The gentle baron was of craven kind.
Now that Gradasso learns Mount Alban’s peer
Is he, that storms the camp, in huge delight,
Armed, on Alfana leaps the cavalier,380
And through the pitchy darkness seeks the knight,
O’erturning all who cross his fierce career,
He leaves afflicted and in piteous plight
The broken bands of Afric and of France,
All, food alike for his wide-wasting lance.
He seeks the paladin, now here now there,
Echoing his name as loud as he can shout;
And thitherward inclines his courser, where
The bodies are most thickly strown about.
At length encounter, sword to sword, the pair,
For broken are alike their lances stout;
Which shivering in their hands, had flown upright,
And smote the starry chariot of the Night.
When King Gradasso recognized the foe,
Not by the blazoned bearing of his shield,
But by Bayardo—by that horrid blow,
Which made him seem sole champion of the field,
He to reproach the knight was nothing slow,
And of unworthy action him appealed;
In that he had not kept his ground and day,
Erewhile appointed for the fierce assay.
“Belike thou hoped,” (said he of Sericane,)
“If for that time my vengeance thou couldst fly,
We should not meet in this wide world again:
But we are met, thou seest, anew; and I,
Be sure, though thou shouldst seek the Stygian reign,
Or be from earth translated to the sky,
Will hunt thee, save that courser thou forego,
Be it through heaven above or hell below.
“Dost thou, as matched with me mistrust thy force,
(And that thou wert ill paired was seen whilere,)
And more esteemest life than fame, a course
Remains, which thee may from thy peril clear.
And thou, if thou in peace resign the horse,
May’st live, if life be deemed so passing dear;
But live afoot, unmeriting a steed,
That dost by chivalry such foul misdeed.”
Guido the savage, as he spake, was nigh
With Richardetto; and the warlike twain
Brandished alike their trenchant swords on high,
To teach more wit to him of Sericane:
But them Rinaldo stopt with sudden cry,
Nor brooked that he should injury sustain.
“Am I too weak,” (he cried,) “without your aid,
To answer him that dares my deeds upbraid?”
Then to the pagan thus; “Gradasso hear,
And wilt thou listen, thou shalt understand,
And I will prove it manifest and clear,
I came to seek thee out upon the strand;
And afterwards on thee will made appear
The truth of all I say with arms in hand;
Know then thou liest, if e’er with slanderous speech
Thou taxest me with aught in knighthood’s breach.
“But warmly I beseech thee, that before
The battle be, thou fully comprehend
My just excuses, that thou may’st no more
Me for my failure wrongly reprehend:
Next for Bayardo, as agreed of yore,
’Tis my desire that we afoot contend;
Even as ordained by thee, in desert place,
Alone in knightly duel, face to face.”
Courteous was Sericana’s cavalier,
(For generous bosoms aye such practise use)
And is content to listen to the peer,
How he his breach of promise will excuse.
With him he seeks the river side, and here
In simple words what chanced Rinaldo shews:
From the true history removes the veil,
And cites all Heaven to witness to his tale.
Next calls upon the son of Buovo, who
Is of that history informed aright;
And now, from point to point, relates anew
(Nor more nor less rehearsed) the magic sleight.
When thus Rinaldo; “What I warrant true
By witness, I with arms in single fight,
For better proof, will vouch upon thy crest,
Both now and ever, as it likes thee best.”
The king of Sericane, as loth to leave
The second quarrel for the former breach,
Though doubtful how that tale he should receive,
Takes in good part the bold Rinaldo’s speech.
Not, as upon the former battle’s eve,
They choose their ground on Barcellona’s beach:
But on the morn ensuing, and, fast by
A neighbouring fountain, will the question try.
Thither Rinaldo will the steed convey,
There to be placed in common, ’twixt the two.
If good Gradasso take his foe or slay,
He wins Bayardo without more ado.
But if Gradasso fails in that affray,
—Should he be slain, or else for mercy sue,
A prisoner to Mount Alban’s valiant lord,
Rinaldo shall possess the virtuous sword.
With mighty marvel and with greater pain,
The paladin from Flordelice (as shown)
Had heard how troubled was his cousin’s brain.
And from the damsel’s lips as well had known
How he his arms had scattered on the plain;
And heard the quarrel which from thence had grown;
In fine, how King Gradasso had the brand,
Which won such thousand palms in Roland’s hand.
When they so agreed, Gradasso made
Thither where, camped apart, his servants lay,
Albeit warmly by Rinaldo prayed,
He would with him in his pavillion stay.
The paynim king in armour was arrayed,
And so the paladin, by break of day;
And to the destined fount came either lord,
The field of combat for the horse and sword.
It seemed Rinaldo’s friends were all in fear,
And dreaded much, before it was begun,
The issue of the fight their cavalier
Should wage against Gradasso, one to one.
Much force, much daring, and much skill appear
In that fierce king; and since of Milo’s son
The goodly sword was to his girdle tied
All cheeks looked pale upon Rinaldo’s side;
And Malagigi more than all the rest,
Sore doubted the event which would ensue,
He willingly himself would have addressed
To disappoint the destined fight anew;
But fears if he that deadly strife arrest,
Rinaldo’s utter enmity to rue,
Yet wroth with him upon that other score,
When he conveyed the warrior from the shore.
Let others nourish idle grief and fears!
Rinaldo wends afield secure and gay,
Hoping that shame, which to the knight appears
Too foul to be endured, to wipe away;
So that of Altafoglia and Poictiers,
He
