devoted herself to martial deeds and arms, are largely sung by the Count of Scandiano. All his designs concerning the pair, Ariosto brings to a happy conclusion, and thus begins :

Dames, knights, and arms, and love! the deeds that spring

From courteous minds, and venturous feats, I sing

What time the Moors from Afric's hostile strand

Had crossed the seas to ravage Gallia's land—

A tale nor told in prose, nor sung in verse,

Who once the flower of arms, and wisdom's boast,
By fatal love his manly senses lost.

If she for whom like anguish wounds my heart,
To my weak skill her gracious aid impart,
The timorous bard shall needful succour find
To end the task long pondered in his mind.
Vouchsafe, great offspring of the Herulian line,
In whom our ages grace and glory shine,
Hippolito, these humble lines to take,
The sole return your poet e'er can make,
Who boldly now his gratitude conveys
In sheets like these, and verse for duty pays:
Nor deem the labour poor, or tribute small,
'Tis all he has, and thus he offers all!

After this humble dedication, the poet refers to Charlemagne's
arrangement regarding the fair disturber and its consequences—
Yet promised he should bear the maid away,
His valour's prize on that important day,
Whose arm could best the pagan might oppose,
And strew the sanguine plain with lifeless foes.
But Heaven dispersed these hopes in empty wind;
The Christian bands the inglorious field resigned;
The duke, with numbers more, was prisoner made ;
The tents, abandoned, to the foes betrayed.

The damsel, doomed to yield her blooming charms
A recompense to grace the victor's arms,

With terror seized, her ready palfrey took,

And by a speedy flight the camp forsook.

The princess journeys long, till in the shade of a forest she hears Sacripant, king of Circassia, who had long sighed in vain for her love, and followed her from the East, lamenting his misfortune in her supposed choice of Orlando, and with her wonted policy, Angelica at once selects him as her escort. Sacripant is overjoyed; but misfortune finds him.

Now issuing from the wood a knight is seen,
Of warlike semblance and commanding micn;

Of dazzling white the furniture he wears,
And in his casque a snowy plume he bears.

Eager to prove his valour, the Circassian prince challenges this
stranger; but he is overthrown, and his steed slain.
The knight unknown, beholding on the mead
His foe lie crushed beneath the slaughtered steed,
And deeming here no further glory due,
Resolved no more the contest to renew;
But turning swift, again pursued his way,
And left the fierce Circassian where he lay.

Angelica judiciously comforts her useful lover, by assuring him it was all his horse's fault; whereupon he takes possession of her palfrey, and they ride on double

When from the woods a messenger appeared,
Tired with a length of way he seemed to ride,
His crooked horn and wallet at his side:
When now approaching to the pagan knight,
He asked if he had seen, with buckler white,
And snowy plumage o'er his crest displayed,
A warrior passing through the forest's shade.
To whom thus Sacripant, in brief again :
'The knight you seek has stretched me on the plain.
But now he parted hence; to him I owe
My shamed defeat, nor yet my victor know?
'I shall not, since you wish me to reveal,'
Replied the messenger, 'your foe conceal :
Know, then, the fall you suffered in the fight
A gallant virgin gave; unmatched in might
Of fame for deeds of arms, of greater fame
For beauteous form-and Bradamant her name.'

Ere far they rode, they heard a trampling sound,
That all the forest seemed to shake around:
They look, and soon a stately steed behold,
Whose costly trappings shine with burnished gold;
He leaps the steepy mounds and crossing floods,
And bends before his way the crashing woods.
'Unless the mingled boughs with dusky shade
Deceive my erring sight,' exclaimed the maid,
'I see Bayardo in yon gallant horse,

That through the woodland breaks his sounding course.
One palfrey could but ill two riders bear,

And fortune sends him to relieve our care.'

King Sacripant, alighting on the plain,

Drew near, and thought secure to seize the rein;
But swift as lightning's flash along the sky,

With spurning heels Bayardo made reply.

It chanced beside him the Circassian, stood,
Else had he mourned his rash attempt in blood.
Such dreadful force was in the courser's heel,
The stroke had burst a mount of solid steel.
Then to Angelica with easy pace

He moves, and humbly views her well-known face:
A spaniel thus, domestic at the board,
Fawns after absence, and surveys his lord.
The damsel was remembered by the steed,
Wont at Albracca from her hands to feed;
What time Rinaldo, courted by the maid,
With foul ingratitude her love repaid.

Now boldly in her hand she took the rein,

Stroked his broad chest, and smoothed his ruffled mane ;
While conscious, he with wondrous sense indued,

Still as a lamb beside her gently stood.

The watchful pagan leaped into the seat,

And curbed with straightened reins Bayardo's heat.
The palfrey to Angelica remained,

Who gladly thus her former place regained.

Now, as by chance she cast her eyes aside,

A knight on foot in sounding arms she spied;
What sudden terror in her face was shewn,

Soon as the knight for Amon's son was known.

