Jerusalem Delivered | Page 8

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 lament;?And more, perchance, by treason or by train,?To murder us they secretly consent,?Or otherwise to work us harm and woe,?To ope the gates, and so let in our foe.
LXXXVII?"But lest they should effect their cursed will,?Let us destroy this serpent on his nest;?Both young and old, let us this people kill,?The tender infants at their mothers' breast,?Their houses burn, their holy temples fill?With bodies slain of those that loved them best,?And on that tomb they hold so much in price,?Let's offer up their priests in sacrifice."
LXXXVIII?Thus thought the tyrant in his traitorous mind,?But durst not follow what he had decreed,?Yet if the innocents some mercy find,?From cowardice, not truth, did that proceed,?His noble foes durst not