from the crowded lists they drive with speed,
Evermore kept in order for such need.

CXI
The pale-faced dames and damsels troop, in guise
Of pigeons round the lists, a timid show;
When, homeward bound, from fruitful field they rise,
Scared by wide-sweeping winds, which loudly blow,
Mid flash and clap; and when the sable skies
Threat hail and rain, the harvest's waste and woe:
A timid troop, they for Rogero fear,
Ill matched they deem with that fierce cavalier.

CXII
So him deemed all the rabble; and so most
Of those bold cavalier and barons thought;
In that they had not yet the memory lost
Of what that paynim had in Paris wrought,
When singly fire and sword the warrior tost,
And much of that fair town to ruin brought;
Whose signs remained, and yet will long remain:
Nor ever greater havoc plagued that reign.

CXIII
Bradamant's heart above those others' beat:
Not that she deemed the Saracen in might,
Or valour which in the heart-core hath its seat,
Was of more prowess than the youthful knight;
Nor (what oft gives success in martial feat
That with the paynim was the better right.
Yet cannot she her some ill misgivings quell.
But upon those that love such fear sits well.

CXIV
Oh! in her fear for him, how willingly
She battle for Rogero would have done!
If lifeless on the listed field to lie
Surer than sure, -- in fight with Ulien's son.
More than one death would she consent to die,
If she withal could suffer more than one,
Rather than she in that unhappy strife
Would see her cherished consort risk his life.

CXV
But prayer availed not on the damsel's part
To make Rogero leave to her the quest:
She then with mournful face and beating heart
Stood by to view that pair to fight addrest.
From right and left the peer and paynim start,
And at each other run with lance in rest.
The spears seem ice, as they in shivers fly.
The fragments birds, that mount through middle sky.

CXVI
Rodomont's lance which smote in the career
Upon mid-shield, yet harmed it little; so
Perfect was famous Hector's iron gear,
Hardened by Vulcan's hand, and safe from blow.
As well against the shield his levelled spear
Rogero guides, and that good buckler -- though
Well steeled within and out, with bone between,
And nigh a palm in thickness -- pierces clean;

CXVII
And -- but his lance resists not that fierce shock,