Orlando Furioso Part 39

XLV "Whom with loud laughter, to his seat hard by He drags along, enveloped in his snare; And knight and damsel views with equal eye, And for his prisoners' worth has little care.

Then, having sucked their brains and life-blood dry, Casts forth their bones upon the desert lair; And round about his griesly palace pins, For horrid ornament, their b.l.o.o.d.y skins.

XLVI "Take this, -- my son, oh! take this other way, Which thee will to the sea in safety guide."

"I thank thee, holy father, for thy say, (To him the fearless cavalier replied) But cannot peril against honour weigh, Far dearer than my life. To the other side Me vainly dost thou move to pa.s.s the wave; Rather for this I seek the giant's cave.

XLVII "I with dishonour life to flight may owe; But worse than death loath thus to save my head.

The worst that can befall me if I go, Is I my blood shall with the others shed: But if on me such mercy G.o.d bestow, That I remain alive, the giant dead, Secure for thousands shall I make the ways; So that the greater good the risque o'erpays.

XLVIII "I peril but the single life of one Against safety of the countless rest."

-- "Go then in peace," (the other said). "my son, And to thy succour, form among the blest, May G.o.d dispatch the Archangel Michael down."

-- And him, with that, the simple hermit blest.

Astolpho p.r.i.c.ks along Nile's rosy strand, More in his horn confiding than his brand.

XLIX Between the mighty river and the fen, A path upon the sandy sh.o.r.e doth lie, Barred by the giant's solitary den Cut off from converse with humanity.

About it heads and naked limbs of men Were fixed, the victims of his cruelty.

Window or battlements was not, whence strung Might not be seen some wretched prisoner hung.

L As in hill-farm or castle, fenced with moat, The hunter, mindful what his dangers were, Aye fastens on his door the s.h.a.ggy coat And horrid paws and monstrous head of bear; So showed the giant those of greatest note, Who, thither brought, had perished in his snare.

The bones of countless others wide were spread, And every ditch with human blood was red.

LI Caligorant was standing at the gate (For so was the despiteous monster hight); Who decked his house with corpses, as for state Some theirs with cloth of gold and scarlet dight.

He scarce contained himself for joy, so great His pleasure, when the duke appeared in sight; For 'twas two months complete, a third was near, Since by that road had past a cavalier.

LII Towards the marish, where green rushes grow, He hastes, intending from that covert blind To double on his unsuspecting foe, And issue on the cavalier behind: For him to drive into the net, below The sand, the griesly giant had designed; As others trapt he had been wont to see, Brought thither by their evil destiny.

LIII When him the wary paladin espied, He stopt his courser, not without great heed, Lest he into the covert snare might tide, Forewarned of this by the good hermit's rede.

Here to his horn for succour he applied, Nor failed its wonted virtue in this need: It smote the giant's heart with such affright, That he turned back, and homeward fled outright.

LIV Astolpho blew, still watchful of surprise, Weening to see the engine sprung: fast flew The giant, -- as if heart as well as eyes The thief had lost, -- nor whitherward he knew: Such is his fear, he kens not as he flies, How is own covert mischief to eschew: He runs into the net, which closing round, Hampers the wretch, and drags him to the ground.

LV Astolpho, who beholds his bulky prey Fall bodily, drives thither at full speed, Secure himself, and, bent -- to make him pay The price of slaughtered thousands -- quits his steed.

Yet after, deems a helpless wight to slay No valour were, but rather foul misdeed: For him, arms, neck, and feet, so closely tied, He could not shake himself, the warrior spied.

LVI With subtle thread of steel had Vulcan wrought The net of old, and with such cunning pain, He, who to break its weakest mesh had sought, Would have bestowed his time and toil in vain.

It was with this he Mars and Venus caught, Who, hands and feet, were fettered by the chain: Nor did the jealous husband weave the thread For aught, but to surprise that pair in bed.

LVII Mercury from the smith conveyed the prize, Wanting to take young Chloris in the snare; Sweet Chloris, who behind Aurora flies, At rise of sun, through fields of liquid air, And from her gathered garment, through the skies, Scatters the violet, rose, and lily fair.

He for this nymph his toils so deftly set, One day, in air he took her with the net.

LVIII The nymph (it seems) was taken as she flew, Where the great Aethiop river meets the brine: The net was treasured in Canopus, through Successive ages, in Anubis' shrine.

After three thousand years, Caligorant drew The sacred relict from the palace divine: Whence with the net the impious thief returned, Who robbed the temple and the city burned,

LIX He fixed it here, beneath the sandy plain, In mode, that all the travellers whom he chased Ran into it, and the engine was with pain Touched, ere it arms, and feet, and neck embraced.

From this the good Astolpho took a chain, And with the gyve his hands behind him laced: His arms and breast he swaddled in such guise, He could not loose himself; then let him rise.

LX After, his other knots unfastening, (For he was turned more gentle than a maid) Astolpho, as a show, the thief would bring, By city, borough-town, and farm conveyed; The net as well; than which no quainter thing Was ever by the file and hammer made.

On him, like sumpter-nag he laid the load, In triumph led, behind him, on his road.

LXI Him helm and s.h.i.+eld he gives alike to bear, As to a valet; hence proceeds the peer, Gladdening the fearful pilgrim every where, Who joys to think, henceforth his way is clear.

So far an end does bold Astolpho fare, He is to Memphis' tombs already near, -- Memphis renowned for pyramids; in sight, He marks the populous Cairo opposite.

