ind a magic vessel, wherein they sail with
fabulous speed over the sea, and through the Strait of Gibraltar, out
into the western ocean, the nymph at the helm meanwhile informing them
that this is the road Columbus is destined to travel. Sailing thus
they reach the Fortunate Isles, where, notwithstanding many
enchantments and temptations brought to bear to check their advance,
they, thanks to the golden wand, force their way into Armida's
wonderful garden.

_Canto XVI._

These windings pass'd, the garden-gates unfold,
And the fair Eden meets their glad survey,--
Still waters, moving crystals, sands of gold,
Herbs, thousand flowers, rare shrubs, and mosses gray;
Sunshiny hillocks, shady vales; woods gay,
And grottoes gloomy, in one view combined,
Presented were; and what increased their play
Of pleasure at the prospect, was, to find
Nowhere the happy Art that had the whole design'd.

So natural seem'd each ornament and site,
So well was neatness mingled with neglect,
As though boon Nature for her own delight
Her mocker mock'd, till fancy's self was check'd;
The air, if nothing else there, is th' effect
Of magic, to the sound of whose soft flute
The blooms are born with which the trees are deck'd;
By flowers eternal lives th' eternal fruit,
This running richly ripe, while those but greenly shoot.

Then, peeping cautiously through the trees, they behold Rinaldo
reclining amid the flowers, his head resting in the enchantress' lap.
Biding their time they watch Armida leave the enamoured knight, then
step forward and bid him gaze into the magic mirror they have brought.
On beholding in its surface a reflection of himself as he really is,
Rinaldo, horrified, is brought to such a sense of his depraved
idleness, that he springs to his feet and proposes to leave
immediately with his companions. They are about to depart without
bidding farewell to the fair enchantress, when she pursues them, and,
after vainly pleading with Rinaldo to stay with her, proposes to join
him in any quality. When he abruptly rejects her advances and sails
away, Armida, disappointed and infuriated because she has been
scorned, hastens off to the Egyptian camp.

_Canto XVII._ There she joins the Christians' enemies, declaring she
dreams of naught save slaying Rinaldo, and takes an important part in
the review which the poet describes minutely. To compass her ends the
artful Armi