Our readers will understand that this is Rinaldo, whose incomparable steed, Bayardo, having left the Christian camp expressly to seek Angelica on his master's behalf, has thus conducted the knight to challenge Sacripant at once for his horse and lady; a dreadful combat of course ensues, and seeing Rinaldo likely to conquer, Angelica takes to her accustomed expedient of flight. She does not gallop far, till, meeting a hermit on the highway, who happens to be skilled in magic, the princess relates to him the adventure, and he despatches a spirit, raised for the purpose in the likeness of a page, to inform the combatants that Angelica has been carried off to Paris by Orlando

Whereon a sigh deep issuing from his breast,
His steps Rinaldo to his steed addressed;
And vowed, o'ercome with anger and disdain,
To glut his vengeance on Orlando slain.

In the meantime, Angelica journeys on with the hermit; and the waters of Disdain having done their work—

Of him the damsel sought the nearest way

To where in port some ready vessel lay,
That there embarking she might quit the shore,
And never hear Rinaldo mentioned more.

The hermit puts his magical powers in requisition, and as they now

approach the sea, he conveys the princess by means of her palfrey's extraordinary swimming, to an isle far in the west. Here they are surprised by corsairs from the coast of Ebuda, an island whose inhabitants preserved themselves from the ravages of a dreadful orc, or sea-monster, by leaving every day, bound to the rocks, a young and beautiful damsel for him to devour. The corsairs slay the hermit, and carry off Angelica. The Princess of Cathay is left bound to the rocks, as many have been before her, and the poet thus proceeds :

O precious prize, adorned with every grace!
Too precious far for such a barbarous race.
O cruel fortune, canst thou then maintain
Thy sway on earth with such relentless reign?
To yield an offering to a monster's rage—
Those graces that could Agrican engage
From Caucasus Albracca's force to brave
With half of Scythia, there to find a grave.
That beauty prized by Sacripant before
His martial glory and his regal power:
That beauty, which the mighty fame defaced
Of Aglantes' knight, and laid his senses waste:
That beauty which had roused such chiefs to arms,
And filled the eastern empire with alarms:
Now lies forlorn, to wo and death betrayed,
Without a friend to hear, a friend to aid.

Like a true heroine of romance, Angelica, nevertheless, finds a friend to aid in young Ruggiero, who, being on a voyage from the East, to which Atlantes conveyed him from the African army on a griffin, or flying-horse, approaches the shore, and delivers Angelica with the help of her own ring, which had been stolen from her at Albracca by one of the emissaries of King Agramant, when it became necessary to liberate Ruggiero from the enchanted castle. Rendered invisible by the ring, Angelica no sooner reaches the coast of France, than she disappears from Ruggiero, just when her peerless beauty has almost made the knight waver in his allegiance to Bradamant. They had landed on a wild and sylvan shore, and the princess proceeds not far

Till to a spacious cave she came at last,

Beneath a mountain, hollowed in the ground,
Where all provisions for her need she found;
In this his life an aged herdsman led,

Who numerous mares beneath the mountain fed.

Her dwelling here unseen the virgin chose,
Till day declined, and shadowy night arose ;
Then cheered with rest and food, no longer stayed,
But her fair limbs in humble weeds arrayed-

Weeds far unmeet for her, who once could boast
The richest garments wrought with skilful cost.

And from the grazing mares the fairest took ;
For now a sudden thought inspired her breast,
Alone to travel towards her native East.

Leaving Angelica with this determination, the story returns to Orlando. Though the Christian cause had sunk before the Crescent, and Charlemagne with all his court were closely besieged in Paris, so great is the paladin's infatuation, that, leaving honour and loyalty behind, he sets forth in search of Angelica. Rinaldo arrives at Paris, only to hear his absence bitterly deplored by the aged emperor, who immediately despatches him in search of succours to Britain. The paladin, accordingly, sets sail, but the voyage proves stormy:

Rinaldo that and all the ensuing day

Was driven by tempests o'er the watery way.

From morn till eve the wind unceasing blew :
Now to the west, now to the north they drew;
At last upon the shore of Scotland light,
Where Caledonia's forest rose to sight,
That 'midst its ancient oaks was wont to bear
The riven target and the shattered spear.

Here once was seen beneath these shades revered
Each errant-knight in Britain's combats feared;
From regions far and near, well known to fame,
From Norway, Germany, and Gallia came
Each gallant chief who nobly scorned his life,
Where death or conquest crowned the glorious strife.

Here Tristram mighty deeds performed of old—
Gallaso, Launcelot, and Arthur bold;

Galvanno brave, with more that titles drew,

Both from the ancient table and the new;

Knights who have left to speak their valiant mind,
More than one trophy of their worth behind.

Rinaldo's adventures in Scotland are related at great length. He vindicates the honour of the Princess Ginevra, who has been traduced by her rejected suitor, and eventually returns to France with three auxiliary armies-one from Scotland, commanded by the gallant Prince Zerbino, of whom the poet says:

No form so graceful can your eyes behold,

For nature made him, and destroyed the mould;

Another from Ireland, led by the Earls of Desmond and Kildare; and the third from England, under the command of Duke Astolpho,