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How calm and peaceful is thy gentle breast,

My Oliver! how sweet Astolpho's doom! Oh yet some human pity. feel for me, And aid my soul just struggling to be free!" C. 27. St. 100.

An impulse of heroic vanity prompted him to wish that no unworthy hand might, after his death, grasp his sword Durindana; he therefore struck it with all his might on a hard rock to break it; but the rock itself, instead, gave way to the irresistible temper of the blade, and the tremendous strength of his dying arm. To this day travellers in the Pyrenees are shewn the cloven rock and the split horn of Roland.

Rinaldo, tired of the pursuit, came back, with Richardetto and Archbishop Turpin, just in time to receive the dying words of his friend, who, having confessed all the sins of his life to Turpin, and received absolution, prayed fervently to heaven for forgiveness, as he was a man, and created with human frailties:

E perdonasti à tutta la Natura, Quando tu perdonasti al primo Padre! His prayer for himself, his friends, and his country, ended with these words: "Oh holy Saviour! I commend to thee My Alda-belle, my dear, my widow'd wife;

And, if she weds another lord than me,

Grant her a better choice, a happier life! Oh guard my king in his declining years, And these my fellow-soldiers, and my peers!" Thus had he offer'd up his pious pray'r

With sighs, and tears, and breath'd his last desire,

When o'er the dying knight, with sudden glare,

Flash'd from the sun three beams of heav'nly fire.

His friends stood round him, with dejected

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This celestial messenger cheer'd the last moments of the departing hero with the full assurance "of offence forgiven," of a re-union in heaven with the friends who loved and bled for him on earth, and with his chaste and widowed Aldabelle.

Bright with eternal joy and deathless bloom,
Thy Alda-belle thou shalt behold ence
Partaker of a life beyond the tomb
more,

With her whom Sinai's holy hills adore; Crown'd with fresh flow'rs whose colours and perfume

Exceed whatever spring's rich bosom bore: On earth, thy mourning widow she'll remain,

And be, in heav'n, thy blessed spouse again! St. 145,

The angel then having vanished, Or lando once more embraced his friends, and mingled his tears with theirs. Then

he commended his soul to Heaven. Rinaldo felt the weakness of affection come over him, and with a melancholy voice exclaimed,

Dove mi lasci, oh Cugin mio, soletto? But recollecting the words of the angel, ceased his complaint, and remained silent from awe and reverence, while Orlando calmly surrendered himself to death. With look seraphic, turn'd and fix'd on high, He seem'd transfigur'd from this earthly

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This is exactly according to the pastum cathedral churches.

Save where deep groans the heart's sad lan- of the marble Teniplars and Crusaders in our

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In the mean time, Charles, at his camp of Pied-du-port, heard the first blast of Orlando's horn, and, startled at the summons, was about to order his troops to march to his assistance: but the traitor Gano, who rejoiced inwardly at the work of death which he perceived had commenced, persuaded him that it was but a hunting-party among the mountains. At the third blast, however, the emperor knew that it was Orlando's horn, and that the sound was that of distress and danger. Suspicion of treachery at length possessed him too late, and he caused the wicked Maganzese to be put in irons, while he hastened, with his few remaining Paladins, to Roncesvalles. The sun stood still in the heavens for a day and a night, to allow his arrival at the fatal place without delay. He was met on the road by Terigi, who informed him of the sad catastrophe that had taken place; and soon after, from the surrounding heights, they beheld the field of Roncesvalles covered with ghastly heaps of dead and dying.

When Charles beheld that field of blood, he

cast

His eyes tow'rds Roncesvalles; and exclaim'd,

The original has a beautiful thought which it is difficult to express in translation. The angels were known, it says, by the trembling of their wings.

Cantar
Sentitu fu degli angeli solenne,
Che si cognoble al tremolar le penne.

It is also much more particular in its account of the celestial psalmody. For instance, the "Te Deum" was not the only anthem performed. They also sung "In Exitu Israël."

"Because in thee the fame of France is past, Through every age be thou with curses

nam'd!

So long as this wide world, and time, shall last,

Be everlasting barrenness proclaim'd, Thy lofty hills and spreading vales around, And heavn's own lightnings blast th'accursed ground!"

But when he reach'd the fatal mountain's base,

Where, at the fount, Rinaldo watch'd the

dead,

More lamentable tears bedew'd his face,
The stiffen'd corse he kissed, embrac'd, and

said,

"Oh blessed soul! look from the realms of grace

Upon this old and miserable head! And, if all crimes are not forgotten there, Oh pardon me for having brought thee here! "Where is the faith, my son, I bade thee prove,

The pledge in happier days receiv'd and givin Oh shade ador'd! if ought of human love, Or human pity may survive in heav'n, Restore to me, from thy blest seat above,

As the sweet token of offence forgiv'n, That sword with which I made thee knight and count,

Ev'n as thou erst didst swear at Aspramount!"

It was Heaven's will, that, at his sovereign's word,

Orlando's body rose from earth once more, And knelt before his ancient king and lord,

With courtly reverence, as in days of yore ; Stretch'd forth his hand, and renser'd back

the sword,

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ter all the rites of sepulture were bestowed with all the honours of martyrs. Astolpho was sent to England, and Õliver to Burgundy, to be interred in their native countries; and the corpse of Orlando was conveyed to Aix-la-Chapelle, and there deposited with great pomp and reverence in the royal sepulchre. The remainder of the poem consists of the signal vengeance which was taken by Charles and Rinaldo for the massacre of Roncesvalles. Gano paid the forfeit of his many crimes by an ignominious and dreadful death; and Marsilius, after see ing his territories wasted, and his crown ravished from his brows, was hanged (by a just and extraordinary retribution) on the very carob-tree under which he had first plotted the destruction of Orlando. Rinaldo felt his ancient love for Luciana rekindled, and, by his espousals with her shortly after, became heir of the crown of Spain; but, unused to an inactive life, he quitted, in an advanced age, the peaceful residence of a court, and set out in quest of new adventures. It is believed that he sailed westward in search of the new hemisphere which had formerly been described to him by Astaroth; but no

thing certain was ever heard of him afterward.

One more passage shall conclude our extracts from, and remarks upon, the present work. All France lamented ber champions, and wore an universal mourning, when his body was entombed. But more than all the beauteous Alda mourn'd Her much-lov'd lord and brother on the bier;

"Ye happy souls, to kindred heav'n return'd, Have left me, all alone and widow'd here, Me, once the happiest wife on earth, adorn'd With all that heav'n approves, and earth holds dear;

Blest with the love of the most noble knight

That ever mounted steed, or dar'd the fight.
"Oh my lov'd father, brother, lord, farewell!
I never shall behold thy like again—
So form'd in camps and cities to excell,
Constant in life and death, thy Aldabelle
So mild in peace, so dreadful on the plain!
Swears, by those bones interr'd at Aquis-
grane,*

Those tender arms that once encircled thee,
Shall never to another wedded be!"

C. 27. St. 218.

* Aquisgrana, the antique, or romantic, appellation for Aix-la-Chapelle.

The BINDER is requested to place the PLATE of the Effects of the great Earthquake in Calabria, opposite

Panorama of Constantinople

View of the North Cape, with the Sun at Midnight

Page 25

448

547

GENERAL

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