men the bravest knight at arms.

LVII " 'To Charlemagne, whom I esteem and hold As wisest among reigning kings, by me Shall be dispatched a costly s.h.i.+eld of gold, On pact and on condition, that it be Bestowed on him, deemed boldest of the bold, Amid the martial ranks of chivalry.

Serves the king Charlemagne or other lord, I will be governed by that king's award.

LVIII " 'If when King Charles the buckler shall receive And give to one so stout, that best among All others he that warrior shall believe, Do they to his or other court belong.

For me the golden buckler shall retrieve One of you three, in his own virtue strong; My every love and thought shall he possess; Him for my spouse and lord will I confess.'

LIX "Moved by these stirring speeches, hither hie From that wide-distant sea, those monarchs bold, Resolved to win the buckler, or to die Beneath his hand who has that s.h.i.+eld of gold."

Bradamant ponders much the squire's reply: He give his horse the head -- his story told -- And plies him so with restless heel and hand, He overtakes the damsel's distant band.

LX After him gallops not, nor hurries ought, Bradamant, who pursues her road at ease: Much evermore evolving in her thought Things that may chance, she finally foresees That through the buckler by that damsel brought, Will follow strife and boundless enmities, Amid king Charles's peerage and the rest, If with that s.h.i.+eld he shall reward the best.

LXI This grieved the damsel's heart, but far above That grief, the former fear her heard did goad; That young Rogero had withdrawn his love From her, and on the warlike queen bestowed.

So buried in the thoughts wherewith she strove, Was Bradamant, she heeded nor her road, Nor took she care where, at the close of light, To find befitting shelter for the night.

LXII As when from squall, or other chance, a barge Drives from the river-side, where late it lay, Under no mariner or pilot's charge, The winds and waves at will transport their prey; So Rabican with Bradamant, at large, -- She musing on Rogero -- wends his way.

For thence, by many miles, was distant wide That mind which should her courser's bridle guide.

LXIII She raised her eyes at last, and saw the sun Had turned his back on Bocchus' towers and wall; Then, like a cormorant, his journey done, Into his nurse's lap beheld him fall, Beyond Marocco; and for her to run To tree, for shelter from the rising squall, Had been a foolish thought; for now 'gan blow A bl.u.s.tering wind, which threatened rain or snow.

LXIV To better speed fair Bradamant aroused Her courser, yet but little way did ride, When with his flock, which on the champaign browsed, Leaving the fields, a shepherd she espied.

To him where, well or ill, she might be housed, -- With many instances the maid applied -- For never house could such ill shelter yield, But that in rain 'twere worse to lodge afield.

LXV To her the shepherd said, "I know of none Whereto I could direct you, near at hand.

At least six leagues are distant all, but one, Named TRISTRAM'S TOWER, throughout the neighbouring land.

But not to all men is the door undone; For it behoves that they, with lance in hand, Achieve their footing first and the defend, Who to be lodged within its walls pretend.

LXVI "If there be room within, to stranger knight The castellain gives kindly welcome there: But is a lodging claimed by other wight, To joust with all new comers makes him swear: If none, he need not move; but arms and fight He must what stranger thither shall repair; And he that worst his warlike arms shall ply, Must wander forth beneath the naked sky.

LXVII "If two. three, four, or more, seek shelter, they That first arrive, in peace their quarters take.

Who follows, has a harder game to play; For war upon those many must he make.

So, if one only in that mansion stay, He with those two, or more, a lance must break.

Then with as many others as succeed: Thus he what strength he has shall sorely need.

LXVIII "As well, if wife or maid seek that repair, (Is she alone, is she accompanied), And afterwards another, the most fair Is housed; that other must without abide."

Bradamant asked the kindly shepherd where That castle stood; and he with signs replied As well as words, and pointed with his hand Where, five or six miles wide, the tower did stand.

LXIX Though Rabican's good paces merit praise, To hurry him the damsel had no skill, By those so pa.s.sing foul and broken ways, (By season somewhat rainy rendered ill) So, as to reach the tower, ere Night o'erlays The world, whose every nook dark shadows fill.

Arrived, that lady finds the portal barred, And that she seeks a lodging tells the guard.

LXX He answers that the place is occupied By dame and knight already housed, who, met About the fire, in that chill evening-tide, Wait till their supper be before them set.

To him that maid: "The board is not supplied, I deem, for them, unless the meal be eat.

Now, say I wait their coming." (she pursues,) Who know and will observe your castle's use."

