cool calm medium knows.

Another hero is Rinaldo (the same as the French Renaud de Montauban),
who, although but a boy, escaped from his foster mother, Queen
Mathilda, to go and fight for the deliverance of the Holy Sepulchre.
His review completed, Godfrey of Bouillon orders his force to march on
toward Jerusalem, whence he wishes to oust the Sultan Aladine
(Saladin), who at present is sorely taxing the Christians to obtain
funds enough to make war against the advancing Crusaders.

_Canto II._ Advised by the sorcerer Ismeno, Aladine steals the image
of the Virgin from the Christian temple, and sets it up in his mosque,
where he resorts to all manner of spells and incantations to destroy
her power. During the night, however, the Virgin's image disappears
from the mosque and cannot be found, although Aladine offers great
rewards for its restoration. Finally, he decrees that, unless the
perpetrator of the theft denounces himself, he will slay all the
Christians in the town. He is about to execute this cruel threat when
Sophronia, a Christian maid, suddenly decides to sacrifice herself to
save her co-religionists. She therefore appears before Aladine,
declaring she stole the image from the temple, whereupon the sultan in
anger orders her bound to the stake and burned alive.

Doom'd in tormenting fire to die, they lay
Hands on the maid; her arms with rough cords twining,
Rudely her mantle chaste they tear away,
And the white veil that o'er her droop'd declining:
This she endured in silence unrepining,
Yet her firm breast some virgin tremors shook;
And her warm cheek, Aurora's late outshining,
Waned into whiteness, and a color took,
Like that of the pale rose or lily of the brook.

Scarcely has Sophronia been fastened there, and while she is praying
for God's aid to endure martyrdom without flinching, Olindo, a young
Christian, deeming it impossible to allow a girl to sacrifice her
life, rushes forward, declaring he alone committed the crime, but that
the maiden, out of love for him, has assumed his guilt to save his
life. Only then does he discover that the maiden tied to the stake is
the very one he loves, but who hitherto has received his advances
coldly! On hearing the youth accuse himself of having stolen the
image, Aladine questions the maiden, who denies it, insisting she
alone is to blame. Thereupon the sultan decrees both shall perish in
the flames, and orders them tied to the