LXXXIV.

The monster screams, yet still, with show of

courage,

Looks fierce, and flings about each bleeding stump;

Rinaldo pays him for this long demurrage

With scores of kicks and cuffs on reins and

rump;

Till, lest last night's should prove his farewell porridge,

(So stoutly did our knight his jerkin thump) Stritch plies his heels towards the castle gate; Rinaldo, following fast, o'ertakes him straight;

LXXXV.

And at the very portal thrusts his steel

Half through the entrails of the recreant wretch.
See! now he staggers! See him streetward reel,
And on the flags his caitiff carcass stretch.
He writhes convulsed. Rinaldo lets him feel

Once more his carving knife on bust and breech; Then cries, "Die, brute !" (and so he does): the while Rinaldo wipes his blade, nor stops his toil.

LXXXVI.

But presses on to where, in garden fair,

There sat a damsel, weeping and forlorn ; "Loose flow'd the soft redundance of her hair,” 91 Part clothed she was, part naked as when born. Her alabaster breast and arms were bare;

Her

eyes the stars of heaven itself might scorn; Like orient suns on flowery meads they shine,

Shedding mild lustre o'er her face divine.

LXXXVII.

The Knight draws near.

The damsel trembles sore,

But trembling seems more beauteous in his sight,

And, as his fury melteth more and more,

By gazing on those humid rays so bright,

The dame, provided with a copious store

66

Of cunning, sighing loud, exclaims, “Sir Knight, Help! help! for honour's sake commiserate

"A

poor

devoted maiden's ruthless fate."

LXXXVIII.

Unmann'd he stands, and, less alive than dead,
From nerveless arm lets fall his trusty sword.
The sorceress' eyes, now tearless, burning red,

Dart forth a sulphurous flame and smoke abhorr'd, And straight to seize him as her prey she sped;

But, govern'd by his book's unerring word, Now following up his system, stout and steady, A ball of cord he dexterously gets ready:

92

LXXXIX.

Then binds her as our woodmen faggots bind,
Ties her, thus fetter'd, to a neighbouring tree,
And clips her flowing locks with shears unkind,
When, lo! no more fair maiden seemeth she,
But (which the book foretold him he would find)
O! strange result of all her sorcery!

A goblin old, unsavoury, and uncouth,

Wrinkled, deform'd, eyes blear'd, and ne'er a tooth.

H

XC.

He then piles round the witch of wood a heap,
Which, kindled, smokes and blazes tow'rds the skies;
Shrieks the foul fiend, and tries to bound and leap,'

Soon as the crackling flame did upwards rise;
But tether'd fast, and forced her place to keep,
The fire soon meets the sulphur of her eyes,
And soon her worthless life remains extinguish'd,
A mass of ashes, by no shape distinguish'd.

93

XCI.

Our hero gathers up the wretch's embers,
And with assiduous care and hasten'd pace
(For all the book had taught he well remembers),
He makes his way to the predicted place,
And putting in a sieve the pristine members

Of her, thus brought to death in vile disgrace, Sifts them where doe and buck were doom'd to pass,

And take again the form of lad and lass.

XCII.

The neighbours all had seen each marvellous feat,
The giants slain, the Knight's triumphant entry
Within the precincts of that steep retreat,

Spite of those monsters fierce who there stood sentry, And safe escape from that unhallow'd seat;

And now those rescued, gladsome, happy gentry Embrace him warmly, and with laud and song Joyful surround him as he moves along.

XCIII.

Meanwhile the doe and buck came on with speed,
And, as they cross'd the path, grew maid and man;
O! then what acts of grateful thanks succeed!

Their words, rebounding, through the mountain ran, Giving," in good set terms," the Knight his meed. 94

At length they "what" and "how" to ask began, When, as they bow and curtsy, long and low, Rinaldo tells the whole, from top to toe.