Orlando Furioso Part 99

XLI "And, for Ravenna sacked and ravaged lies, The Roman pastor bites his lips through woe; Called by him, from the hills, in tempest's guise, Swoop the fierce Germans on the fields below.

It seems each Frenchman unresisting flies, Chased by their bands beyond the mountain snow, And that they set the mulberry's thriving shoot There, whence they plucked the golden lily's root.

XLII "Behold the Frank returns, and here behold Is broken, by the faithless Swiss betrayed, He, that his royal father seized and sold, Whose succour dearly by the youth is paid.

Those over whom false Fortune's wheel had rolled, Erewhile, beneath another king arraid, You here behold, preparing to efface With vengeful deed Novara's late disgrace;

XLIII "And see with better auspices return The valiant Francis, foremost of his train, Who so shall break the haughty Switzer's horn, That little short of spent their bands remain; And them shall nevermore the style adorn, Usurped by that foul troop of churlish vein, Of scourge of princes, and the faith's defence, To which those rustics rude shall make pretence.

XLIV "Lo! he takes Milan, in the league's despite: Lo! with the youthful Sforza makes accord: Lo! Bourbon the fair city keeps, in right Of Francis, from the furious German horde: Lo! while in other high emprize and fight Elsewhere is occupied his royal lord, Nor knows the pride and license of his host, Through these the city shall anew be lost.

XLV "Lo! other French who his grandsire's vein Inherits, not his generous name alone!

Who by the Church's favour will regain -- The Gaul expelled -- a land which was his own.

France too returns, but keeps a tighter rein, Nor over Italy, as wont, has flown: For Mantua's n.o.ble duke the foe shall stay, And, at Ticino's pa.s.sage, bar his way.

XLVI "Though on his cheek youth's blossoms scarce appear, Worthy immortal glory, Frederick s.h.i.+nes; And well that praise deserves, since by his spear, But more by care and skill, Pavia's lines Against the French defends that cavalier, And frustrates the sea-lion's bold designs.

You see two marquises, Italia's boast, And both, alike the terror of our host.

XLVII "Both of one blood and of one nest they are; The foremost is the bold Alphonso's seed, Whom, led by that false black into the snare, You late beheld in purple torrent bleed.

You see defeated by his counsel ware, How oft the Franks from Italy recede.

The next, of visage so benign and bright, Is lord of Guasto and Alphonso hight;

XLVIII "This is that goodly knight, whose praise you heard When rugged Ischia's island I displayed, Of whom sage Merlin, with prophetic word, To Pharamond such mighty matters said; Whose birth should to that season be deferred, When more than ever such a champion's aid, Against the barbarous enemy's attack, Vext Italy, and Church, and Empire lack.

XLIX "He in his cousin of Pescara's rear, -- Prosper Colonna, chief of that emprize -- Makes the rude Switzer pay Bicocca dear, Paid by the Frenchman in yet dearer wise.

Behold where France prepares for fresh career, And to repair her many losses tries Behold one host on Lombardy descend!

Behold that other against Naples wend!

L "Bust she, that moves us like the dust which flies Before the restless wind, which whirls it round, Lifts if aloft awhile, and from the skies Blows back anew the rising cloud to ground, To a hundred thousand swells, in Francis' eyes, The soldiers who Pavia's walls surround.

The monarch sees but that which he commands, Nor marks how wax or waste his leaguering bands.

LI " 'Tis thus that, through the greedy servant's sin, And easy sovereign's goodness, on his side, The files beneath his banners muster thin, When in his midnight camp, 'to arms,' is cried, For by the wary Spaniards charged within His ramparts is he; foes that with the guide Of Avalo's fair lineage, would a.s.say To make to heaven or h.e.l.l their desperate way.

LII "You see the best of the n.o.bility Of all fair France extinguished on the field; How many swords, how many lances, see The Spaniards round the valiant monarch wield.

Behold! his horse falls under him; yet he Will neither own himself subdued, or yield; Though to a.s.sault him from all sides is run By wrathful bands, and succour there is none.

LIII "The monarch well defends him from the foe, All over bathed with blood of hostile vein.

But valour stoops at last to numbers; lo!

The king is taken, is conveyed to Spain; And all upon Pescara's lord bestow And him of that inseparable twain -- Of Guasto hight -- the praise and prime renown For that great king captived and host o'erthrown.

LIV "This host o'erthrown upon Pavia's plains, That, bound for Naples, halts upon its way: As an ill-nourished lamp or taper wanes, For want of wax or oil, with flickering ray.

Lo! the king leaves his sons in Spanish chains, And home returns, his own domain to sway.

Lo! while in Italy he leads his band, Another wars upon his native land.

LV "In every part you see how Rome is woe, Mid ruthless rapine, murder, fire, and rape.

See all to wasting rack and ruin go, And nothing human or divine escape.

The league's men hear the shrieks, behold the glow Of hostile fires, and lo! they backward shape Their course, where they should hurry on their way, And leave the pontiff to his foes a prey.

