Thus speaking; to the shore at length they drew,"
Where Bourdeaux and Garonna rose to view;
And here, but first some tender tears they shed,
They parted as their different purpose led.
Duke Amon's daughter, whose impatient breast
Rogero fill'd, her eager journey press'd,
Till at an inn at length she ceas'd her way,
And saw Brunello there at close of day.
Full well she knew the man she sought to find,
So well his form was treasur'd in her mind:
She questions where he goes, and whence he came,
While lies to all he frames; nor less the dame,
Warn'd of his arts, for falsehood, falsehood deals,
Her country feigns; her name, and race conceals;
While watchful on his hands her eye she bends,
And every look, his treachery known, attends.
As thus distrust on either side prevails,
A dreadful noise each startled ear assails.
But cease we here, my lord! to tell the cause;
And here awhile permit the tale to pause.
BRADAMANT, following the advice of Melissa, takes the ring from Brunello, defeats Atlantes, the magician, and sets his prisoners at liberty: but soon after loses her lover Rogero, who is carried from her in a wonderful manner, by the contrivance of Atlantes. Rinaldo, who was sent on an embassy to England, being cast by a tempest on the coast of Scotland, is entertained at an abbey, where he is acquainted with the misfortune of Geneura, daughter to the king of Scotland, and undertakes to fight in her behalf.
THOUGH we too oft dissimulation find
Th' attendant vice of a degenerate mind;
Yet, since in this bad world we must oppose
A thousand perils and a thousand foes,
A blameless art, in time of need pursu❜d,
Has oft been found the means of future good;
A sure defence from threatening danger prov'd;
Impending shame, and death itself remov❜d.
If after proofs long try'd, and try'd in vain,
You scarce at last a faithful friend attain;
A friend to whom you truly can impart
Each little care that fills the secret heart:
How with Brunello shall the maid proceed,
Brunello, strange to every virtuous deed;
But as Melissa had display'd before,
Of treason fram'd, and vers❜d in guileful lore?
She to deceive, no less her mind applies,
As best beseems with him, the sire of lies!
While thus their mutual converse they pursue,
Still on his hands she bends her heedful view;
When sudden cries their startled ears invade,
O! glorious mother! (cry'd th' astonish'd maid)
O! king of heaven! from what dread wonder grows
This strange alarm? but soon the cause she knows;
She sees the host and all the household near;
Who in the window or the streets appear
Gazing aloft, as when the vulgar spy
A dark eclipse, or comet in the sky.
And now a wondrous sight the virgin saw,
(A wondrous sight, surpassing nature's law)
A courser through the air direct his flight,
Who bore upon his back an armed knight.
Large were his wings, with different colours grac'd,
And in the midst the magic knight was plac'd
His shining arms of polish'd steel appear'd,
And tow'rds the western skies his course he steer'd;
Till sinking, he behind the mountains flew.
Then said the host (and well the truth he knew)
Behold a strange magician fam'd afar,
Oft seen to journey through the fields of air.
Sometimes he seems amid the stars to rise;
And now, more lowly, near the earth he flies;
While every beauteous damsel in his way,
The necromancer seizes as his prey.
Thus all whose features charms transcendent share, 45 Or those, who give themselves the name of fair,
With terror struck, avoid his hated sight,
And shun the face of day with pale affright.
Ver. 22. O! glorious mother!] The virgin Mary.
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