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to spill,

       Strike then, and punish where is none offence."

       This said the prince, and more perchance had will

       To have declared, to move her cruel sense.

       But in ill time of Pagans thither came

       A troop, and Christians that pursued the same.

      XXIX

       The Pagans fled before their valiant foes,

       For dread or craft, it skills not that we know,

       A soldier wild, careless to win or lose,

       Saw where her locks about the damsel flew,

       And at her back he proffereth as he goes

       To strike where her he did disarmed view:

       But Tancred cried, "Oh stay thy cursed hand,"

       And for to ward the blow lift up his brand.

      XXX

       But yet the cutting steel arrived there,

       Where her fair neck adjoined her noble head,

       Light was the wound, but through her amber hair

       The purple drops down railed bloody red,

       So rubies set in flaming gold appear:

       But Lord Tancredi, pale with rage as lead,

       Flew on the villain, who to flight him bound;

       The smart was his, though she received the wound.

      XXXI

       The villain flies, he, full of rage and ire,

       Pursues, she stood and wondered on them both,

       But yet to follow them showed no desire,

       To stray so far she would perchance be loth,

       But quickly turned her, fierce as flaming fire,

       And on her foes wreaked her anger wroth,

       On every side she kills them down amain,

       And now she flies, and now she turns again.

      XXXII

       As the swift ure by Volga's rolling flood

       Chased through the plains the mastiff curs toforn,

       Flies to the succor of some neighbor wood,

       And often turns again his dreadful horn

       Against the dogs imbrued in sweat and blood,

       That bite not, till the beast to flight return;

       Or as the Moors at their strange tennice run,

       Defenced, the flying balls unhurt to shun:

      XXXIII

       So ran Clorinda, so her foes pursued,

       Until they both approached the city's wall,

       When lo! the Pagans their fierce wrath renewed,

       Cast in a ring about they wheeled all,

       And 'gainst the Christians' backs and sides they showed

       Their courage fierce, and to new combat fall,

       When down the hill Argantes came to fight,

       Like angry Mars to aid the Trojan knight.

      XXXIV

       Furious, tofore the foremost of his rank,

       In sturdy steel forth stept the warrior bold,

       The first he smote down from his saddle sank,

       The next under his steel lay on the mould,

       Under the Saracen's spear the worthies shrank,

       No breastplate could that cursed tree outhold,

       When that was broke his precious sword he drew,

       And whom he hit, he felled, hurt, or slew.

      XXXV

       Clorinda slew Ardelio; aged knight,

       Whose graver years would for no labor yield,

       His age was full of puissance and might

       Two sons he had to guard his noble eild,

       The first, far from his father's care and sight,

       Called Alicandro wounded lay in field,

       And Poliphern the younger, by his side,

       Had he not nobly fought had surely died.

      XXXVI

       Tancred by this, that strove to overtake

       The villain that had hurt his only dear,

       From vain pursuit at last returned back,

       And his brave troop discomfit saw well near,

       Thither he spurred, and gan huge slaughter make,

       His shock no steed, his blow no knight could bear,

       For dead he strikes him whom he lights upon,

       So thunders break high trees on Lebanon.

      XXXVII

       Dudon his squadron of adventurers brings,

       To aid the worthy and his tired crew,

       Before the residue young Rinaldo flings

       As swift as fiery lightning kindled new,

       His argent eagle with her silver wings

       In field of azure, fair Erminia knew,

       "See there, sir King," she says, "a knight as bold

       And brave, as was the son of Peleus old.

      XXXVIII

       "He wins the prize in joust and tournament,

       His acts are numberless, though few his years,

       If Europe six likes him to war had sent

       Among these thousand strong of Christian peers,

       Syria were lost, lost were the Orient,

       And all the lands the Southern Ocean wears,

       Conquered were all hot Afric's tawny kings,

       And all that dwells by Nilus' unknown springs.

      XXXIX

       "Rinaldo is his name, his armed fist

       Breaks down stone walls, when rams and engines fail,

       But turn your eyes because I would you wist

       What lord that is in green and golden mail,

       Dudon he hight who guideth as him list

       The adventurers' troop whose prowess seld doth fail,

       High birth, grave years, and practise long in war,

       And fearless heart, make him renowned far.

      XL

       "See that big man that all in brown is bound,

       Gernando called, the King of Norway's son,

       A prouder knight treads not on grass or ground,

       His pride hath lost the praise his prowess won;

       And that kind pair in white all armed round,

       Is Edward and Gildippes, who begun

       Through love the hazard of fierce war to prove,

       Famous for arms, but famous more for love."

      XLI

       While thus they tell their foemen's worthiness,

       The slaughter rageth in the plain at large.

       Tancred and young Rinaldo break the press,

       They bruise the helm, and press the sevenfold targe;

       The troop by Dudon led performed no less,

       But in

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