Three miles he went, nor farther could retreat; His travels ended at his country-seat:

To Chassis' pleasing plains he took his way,
There pitch'd his tents, and there resolved to stay.
The spring was in the prime; the neighbouring
grove

Supplied by birds, the choristers of love;
Music unbought, that minister'd delight
To morning walks, and lull'd his cares by night :
There he discharged his friends; but not the expence
Of frequent treats, and proud magnificence.
He lived as kings retire, though more at large
From public business, yet with equal charge;
With house and heart still open to receive;
As well content as love would give him leave :
He would have lived more free; but many a guest,
Who could forsake the friend, pursued the feast."
It happ'd one morning, as his fancy led,
Before his usual hour he left his bed,
To walk within a lonely lawn, that stood
On every side surrounded by the wood:
Alone he walk'd, to please his pensive mind,
And sought the deepest solitude to find :
"Twas in a grove of spreading pines he stray'd;
The winds within the quivering branches play'd,
And dancing trees a mournful music made.
The place itself was suiting to his care,
Uncouth and savage, as the cruel fair.
He wander'd on, unknowing where he went,
Lost in the wood, and all on love intent:
The day already half his race had run,
And summon'd him to due repast at noon,
But love could feel no hunger but his own.
While listening to the murmuring leaves he stood,
More than a mile immersed within the wood,
At once the wind was laid; the whispering sound
Was dumb; a rising earthquake rock'd the ground;

With deeper brown the grove was overspread,
A sudden horror seized his giddy head,
And his ears tinkled, and his colour fled.
Nature was in alarm; some danger nigh
Seem'd threaten'd, though unseen to mortal eye.
Unused to fear, he summon'd all his soul,
And stood collected in himself, and whole:
Not long; for soon a whirlwind rose around,
And from afar he heard a screaming sound,
As of a dame distress'd, who cried for aid,
And fill'd with loud laments the secret shade.

}

A thicket close beside the grove there stood, With briers and brambles choked,and dwarfish wood: From thence the noise, which now approaching near, With more distinguish'd notes invades his ear; He raised his head, and saw a beauteous maid, With hair dishevell❜d, issuing through the shade; Stripp'd of her clothes, and even those parts reveal❜d, Which modest nature keeps from sight conceal'd. Her face, her hands, her naked limbs, were torn, With passing through the brakes and prickly thorn; Two mastiffs gaunt and grim her flight pursued, And oft their fasten'd fangs in blood embrued: Oft they came up, and pinch'd her tender side,Mercy, O mercy! heaven, she ran, and cried; When heaven was named, they loosed their hold again;

Then sprung she forth, they follow'd her amain.
Not far behind, a knight of swarthy face,
High on a coal-black steed pursued the chace,
With flashing flames his ardent eyes were fill'd,
And in his hand a naked sword he held :
He cheer'd the dogs to follow her who fled,
And vow'd revenge on her devoted head.
As Theodore was born of noble kind,
The brutal action roused his manly mind;
Moved with th' unworthy usage of the maid,
He, though unarm'd, resolved to give her aid.

A sapling pine he wrench'd from out the ground.
The readiest weapon that his fury found.
Thus furnish'd for offence, he cross'd the way
Betwixt the graceless villain and his prey.

The knight came thundering on, but, from afar,
Thus in imperious tone forbade the war :-
Cease, Theodore, to proffer vain relief,
Nor stop the vengeance of so just a grief;
But give me leave to seize my destined prey,
And let eternal justice take the way:
I but revenge my fate, disdain'd, betray'd,
And suffering death for this ungrateful maid.-
He said, at once dismounting from the steed;
For now the hell-hounds with superior speed
Had reach'd the dame, and fastening on her side,
The ground with issuing streams of purple dyed.
Stood Theodore surprised in deadly fright,
With chattering teeth, and bristling hair upright;
Yet arm'd with inborn worth,-Whate'er, said he,
Thou art, who know'st me better than I thee,
Or prove thy rightful cause, or be defied.-
The spectre, fiercely staring, thus replied:
Know, Theodore, thy ancestry I claim,
And Guido Cavalcanti was my name.
One common sire our fathers did beget,
My name and story some remember yet:
Thee, then a boy, within my arms I laid,
When for my sins I loved this haughty maid
Not less adored in life, nor served by me,
Than proud Honoria now is loved by thee.
What did I not, her stubborn heart to gain?
But all my vows were answer'd with disdain ;
She scorn'd my sorrows, and despised my pain.
Long time I dragg'd my days in fruitless care;
Then loathing life, and plunged in deep despair,
To finish my unhappy life, I fell

On this sharp sword, and now am damn'd in hell.

Short was her joy; for soon the insulting maid By heaven's decree in the cold grave was laid; And as in unrepented sin she died,

Doom'd to the same bad place, is punish'd for her pride,

Because she deem'd I well deserved to die,
And made a merit of her cruelty.

There, then, we met; both tried, and both were cast,
And this irrevocable sentence pass'd;

That she, whom I so long pursued in vain,
Should suffer from my hands a lingering pain:
Renew'd to life, that she might daily die,
I daily doom'd to follow, she to fly;
No more a lover, but a mortal foe,
I seek her life (for love is none below ;)
As often as my dogs with better speed
Arrest her flight, is she to death decreed:
Then with this fatal sword, on which I died,
I pierce her open back, or tender side,

And tear that harden'd heart from out her breast, Which, with her entrails, makes my hungry hounds a feast.

Nor lies she long, but as her fates ordain,
Springs up to life, and, fresh to second pain,
Is saved to-day, to-morrow to be slain.-

This, versed in death, the infernal knight relates,
And then for proof fulfill'd their common fates;
Her heart and bowels through her back he drew,
And fed the hounds that help'd him to pursue.
Stern look'd the fiend, as frustrate of his will,
Not half sufficed, and greedy yet to kill.
And now the soul expiring through the wound,
Had left the body breathless on the ground,
When thus the grisly spectre spoke again :-
Behold the fruit of ill-rewarded pain!
As many months as I sustain'd her hate,
So many years is she condemn'd by fate

To daily death; and every several place,
Conscious of her disdain, and my disgrace,
Must witness her just punishment; and be
A scene of triumph and revenge to me.
As in this grove I took my last farewell,
As on this very spot of earth I fell,
As Friday saw me die, so she my prey
Becomes even here, on this revolving day.-
Thus while he spoke, the virgin from the ground
Upstarted fresh, already closed the wound,
And, unconcern'd for all she felt before,
Precipitates her flight along the shore:

The hell-hounds, as ungorged with flesh and blood,
Pursue their prey, and seek their wonted food:
The fiend remounts his courser, mends his pace,
And all the vision vanish'd from the place.

Long stood the noble youth oppress'd with awe, And stupid at the wondrous things he saw, Surpassing common faith, transgressing nature's law:

He would have been asleep, and wish'd to wake,
But dreams, he knew, no long impression make,
Though strong at first; if vision, to what end,
But such as must his future state portend?
His love the damsel, and himself the fiend.
But yet reflecting that it could not be

From heaven, which cannot impious acts decree,
Resolved within himself to shun the snare,
Which hell for his destruction did prepare ;
And as his better genius should direct,
From an ill cause to draw a good effect.

Inspired from heaven, he homeward took his way,
Nor pall'd his new design with long delay;
But of his train a trusty servant sent,
To call his friends together at his tent.
They came, and usual salutations paid,
With words premeditated thus he said :-