Where at Charles’ left was placed the wedded peer,
And Bradamant upon his better hand,
Across the fields an armed cavalier,
Of semblance haughty, and of stature grand,
Was seen to ride towards the royal table;
Himself and courser wholly clothed in sable.
The King of Argier he; that for the scorn
Received from her, when on the bridge he fell,
Never to clothe himself in arms had sworn,
Nor draw the faulchion nor bestride the sell,
Till he had like an anchoret outworn
A year and month and day in lowly cell.
So to chastise themselves for such like crimes
Were cavaliers accustomed in those times.
Albeit of Charles and Agramant the Moor
Had heard the several fortunes while away,
Not to foreswear himself, he armed no more
Than if in nought concerned in that affray:
But when the year and month were wholly o’er,
And wholly past was the succeeding day,
With other courser, harness, sword, and lance,
The king betook him to the court of France.
He neither lighted from his horse, nor bowed
His head; and, without sign of reverence due,
His scorn for Charlemagne by gestures showed,
And the high presence of so fair a crew.
Astound and full of wonder stood the crowd,
Such license in that haughty man to view.
All leave their meat, all leave their talk, to hear
The purpose of the stranger cavalier.
To Charles and to Rogero opposite,
With a loud voice, and in proud accent, “I
Am Rodomont of Sarza,” said the knight,
“Who thee, Rogero, to the field defy;
And here, before the sun withdraws his light,
Will prove on thee thine infidelity;
And that thou, as a traitor to thy lord,
Deserv’st not any honour at this board.
“Albeit thy felony be plain and clear,
Which thou, as christened, canst not disavow;
Nathless to make it yet more plain appear,
This will I prove upon thee; and, if thou
Canst find a knight to combat for thee here,
Him will accept;—if one be not enow—
Will four, nay six accept; and will maintain
My words against them all in listed plain.”
Rogero, with the leave of Pepin’s son,
Uprose at that appeal, and thus replied;
“That he—nor he alone—but every one,
Who thus impeached him as a traitor, lied;
That so he by his king had ever done,
Him none could justly blame; and on his side,
He was prepared in listed field to shew
He evermore by him had done his due.
“He can defend himself; nor need he crave
Another warrior’s help that course to run;
And ’tis his hope to show him he would have
Enough, perhaps would have too much, of one.”
Thither Orlando and Rinaldo, brave
Olivier, and his white and sable son,586
Thither good Dudon and Marphisa wend;
Who fain with that fierce paynim will contend.
They tell Rogero that, “as newly wed
The combat he in person should refuse.”
“Take ye no further pains,” the warrior said,
“For such would be for me a foul excuse.”
The Tartar’s arms were brought, which cut the thread
Of more delay and of all further truce:
With spurs Orlando deck’d the youthful lord,
King Charlemagne begirt him with the sword.
Marphisa and Bradamant in corslet case
His breast, and clothe him in his other gear.
Astolpho led his horse of noble race:
Sir Dudon held his stirrup: far and near
Rinaldo and Namus made the mob give place,
Assisted by the Marquis Olivier.
All from the crowded lists they drive with speed,
Evermore kept in order for such need.
The pale-faced dames and damsels troop, in guise
Of pigeons round the lists, a timid show;
When, homeward bound, from fruitful field they rise,
Scared by wide-sweeping winds, which loudly blow,
Mid flash and clap; and when the sable skies
Threat hail and rain, the harvest’s waste and woe:
A timid troop, they for Rogero fear,
Ill matched they deem with that fierce cavalier.
So him deemed all the rabble; and so most
Of those bold cavalier and barons thought:
In that they had not yet the memory lost
Of what that paynim had in Paris wrought,
When singly fire and sword the warrior tost,
And much of that fair town to ruin brought
Whose signs remained, and yet will long remain:
Nor ever greater havoc plagued that reign.
Bradamant’s heart above those others’ beat:
Not that she deemed the Saracen in might,
Or valour which in the heart-core hath its seat,
Was of more prowess than the youthful knight;
Nor (what oft gives success in martial feat)
That with the paynim was the better right.
Yet cannot she her some ill misgivings quell.
But upon those that love such fear sits well.
Oh! in her fear for him, how willingly
She battle for Rogero would have done!
If lifeless on the listed field to lie
Surer than sure—in fight with Ulien’s son.587
More than one death would she consent to die,
If she withal could suffer more than one,
Rather than she in that unhappy strife
Would see her cherished consort risk his life.
But prayer availed not on the damsel’s part
To make Rogero leave to her the quest:
She then with mournful face and beating heart
Stood by to view that pair to fight addrest.
From right and left the peer and paynim start,
And at each other run with lance in rest.
The spears seem ice, as they in shivers fly.
The fragments birds, that mount through middle sky.
Rodomont’s lance which smote in the career
Upon mid-shield, yet harmed it little; so
Perfect was famous Hector’s iron gear,
Hardened by Vulcan’s hand, and safe from blow.
As well against the shield his levelled spear
Rogero guides, and that good buckler—though
Well steeled within and out, with bone between,
And nigh a palm in thickness—pierces clean;
And—but his lance resists not that fierce shock,
And at the first assault its splinters fly,
And bits and fragments of the shivered stock
Seem fledged with feathers
