Spite of his orisons-Some say, the hand
Of his good Saint convey'd him safe to land:
But he it as it may,-I pass it o'er,
Henceforth of him the story speaks no more.
When cruel Rodomont had thus remov'd
The talking hermit, oft in vain reprov'd,
With milder looks he turn'd, where at his side,
The damsel stood all pale and terrify'd ;
Whom now in speech by lovers oft addrest,
He call'd his life, of every good the best;
His balm of hope, fair comfort, smiling joy,
With each endearment amorous tongues employ.
Courteous he seem'd, as if he would disarm
Her thoughts of fear, that any force might harm.
Her virgin vow: those graces that inflam'd
His cruel heart, his wonted pride had tam'd;

And though his hand could pluck the fruit, he chose
T" abstain at distance, and but touch the boughs.
He fondly hop'd by slow degrees to find

Fair Isabella to his wish inclin'd:

While she, subjected to a tyrant's laws,

(Like some poor mouse within her foe's sharp claws) Unfriended and forlorn, would rather dare

70

The worst of ills than what she fear'd to bear;
Still pondering on the means, if such could be,
Herself and honour from his power to free;
With her own hand determin'd to prevent
Her shame by death, ere his abhorr'd intent
Should make her wrong the knight, who, late entwin'd
By her lov❜d arms, his parting breath resign'd;

Ver. 66. Like some poor mouse, &c.] Certainly too ludicrous an image on so pathetic an occasion.

To whom, with heart devout, the mourning dame 75

Had vow'd to dedicate her virgin name.

She mark'd, and trembling mark'd, th' unhallow'd fire
That warm'd the Pagan with impure desire.

What shall she do? How shape her dangerous course?
What way remains t' elude his brutal force?
Long time revolving in her fearful mind

A thousand schemes, at length, her thoughts design'd
One that might save her chastity from blame;
Which here we tell to her eternal fame.

80

The Pagan, by his words and deeds, confess'd
The lurking purpose of his impious breast:
Lost was the courtesy which first he show'd,
When fair his speech in gentlest accents flow'd.
To him the damsel--Would'st thou but ensure
My honour safe, a gift thou may'st procure,

Of far more worth than aught thou canst obtain
From what must fix on me eternal stain.
Scorn not a lasting prize, a prize to raise
O'er all the sons of war thy deathless praise.
A hundred and a hundred may'st thou find,
Fair dames the loveliest of our female kind;
But who, like me, are fated to bestow

95

Th' invalu'd good thou to my hand may'st owe.
A herb I know, and late have seen, that boil'd

With rue and ivy, o'er a fire when pil'd

100

Ver. 89. Wouldst thou but ensure,

My honour safe, &c.---] A similar story is told of a virgin in the time of Mirvan, the caliph, in the eighth century, and of another named Brasilla (the time uncertain) related by Francesco Barbaro, in his book concerning the choice of a wife.

Zatta.

With cypress-wood, will (strange to tell) produce,
By guiltless fingers squeez'd, a sovereign juice,
With which, thrice bath'd, the body will be found
One moon secur'd unhurt from flame or wound:
That month elaps'd the bathing we renew,
No longer time avails the powerful dew.
The proof of what I tell, thy wondering eyes
Shall witness soon--to thee a nobler prize
(Or much I crr) than if this day had view'd
All Europe by thy conquering arm subdu’d.
In recompense for what I shall bestow

I ask but this---here plight thy solemn vow,
Ne'er from this hour by word or deed to harm
My virgin honour, or my fears alarm.

