Jerusalem Delivered | Page 8

shirts of mail, some coats of plate put on,
Some
donned a cuirass, some a corslet bright,
And halbert some, and some
a habergeon,
So every one in arms was quickly dight,
His wonted
guide each soldier tends upon,
Loose in the wind waved their banners
light,
Their standard royal toward Heaven they spread,
The cross
triumphant on the Pagans dead.
LXXIII
Meanwhile the car that bears the lightning brand
Upon the
eastern hill was mounted high,
And smote the glistering armies as
they stand,
With quivering beams which dazed the wondering eye,

That Phaeton-like it fired sea and land,
The sparkles seemed up to the

skies to fly,
The horses' neigh and clattering armors' sound
Pursue
the echo over dale and down.
LXXIV
Their general did with due care provide
To save his men
from ambush and from train,
Some troops of horse that lightly armed
ride
He sent to scour the woods and forests main,
His pioneers their
busy work applied
To even the paths and make the highways plain,

They filled the pits, and smoothed the rougher ground,
And opened
every strait they closed found.
LXXV
They meet no forces gathered by their foe,
No towers
defenced with rampire, moat, or wall,
No stream, no wood, no
mountain could forslow
Their hasty pace, or stop their march at all;

So when his banks the prince of rivers, Po,
Doth overswell, he breaks
with hideous fall
The mossy rocks and trees o'ergrown with age,

Nor aught withstands his fury and his rage.
LXXVI
The King of Tripoli in every hold
Shut up his men,
munition and his treasure,
The straggling troops sometimes assail he
would,
Save that he durst not move them to displeasure;
He stayed
their rage with presents, gifts and gold,
And led them through his
land at ease and leisure,
To keep his realm in peace and rest he chose,

With what conditions Godfrey list impose.
LXXVII
Those of Mount Seir, that neighboreth by east
The Holy
City, faithful folk each one,
Down from the hill descended most and
least,
And to the Christian Duke by heaps they gone,
And welcome
him and his with joy and feast;
On him they smile, on him they gaze
alone,
And were his guides, as faithful from that day
As Hesperus,
that leads the sun his way.
LXXVIII
Along the sands his armies safe they guide
By ways
secure, to them well known before,
Upon the tumbling billows
fraughted ride
The armed ships, coasting along the shore,

Which for

the camp might every day provide
To bring munition good and
victuals store:
The isles of Greece sent in provision meet,
And store
of wine from Scios came and Crete.
LXXIX
Great Neptune grieved underneath the load
Of ships, hulks,
galleys, barks and brigantines,
In all the mid-earth seas was left no
road
Wherein the Pagan his bold sails untwines,
Spread was the
huge Armado, wide and broad,
From Venice, Genes, and towns
which them confines,
From Holland, England, France and Sicil sent,

And all for Juda ready bound and bent.
LXXX
All these together were combined, and knit
With surest
bonds of love and friendship strong,
Together sailed they fraught with
all things fit
To service done by land that might belong,
And when
occasion served disbarked it,
Then sailed the Asian coasts and isles
along;
Thither with speed their hasty course they plied,
Where
Christ the Lord for our offences died.
LXXXI
The brazen trump of iron-winged fame,
That mingleth
faithful troth with forged lies,
Foretold the heathen how the
Christians came,
How thitherward the conquering army hies,
Of
every knight it sounds the worth and name,
Each troop, each band,
each squadron it descries,
And threat'neth death to those, fire, sword
and slaughter,
Who held captived Israel's fairest daughter.
LXXXII
The fear of ill exceeds the evil we fear,
For so our present
harms still most annoy us,
Each mind is prest and open every ear

To hear new tidings though they no way joy us,
This secret rumor
whispered everywhere
About the town, these Christians will destroy
us,
The aged king his coming evil that knew,
Did cursed thoughts in
his false heart renew.
LXXXIII
This aged prince ycleped Aladine,
Ruled in care, new
sovereign of this state,

A tyrant erst, but now his fell engine
His

graver are did somewhat mitigate,
He heard the western lords would
undermine
His city's wall, and lay his towers prostrate,
To former
fear he adds a new-come doubt,
Treason he fears within, and force
without.
LXXXIV
For nations twain inhabit there and dwell
Of sundry faith
together in that town,
The lesser part on Christ believed well,
On
Termagent the more and on Mahown,
But when this king had made
this conquest fell,
And brought that region subject to his crown,
Of
burdens all he set the Paynims large,
And on poor Christians laid the
double charge.
LXXXV
His native wrath revived with this new thought,
With age
and years that weakened was of yore,
Such madness in his cruel
bosom wrought,
That now than ever blood he thirsteth more?
So
stings a snake that to the fire is brought,
Which harmless lay
benumbed with cold before,
A lion so his rage renewed hath,

Though fame before, if he be moved to wrath.
LXXXVI
"I see," quoth he, "some expectation vain,
In these false
Christians, and some new content,
Our common loss they trust will
be their gain,
They laugh, we weep; they joy while we