Expecting a more favourable wind,
To put to sea; when, freighted with a load
Of prisoners, lo! a vessel made the road.
She carried those, whom at the bridge of dread,
—On that so narrow place of battle met—
Rodomont took, as often has been said.
The valiant Olivier was of the set,
Orlando’s kin, and, with them, prisoners led,
Were faithful Brandimart and Sansonet,
With more; to tell whereof there is no need;
Of German, Gascon, or Italian seed.
The patron, yet unweeting he should find
Foes in the port, here entered to unload;
Having left Argier many miles behind,
Where he was minded to have made abode;
Because a boisterous, overblowing, wind
Had driven his bark beyond her destined road;
Deeming himself as safe and welcome guest,
As Progne, when she seeks her noisy nest.
But when, arrived, the imperial eagle spread,
And pards and golden lilies he descries,
With countenance as sicklied o’er by dread,
He stands, as one that in unwary guise,
Has chanced on fell and poisonous snake to tread,
Which, in the grass, opprest with slumber lies;
And, pale and startled, hastens to retire
From that ill reptile, swoln with bane and ire.
But no retreat from peril is there here,
Nor can the patron keep his prisoners down:
Him thither Brandimart and Olivier,
Sansonet and those others drag, where known
And greeted are the friends with joyful cheer,
By England’s duke and Danish Ogier’s son;467
Who read that he who brought them to that shore
Should for his pains be sentenced to the oar.
King Otho’s son468 kind welcome did afford
Unto those Christian cavaliers, as said:
Who—honoured at his hospitable board—
With arms and all things needful were purveyed.
His going, for their sake, the Danish lord
Deferred, who deemed his voyage well delayed,
To parley with those peers, though at the cost
Of one or two good days, in harbour lost.
Of Charles, and in what state, what order are
The affairs of France they gave advices true;
Told where he best could disembark, and where
To most advantage of the Christian crew.
While so the cavaliers their news declare,
A noise is heard; which ever louder grew,
Followed by such a fierce alarm withal,
As to more fears than one gave rise in all.
The duke Astolpho and the goodly throng,
That in discourse with him were occupied,
Armed in a moment, on their coursers sprung,
And hurried where the Nubians loudest cried;
And seeking wherefore that wide larum rung,
Now here, now there—those warlike lords espied
A savage man, and one so strong of hand,
Naked and sole he troubled all that band.
The naked savage whirled a sapling round,
So hard, so heavy, and so strong of grain,
That every time the weapon went to ground,
Some warrior, more than maimed, opprest the plain.
Above a hundred dead are strewed around;
Nor more defence the routed hands maintain;
Save that a war of distant parts they try;
For there is none will wait the champion nigh.
Astolpho, Brandimart, the Danish knight,
Hastening towards that noise with Olivier,
Remain astounded at the wondrous might
And courage which in that wild man appear.
When, posting thither on a palfrey light,
Is seen a damsel, clad in sable gear.
To Brandimart in haste that lady goes,
And both her arms about the warrior throws.
This was fair Flordelice, whose bosom so
Burned with the love of Monodantes’ son,
She, when she left him prisoner to his foe
At that streight bridge, had nigh distracted gone.
From France had she past hither—given to know—
By that proud paynim, who the deed had done,
“How Brandimart, with many cavaliers,
Was prisoner in the city of Algiers.”
When now she for that harbour would have weighed,
An eastern vessel in Marseilles she found,
Which thither had an ancient knight conveyed:
Of Monodantes’ household; a long round
To seek his Brandimart that lord had made,
By sea, and upon many a distant ground.
For he, upon his way, had heard it told,
“How he in France should find the warrior bold.”
She knowing old Bardino in that wight,
Bardino who from Monodantes’ court
With little Brandimart had taken flight,
And reared his nursling in The Sylvan Fort;
Then hearing what had thither brought the knight,
With her had made him loosen from the port;
Relating to that elder, by what chance
Brandimart had to Afric passed from France.
As soon as landed, “that Biserta lies
Besieged by good Astolpho’s band,” they hear;
“That Brandimart is with him in the emprise,”
They learn, but learn not as a matter clear.
Now in such haste to him the damsel flies,
When she beholds her faithful cavalier,
As plainly shows her joy; which woes o’erblown
Had made the mightiest she had ever known.
The gentle baron no less gladly eyed
His faithful and beloved consort’s face;
Her whom he prized above all things beside;
And clipt and welcomed her with loving grace;
Nor his warm wishes would have satisfied
A first, a second, or a third embrace,
But that he spied Bardino, he that came
From France, together with that faithful dame.
He stretched his arms, and would embrace the knight
And—wherefore he was come—would bid him say:
But was prevented by the sudden flight
Of the sacred host, which fled in disarray,
Before the club of that mad, naked wight,
Who with the brandished sapling cleared his way.
Flordelice viewed the furious man in front;
And cried to Brandimart, “Behold the count!”
At the same time, withal, Astolpho bold
That this was good Orlando plainly knew,
By signs, whereof those ancient saints had told,
In the earthly paradise, as tokens true.
None of those others, who the knight behold,
The courteous baron in the madman view;
That from long self-neglect, while wild he ran,
Had in his visage more of beast than man.
With breast and heart transfixed with pity, cried
Valiant Astolpho—bathed with many a tear—
Turning to Danish Dudon, at this side,
And afterwards to