LVI "Lautrec the monarch sends with other bands; Yet not anew to war on Lombardy; But to deliver from rapacious hands The Church's head and limbs, already free, So slowly he performs the king's commands.

Next, overrun by him the kingdom see, And his strong arms against the city turned, Wherein the Syren's body lies inurned.

LVII "Lo! the imperial squadrons thither steer, Aid to the leaguered city to convey; And lo! burnt, sunk, destroyed, they disappear, Encountered by the Doria in mid-way.

Behold! how Fortune light does s.h.i.+ft and veer, So friendly to the Frenchman till this day!

Who slays their host with fever, not with lance; Nor of a thousand one returns to France.

LVIII These histories and more the pictures shew, (For to tell all would ask too long a strain) In beauteous colours and of different hue; Since such that hall, it these could well contain.

The painting twice and thrice those guests review, Nor how to leave them knows the lingering train, 'Twould seem; perusing oft what they behold Inscribed below the beauteous work in gold.

LIX When with these pictures they their sight had fed, And talked long while -- these ladies and the rest -- They to their chambers by that Lord were led, Wont much to wors.h.i.+p every worthy guest.

Already all were sleeping, when her bed At last Duke Aymon's beauteous daughter prest.

She here, she there, her restless body throws, Now right, now left, but vainly seeks repose:

LX Yet slumber toward dawn, and in a dream The form of her Rogero seems to view.

The vision cries: "Why vex yourself, and deem Things real which are hollow and untrue?

Backwards shall sooner flow the mountainstream Than I to other turn my thought from you.

When you I love not, then unloved by me This heart, these apples of mine eyes, will be.

LXI "Hither have I repaired (it seemed he said) To be baptized and do as I professed.

If I have lingered, I have been delaid, By other wound than that of Love opprest."

With that he vanished from the martial maid, And with the vision broken was her rest.

New floods of tears the awakened damsel shed, And to herself in this sad fas.h.i.+on said:

LXII "What pleased was but a dream; alas! a sheer Reality is this my waking bane; My joy a dream and prompt to disappear, No dream my cruel and tormenting pain.

Ah! wherefore what I seemed to see and hear, Cannot I, waking, see and hear again?

What ails ye, wretched eyes, that closed ye show Unreal good, and open but on woe?

LXIII "Sweet sleep with promised peace my soul did buoy, But I to bitter warfare wake anew; Sweet sleep but brought with it fallacious joy, But -- sure and bitter -- waking ills ensue.

If falsehood so delight and truth annoy, Never more may I see or hear what's true!

If sleeping brings me weal, and watching woe, The pains of waking may I never know!

LXIV "Blest animals that sleep through half the year, Nor ope your heavy eyelids, night nor day!

For if such tedious sleep like death appear, Such watching is like life, I will not say, Since -- such my lot, beyond all wont, severe -- I death in watching, life in sleep a.s.say.

But oh! if death such sleep resemble, Death, Even now I pray three stop my fleeting breath!"

LXV The clouds were gone, the horizon overspread With glowing crimson by the new-born sun, And in these signs, unlike the past, was read A better promise of the day begun: When Bradamant upstarted from her bed, And armed her for the journey to be done, Her thanks first rendered to the courteous lord, For his kind of cheer and hospitable board.

LXVI And found, the lady messenger, with maid And squire, had issued from the castled hold, And was a-field, where her arrival stayed Those three good warriors, those the damsel bold The eve before had on the champaign laid, Cast from their horses by her lance of gold; And who had suffered, to their mighty pain, All night, the freezing wind and pattering rain.

LXVII Add to such ill, that, hungering sore for food, They and their horses, through the livelong night, Trampling the mire, with chattering teeth, had stood: But (what well-nigh engendered more despite -- Say not well nigh -- more moved the warrior's mood) Was that they knew the damsel would recite How they had been unhorsed by hostile lance In the first course which they had run in France;

LXVIII And -- each resolved to die or else his name Forthwith in new encounter to retrieve -- That Ulany, the message-bearing dame, (Whose style no longer I unmentioned leave), A fairer notion of their knightly fame Than heretofore, might haply now conceive, Bold Bradamant anew to fight defied, When of the drawbridge clear they her descried;

LXIX Not thinking, howsoe'er, she was a maid, Who in no look or act the maid confest; Duke Aymon's daughter, loth to be delaid, Refuses, as a traveller that is pressed.

But they so often and so sorely prayed, That she could ill refuse the kings' request.

Her lance she levels, at three strokes extends All three on earth, and thus the warfare ends:

LXX For Bradamant no more her courser wheeled, But turned her back upon the foes o'erthrown.

They, that intent to gain the golden s.h.i.+eld, Had sought a land so distant from their own, Rising in sullen silence from the field (For speech with all their hardihood was gone) Appeared as stupefied by their surprise, Nor to Ulania dared to lift their eyes.

LXXI For they, as thither they their course addrest, Had vaunted to the maid in boasting vein, No paladin or knight with lance in rest, Against the worst his saddle could maintain.

To make them vail yet more their haughty crest, And look upon the world with less disdain, She tells them, by no paladin or peer Were they unhorsed, but by a woman's spear.