Jerusalem Delivered | Page 4

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 all ye blessed in the heavens that sit,?The time for this achievement hasteneth fast:?The longer rest worse will the season fit,?Our sureties shall with doubt be overcast.?If we forslow the siege I well foresee?From Egypt will the Pagans succored be."
XXIX?This said, the hermit Peter rose and spake,?Who sate in counsel those great Lords among:?"At my request this war was undertake,?In private cell, who erst lived closed long,?What Godfrey wills, of that no question