Jerusalem Delivered | Page 4

to a man in show and
shape he fared,
But full of heavenly majesty and might,
A stripling
seemed he thrive five winters old,
And radiant beams adorned his
locks of gold.
XIV
Of silver wings he took a shining pair,
Fringed with gold,
unwearied, nimble, swift;
With these he parts the winds, the clouds,
the air,
And over seas and earth himself doth lift,
Thus clad he cut
the spheres and circles fair,
And the pure skies with sacred feathers
clift;
On Libanon at first his foot he set,
And shook his wings with
rory May dews wet.
XV
Then to Tortosa's confines swiftly sped
The sacred messenger,
with headlong flight;
Above the eastern wave appeared red
The
rising sun, yet scantly half in sight;
Godfrey e'en then his
morn-devotions said,
As was his custom, when with Titan bright

Appeared the angel in his shape divine,
Whose glory far obscured
Phoebus' shine.
XVI
"Godfrey," quoth he, "behold the season fit
To war, for which
thou waited hast so long,
Now serves the time, if thou o'erslip not it,

To free Jerusalem from thrall and wrong:
Thou with thy Lords in
council quickly sit;
Comfort the feeble, and confirm the strong,
The
Lord of Hosts their general doth make thee,
And for their chieftain
they shall gladly take thee.
XVII
"I, messenger from everlasting Jove,
In his great name thus
his behests do tell;
Oh, what sure hope of conquest ought thee move,

What zeal, what love should in thy bosom dwell!"
This said, he
vanished to those seats above,
In height and clearness which the rest
excel,
Down fell the Duke, his joints dissolved asunder,
Blind with
the light, and strucken dead with wonder.

XVIII
But when recovered, he considered more,
The man, his
manner, and his message said;
If erst he wished, now he longed sore

To end that war, whereof he Lord was made;
Nor swelled his
breast with uncouth pride therefore,
That Heaven on him above this
charge had laid,
But, for his great Creator would the same,
His will
increased: so fire augmenteth flame.
XIX
The captains called forthwith from every tent,
Unto the
rendezvous he them invites;
Letter on letter, post on post he sent,

Entreatance fair with counsel he unites,
All, what a noble courage
could augment,
The sleeping spark of valor what incites,
He used,
that all their thoughts to honor raised,
Some praised, some paid, some
counselled, all pleased.
XX
The captains, soldiers, all, save Boemond, came,
And pitched
their tents, some in the fields without,
Some of green boughs their
slender cabins frame,
Some lodged were Tortosa's streets about,
Of
all the host the chief of worth and name
Assembled been, a senate
grave and stout;
Then Godfrey, after silence kept a space,
Lift up
his voice, and spake with princely grace:
XXI
"Warriors, whom God himself elected hath
His worship true in
Sion to restore,
And still preserved from danger, harm and scath,

By many a sea and many an unknown shore,
You have subjected
lately to his faith
Some provinces rebellious long before:
And after
conquests great, have in the same
Erected trophies to his cross and
name.
XXII
"But not for this our homes we first forsook,
And from our
native soil have marched so far:
Nor us to dangerous seas have we
betook,
Exposed to hazard of so far sought war,
Of glory vain to
gain an idle smook,
And lands possess that wild and barbarous are:


That for our conquests were too mean a prey,
To shed our bloods, to
work our souls' decay.

XXIII
"But this the scope was of our former thought, --
Of Sion's
fort to scale the noble wall,
The Christian folk from bondage to have
brought,
Wherein, alas, they long have lived thrall,
In Palestine an
empire to have wrought,
Where godliness might reign perpetual,

And none be left, that pilgrims might denay
To see Christ's tomb, and
promised vows to pay.
XXIV
"What to this hour successively is done
Was full of peril, to
our honor small,
Naught to our first designment, if we shun
The
purposed end, or here lie fixed all.
What boots it us there wares to
have begun,
Or Europe raised to make proud Asia thrall,
If our
beginnings have this ending known,
Not kingdoms raised, but armies
overthrown?
XXV
"Not as we list erect we empires new
On frail foundations
laid in earthly mould,
Where of our faith and country be but few

Among the thousands stout of Pagans bold,
Where naught behoves us
trust to Greece untrue,
And Western aid we far removed behold:

Who buildeth thus, methinks, so buildeth he,
As if his work should
his sepulchre be.
XXVI
"Turks, Persians conquered, Antiochia won,
Be glorious acts,
and full of glorious praise,
By Heaven's mere grace, not by our
prowess done:
Those conquests were achieved by wondrous ways,

If now from that directed course we run
The God of Battles thus
before us lays,
His loving kindness shall we lose, I doubt,
And be a
byword to the lands about.
XXVII
"Let not these blessings then sent from above
Abused be, or
split in profane wise,
But let the issue correspondent prove
To good
beginnings of each enterprise;
The gentle season might our courage
move,
Now every passage plain and open lies:

What lets us then the
great Jerusalem
With valiant squadrons round about to hem?

XXVIII
"Lords, I protest, and hearken all to it,
Ye times and ages,
future, present, past,
Hear