The damsel thus the Pagan's suit repress'd,
Who now with new desire of fame possess'd,
Vow'd all she ask’d, impatient to be made
Alike impassive to the flame or blade:
Resolv'd to curb his lust, till prov'd he view'd

The wondrous water with such spell indu'd,

105

110

115

120

Through which his limbs might scorn each weapon's

power,

As Cygnus or Achilles scorn'd before;

Ver. 122. As Cygnus or Achilles --] Ovid tells us, Metam. Book xii. that Cygnus, the son of Neptune, could not be wounded. The common story of Achilles is, that he was dipped in the river Styx by his mother Thetis, and thereby became invulnerable in every part except the heel by which she held him, and that he was at last shot by Paris at the altar, in the only vulnerable place, at the instigation of Apollo, during the ceremony of his nuptials with Polyxena, the daughter of Priam. This table is certainly of much later date than Homer, and not countenanced in the poems of Virgil, Horace, or Ovid. Homer represents him as being wounded in the

But meant his compact should no longer hind:
No fear, no reverence, in his impious mind,

Of God or Saint--for breach of faith the worst
Of Afric's sons, by perjur'd deeds accurs'd!

125

battle of the river, by Asteropeus, who was ambi-dexter, and threw two darts at Achilles at the same time.

At once Asteropeus discharg'd each lance,

(For both his dextrous hands the lance could wield)
One struck, but pierc'd not the Vulcanian shield;

One raz'd Achilles' hand, the spouting blood

Spun forth......

Pope's Iliad, B. xxi. v. 182.

Achilles was not slain in the temple, but fell in the field of battle, according to Homer, as appears by the conversation between that hero and Agamemnon in the shades.

O son of Peleus! greater than mankind!
(Thus Agamemnon's kingly shade rejoin'd)
Thrice happy thou, to press the martial plain,
'Midst heaps of heroes in thy quarrel slain:
In clouds of smoke, rais'd by the noble fray,
Great and terrifick even in death you lay.

Pope's Odys. Book xxiv. ver. 51.

Hesiod has no account of the modern fable of Achilles, nor any of the ancient Greek tragedians. Sophocles thus mentions his death, in the tragedy of Philoctetes, Act ii. Scene i.

Of Afric's sons, by perjur'd deeds accurst---]

The ill faith of the Carthaginians was known to a proverb in the time of the Romans, Punica fides. Thus Addison in the mouth of Juba:

Our Punic faith

Is infamous, and branded to a proverb.

Cato.

O'er hanging cliffs, through vallies dark with shade, From towns and cities far the virgin stray'd, Collecting various herbs, while at her side The Pagan watch'd, and every motion ey❜d.

130

Bion, who lived 187 years before Christ, in a fragment of an epithalamium on the nuptials of Peleus and Thetis, makes no mention of the immersion in the Styx; neither does Catullus in his poem on the same subject. Strabo, who died 65 years after Catullus, does not speak of this fable of the Styx, although he frequently alludes to the story of Achilles. Horace cails Achilles, "filius Thetidos Marine," in three places. He speaks thus of his death..." abstulit clarum cita mors Achillem;" and mentions him frequently, but never as having been invulnerable.

Ovid gives no countenance to the story, though he particularly commemorates the death of Cygnus, slain by Achilles; and tells us, that the Grecian hero, to his great surprise, finding him invulner. able, was obliged to strangle him; that before his death he boasted to Achilles of his superior advantage derived from being the son of Neptune, alluding to this preternatural gift.

Nate dea (nam te fama prænovimus) inquit
Ille, quid a nobis vulnus miraris abesse?
(Mirabatur enim) non hæc, quam cernis equinis
Fulva jubis, cassis, neque onùs cava parma sinistræ
Auxilio mihi sunt: decor est quæsitus ab istis.

Mars quoque ab hoc capere arma solet: removebitur omne
Tegininis officiumi; tamen indistrictus abibo.

Est aliquid, non esse satum Nereïde, sed qui
Nereaque, et natas et totum temperet æquor.

Metam. Lib. xii. v. 86.

...Goddess born!

For ornament, not use, these arms are worn;
This helm and heavy buckler I can spare,
As only decorations of the war:

So Mars is arm'd for glory, not for need:
'Tis somewhat more from Neptune to proceed,
Than from a daughter of the sea to spring:
Your Sire is mortal, mine is Ocean's king.
Secure of death, I could contemn thy dart
Though naked, and impassible depart.

Dryden.