The monarch so bespeaks the assembled throng:
“Albeit if fits not captain, as I know,
To say, ‘on this I thought not,’ this I say;
Because when from a quarter comes the blow,
From every human forethought far away,
’Tis for such fault a fair excuse, I trow;
And here all hinges; I did ill to lay
Unfurnished Afric open to attack,
If there was ground to fear the Nubian sack.
“But who could think, save only God on high,
Prescient of all which is to be below,
That, from a land beneath such distant sky,
Such mighty host would come, to work us woe?
’Twixt whom and us unstable deserts lie,
Those shifting sands, which restless whirlwinds blow:
Yet they their camp have round Biserta placed,
And laid the better part of Afric waste.
“I now on this, O peers! your counsel crave.
If, bootless, homeward I should wend my way,
Or should not such a fair adventure wave,
Till Charles with me a prisoner I convey;
Or how I may as well our Afric save,
And ruin this redoubted empire, say.
Who can advise, is prayed his lore to shew,
That we may learn the best, and that pursue.”
He said; and on Marsilius seated nigh
Next turned his eyes, who in the signal read,
That it belonged to him to make reply
To what the king of Africa had said.
The Spaniard rose, and bending reverently
To Agramant the knee as well as head,
Again his honoured seat in council prest,
And in these words the Moorish king addrest:
“My liege, does Rumour good or ill report,
It still increases them; hence shall I ne’er,
Under despondence, lack for due support,
Nor bolder course than is befitting steer,
For what may chance, of good or evil sort;
Weighing in even balance hope and fear,
O’errated still; and which we should not mete
By what I hear so many tongues repeat;
“Which should so much more doubtfully be viewed,
As it seems less with likelihood to stand.
Now it is seen, if there be likelihood,
That king who reigns in so remote a land,
Followed by such a mighty multitude,
Should set his foot on warlike Afric’s strand:
Traversing sands, to which in evil hour
Cambyses trusted his ill-omened power.
“I well believe, that from some neighbouring hill
The Arabs have poured down, to waste the plain;
Who, for the country was defended ill,
Have taken, burnt, destroyed and sacked and slain;
And that Branzardo, who your place doth fill,
As viceroy and lieutenant of the reign,
Has set down thousands, where he tens should write;
The better to excuse him in your sight.
“The Nubian squadrons, I will even yield,
Have been rained down on Afric from the skies;
Or haply they have come, in clouds concealed,
In that their march was hidden from all eyes:
Think you, because unaided in the field,
Your Afric from such host in peril lies?
Your garrisons were sure of coward vein,
If they were scared by such a craven train.
“But will you send some frigates, albeit few,
(Provided that unfurled your standards be)
No sooner shall they loose from hence, that crew
Of spoilers shall within their confines flee;
—Nubians are they, or idle Arabs—who,
Knowing that you are severed by the sea
From your own realm, and warring with our band,
Have taken courage to assail your land.
“Now take your time for vengeance, when the son
Of Pepin is without his nephew’s aid.
Since bold Orlando is away, by none
Of the hostile sect resistance can be made.
If, through neglect or blindness, be foregone
The glorious Fortune, which for you has stayed,
She her bald front, as now her hair, will show,
To our long infamy and mighty woe.”
Thus warily the Spanish king replied,
Proving by this and other argument,
The Moorish squadrons should in France abide,
Till Charlemagne was into exile sent.
But King Sobrino, he that plainly spied
The scope whereon Marsilius was intent,
To public good preferring private gain,
So spake in answer to the king of Spain:
“My liege, when I to peace exhorted you,
Would that my prophecy had proved less just!
Of, if I was to prove a prophet true,
Ye in Sobrino had reposed more trust,
Than in King Rodomont and in that crew,
Alzirdo, Martasine and Marbalust!
Whom I would here see gladly, front to front;
But see most gladly boastful Rodomont.
“To twit that warrior with his threat, ‘to do
By France, what by the brittle glass is done;
And throughout heaven and hell your course pursue,
Yea, (as the monarch said) your course outrun.’
Yet lapt in foul and loathsome ease, while you
So need his help, lies Ulien’s lazy son;461
And I, that as a coward was decried
For my true prophecy, am at your side,
“And ever will be while this life I bear;
Which, albeit ’tis with yours sore laden, still
Daily for you is risked with them that are
The best of France; and—be he who he will—
There is not mortal living who will dare
To say Sobrino’s deeds were ever ill;
Yea, many who vaunt more, amid your host,
Have not so much, nay lighter, cause for boast.
“I speak, these words to show that what whilere
I said and say again, has neither sprung
From evil heart, nor is the fruit of fear;
But that true love and duty move my tongue.
You homeward with what haste you may to steer,
I counsel, your assembled bands among;
For little is the wisdom of that wight,
Who risks his own to gain another’s right.
“If there be gain, ye know, Late thirty-two,
Your vassal kings, with you our sails we spread;
Now, if we pause to sum the account anew,
Hardly a third survives; the rest are dead.
May it please Heaven no further loss ensue!
But if you will pursue your quest, I dread
Lest not a fourth nor fifth will soon remain;
And wholly spent will be
