Reft of all vigour and of every sense,
But her dear spouse sustained her in the selle.
Enough for him, the king struck not again;
Was it their fortune or his chivalry?
So a magnanimous lion with disdain
A sleeper leaves, and looks and passes by.
XLIV.
Ormondo intanto, alle cui fere mani
Era commessa la spietata cura,
Misto con false insegne è fra’ Cristiani:
348 E i compagni con lui di sua congiura.
Così lupi notturni, i quai di cani
Mostrin sembianza, per la nebbia oscura
Vanno alle mandre, e spían come in lor s’entre,
352 La dubbia coda ristringendo al ventre.
XLIV
This while Ormondo false, whose cruel hand
Was armed and prest to give the trait’rous blow,
With all his fellows mongst Godfredo’s band
Entered unseen, disguised that few them know:
The thievish wolves, when night o’ershades the land,
That seem like faithful dogs in shape and show,
So to the closed folds in secret creep,
And entrance seek; to kill some harmless sheep.
XLIV
Meanwhile Ormondo, to whose ruthless hands
The inhuman office was entrusted, got
Beneath false colours ‘mong the Christian bands
With his co-partners in the hellish plot.
Thus skulking wolves that counterfeit the mien
Of shepherds’ dogs, concealed by darkness, sneak
(Their doubtful tails their stealthy legs between),
Around the folds, and there admission seek.
XLV.
Gíansi appressando: e non lontano al fianco
Del pio Goffredo il fier Pagan si mise.
Ma come il Capitan l’orato e ‘l bianco
356 Vide apparir delle sospette assise:
Ecco, gridò, quel traditor che Franco
Cerca mostrarsi in simulate guise.
Ecco i suoi congiurati in me già mossi;
360 Così dicendo, al perfido avventossi.
XLV
He proached nigh, and to Godfredo’s side
The bloody Pagan now was placed near:
But when his colors gold and white he spied,
And saw the other signs that forged were,
“See, see, this traitor false!” the captain cried,
“That like a Frenchman would in show appear,
Behold how near his mates and he are crept!”
This said, upon the villain forth he leapt;
XLV
Nearer they came, and now the Pagan knight
Had almost reached the pious Godfred’s side,
Who, when he saw, forewarned, the gold and white
Of the suspected uniforms, outcried:
‘Behold you traitor, who in copied guise,
Seeks for a Frank to pass himself, and lo!
Moving against me his accomplices,’
This said, he sprang on his perfidious foe,
XLVI.
Mortalmente piagollo: e quel fellone
Non fere, non fa schermo, e non s’arretra;
Ma come innanzi agli occhj abbia ‘l Gorgone
364 (E fu cotanto audace) or gela e impetra.
Ogni spada, ed ogni asta a lor s’oppone:
E si vota in lor soli ogni faretra.
Va in tanti pezzi Ormondo e i suoi consorti,
368 Che il cadavero pur non resta ai morti.
LXVI
Deadly he wounded him, and that false knight
Nor strikes nor wards nor striveth to be gone;
But, as Medusa’s head were in his sight,
Stood like a man new turned to marble stone,
All lances broke, unsheathed all weapons bright,
All quivers emptied were on them alone,
In parts so many were the traitors cleft,
That those dead men had no dead bodies left.
XLVI
Whom he maimed mortally; the villain, dazed,
Nor strikes, nor ev’n defends himself, nor flies;
Once daring, he, as tho’ Medusa gazed,
From terror freezes now and petrifies.
By myriad swords they were at once attacked,
‘Gainst them alone was every quiver drained,
Till in such bits were chief and followers hacked,
That of their corpses scarce a trace remained.
XLVII.
Poi che di sangue ostil si vede asperso,
Entra in guerra Goffredo, e là si volve
Ove appresso vedea che il Duce Perso
372 Le più ristrette squadre apre e dissolve:
Sì che ‘l suo stuolo omai n’andria disperso
Come anzi l’Austro l’Africana polve.
Ver lui si drizza, e i suoi sgrida e minaccia,
376 E fermando chi fugge, assal chi caccia.
LXVII
When Godfrey was with Pagan blood bespread,
He entered then the fight and that was past
Where the bold Persian fought and combated,
Where the close ranks he opened, cleft and brast;
Before the knight the troops and squadrons fled,
As Afric dust before the southern blast;
The Duke recalled them, in array them placed,
Stayed those that fled, and him assailed that chased.
XLVII
When Godfred found himself bedabbled o’er
With hostile blood, he to the combat flew,
Where near him he beheld Prince Altamore
Open and charge his closest columns through,
So that they scattered were like Libyan sands
Before the south; towards him he swiftly sped;
With shouts and threats rebuked his flying bands,
Assailed the assailant, and checked those that fled.
XLVIII.
Comincian quì le due feroci destre
Pugna, qual mai non vide Ida nè Xanto.
