Or lance must with the maid his prowess try.”
These news the Grecian prince so ill appaid,
His cheek was seen to blanch with sickly dye;
Because, as one that measured well his might,
He knew he was no match for her in fight.
Communing with himself, he can supply
(He sees) the valour wanting with his wit;
And the strange knight with his own ensignry,
Whose name is yet unknown to him, will fit:
Him he against Frank champion, far and nigh,
Believes he may for force and daring pit;
And if the knight to that emprize agree,
Vanquished and taken Bradamant will be.
But two things must he do; must, first, dispose
That cavalier to undertake the emprize;
Then send afield the champion, whom he chose,
In mode, that none suspect the youth’s disguise:
To him the matter Leo doth disclose;
And after prays in efficacious wise,
That he the combat with the maid will claim,
Under false colours and in other’s name.
Much weighs the Grecian’s eloquence; but more
Than eloquence with good Rogero weighed
The mighty obligation which he bore;
That debt which cannot ever be repaid.
So, albeit it appeared a hardship sore
And thing well-nigh impossible, he said,
With blither face than heart, “that Leo’s will
In all that he commands he would fulfil.”
Albeit no sooner he the intent exprest,
Than with sore grief Rogero’s heart was shent;
Which, night and day, and ever, doth molest,
Ever afflict him, evermore torment:
And though he sees his death is manifest,
Never will he confess he doth repent:
Rather than not with Leo’s prayer comply,
A thousand deaths, not one, the Child will die.
Right sure he is to die; if he forego
The lady, he foregoes his life no less.
His heart will break through his distress and woe,
Or, breaking not with woe and with distress,
He will, himself, the bands of life undo,
And of its clay the spirit dispossess.
For all things can he better bear than one;
Than see that gentle damsel not his own.
To die is he disposed; but how to die
Cannot as yet the sorrowing lord decide:
Sometimes he thinks his prowess to belie,
And offer to her sword his naked side:
For never death can come more happily
Than if her hand the fatal faulchion guide:
Then sees, except he wins the martial maid
For that Greek prince, the debt remains unpaid.
For he with Bradamant, as with a foe,
Promised to do, not feign, a fight in mail,
And not to make of arms a seeming show;
So that his sword should Leo ill avail.
Then by his word will he abide; and though
His breast now these now other thoughts assail,
All from his bosom chased the generous youth,
Save that which moved him to maintain his truth.
With the emperor’s licence, armour to prepare,
And steeds meanwhile had wrought his youthful son;
Who with such goodly following as might square
With his degree, upon his way was gone:
With him Rogero rides, through Leo’s care,
Equipt with horse and arms, that were his own.
Day after day the squadron pricks; nor tarries
Until arrived in France; arrived at Paris.
Leo will enter not the town; but nigh
Pitches his broad pavilions on the plain;
And his arrival by an embassy
Makes known that day to royal Charlemagne.
Well pleased is he; and visits testify
And many gifts the monarch’s courteous vein.
His journey’s cause the Grecian prince displayed,
And to dispatch his suit the sovereign prayed:
“To send afield the damsel, who denied
Ever to take in wedlock any lord
Weaker than her: for she should be his bride,
Or he would perish by the lady’s sword.”
Charles undertook for this; and, on her side,
The following day upon the listed sward
Before the walls, in haste, enclosed that night,
Appeared the martial maid, equipt for fight.
Rogero past the night before the day
Wherein by him the battle should be done,
Like that which felon spends, condemning to pay
Life’s forfeit with the next succeeding sun:
He made his choice to combat in the fray
All armed; because he would discovery shun:
Nor barded steed he backed, nor lance he shook;
Nor other weapon than his faulchion took.
No lance he took: yet was it not through fear
Of that which Argalìa whilom swayed;
Astolpho’s next; then hers, that in career
Her foemen ever upon earth had laid:
Because none weened such force was in the spear,
Nor that it was by necromancy made;
Excepting royal Galaphron alone;
Who had it forged, and gave it to his son.
Nay, bold Astolpho, and the lady who
Afterwards bore it, deemed that not to spell,
But simply to their proper force, was due
The praise that they in knightly joust excel;
And with whatever spear they fought, those two
Believed that they should have performed as well.
What only makes that knight the joust forego,
Is that he would not his Frontino show.
For easily that steed of generous kind
She might have known, if him she had espied;
Whom in Montalban, long to her consigned,
The gentle damsel had been wont to ride.
Rogero, that but schemes, but hath in mind
How he from Brandamant himself shall hide,
Neither Frontino nor yet other thing,
Whereby he may be known, afield will bring.
With a new sword will he the maid await;
For well he knew against the enchanted blade
As soft as paste would prove all mail and plate;
For never any steel its fury stayed;
And heavily with hammer, to rebate
Its edge, as well he on this faulchion laid.
So armed, Rogero in the lists appeared,
When the first dawn of day the horizon cheered.
To look like Leo, o’er his breast is spread
The surcoat that the prince is wont to wear;
And the gold eagle with its double head
He blazoned on the crimson shield doth bear;
And (what the Child’s disguisement well may stead)
Of equal size
