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. 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, 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, 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, Soon as the crackling flame did upwards rise; 93 XCI. Our hero gathers up the wretch's embers, 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, 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, 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. |