Ma segue altrove aspra tenzon pedestre
380 Fra Baldovino e Muleasse intanto.
Nè ferve men l’altra battaglia equestre
Appresso il colle, all’altro estremo canto,
Ove il barbaro Duce delle genti
384 Pugna in persona, e seco ha i due potenti.
LXVIII
The champions strong there fought a battle stout,
Troy never saw the like by Xanthus old:
A conflict sharp there was meanwhile on foot
Twixt Baldwin good and Muleasses bold:
The horsemen also near the mountains rout,
And in both wings, a furious skirmish hold,
And where the barbarous duke in person stood,
Twixt Tisiphernes and Adrastus proud;
XLVIII
Never did Ida, ne’er did Zanthus see
Such combat as those two fierce champions waged.
Meanwhile Prince Baldwin and his infantry,
With Muleasses sharply were engaged;
Nor was the equestrian battle near the hill
On the extreme left, with less excitement fraught,
Where the commander of the Infidel,
With the two powerful chiefs in person fought.
XLIX.
Il rettor delle turbe, e l’un Roberto
Fan crudel zuffa: e lor virtù s’agguaglia.
Ma l’Indian dell’altro ha l’elmo aperto,
388 E l’arme tuttavia gli fende e smaglia.
Tisaferno non ha nemico certo
Che gli sia paragon degno in battaglia;
Ma scorre ove la calca appar più folta,
392 E mesce varia uccisione e molta.
XLIX
With Emiren Robert the Norman strove,
Long time they fought, yet neither lost nor won;
The other Robert’s helm the Indian clove,
> And broke his arms, their fight would soon be done:
From place to place did Tisiphernes rove,
And found no match, against him none dust run,
But where the press was thickest thither flew
The knight, and at each stroke felled, hurt, or slew.
XLIX
One of the Roberts with the chief that guides
The hordes, in fierce and well-matched strife contends;
But the Indian prince his namesake’s helm divides,
And into shivers his chain armour rends.
No foeman to compare with him as knight
Throughout the field fierce Tisaphernes found;
O’er it he scoured, where thickest seemed the fight,
And much and varied slaughter spread around.
L.
Così si combatteva, e in dubbia lance
Col timor le speranze eran sospese.
Pien tutto il campo è di spezzate lance,
396 Di rotti scudi, e di troncato arnese:
Di spade ai petti, alle squarciate pance
Altre confitte, altre per terra stese:
Di corpi, altri supini, altri co’ volti,
400 Quasi mordendo il suolo, al suol rivolti.
L
Thus fought they long, yet neither shrink nor yield,
In equal balance hung their hope and fear:
All full of broken lances lay the field,
All full of arms that cloven and shattered were;
Of swords, some to the body nail the shield,
Some cut men’s throats, and some their bellies tear;
Of bodies, some upright, some grovelling lay,
And for themselves eat graves out of the clay.
L
Thus warred the rival hosts, whose hopes and fears
Now rose, now fell, in doubtful balance hung;
Shields shattered, fractured armour, splintered spears,
Were o’er the field in wild confusion flung.
In breasts and bellies disembowelled, here
Sabres were stuck — there lying on the plain;
Here lay supine — there prone a cavalier,
Who bit the ground in agony of pain.
LI.
Giace il cavallo al suo signore appresso:
Giace il compagno appo il compagno estinto:
Giace il nemico appo il nemico, e spesso
404 Sul morto il vivo, il vincitor sul vinto.
Non v’è silenzio, e non v’è grido espresso;
Ma odi un non so chè roco e indistinto:
Fremiti di furor, mormori d’ira,
408 Gemiti di chi langue, e di chi spira.
LI
Beside his lord slain lay the noble steed,
There friend with friend lay killed like lovers true,
There foe with foe, the live under the dead,
The victor under him whom late he slew:
A hoarse unperfect sound did eachwhere spread,
Whence neither silence, nor plain outcries flew:
There fury roars, ire threats, and woe complains,
One weeps, another cries, he sighs for pains.
LI
The steed lay stretched his lifeless master near,
Comrades beside their bleeding comrades bled;
Foe lay on foe — upon his vanquished peer
The victor lay — the dying on the dead.
No sound distinct — yet was no silence there,
But a strange something that vague fears inspired;
The curse of rage, the gnashing of despair,
The groans of those that languished and expired.
LII.
L’arme, che già sì liete in vista foro,
Faceano or mostra spaventosa e mesta.
Perduti ha i lampi il ferro, i raggj l’oro:
412 Nulla vaghezza ai bei color più resta.
Quanto apparia d’adorno e di decoro
Ne’ cimieri e ne’ fregj, or si calpesta.
La polve ingombra ciò ch’al sangue avanza.
416 Tanto i campi mutata avean sembianza!
LII
The arms that late so fair and glorious seem,
Now soiled and slubbered, sad and sullen grow,
The steel his brightness lost, the gold his beam;
The colors had no pride nor beauty’s show;
The plumes and feathers on their crests that stream,
Are strowed wide upon the earth below:
The hosts both clad in blood, in dust and mire,
Had changed their cheer, their pride, their rich attire.
