irst year of his successful reign,
The crown yet ill secure upon his front,
He threads the Alps, and makes their labour vain,
Who would against his arms maintain the Mount.
Impelled by generous and by just disdain,
The unavenged as yet is that affront,
Which a French army suffered from their rage,
Who poured from beast-cote, field, and pasturage:

XLV
"And thence shall into the rich Lombard plain
Descend, with all the flower of France, and so
Shall break the Switzer, that henceforth in vain
Would he uplift his horn against the foe.
To the sore scandal of the Church and Spain,
And to the Florentine's much scathe and woe,
By him that famous castle shall be quelled,
Which inexpugnable whilere was held.

XLVI
"In quelling it his honoured faulchion, more
Than other arms, availing shall be found;
Which first that cruel Beast to death will gore,
The foul destroyer of each country round:
Parforce will every standard fly before
That conquering faulchion, or be cast to ground:
Nor, stormed by it, will rampart, fosse, or wall,
Secure the city, they surround, from fall.

XLVII
"Imbued with every generous quality,
Which can in great commander be combined,
-- Prudence like his who won Thrasymenae
And Trebbia's field, with Caesar's daring mind,
And Alexander's fortune, him I see;
Without which all designs are mist and wind;
Withal, so passing liberal, I in none
Mark his example or his parragon."

XLVIII
So Malagigi to his comrades said,
And moved in them desire some name to hear
Of others, who had laid that monster dead,
Which to slay others had been used whilere.
Among the first Bernardo's name was read,
Much vaunted in the writing of the Seer:
Who said, "Through him as known as Bibbiena
As her own neighbour Florence and Siena.

XLIX
"More forward in this chase shall no one show
Than Sigismond, than Lewis, and than John;
Each to that hideous beast a cruel foe;
One a Gonzaga, one of Arragon,
And one a Salviati: with them go
Francis Gonzaga and Frederick his son:
Brother and son-in-law, their aid afford;
One chief Ferrara's, one Urbino's lord.

L
"Of one of these the son, Sir Guidobald,
Will not by sire, or other, distanced be:
With Ottobon de Flisco, Sinibald
Chases the Beast, both striving equally:
Lewis de Gazolo its neck has galled
With one of those keen darts, Apollo's fee,
Given with