care was to endeavour if possible to repair the injuries
committed by this horrid tyrant, which he had sometimes an opportunity
of doing; for though Barbarico was much larger and stronger than
Benefico, yet his coward mind was afraid to engage with him, and always
shunned a meeting; leaving the pursuit of any prey, if he himself was
pursued by Benefico: nor could the good Benefico trust farther to
this coward spirit of his base adversary, than only to make the horrid
creature fly; for he well knew that a close engagement might make him
desperate; and fatal to himself might be the consequence of such a
brutal desperation; therefore he prudently declined any attempt to
destroy this cruel monster, till he should gain some sure advantage over
him.

It happened on a certain day, that as the inhuman Barbarico was prowling
along the side of a craggy mountain overgrown with brambles and briery
thickets, taking most horrid strides, rolling his ghastly eyes around
in quest of human blood, and having his breast tortured with inward rage
and grief, that he had been so unhappy as to live one whole day without
some act of violence, he beheld, in a pleasant valley at a distance, a
little rivulet winding its gentle course through rows of willows mixed
with flowery shrubs. Hither the giant hasted; and being arrived, he
gazed about to see if in this sweet retirement any were so unhappy as to
fall within his power; but finding none, the disappointment set him in
a flame of rage, which, burning like an inward furnace, parched his
throat. And now he laid him down on the bank, to try if in the cool
stream, that murmured as it flowed, he could assuage or slack the fiery
thirst that burnt within him.

He bent him down to drink; and at the same time casting his baleful eyes
towards the opposite side, he discovered within a little natural arbour
formed by the branches of a spreading tree, within the meadow's flowery
lawn, the shepherd Fidus and his loved Amata.

The gloomy tyrant no sooner perceived this happy pair, than his heart
exulted with joy; and, suddenly leaping up on the ground, he forgot his
thirst, and left the stream untasted. He stood for a short space to
view them in their sweet retirement; and was soon convinced that, in
the innocent enjoyment of reciprocal affection, their happiness was
complete. His eyes, inflamed with envy to behold such bliss, darted a
fearful glare; and his breast swelling with malice and envenomed rage,