LXII Ran all the people in tumultuous tide, To see him drag the unmeasured wight along.

"How can it be," (each to his fellow cried) "That one so weak could master one so strong?"

Scarce can Astolpho put the press aside, So close from every part their numbers throng; While all admire him as a cavalier Of mighty worth, and make him goodly cheer.

LXIII Then Cairo was not such, as common cry p.r.o.nounces in our age that costly seat; -- That eighteen thousand districts ill supply Lodging to those who in her markets meet; -- And though the houses are three stories high, Numbers are forced to sleep in the open street; And that the soldan has a palace there Of wonderous size, and pa.s.sing rich and fair;

LXIV And therein (Christian renegadoes all) Keeps fifteen thousand va.s.sals, for his needs, Beneath one roof supplied with bower and stall, Themselves, and wives, and families, and steeds.

The duke desired to see the river's fall, And how far Nile into the sea proceeds.

At Damietta; where wayfaring wight, He heard, was prisoner made or slain outright.

LXV For at Nile's outlet there, beside his bed, A st.u.r.dy thief was sheltered in a tower, Alike the native's and the stranger's dread, Wont even to Cairo's gate the road to scower.

Him no one could resist, and, it was said, That man to slay the felon had no power.

A hundred thousand wounds he had in strife Received, yet none could ever take his life.

LXVI To see if he could break the thread which tied The felon's life, upon his way the knight Set forward, and to Damietta hied, To find Orrilo, so the thief was hight; Thence to the river's outlet past, and spied The st.u.r.dy castle on the margin dight; Harboured in which the enchanted demon lay, The fruit of a hobgoblin and a fay.

LXVII He here Orrilo and two knights in mail Found at fierce strife: the two ill held their own Against him; so Orrilo did a.s.sail The warlike pair, although himself alone; And how much either might in arms avail, Fame through the universal world had blown.

Of Oliviero's seed was either plant; Gryphon the white, and sable Aquilant.

LXVIII The necromancer had this while (to say The truth) with vantage on his side, begun The fight, who brought a monster to the fray, Found only in those parts, and wont to won Ash.o.r.e or under water, and to prey, For food, on human bodies; feeding on Poor mariners and travelling men, who fare, Of the impending danger, unaware.

LXIX The monster, slaughtered by the brethren two, Upon the sand beside the haven lies; And hence no wrong they to Orrilo do, a.s.sailing him together in this guise.

Him they dismembered often and not slew: Now he, -- because dismembered, -- ever dies; For he replaces leg or hand like wax, Which the good faulchion from his body hacks.

LXX Gryphon and Aquilant by turns divide, Now to the teeth, now breast, the enchanted wight.

The fruitless blow Orrilo does deride, While the two baffled warriors rage for spite.

Let him who falling silver has espied (Which mercury by alchymists is hight) Scatter, and reunite each broken member, Hearing my tale, what he has seen remember.

LXXI If the thief's head be severed by the pair, He lights and staggers till he finds it; now Uptaken by the nose or by the hair, And fastened to the neck, I know not how.

This sometimes Gryphon takes, and whirled through air, Whelms in the stream; but bootless is the throw: For like a fish can fierce Orrilo swim; And safely, with the head, regains the brim.

LXXII Two ladies, meetly clad in fair array, One damsel was in black and one in white, And who had been the occasion of that fray, Stood by to gaze upon the cruel fight: Either of these was a benignant fay, Whose care had nourished one and the other knight, Oliver's children; when the babes forlorn They from the claws of two huge birds had torn.

LXXIII Since, from Gismonda they had these conveyed, Borne to a distance from their native sky.

But more to say were needless, since displaid To the whole world has been their history.

Though the author has the father's name mis-said; One for another (how I know not, I) Mistaking. Now this fearful strife the pair Of warriors waged at both the ladies' prayer.

LXXIV Though it was noon in the happy islands, day Had vanished in this clime, displaced by night; And, underneath the moon's uncertain ray, And ill-discerned, were all things hid from sight; When to the fort Orrilo took his way.

Since both the sable sister and the white Were pleased the furious battle to defer, Till a new sun should in the horizon stir.

LXXV The duke, who by their ensigns, and yet more Had by the sight of many a vigorous blow, Gryphon and Aquilant long time before Agnized, to greet the brethren was not slow: And they, who in the peer, victorious o'er The giant, whom he led a captive, know The BARON OF THE PARD, (so styled at court) Him to salute, with no less love resort.

LXXVI The ladies to repose the warriors led To a fair palace near, their sumptuous seat: Thence issuing courtly squire and damsel sped, Them with lit torches in mid-way to meet.

Their goodly steeds they quit, there well bested, Put off their arms, and in a garden sweet Discern the ready supper duly laid Fast by, where a refres.h.i.+ng fountain played.

LXXVII Here they bid bind the giant on the green, Fast-tethered by a strong and weighty chain To a tough oak, whose ancient trunk they ween May well be proof against a single strain; With that, by ten good serjeants overseen, Lest he by night get loose, and so the train a.s.sault and haply harm; while careless they Without a guard and unsuspecting lay.

LXXVIII At the abundant and most sumptuous board, With costly viands (its least pleasure) fraught, The longest topic for discourse afford Orrilo's prowess, and the marvel wrought; For head or arm dissevered by the sword, They (who upon the recent wonder thought) Might think a dream to see him re-unite, And but return more furious to the fight.