LXXI The guard his message bore, where at their ease Reposed the weary cavaliers; his tale Not overlikely was those kings to please; For cold and peevish blew the wintry gale, And now fast fell the rain; yet, forced to seize Their arms, they slowly don the martial mail.

The rest remain within; while they proceed Against the damsel, but with little speed.

LXXII Three cavaliers they were, of might so tried, Few champions but to them in prowess yield, The same that she that very day, beside The courier maid, encountered in the field, They that in Iceland boasted, in their pride, To bear away from France the golden s.h.i.+eld: Who (for they had the martial maid outrode) Arrived before her at that lord's abode.

LXXIII In feats of arms few warriors were more stout; But she besure will be among those few, She, that on no account will wait without, Fasting and wet, night's weary watches through.

Within from window and from lodge, the rout Look forth, and will the joust by moonlight view, Which streams from underneath a covering cloud; Albeit the furious rain beats fast and loud.

LXXIV Such transport as the longing gallant cheers, About to seize the stolen fruits of love, When, after long delay, the listener hears The bold within its socket softly move, Such transport cheered her, of those cavaliers The prowess and the pith a-fire to prove, When now the opened portals she descried, And drawbridge dropt, and issuing knights espied.

LXXV When she beheld, how, of the drawbridge clear Those knights, together or scarce sundered, came, She took her ground; and next in fierce career, With flowing bridle, drove the furious dame, Levelling against those kings that virtuous spear, Her cousin's gift, which never missed its aim; Whose touch each warrior must unseat parforce; Yea Mars, should Mars contend in mortal course.

LXXVI The king of Sweden, foremost of those knights, In falling too is foremost of the train; With such surpa.s.sing force his helmet smites That spear, which never yet was couched in vain.

Gothland's good king next meets the maid, and lights With feet in air, at distance on the plain.

The third (unhorsed by Aymon's beauteous daughter) Half buried lies in mire and marshy water.

LXXVII When at three strokes she had unhorsed them all, Lighting with head on earth and heels in air, Retiring from the field, she sought the Hall, In search of lodging; but, ere harboured there, To issue forth, at whosoever's call, Is, by the warder's hest, obliged to swear.

That lord who well had weighed her famous feats, The damsel with surpa.s.sing honour greets.

LXXVIII So does by her the lady, that erewhile Had thither journeyed, with those monarchs three, As I related, sent from the LOST ISLE To France's king, upon an emba.s.sy.

Kind as she is and affable of style, She renders back the stranger's courtesy; Rises to welcome her with smiling air, And to the fire conducts that warlike fair.

LXXIX As Bradamant unarms, and first her s.h.i.+eld, And after puts her polished casque away, A caul of s.h.i.+ning gold, wherein concealed And cl.u.s.tering close, her prisoned tresses lay, She with the helmet doffs; and now revealed, (While the long locks about her shoulders play,) A lovely damsel by that band is seen, No fiercer in affray than fair of mien.

Lx.x.x As when the stage's curtain is uprolled, Mid thousand lamps, appears the mimic scene, Adorned with arch and palace, pictures, gold, And statues; or, as limpid and serene The sun his visage, glorious to behold, Unveils, emerging from a cloudy screen; So when the lady doffs her iron case, All paradise seems opened in her face.

Lx.x.xI Already so well-grown and widely spread Were the bright tresses which the hermit sh.o.r.e, These, gathered in a knot, behind her head, Though shorter than their wont, the damsel wore; And he, that castle's master, plainly read, (Who often had beheld her face before) That this was Bradamant; and now he paid Yet higher honours to the martial maid.

Lx.x.xII With modest and with mirthful talk this while, Seated about the fire, they feed the ear; And in this way the weary time beguile Till they are heartened with more solid cheer.

If new or ancient were his castle's style, (Bradamant asks the courteous cavalier) By whom begun, and how it took its rise?

And thus that castellain to her replies.

Lx.x.xIII "When Pharamond of France possessed the throne, His son, prince Clodion, had a mistress rare; And damsel in that ancient age was none More graceful, beauteous, or more debonair; So loved of Pharamond's enamoured son, That he lost sight no oftener of the fair Than Io's shepherd of his charge whilere: For jealous as enamoured was the peer.

Lx.x.xIV "Her in this mansion, which his sire bestowed, He kept, and rarely issued from his rest: With him were lodged ten cavaliers, allowed Through France to be the boldest and the best.

Hither, while in this castle he abode, Sir Tristram and a dame their course addrest: Whom from a furious giant, in her need, Short time before that gentle knight had freed.