Whom, quelled and broken twice and thrice, anew
Now the Bavarians, now the Huns, replace.
O’ermatched, he then for peace is fain to sue;
Nor long survives, nor he who fills his place;
To Berengarius yielding his domains,
Who, repossest of all his kingdom, reigns.
“You see, her goodly pastor to sustain,
Another Charles set fire to Italy;
Who has two kings in two fierce battles slain,
Manfred and Conradine, and after see
His bands, who seem to vex the new-won reign
With many wrongs, and who dispersedly
—Some here, some there—in different cities dwell.
Slain on the rolling of the vesper-bell.”397
He shows them next (but after interval,
’Twould seem, of many and many an age, not years)
How, “through the Alps, a captain out of Gaul,
To war upon the great Viscontis, steers;398
And seems to straiten Alexandria’s wall,
Girt with his forces, foot and cavaliers:
A garrison within, an ambuscade
Without the works, the warlike duke has laid;
“And the French host, decoyed in cunning wise
Thither where the surrounding toils are spread,
Conducted on that evil enterprise
By Armagnac, the Gallic squadron’s head,
Slaughtered throughout the spacious champaign lies,
Or is to Alexandria captive led:
While, swoln not more with water than with blood,
Tanarus purples wide Po’s ample flood.”
Successively that castellain displayed
One hight of Marca,399 of the Anjouites three.
How “Marsi, Daunians, Salentines,” (he said)
“And Bruci, these shall oft molest, you see:
Yet not by Frank or Latian’s friendly aid
Shall one delivered from destruction be.
Lo! from the realm, as oft as they attack,
Alphonso and Gonsalvo beat them back.
“You see the eighth Charles, amid his martial train,
The flower of France, through Alpine pass has pressed.400
Who Liris fords, and takes all Naples’ reign,
Yet draws not sword nor lays a lance in rest:
All, save that rock which—Typheus’ endless pain—
Lies on the giant’s belly, arms, and breast:
By Inigo del Guasto here withstood,
Derived from Avalo’s illustrious blood.”
The warder of the castle, who makes clear
To beauteous Bradamant that history,
Says, having shown her Ischia’s island, “Ere
I lead you further other things to see,
I’ll tell what my great-grandfather whilere
—I then a child—was wont to tell to me.
Which in like manner (that great-grandsire said),
As well to him his father whilome read;
“And his from sire or grandsire heard recite;
So son from sire; even to that baron, who
Heard it related by the very wight,
That these fair pictures without pencil drew,
Which you see painted azure, red, and white.
He when to Pharamond (as now to you)
Was shown the castle on the rocky mount,401
Heard him relate the things I now recount.
“Heard him relate, how in that fortilage
From that good knight should spring, who, ’twould appear,
Guards it so well, he scorns the fires that rage,
Even to the Pharo, flaming far and near,
Then, or within short space, and in that age,
(And named the week and day, as well as year,)
A noble warrior, unexcelled in worth
By other, that has yet appeared on earth.
“Nereus less fair,402 Achilles was less strong,
Less was Ulysses famed for daring feat;
Nestor, that knew so much and lived so long,
Less prudent; nimble Ladas was less fleet;
Less liberal and less prompt to pardon wrong,
Caesar, whose praises ancient tales repeat.
So that, compared with him, in Ischia born,
Each might appear of vaunted virtues shorn;
“And if illustrious Crete rejoiced of old
In giving birth to Coelus’ godlike heir;
If Thebes in Hercules and Bacchus bold,
If Delos boasted of her heavenly pair,
Nought should as well this happy isle withhold
From lifting high her glorious head in air,
When that great Marquis shall in her be born,
Whom with its every grace shall Heaven adorn.
“Sage Merlin said—and oft renewed that say—
‘He was reserved to flourish in an age,
When most opprest the Roman empire lay,
That he might free that holy heritage:
But as some deeds of his I must display
Hereafter, these I will not now presage.’
So spake that wizard, and renewed the story,
Which told of Charlemagne’s predestined glory.
“ ‘Lewis,’ (so learned Merlin said,) ‘is woe
To have brought to Italy King Charlemagne,
Whom he called in to harass, not o’erthrow
That ancient rival of his goodly reign;
At his return declares himself his foe,
And, leagued with Venice, would the king detain.
Behold that valiant monarch couch his spear,
And in his foes’ despite a passage clear.
“ ‘But his new kingdom leaving to his band,
Far other destiny awaits that throng:
For, with the Mantuan’s friendly succour manned,
Gonsalvo to the war returns so strong,
He leaves not in few months, by sea or land,
One living head, his slaughtered troops among.
But then, because of one by treason spent,
In him appears the joy of triumph shent.’ ”
So saying, to his guests the cavalier
Alphonso, of Pescara hight, displayed:403
“Who in a thousand feats will shine more clear
Than the resplendent carbuncle,” he said.
“Behold, deceived by faithless treaty, here,
Mid snares by the malignant Aethiop laid,
Transfixt with deadly dart the warrior lies,
In whom the age’s worthiest champion dies.”
Under Italian escort next they see
Where the twelfth Lewis o’er the hills is gone;404
Has by its roots uptorn the mulberry,
And in Viscontis’ land the lilies sown:
“Treading in Charles’s steps, by him shall be
Bridges athwart the Garigliano thrown.
Yet after shall he mourn his army’s slaughter,
Dispersed and drowning in that fatal water.”
(The lord pursues) “with no less overthrow,
Broken in Puglia, see the Gallic train.
In him who twice entraps the routed foe,
Gonslavo you behold, the pride of Spain.
Fortune to Lewis a fair face shall show,
As late a troubled mien, upon that plain,
Which even to where vext Adria pours her tides,
Po, between Alp and Apennine, divides.”
The host