LII
The arms that were so brilliant to behold,
Squalid and sad, no more delight the eye;
Lost hath the steel its flash, its rays the gold,
The colours erst so bright, their brilliancy.
All that of gaudy and becoming smiled
In plume and broidery, under foot was pressed,
And what blood stained not, filthy dust defiled:
Such changed appearance the two camps possessed.
LIII.
Gli Arabi allora, e gli Etiópi, e i Mori,
Che l’estremo tenean del lato manco,
Gíansi spiegando e distendendo in fuori:
420 Indi giravan de’ nemici al fianco.
Ed omai sagittarj e frombatori
Molestavan da lunge il popol Franco;
Quando Rinaldo e ‘l suo drappel si mosse:
424 E parve che tremoto, e tuono fosse.
LIII
But now the Moors, Arabians, Ethiops black,
Of the left wing that held the utmost marge,
Spread forth their troops, and purposed at the back
And side their heedless foes to assail and charge:
Slingers and archers were not slow nor slack
To shoot and cast, when with his battle large
Rinaldo came, whose fury, haste and ire,
Seemed earthquake, thunder, tempest, storm and fire.
LIII
The Arab now, the Æthiop and the Moor,
Who held the extreme left, deploy their ranks,
And, pushing forward in half-circle, pour
Down on the Christians and surround their flanks.
The slingers, too, and archers from afar
Keep on the Franks a galling fire, when, lo!
Rinaldo and his squadron joined the war;
Less shock were earthquake, lightning’s flash more slow.
LIV.
Assimiro di Meroe, infra l’adusto
Stuol d’Etiopia, era il primier de’ forti.
Rinaldo il colse ove s’annoda al busto
428 Il nero collo, e ‘l fè cader tra’ morti.
Poich’eccitò della vittoria il gusto
L’appetito del sangue e delle morti
Nel fero vincitore, egli fè cose
432 Incredibili, orrende, e mostruose.
LIV
The first he met was Asimire, his throne
That set in Meroe’s hot sunburnt land,
He cut his neck in twain, flesh, skin and bone,
The sable head down tumbled on the sand;
But when by death of this black prince alone
The taste of blood and conquest once he fand,
Whole squadrons then, whole troops to earth he brought,
Things wondrous, strange, incredible he wrought.
LIV
Asmir of Meroë among the adust
Æthiops, was of their brave the most renowned;
Him, where the neck is knitted to the bust,
Rinaldo caught, and stretched upon the ground.
But when the taste of victory had warmed
His thirst for slaughter of the Infidel,
Actions the excited conqueror performed
Prodigious, horrible, incredible.
LV.
Diè più morti che colpi; e pur frequente
De’ suoi gran colpi la tempesta cade.
/> Qual tre lingue vibrar sembra il serpente,
436 Chè la prestezza d’una il persuade;
Tal credea lui la sbigottita gente
Con la rapida man girar tre spade.
L’occhio al moto deluso il falso crede,
440 E ‘l terrore a que’ mostri accresce fede.
LV
He gave more deaths than strokes, and yet his blows
Upon his feeble foes fell oft and thick,
To move three tongues as a fierce serpent shows,
Which rolls the one she hath swift, speedy, quick,
So thinks each Pagan; each Arabian trows
He wields three swords, all in one hilt that stick;
His readiness their eyes so blinded hath,
Their dread that wonder bred, fear gave it faith.
LV
More deaths than blows he gave, and yet there rung
Of these a storm; but as so rapidly
A furious dragon lashes forth one tongue,
That all bystanders think he vibrates three;
Ev’n so, the panic-stricken people thought
His rapid hand three falchions whirled, and the eye
Believed the false, by the swift motion caught,
And terror stamped it as reality.
LVI.
I Libici Tiranni, e i negri Regi,
L’un nel sangue dell’altro a morte stese.
Dier sovra gli altri i suoi compagni egregj,
444 Cui d’emulo furor l’esempio accese.
Cadeane con orribili dispregj
L’infedel plebe, e non facea difese.
Pugna questa non è, ma strage sola,
448 Che quinci oprano il ferro, indi la gola.
LVI
The Afric tyrants and the negro kings
Fell down on heaps, drowned each in other’s blood,
Upon their people ran the knights he brings,
Pricked forward by their guide’s example good,
Killed were the Pagans, broke their bows and slings:
Some died, some fell; some yielded, none withstood:
A massacre was this, no fight; these put
Their foes to death, those hold their throats to cut.
LVI
The Libyan tyrants and the Negro kings
He slew, and crimsoned with each other’s blood;
And as on other arms his falchion rings,
His troops the example of their chief pursued.
With horrible contempt and frantic glee
The unresisting Infidel they smote;
Jerusalem Delivered Page 292